The Washington herald., 1916-04-10
BRITISH. SICK
LEFT 7OFATES
Report on Conditions in Ger
man Prison Camp Dis
closes Suffering.
NO MEDICAL ATTENTION
Captors Flee When Typhus Breaks
Out-Vermin Covers Dead and
Dying. Report Says.
NO MEDICAL ATTENTION
Special Cable to The w,saias.oa Herald,

4 ePNeN4 Neblo 70 Inc NASuihFBA hefsN-
London. April 9.-The foreign ofic.
issued today a comprehensive report OF
the government committee on the treat.
ment of British prisoners Of war at the
German prison camp at Wittenberg dur
ing the typhus epidemic last year.
The report make eighteen typewritten
pages and is signed by Justice Younger
chairman of the committee. II Is based
| upon information collected from repa-
triated prisoners OF war. Including MAJ.
Priestly and Capts. Vidal and Lauder,
all officers in the Royal Army Medical
Corps.
1t discloses a story OF terrible suffering
and privation under the most appalling
conditions. After describing the location
Of the camp, which occupies an area of
about ten and a half acres In which some
1900 of i7,0o0 prisoners are confined in
GLIDING British, French. Belgium and
Russians, the report states that over
crowding was most serious" Typhus sp-
peared IN December, 1915
Germans Flee from Camp,
'Thereupon," continues the report,
the German stan, military and medical,
precipitately left the camp, staying away
until August, 1875" During that period
communications between prisoners and
guards was made BY guards or officers
shouting instructions from the outside
wire sntanglemsnts of the camp. The
report says:
"AH supplies for the men were pushed
into the camp over chutes, while food for
the hospital and medical officers passed
in on trolley so as to avoid all contact
between the prisoners and the outside
world. No medical attention during the
whole time was provided by the Ger.
man staff"
, Medical arrangements at Wittenbers
were under the charge of DR.. Aschen,
bach and his German assistants, all OF
whom fed at the outbreak of the cpl.
demic, leaving a number of Russian ano
French doctors, but no British. In the
middle OF February, 1875 six British
officers, including Maj PriestIy snt
Capts. Vidal and Lauder and Maj. Fry
| and Capts. Sutcliffe and Field, were sem
to wittenberg from Halle, where they
had been detained since the previous No
vember
What greeted them on their arrival a
the camp is best told by the report:
Two Captains Die.
''Thoy visited the different compound.
and were received in a pathetic silence
The rooms were unlighted, the men aim.
lessly marching up and down, some lyins
on the floor, probably siekening O.
typhus, When they got into the oper
air again, Fry broke down. The horror
Of It all was more than he could bear fol
the moment
The camp conditions were too muci
| for the medical officers. Two of them
Mai. Fry and Capt. Sutcliffe, soon sick
ened and died of typhus.
Mai, Priestly saw delirious men wav
ing. their arms brown to the elbow viii
| faecal matter. The patients were aliv,
with vernin. In the half light he at
tempted to brush what he took to be ar
accumulation of dust from the folds o,
patients clothes and discovered 1t to b,
| moving mass OF lice.
| Capt. Vidal says that the condition,
were thoroughly realized by the German
| authorities without any effeort bein,
made by them to bring about an i'm
provement."