RUSSIANS VIVISECTED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12066, 23 July 1917, Page 8

RUSSIANS VIVISECTED.

Dr Cresson, head physician of the French hospital in Petrograd, lias reached Paris, nays the correspondent, of the ■' Daily Express/' after twenty-one months' captivity in Germany, where he was the indignant eye-witness of atrocious acts of cruelty and torture committed by Huns on'■ prisoners of war.

Capture.! at Yerhol in February, 19L"), Dr Cresson was for seven months employed in organising a lazaret for invalid prisoners. Tbo latter arrived by trains so closely packed that they could not- stretch themselves out. Their clothing had been taken from them, and "heir sole covering was a blanket. When the first batch arrived they bad to take shelter from the cold iu . holes, in, the ground, which they dug with their pannikins. •Gradually huts were erected. But the food supply was bad from start to finish.

l)r Crexson is particularly indignant about the way the (lorman doctors used the Russian prisoners like regular laboratory experimental aniinalr>. On several occasions prisoners were used in test cases for a now system of amputation. For protesline; against these practices Dr Cresson was imprisoned. He was placed in a narrow coll. where, bo was obliged to remain seated, i.lie barred window of liK (ell boinj; opened only or.ro in days to ehange bo. air.

Some 01 (.lie punishments inflicted on prisoners were absolute tortures. For instance, they were compelled to stand in tile cold stripped to the waist, their arm.; outstretched, with a brick in each hand. At the least si<zn of wea..e

blows were rained on them. Some, men were bound to a (-take, their bands tied behind their backs, and raised so that the, whole weight of the body rested on the tee tips. Another refinement of barbarism consisted m compelllr.e; healthy prisoners to sleep in rooms where typhus patients were lying.