GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1916, Page 5

GERMANY.

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. A TALE OF HORROR. STARVATION AND FEVER. SPLENDID WORK OF BRITISH DOCTORS. London, April 9. No record of Germany's inhumanity is more appalling than tlie report of •the Government committee, of which Mr. Justice Younger was president, dealing with the typhus epidemic at Wittenburg early in 1915, among the British and other prisoners of war. The report, which is issued by the Press Bureau, states that evidence had long been accumulating from returned prisoners, but it was considered so terrible that the committee awaited the return of Major Priestly, Captain Vidal and. Captain Lauder, the army medical officers who fought and conquered the epidemic. Their statements confirm the previous depositions. The Wittenburg Camp, of 10'/. acres, held 10,000 prisoners in the winter of 1914. The overcrowding was serious, also the winter was very severe. The heating was inadequate, obliging the men to keep the windows shut'ind aggravating the effects of the overcrowding. Tlie men were insufficiently clothed, as their overcoats had been taken by tlie Germans. Their clothing was reduced to rags, and many had neither boots nor socks. Others wrapped their feet in straw. None were able to change their clothes, and there was no means of washing clothes. The food was bad and insufficient, and the underfeeding was deplorable. Even the canteen, at which they formerly bought additional food, was closed when the first case of typhus appeared. Only when the epidemic was nearly overcome had they enougli foo'd, because they wer° able* to get consignments from England.

It was impossible to allege a general shortage of medical requisites in Germany. The English doctors saw abundant supplies in Wittenburg town, yet the plague-stricken camp was starved for months of the barest necessities of existence. Even the simplest drags and surgical dressings were not provided. Above all the British suffered, being the victims of special hostility from the beginning of the camp. It was outrageous that the Germans decorated Dr. Aselienbach, in view of his neglect, for which he must answer jne day. The report pays the warmest tributes to the work of the doctors and orderlies, all gf whom labored unsparingly. They were fully conscious of the dangers, but risked their, lives without (bought, and many laid down Iheir lives for their comrades as fully as on the battlefield. The committee hoped that their devotion would be remembered at the proper time. The prisoners had no vitality sufficient to resist disease. Where every one was verminous one cupful of soft soap had to last 120 men for many weeks. The epidemic broke out in December, 1914. The German staff and guards fled, and all supplies thereafter were pushed into the camp down a shute, and tbe food hauled in on rails. There was only one hospital, sufficing for a hundred patients. The Germans, on February 10, sent Majors Pry and Priestly, and Captains Sutcliffe, Field, Vidal, and Lauder, to the scene. They had been taken prisoner in defiance of the Geneva Convention. The men were gaunt and strangely pallid, and received them in apathetic silence. The rooms were not lighted, and the men marched aimlessly up and down. Some were already lying on the floor. The conditions for four weeks from February 11 werp full of horror. There were no mattresses in the improvised hospital, and the men dreaded to go there. Fifty secret cases were discovered in one compound containing a thousand men. Infected mattresses bad to be employed, even in the hospital. The patients had to be carried on the tables, where prisoners ate afterwards, and the tables could not be washed owing to the absence of soap. The Germans .refused to allow typhus patients to be separated from the others, and the men lay delirious in their clothes on the bare floor, so closely packed that the doctors moved with difficulty.

There were a thousand cases on March 7, and SO fresh cases daily. There was extreme difficulty in getting drugs and dressings, and, when supplied, they were. hopelessly inadequate. Men lost their toes and feet from post-typhus gangrene, and many had their legs amputated owing to the same cause. One British soldier, now in England, lost both legs. There was practically no hospital clothing, and one small disinfeotor. Men had to wear their outer garments while the inner ones were disinfected, and vice versa, because the blankets were insufficient to keep them warm. The washing of patients was out of the question till much later, when soup came from England. The dead were buried within the camp and the cemetery was so small that the coffins were piled up. The hardest trial of all was to hear townspeople outside the entanglements jeering and insulting the dead.

Major Fry and Captains Sutcliffe ami Field died of typhus, also- many devoted English prisoners who volunteered to nurse their comrades.

Convalescents had to be discharged when scarcely able to walk, and were obliged to lie on the bare floor of the barracks. Out of 300 English cases CO died.

The report records the magnificent efforts of the British doctors in successfully stamping out the epidemic. It mentions that Dr. Aschenbach. the German medical officer, fled at the first outbreak, and only entered the camp once, completely protected, including mask and gloves. He had since been awarded the Iron Cross for his services in combating the disease. On one occasion lie refused Major Fry's entreaty for necessaries, calling the victims "English swine." The committee tried to find justification for this treatment, and can find none. It is only in keeping with the history of the camp from the beginning. Savage dogs were employed to terrorise the prisoners, and flogging with a whip Was frequent. The responsibility is directly chargeable to the cruelty and neglect of the German officials. Some of the conditions described in the report are most abhorrent. Major Priestly mentions that he attempted to brush the dust from a patient's clothes, and the dust proved to be a moving mass of vermin. There are otfher incidents more appalling. The report shows tn«(t Major Priestley *nd the other* set to. .work with admir/

able powers of organisation and evolved order out of chaos. They collected the British patients in one bungalow and resolved to iise the best food, clothing, and bedding obtainable for the sick. Gradually they overcame the epidemic.

The arrival of warmer weather in April greatly facilitated the recovery. Only then the Germans began to assist and erected a steriliser, but the work was ont pressed, and was finished a fortnight after the last British case. They also built a hospital bungalow, but the epidemic was over before it was completed, , INSPIRED SCARE ARTICLES. PEACE ON HER OWN TERMS. ; v OR FIGHT TO THE END. Received April 10, 10.40 p.m. London, April 10. Newspapers make strong comments in connection with a recent ] scare article in the Cologne Gazette, where in a semi-official annoncement the paper complains of tlie Allies' folly in not wishing to consider Herr von BcthmannHollweg's peace terms seriously. It says that Germany has now only to make peace on her own terms, and if the Allies do not abandon their plans to destroy Germany then the latter will fight to the end.

Tlie Frankfort Gazette publishes a similar inspired article.

HER WAR LOSSES. NEARLY 3,000,000 MEN. Received April 10, 8.40 p.m London, April 9. An official message says that the German military casualties since the war have been 2,700,000, inlluding 882,000 killed. SCENES IN THE REICHSTAG. SOCIALIST ABUSED. Copenhagen, April 9. The organ of the Schleswig Danes at Flensburg publishes a full report of the Reichstag proceedings. When Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg declared thjit Germany's enemies chose war, Dr. Liebnecht shouted: "Lies, you chose it!" (Tremendous uproar and cries of "Chuck him out," "Blackguard," "Dirty dog.")) Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg: "We want neighbours with whom we can cooperate to our mutual advantage." Dr. Liebnecht interposed: "You therefore suddenly assail and strangle them." There was a deafening din and the strongest epithets were hurled at Dr. Liebnecht, one member shouting "Hit him on the head." Dr, Liebnecht later, during the naval debate, tried to discuss the submarine question, but was forbidden to continue. REFUSED A HEARING. Amsterdam, April 9. There were further heated scenes in the Reichstag. Dr. Liebnecht declared that he held documents showing ai> agreement between Herr Zimmerman, UnderSecretary for Foreign Affairs, and Sir Roger Casement for drilling British prisoners to fight against England. Despite repeated calls to order and cries of "traitor and lunatic," Dr. Liebnecht denounced the olticial encouragement of such treasonable propaganda and also the misleading Government memorandum attempting to prove that British merchantmen were armed to at. taek German submarines. He said the war began with the cry against Tzarism, but was soon directed against England. Eventually the House refused to hear Dr. Liebnecht.