The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-12-28
IUTLANDERS NOW
COMPLAINING OF
=. TEUTON CRUELTY
Captive Danes Of SchIesWig-HoI-
stein Say Prussian Officials
Are Prosecuting Them

COPENHAGEN, December l2.-(Cor.
respOndence of The Associated Press .
Remarkable reports are in circula
ton here in the Danish capital regard
ing the treatment of the Danish popu
lation in the north of Schleswig Hol
stein, the German province which Dor
ders on Denmark and which was for
merly Danish territory. There are still
over hundred thousand inhabitants Of
Danish extraction and of Danish
tongue, commonly known as South Jut
landens in this German territory and
ever since they came under Prussian
rule there have been charges that the
Danes suffered, persecution, although
some years before the outbreak of the
European war the trouble had nearly
ceased. 1t is now charged that the
Danes are meeting with new affronts,
which are bitterly resented since
great number of the Danes have fought
with great bravery and distinction as
part of the German army in the pres
ent war. II is said that German com.
manders have been drawing up certain
black lists of the Danish South Jutland,
ers, and that these persons are being
punished with a severity out of pro.
portion to tie offences committed.
When war began, South Jutland, or
the north of the province of Schleswig-
Holstein, was placed under a military
rule which superseded the authority of
the high bailif. One of the first meas
ures taken by this military command
was to send 300 South Jutlanders to
prison. 1t is charged that many of
these persons were awakened in the
middle Of the night and rushed off to
the Jail gcantily clad. 1t is declared
that the arrests were made on teniOus
and imaginative evidence such as the
fact that large number of fishermen
who were arrested were put in prison
because they possessed boats in which
Il was thought that men eligible for
military service would try to escape.
Many of these fishermen were over sew
enty years old, and one of these old
men, who has four sons and three sons
in-law serving in the German army,
complains that he was kept for six days
in a prison cell on most meagre prison
fare. Most of the prisoners taken at
this time were kept in jail for a month.
Danish newspapers in the province
are subjected to the most rigid censor
ship and one of these papers, "Heim
dial, was suppressed for eight days be
cause it failed to mention the birthday
of the German Empress, according to
the editors, who added that their >fRas..
tests that the Empress had expressed
the desire to pass the day quietly did
not serve to move the authorities from
their stand in the matter. The censors
work is also seen in the fact that they
deleted an item in one of the papers
which referred to the italian Crown
Princes celebration of his eleventh
birthday.
Innumerable reports of such curtail-
Ihent of privileges are current in COpen-
hagen, some of them well authenticated
and others mere rumor. In the latter
category perhaps is the report here that
practically all persons formerly reject
ed by the German army authorities on
account of physical deformity have
been accepted for military service,
even, the rumor goes, mSn with club
feet, others who are lame crippled, and
suffering from chronic illness of various
SOL IS.