The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-09-24 00:00:00

TREATMENT OF FRENCH PRISONERS.

Mr. A. Seymour, M.P. for Salisbury, and Colonel
Carleton, addressed the following protest to the
Governor of Sedan respecting the treatment of French
prisoners at Glare and Iges

Anglo-American Ambulance, Caserne d'Asfeld,
Sedan, Sept. 10, Ib7o.
" Monsieur Is Commandant,—We, the undersigned, being
members of the International Society for Help to the
Wounded in War, and being this moment returned from the
camp of the French prisoners at Wake and at lees, have tile
honour of C,Mmunicatiug to you certalu facts which have
come under our notice. That there are a great number of
prisoners who are elm.% dying of hunger, and the half
biscuit per diem, which they are supposed to receive apiece
does not always reach each individual. That there
Is no means of buying bread unless they pay In m
60c to 1 franc for a small bit, which they get from the
peasants, who buy it for their Own use. That the soldier.
are reduced 4, takiug pieces of the carcases of the
horses which float down tbe river to sustain life. That
there is no means of buying the smallest quantity of salt of
which there is an absolute want at the ambulance which is
established there, and which is full of soldters, famished and
dying. We were told that many soldiers are eheady dead of
hunger, and we saw one corpse still in the river. We there-
fore take the liberty of abking if steps could not be taken,
under the strictest possible regulations to establish a place
where they could buy for themselves—for many of them have
a little money—just the Ent reeestaries of life—We have
the honour to eubscribe oureelves, your humble servarite,
ALFRED SEYMoUR, Member of British Parliament, DUDLEY
CAIRLETON, Colonel.
Mr. Slinour has pulidelifd A letter, in which he
givea fuller partieuli.re se to the condition of the
prironere, and adds:—

last I ta•ement I must make—that there are the sonic
of isany innocent girls Ceb.dtd.ed 81141 then shot, cluing for
retribution, If not lee vengeance. At Weird and at ina. Wes
heard of cases. Near the letter I lice an eye-witness told
me he saw tile corpse of a ',aunt tam. on twa women,
prop; od op againit the wail where they had teen shot; not
content will. what may or may not have been a severe but so-
called necessary example, their executioners had futened
them to the wall, and placed a flower In each of their months,
making death more horrible by such hideous mockery. These
which 1 relate are facts, not matters of opinion."

What has been said lately of the very bad way in
which the Prussians treat their prisoners has given
rise to warm contradiction and retort. Thus a cones.
pendent, who signs himself "Partisan," has sent for
publication the following extract from Carlyle's "Life

z
rede rz c wider the head "What,
G.:many i Aveneag ":

"Brandt rode, a village two league, from this Freiburg), la
ro ruined hut that nobody. almost has anything Lek Fide!.
laspeator Baron von ltose a Schloss there, with Its mileudid
appolutecents, they (she French) nano! utterly; took all
money, victuals, valuables, furniture, clothes, linen, aud
beds r all they could carry ; what could not he carried away
they our, hewed, arid emend to pieces ; broke the wine
casks, and even tme op the documents and letters they tonal
lying in the place. imanderode Derf was tales set Ire to ine
them, and we. at last with itchfetd, which lean Arnie telt`
, —alter both had been plundered—minced to ashes. The
elm:eines of Pranderode aud Zsuchield, with several other
churches, wore phtedered, the altans broken, the alter.cloths
. and other restores cut to pieces, awl the .cred meals and
I cups carried sway . . . It is ono of their sonlleat
that they robbed a Saxon clergyman three times over on tiro
public highway, shot at Inns, tied him to a horse', tall, awl
dins:god hies aiong with them, An that bet. now lying 11l to
danger of his life On the whoie, it is our beloved paators,
ebygys,e mist of all, that hare neen plundered of
eve' ythirrg they bad. . . . in Wet.clibiga French colonel
who we:4A to ride out up'n the works made the than.
Pastor. Maginor rist.reu, stoop down by way of hone block,
and mounted iota the saddlA from Ids Wok. . . . Churchris
e all E Ma: ic.; ; there're .r.gn ,ee sung, to film of litruy,
herd th, pulpits and altari was .0;le VIM the Comma-
Mtn vessas whin they ism e not worth ,toillirie_;,"" Is hi 'eons
to the religious 50010, and shall not be mentioned in bucuen
speech." 'Rube bat ere Carlyle'. own Word "Until may
be said, "the French are changed since 1717, and would have
acted with sernpulims humanity and courtesy had they been
victorious in this war and marched triumphan.ty into Ger-
many!. It may be so—at aty rate they burned a man alive
the other day for supposed sympathy with PrUisia.
Such recollections an this passage recalls have never
' died out of Germany; they have been kept warm to
this day inn hundred villages and towns. 'lhe
mans should be careful to leave no Inic4 memories in
France, knowing well their deep and (sating iufluence.