The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-04-20
FEARFUL CONDITIONS.
Describes German Treatment of Brit
iSh Prisoners as "Indescribable."

|
| London, April 9.-The government
committee on the treatment in Ger
many of British prisoners Of war, Of
which Mr.. Justice Younger is chair
man, has issued a report characteriz-
| ing as "indescribabl BILE" the conditions
prevailing in the Wittenburg camp
during the typhus epidemic of last
year.
The report is based on information
from prisoners and especially from
Maj. Priestley, Capt. Vidal and Capt.
Lauder, of the Army Medical corps,
who were sent to the camp shortly
after the outbreak of the epidemic,
and who were recently released from
Germany. The three officers men
toned are the only survivors of six
British doctors sent to the Witten-
burg camp by the Germans Ito take
up" says the report, the place of
duty abandoned by their own medi-
cal staff when the presence of typhus
manifested ITSELF"
The records of the epidemic kept
by the British officers were taken,
but the report gives in detail the con-
dition of the camp and the treatment
of prisoners and patients which the
| American ambassador, James w.
| Gerard, in his report last November
said was "even more unfavorable
than I had been led to expect
An Enormous Population.
According to released officers there
are $4,000 and sometimes more ,pris-
oners in the camp, which the COM
| mittee says lis an enormous popula-
| ton for so restricted an area as 10
and a half acres. There were no
proper heating arrangements and the
men are insufficiently clothed. Brit
ish overcoats having been taken from
them, their clothing being in rags.
Many had neither boots or socks.
There was an insufficient supply of
water and. soap and Maj. Priestley
says he found the men gaunt, of a
peculiar gray pallor and verminous. -
The supply of food also was. insult
ficient even in the hospital until sup
plies arrived from England.
"The only provision for personal
cleanliness made for the men," says
the report, "was one cupful of soft
soap issued at intervals of many
weeks to room containing 120. In
consequence, the men became increas-
ingly verminous, and the condition,
! coupled with cold and want of prop
er nourishment, was undoubtedly the
principal inducing cause of the cpl
demic.
The epidemic broke out in Decem-
Der, 1914. "Thereupon," says the re-
port, "the German staff, military and
medical, precipitately left the camp,
and thenceforth, until August, 1915,
no communication. was held between
prisoners and their guards except by
means of directions shouted from
guards or officers remaining outside
| the wire entanglements.
ftAll supplies for the men were
pushed into the camp over chutes,
and no medical attention during the
whole time was provided by the Ger
man staff"
Capt. Lauder reports that while in
the bungalows there was normally
one mattress for three men, in the
improvised hospital there were no
mattresses at all.
Shy of Hospital.
"In consequence, he says, there
were many typhus patients scattered
over the compounds who were deter
mined not to come into the hospitals
if they could help it,
In one compound, he found so hid
den cases of typhus in the first
month. The food ration for each pa
tient was a half petit pain (roll) and
half cup of milk day. The only
soup obtainable came from the camp
kitchen and as it was brought in open
wooden tubs it was full of dust and
dirt.
''In TRUTH" says the committee's
report, 1.-The ration was not ration
at all. It was pretense. 1t was not
even possible to give the patients
warm water with their milk
Four British doctors were infected
and three died. It was then that
Maj. Priestley and Capt. Vidal went
to the hospital to join Capt. Lauder,
who was down with typhus. Maj.
Priestley says that the patients, alive
with vermin, lay so close to one an
other on the floor that he had to
stand straddle-leg across them to eX-