The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-10-01
BRITISH SAILOR TELLS OF
GERMAN PRISON HORRORS
Men Worked and Starved to Death by Hundreds, He
Asserts-Enemy Longs for Peace-Unfolder of
Tale Taken Prisoner by Raider Move

washington: Oct. IA British sail
or whose ship was destroyed oy the
German raider Move and who was
kept prisoner on the raider for i've
weeks before he was landed In Ger
many, managed recently to get let
fer out of Germany to his sister and
brothers in England. In the OPINION
of allied officials who have seen the
letter no more Interesting 1nformatlon
has come out of Germany In months
as 10 the actual conditions of that
country. 90
The writer, as war laborer, was
thrown much with German laboring
men. and he says the suffering OF
these men Is, SO great that they would
welcome any kind of peace, even one
dictated by the allies. Because of the
shortage of food the conditions in the
prison camps are described as terrible
beyond words to describe, the deaths
| sometimes averaging more than III
teen a day for weeks at time. Ihe
writer gives what Is perhaps the first
correct description Of the MOVE yet
printed, and makes the statement that
| this famous raider Is probably the
speediest Of her type afloat her maxi
mum speed being thirty knots an hour.
The letter, which comes from an Of
fetal source, is as follows:
"Just a few other lines to say I am
| still alive. am not in the best OF
health, but as good as can be expect
ed under the circumstances. OF course,
| there are worse cases than me- SO
thank God I cannot grumble. nope
YOU received my other letter. Any
I other way of writing is censored by
the Germans, that is the reason. L am
!, unable to write you all I could wish
about this country. Ishave been across
lit and up and down it since I have
been in it and I can tell you it is in
a very poor state. Mind you. it is a
large agricultural cuontry, fine plots
Of ground but uncultivated.
| There does not seem to be any men
around, only old and very young. Ev-
erywhere you look through a railway
carriage window it is always the same
! sight-wonien at the plow and dig
ging. II you do see any men at all they
| are the prisoners, French. Russian and
/ the British Now I have mentioned
/ the word prisoners.I will tell you as
we'll as can hwo Germany treats her
! prisoners; being one myself it gives
me a chance to state the truth. / was
aboard the raider five weeks, being
chased around by cruisers. The treat
ment we received on the cruiser Move
n was decent to what we received after
landing in Germany.
For the first few days, after the
Move captured us we received three
Il good meals a, day, consisting of tea or
II coffe for breakfast; for dinner, rice
or bean soup; supper, rice and prunes,
or rice boiled with meat or salt pork,
II each day varied; also, we received a
loaf for four men. We were portioned
out by messes, twelve or fourteen to
table. She was fitted out like a
declxyard cocoa room, plates, dishes,
and pint pot and spoon. Knives and
forks were not issued, as we all lived
on spoon diet. Well, we were all sat
isfied with that until they captured the
Esmeralda. Her crew was a very large
one, lis all told. She was a horse
boat, with American cattlemen on
board, but by good luck she was out
ward bound, SO there were no horses
on board. Well, after that they re-
duced our meals to two per day. con-
sisting mostly of rice. and as we were
getting more northerly every day we
were getting into more dangerous
routes, because we were closing in on
time we never knew the moment a
cruiser would pop up and sink us
5 prisoners and Germans as we'll, be-
. cause the way they had with us as
I soon as any smoke on the holzon was
l sighted we were all chased below, al
doors were locked, and we were giver
to understand that if one went to hell
:. well, we should all go, and that wa:
= the only consolation we had.
= ssWe1l, to cut a long story short, W.
were landed in Germany safe, and I
for one was glad it was SO, because
take it from me, she was the creates
tffoating mine 1, ever had the pleasure
of being on, and it's experience dom
want to have again. When we arriv
ed at Kiel the Moves commander tolt
= cur Captain hiatt we Should conside
;, ourselves lucky, indeed. that we wer
4 off the ocean, as if he had had to en-
gage himself with a man-o'-war h
! would have considered it his duty t.
"a have fought till she sank.
Il st will now describe what the Now
"a was like. First of all, you must un
lderstand this: she was disguised
10 ship, disguised to act as an old tramp
! Her full speed was between twenty an
J. thirty knots, but to look at her, fror
Il | distance she WOulu Initiate d SlON
r. ship, smoke like devil, (she carrie
;: smoke consumers, which could be use
In if required.) When we were In the vi
l. cinity of war vessels she never snok
al at all and always kept sharp look
" out The crew themselves boaste
s. about being off Simon's Bay (Cap
81 TOWN. one dark night and they sa'
y H. M. S. Glasgow coahng, with a
Of lights lit. They reckoned that the
as could have torpedoed her, only the
III were not sure but that some othe
&c cruiser might have given them chas
but at that time they were on tn
lookout for commerce. not fight. This
was three weeks before they capture
us.
1t was the Move which caught tn
- lGeorgic, (White Star Company tn
3D. voltaire, Ganport & Ho1t,) and SCI
all their crews into Germany on
A. Glasgow ship called the Yarrowdal
t. I have spoken to all these crews SIM
of landing here. Their experiences al
Id about the same as our own, so I wi
n leave them for another time. I hay
n also snoken TO men who were captCre