The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-06-06
GERMANS DESERT
 ARMyG ARE SHOT
 DOWN BY UHL-ANS
Holland Story Tells of De- sertions by the
 Hundreds

The Hague, Holland, June 6.-On the southern border of Holland de-
 sertions from the German army oc- cur on a large scale nowadays. At first it was only a single soldier here
 and there, then they came by threes
 and lives, later in groups of ten and twenty, but now as many as seventy and eighty come in at a time. A few days ago a little army tried to de- sert-some 500 to 500 men, mostly
 marines, fusileers, and landsturmers. I. The Dutche' report says that they Hattempted to, cross near Cadsand, but the German military authorities got wind of it and 200 uhlans with ma
 chine guns were despatched from Bruges to head them back. A formal
 battle ragged between the two forces; it was viewed from Holland. The l machine guns got in their deadly work, and almost all the would-be deserters were either killed or cap tured only eight wounded men suc- ceeding in reaching Dutch soil and safety.
 Every fresh arrival, deserter, or es- caped prisoner, tells the same story l of famine conditions in Belgium and
 Germany, and depression among the soldiers, who dread being sent to the AAO11C. AiiCS AiO ioIlSOi OOiAONO III l German victory, but are eager for
 peace. Only one escaped prisoner had a different story to tell, and that
 man was a Russian general, who ar rived in Maastrich accompanied by 1.-two German flight lieutenants,.' who
 had escaped with him.
 This general believed the Germans can never De reduced to hunger.
 "They will eat grass or the dust from the street rather than surrender on the allies terms" he said. He told how bad the treatment and the food was in the German prison camps; he had been in seven, so he could judge. 1 After very: attempt to escape he had been transferred to a different camp, but everywhere the prisoners were | treated brutally, the officers as well as the men. How he had at last suc- ceeded in getting away with his two companions he preferred not to say I-because he feared that would make escape more difficult for his com rades still in captivity. He did, how ever, say that what made escape very difficult was that it caused great sur prise to people in German towns and villages to see three able-bodied men walking about, and he. and his .com- panioris had been obliged to invent all sorts or Id1eS dDOuL ndVlnS been wounded and being now on leave to account for their absence from "the front."t
 German soldiers frankly beg for food on the Dutch border. The off, cers don't go quite as far as that There is a sort of neutral zone along the frontier where Germans and Hol- | flanders can meet. There the Ger man officers often congregate and make overtures of comradeship to their colleagues on the other side. Friendly relations often exist, and
 when the luncheon hour comes, and
 the Netherlanders sec what poor pro-
 visions the Germans have, they in- vite the Germans to lunch. A picnic I is held, and the Germans consume i incredible quantities of rooIs, saul
 sages, or ham sandwiches, and loudly praise the coffee the orderies of their l Dutch comrades serve. They say they
 never get good coffee any more.
 Although the Dutch officer often
 meets his German colleagues, it must
 not be supposed he always agrees i with their methods of discipline to-
 ward their own men. Both officers
 and soldiers in Holland, by far the greater number of them at least
 strongly disapprove the brutal and
 heartless way in which most German
 officers treat their men. The young.
 CTS officers show this by chaffing the Il Germans. about it.