INHUMANITY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11670, 10 April 1916, Page 1

INHUMANITY.

A FEARFOL STORY. BRITISH PRISONERS IN GERMANY INDESCRIBABLE NEGLECT. £y Telegraph—Fren Association—Copyright. (Received April 10, 10.15 a.m. 5 LONDON, April 9. No record of the Germans' inhumanity is more appalling than the report of the Government 'Committee, of -which Mr Justice Younger is president, dealing with the typhus epidemic at ."Wlttenburg early in 1916, among the British and other prisoners of war. The report issued by* the Press Bureau states that evidence has been long accumulating from returned prisoners, ' hut it was considered so terrible that the committee awaited the return of Major Priestly, Captain Vidal and Gaptain Lauder, Army medical officers, who fought and conquered the epidemic. Their 1 statements confirm the previous depositions. Wittenburg camp, covering ten and a half acres, heldi x 16,000 prisoners. In the winter of. 1914 the overcrowding was serious and also the winter was tho severest. Tho heating was inadequate, obliging the men to keep windows shut, thus aggravating the overcrowding. NO CLOTHES. The men were insufficiently clothed, and their overcoats were taken by the Germans. Their clothing was reduced to rags, and many had neither boots | nor socks. Others wrapped their feot i ,Jn straw. LACK OP FOOD. '• None were able to change their jclothes, and there was no means of washing clothes. I j The food was bad and insufficient, *nd the underfeeding was deplorable. i Even the canteen, at which formerly they bought additional food, was closed when the first caso of typhus appeared. It was only when, tho epidemic had^

been nearly overcome that they had enough food, because they were able to-eat consignments from England. GERMAN BRUTALITY.' It is impossible to allege a general ahortage of medical requisites in Germany, for the English doctors saw abundant supplies in "Wittenburg town, ; yet the plague-stricken camp was starved for months. The barest necessities for existence, simples, and drugs were not even provided, and there were no surgical dressings. Above all, the British suffered, being the victims of special hostility from the camp's beginning. The outrageous Germans : decorated Dr Aschembach in view I j of his neglect, for which he must answer ono day. . "GREATER LOVE." The report pays the warmest tributes to the work of the doctors and orderlies. All laboured unsparingly aad. fully conscious of the dangers, but risked their lives without thought, and many laid down their lives for their comrades as fully as if they had been on the battlefield. The committee hopes that their devotion will be remembered at the proper time. The prisoners had not vitality sufficient to resist disease and were very verminous. One cupful of soft soap had to last 120 men for v many weeks. i The epidemic broke out in December, j 1914, and the German Staff and guards fled. All supplies thereafter were pushed into the camp down a chute, and! the food was hauled in on rails. There was only one hospital, sufficing for a hundred patients. LYING ON THE-FLOOR. Tho Germans on February 10 sent Majors Fry and Priestly and Captains Sutcliffe, Field, Vidal and Lauder to the scene. They had been taken prisoners in defiance of the Geneva Convention. The men were gaunt and strangely pallid, and received them in apathetic 6ilcnce. The rooms were unlighted, and the men marched aimlessly up and down, and some were already lying on tho floor. SCENES OF HOREOU. The conditions for four we/.-ks from

February 11 were full of horror. There were no mattresses in the improvised hospital, and the men dreadc-d to go there. Fifty secret cases were discovered in ono compound containing 1000 men. Infected mattresses had to be employed even in the hospital, and the patients had to be carried on tho tables at which tho prisoners afterwards fed,' and the tables could not be washed owing to the absence of soap. The Germans' recused! to allow the typhus patients to be separated from the others, and men lay delirious in their clothes on th© bare floor, bo closely packed that tho doctors moved with difficulty.