Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-12-10
ABUSE IS CHARGED
Germans Say English Are Cruel
to Prisoners.
Hamburg Paper Prints Stories of III
Usage in Concentration Camps
Declare That Insufficient
Food Is Given.

oners in the concentration camps in
England are i'll treated, according to
ar article in the FremdenbIatt. The
paper prints a report from Emil
SeIcke, 10 Kuhberg, Hamburg, who
has been interned at Newbury. He
is a dealer in wild animals and while
travelling on Dutch steamer he was
made prisoner with several other Ger
mans neaT the coast of Brazil and
taken TO England. Later he was lib
Grated through the help Of the Ameri-
can ambassador at London. In New
bury he was kept at a racing stable
with 1910 other prisoners, and when
he left he promised his fellow sui
ferers to tell the truth about their
condition to the press. He has hand
Cd documentary evidence to the Ger
man military authorities.
While travelling on the Dutch steam
er HolIandia, says Selcke, he and
his companions we're captured by the
British cruiser Cornwall. Taken to
Plymouth, they were declared pris-
Oners and removed to Davenport,
thence five days later to Newbury.
There they were interned in the rae
ing stable, where eight to ten men had
to sleep in each horse box, on straw
which had not been changed once
when Selcke was liberated after six
weeks captivity. Each prisoner re-
ceived two thin blankets, nothing
else. No table, no chair, nothing to
sit on, so that they were compelled to
lie on the ground. The stable cannot
be heated and has open ventilation
holes under the roof.
When the prisoners attempted to
were forbidden to do so by the British
colonel commanding. To protect them
selves against the cold air and the
rain the men we're compelled to wind
towels round their heads.
The ground in front Of the build
ing was so wet and soft that contin-
ued walking was impossible during
the rainy weather. Notwithstanding
this fact, the prisoners had to cook
their meals themselves outside. The
fireplace consisted of ditch with two
rows of bricks, on which four large
asphalt kettles were standing, always
uncovered, and after a simple wip-
ing with a piece of cloth used in turn
for the cooking of watery soup or
tea. The tea was strained through old
bags, and was dirty and muddy in
consequence of this treatment. The
soup was water, with the addition of
a little fat, and contained hardly a
cubic inch Of meat per prisoner.
The bill of fare for the DAY, Selcke
says, was: At a. m, cup of tea and
a piece of dry bread; at noon, a bowl
of the soup described, two potatoes
per man-never more-and a piece of
dry bread; for supper again cup of
tea and a piece of dry bread. This
nOuTishment being insufficient, some
of the prisoners complained; the COM
plainants were then locked up for
three days in another stable and re-
Ceived no nourishment but bread and
water. Two other complainants were
sentenced to prison in a fortress for
nine months. The prisoners had to
take their meals standing in front of
the stable.
There were about fourteen ply
sicians among the prisoners, most of
them coming from Brazil-the Frem-
denblatt gives all the names-and be-
sides them Count Pappenheim, first
lieutenant in the Prussian guards, and
Mr.. Won Doehring, formerly Austrian
military attache at the legation at
BuenOs Aires.
All medicine for the treatment of
the sick and wounded was refused,
Selcke declares, even cotton and car
bolic acid.
The letters sent by the prisoners to
their families had to contain nothing
but remarks concerning their personal
conditions-nothing else. All things
the prisoners wanted the men had to
buy with their own funds, paying ex-
tortiOnate prices. The military au-
thorities leased the canteens in all the
prison camps to a London firm for a
high amount.