Norwich bulletin., 1915-05-07
Things Observed by An Inspector.

New light is thrown on social, in- duStrial and military conditions in France, Belgium and the province o1 Baden, Prussia, by Lieutenant Oscar Wuchner, of the 14th Infantry, an army inspector who writes under date of April 8:
 Though Lieutenant Wuchner's du- ties brought him to the eastern end of the great conflict, he writes only of what he saw in the western war zone He was in the trenches at La Chap belle, where there was the fiercest of fighting for several days in succession In speaking of this feature of the war he says:
 q know of fighting on land; heard of it on sea, and in the air: but it was the first time l ever saw fighting un- der-ground by the contending forces Hand grenades and bombs were used First the fighters drove passages in the direction of each other under ground; and, when the wall between them was blown out or down, 9 dread ful battle was fought by desperate sol diers. They went at each other like demons in the dark, one not being able to see the other, and continued to fight until either killed or wound cd.
 "Of course, the underground fight ing has for it's object the blowing up of one party by the other. Not many are being killed above the surface in the night trench fighting; but under ground there is great slaughter. In Baden and other places the Govern ment has ordered a new thing, and that is the public parks, playgrounds, front and rear yards or homes and villas of rich and poor must be turned into gardens for cultivation of pota- toes and cabbages. Hundreds of Rus sian soldiers are working in these improvised fields and hundreds more in stockades have been asked to do the same thing for it helps to keep them healthy.
 'More than 300 of this class of pris- oneYs were called before the author ities in our province recently and asked if they desired to return to the countries from where they enlisted. Only Il wanted to go home and were given transportation to the Russian border.
 Others will be given small tracts of land to cultivate so there shall be no shor tage of food as far as they are concerned. Many prisoners have been put to work building highways, dig Eing field ditches and repairing oth . CTS. Others have gone to work in the coal and ore mines of Belgium, and zinc and copper mines in Silesia- Sev- eral thousand of them are tilling the deserted farms in Belgium also. Every one of them working under the super vision of a government official will be paid at the rate or nrteen cents per day. Some cities, such as Munich, have assumed the responsibility of giving work to prisoners of all nation- alities and also paying them a small amount.
 T might tell you the government has ordered tho killing of all carrier pigeons, in some districts, so they can not be used for ihe carrying of un- friendly messages to or out of the coun- try. The young of this species make a choice dish when cooked. There is no scarcity of food and to this every body is contributing nicely.
 Prices are not much higher for foodstuffs than in your country. Of course there is military supervision over all food products. A 2oo-pound sack of flour, weighing in America 220 pounds, can be bought for 50 marks Potatoes sell at 87 cents a bushel in our money. The best kind of meat, steaks, chops and such, sell from 22 to 25 cents per pound. Eggs are 25 cents a dozen- Butter, 30 cents