The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1915-03-02
GERMANS TELL
OF PRISON LIFE
Officers 60 Through Numerous EX-
aminatiOns and Are Deprived Of All
Sharp Articles.

BERLIN Mar. 2.-Mr II Wodsrz,
ships officer Of the "turth,' belong
ing to the German Australian line In
Hamburg, suffered some extremely un-
pleasant experiences IN French im
prisOnment On the return trip from
Australia, before he had heard OF the
outbreak Of war this ship wa cap
tured of the southern point Ot Ceylon
by the English cruiser Espigel,'
which brought the 1Furth" with its
captured crew 10 Colombo where they
arrived on August H. On August lS,
the crew was taken from th' ship and
brought 10 the detention camp Ra-
dame near Colombo only n cap
tain the third officer Mr. WOdarz,
the first RAr fifth engineer, The cook
and the foreigners were left y board
The latter were mustered Ou 10 an
English ship later IN the day After
the ship had been unloaded the Ger
mans above mentioned were taken on
board the steamer 'AustralA" which
had also ben captured, where they re.
malned until September 25 Then
they received from the English author
tiles neutrality pass. with IN, com
mand TO leave the harbor on the
Dutch steamer "KOnignD Emma from
Amsterdam One September % the
"KOnigan Emma" sailed from Colon
ho 10 Genoa and passed through the
Suez Canal without difficulty On
October 10 the Dutch ship wis within
sight OF the southern point Ct Italy
when sss was halted by the French
cruiser "CasabanCa, her cargo "
rubber for Amsterdam declared con
trahand, the steamer brought first to
Malta. then 10 Riserta and flully tn
MarseilleS. AZ which port she arrived
on October - Mr.. wodarZs further
experiences he describes as follows
I'VE five prisoners namely Captain
tain RitCher two captains Of the Han.
"a line Dr Kahle "a professor " the
University Of Glessenl and were
brought TO police headuuarters, whore
our papers and descriptions we're eN.
amIncd and verified Al $50 p. IN.
an order arrived per telephon, stating
that we had and our luggage we're to
be brought back to the "Konigan
Emma" We we're five DAYS m board.
but a half hour before the departure
" the steamer we were again taken
off and brought as prisonres of war
70 Fort st Nicholas. The steamer
which had unloaded the "NrgC for
Genoa was ordered by the authorities
Immediately TO London We prison.
ers were Obliged TO undergo another
examination nj the fort and were de
prived Of knives, scissors, papers. let.
ters etc. then We were ordered into
a room with great number NJ Ger.
mans For five days we were not al.
lowed to have our luggage nor bed
covers Of body linen. We had 10 sleep
upon thin LAYER OF straw without
covering of any kind and du 'lnp very
cold weather Our requests tat we
be allowed to have our most necea
sary belongings remained UNDECIDED
and not until i've DAYS later was our
baggage examined hy the Officers The
examination took place In n separate
room and many most necessary ar.
ticles were confscated especially let
tiers, documents and all written pa
pers were taken
After this we were allowed I, take
our belongings into our place N ahole
This was n room In which criminals
were usually obliged to perfuln their
work We were packed into thi room
with about two hundred people The
W, Cs defied description Nothing
whatever was done for Is I'm m, way
of sanitation The receptacle, which
tsdoO dosbout open In the room, we
were Obliged TO cleanse When the
water system was out Of CrOpr, we
simply had no means Of washing our
selves We we're allowed to walk from
\ n. m. 10 10 q. m. and from . to 4
p m. IN very small courtyard In
front Of our abode and under military
guard Ther was not much oppor
ltunlty 10 walk, us, with ~ muny peo