The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-05-05
Charge OF CRUELTY
BRITISH ASSERT GERMANS TREAT
PRISONERS INHUMANLY
ENGLAND IS AROUSED

Kitchener Says He Has Been Forced
to Accept Stories of Barbarity-
Premier Asquith Declares Govern
ment Will Exact Reparation From
Guilty Parties at Wars End.
War Secretary Kitchener told the
British House of Lords Tuesday that
British prisoners had been insulted,
maltreated and even shot down by
their German captors. In state
ment to the House on this subject ne
said in part:
Il have been forced with reluc-
tance to accept as undisputably true
the maltreatment by the German
army of British prisoners. The
Hague convention has been flagrantly
disregal ded by German officers. Our
prisoners have been stripped and NAL
treated in various ways, and in some
cases the evidence goes to prove that
they have been shot in co,G blood.
| Our officers, even when W CndeG,
have been wantonly insulted and frc-
quently struck"
Earl Kitchener said that as SOL
dier he hitherto had always held Ger
man officers in respect, but, soon
slant testimony that has come in, not
only from our own escaped prisoners,
but from French, Russian, Belgian
and American sources, has brought it
home to all who have sifted the evil
dence that the inhumanity displayed
by the German authorities toward
British prisoners especially is beyond
doubt
81 think it only fair and right to
say" added the secretary, that the
German hospitals should be excepted
in any charges of deliberate inhu-
manity.
Treatment os prisoners in the de-
tention camps in Germany valies con-
siderably, according to locality. Our
men in most cases suffered from want
of food and have received differentlcl
treatment as compared with theil
French and Russi2n comrades and
many acts of violence have been com.
planned of. Latterly, however, there
does appear to be, a slight improve
ment in some respects, due, perhaps
to visits of inspection made from
time to time through the American
am mbassadcr.
Recently, scme Of our officers
i have been subjected to solitary con.
| finement in retaliation for the sup:
posed treatment of Germans in this
country. The Hague convention does
not admit of confinement of prisoners
of war, except as en- indispensable
measure of safety, and l hope before
long to obtain some evidence of the
1 manner in which these officers are
now being treated by Germany.
Germany has for many years pos
ed before the civilized world as {
great military nation. She has abun
dainty proved her military skill anc
courage. But surely it was also fol
her to set up g. standard of military
honor and conduct which would gaiI
the respect, if not the friendship, o.
nations. Instead, she has stopped tc
acts which surely will stain indelibl!
her military history and which would
vie with the barbarous saVagery Of
the Dervishes of Sudan.
"I do not think there can be q sol
dier of any nationality, even amongs1
the Germans themselves, who is moi
heartily ashamed of the slur which
has been thus brought upon the pro
fession of arms. The usageS OF wal
have not only been outraged by the
infliction of cruelties on British pris.
oners, but by contrivance which
; must have arrested your Lordships
! attention, the Germans have in the
!. last week introduced a method Of
placing their opponents hors de com
bat by the use of asphyxiatlng and de-
terious gases; and they employ these
lpoisonous methods to prevail when
+; their attack, according to rules Of
war, might otherwise have failed.
In the House of Commons Nei
Primrose said that American officials
had visited Is prison camps in Ger.
many and that reports had shown
Improvement in treatment accorded
British prisoners.
| Premier Asquith said: 'It- is a
| horrible story from every point o:
view-one Of blackest spots on even
German methods of war. My object
in rising is to say, with all emphasis
and all deliberation, that we shall not
forget, and we ought not to forget
this horrible record OF calculated
cruelty and crime.
1--WE shall at the end of this wal
hold it to be our duty to exact such
reparation against those who are
proved to be the guilty agents in this
matter as it may be possible for us
to inflict. do not think we would
be doing our duty either to those
brave, unfortunate men or to the
honor of our country or to the plain
dictates of humanity if we should be
content with anything less than that.
Lord Landstowne, opposition lead
er in the House of Lords, declared
the charges against Germany "of cal
lous, inhuman treatment of prisoners
had been proved to the hilt,' but that
England had reason to be grateful to
the. American government for the
way it had seconded the efforts of its
secretary of state to secure redress.
Lord Landstowne said he deplored
the fact that the admiralty had been
forced to take recourse in repriSals
against captive German submarine
crews. The real culprits, he declar-
ed, were the German government,
which had given them their ruthless
commissions
| Lord Cromer, former British agent
and consul general in Egypt, declar-
ed there was strong feeling in the
army against the policy OF the ad.
miralty regarding the treatment OF
German submarine prisoners.
Lord Lucas, president of the board
of agriculture, said he was glad to
announce that the German govern
ment had given James W. Gerard.
the American ambassador to Ger
many permission to visit the prisoner
camps, and he and the government
hoped that Mr.. Gerard also would be
permitted to investigate the treat
ment of the thirty-nine British Off
GERS who are being held in prison as
a reprisal against Great Britaln's
treatment of German submarine pris-
oners.