Bisbee daily review., 1917-08-12
GERMANS RESORT TO TORTURE ID COMPEL
 BELGIANS TO WORK
Pretended Executions and Punishment in the Tank" Popular Forms of Making Captured Civilians Slaves.

HAVRE, France, Aug. II Gore spondence of the Associated Press) - Torture of the post" punishment in the tank" pretended execution by Q firing squad or exposure to storms without being properly clothed, are some of the methods systematically used by the Germans to compel de ported Belgian civilians to labor for the German army. according to evi- dence which has been received by the Belgian government. Another method is to apply corporal punishment often with the butt of a rifle or to force the Belgians who refuse to work for Ger many to run for two hours or less without stopping, menaced all the time with a bayonet.
 According to the government an nouncement this evidence accords in all details and shows that deported Belgian civilians are systematically subjected to mistreatment in order to compel them to work. Under this treatment many of the deportees sue cumb while a larger proportion are so weakened that they become incapable of physical effort
 Tortures Described.
 The torture of the post" is de scribed as one of the principal meas ures resorted to by the Germans. Stoutly fettered to posts, the men are exposed to heat, or cold, according to the season, for days together, during which the food rations are reduced un- til they reach the proportions of half ration only for two days subsist- ence.
 ''The punishment in the tank" is a severe application of the Turkish bath. Several witnesses have confirmed this fact, among them the son of a manu- facturer of the region of Antwerp, who with several of his comrades was shut up in small room heated to a very high temperature. There was only room in the place for them to stand erect close together and scarcely able !. to turn. They were left there A hours.
  the neighborhood where they were asked if they would go to work. Upon their refusal they were taken to a field under military escort, divested by force of their overcoats, shoes. scarfs, and hats or caps, and exposed in snowstorm an entire day and an entire night, with nothing to eat or drink and under the absolute prohibition to make the slightest movement. Some of them lost consciousness after a few hours of this exposure, and all of them were taken to the hospital the follow ing day.
 The son of the Antwerp manufac- turer, a stout, robust man at the time of the deportation, was sent home a complete physical wreck a short time afterward and since has died from the mistreatment. He told his sufferings to the physician who treated him, and the Belgian government is in posses sion of the evidence as given to the doctor.
 Stories Confirmed.
 Two soldiers from Havre, the Lebris brothers, who escaped from Germany. confirm this evidence regarding the Turkish bath form of punishment.
 A number of witnesses call atten- tion to the fact that frequently groups of deported men have been the object of a simulated execution. sometimes by a firing squad, sometimes with ma chine guns, in order to overcome their resistance and impress their com rades.
 There is also another means of con straint used upon the deported in the form of punishment camps, where the regime is still more severe than in the other interned camps and where the deported are forced to work in the marshes. often in most excessively cold weather, dressed in nothing but trousers, shirt, and wooden shoes,