New Britain herald., 1917-04-10
GERARD TELLS OF
 GERMAN ATROCITIES
Recalled Ambassador Describes Horrors of War Across the Sea

dor to Germany, told the members and guests of the Canadian club of Now York at 8 dinner in the grand
 ballroom of the Biltmore last night of inhuman treatment of prisoners of war by the Kaiser's military authori- ties. The 1,500 diners received with groans of indignation and shame the former ambassadors recitation of how the German authorities imprisoned townsfolk for giving food and drink to starving Canadian prisoners of war: how German sheep hounds were trained to bite British soldiers; how small German boys were allowed to shoot arrows tipped with nails into the bodies of prisoners. and how when typhus broke out in a camp of Rus sian prisoners they sent Frenchmen and Englishmen to live with them.
 It was the first time since he re- turned from Germany that he had told of any of these things he had seen. He saw them on visits to the official representative of the British and Canadian governments. Mir. Gerard began his speech by referring to Germany as that country where they were so fond of me that they kept me a week after I said wanted to go home."
 ''I want to tell you Canadians to- night" he said, some of the things l saw your fellow-countrymen endure in the German prisoner of war camps. You, sitting here in the Biltmore, can- not imagine the horror of living two and half years in German prison camp. I know, because I saw.
 "One day I read in the North Ger man Gazette a paragraph which told that a number of the inhabitants of a northern German town had been guilty of improper and unpatriotic conduct toward prisoners of war, and that they had been jailed for varying terms and their names printed in the North German Gazette, that their names might be exposed to shame and their falsity made known to gen. erations of Germans to come.
 T said to myself, Good at least some of these Germans are to be punished for maltreating prisoners of war I directed the American con- sul there to make report on the matter. He sent back word that a trainload of Canadian prisoners of war was being taken through the town when it was necessary to put the train on a siding. Some of the prisoners communicated to curious townsfolk gathered about the train that they were starving and had nothing to drink. The townspeople had given them food and drink and that was the crime for which they were imprisoned and held up to shame.
 'I had seen small boys, with Ger a3ynS ifx, lri r, about the prison camps armed with bows and arrows, shoot arrows tipped with nails at prisoners. but had be- fore heard of such a thing as this.
 "I had read in history that at the beginning of the Reformation Martin Luther nailed his thesis to the door of the cathedral. After this you know who I would like to have nailed to that door,
 Another time there was typhus fever in a camp where Russians were interned. Saying that all the Allies should stick togther, the Germans placed English and French prisoners with the Russians in the typhus camp. thus condemning numbers of them to certain death.
 At another camp I visited they had trained German sheep dogs to bite British. and when the guards went through the camp they took the trained dogs with them. and it was seldom that they failed to bite British soldiers complained to Berlin about the matter, and for long. long time my complaint was unnoticed. Nothing was done until told the commandant that I was a very good pistol shot. and that I felt like going out and shooting some trained dogs and seeing what they would do about it. Shortly afterward the com mandant was removed"
 Mr. Gerard said that in visiting some of the prison camps he found that many of the Canadians talked with an accent that sounded like New York. He said one day a Highlander him and said:
 Hello, Judge
 What sort of a Highlander are you '" he said he asked.
 From the Orange Highlands-of Now Jersey" was the reply.
 Major General Wood Speaks.
 Major General Leonard Wood, the next speaker. was enthusiastically re- ceived.
 ''we of the United States and Can ada," he said, "are now together for a great effort. It is an effort which we are going to carry through suc- cessfully. It's g.ing to mean sacri- flee, sacrifice other than money. It's going to mean the sacrifice of life-in large numbers. It is a sacrifice we shall make cheerfully because it is a sacrifice for principle.
 We have a lot of work to do, but we can do it. It is the duty of every man to place himself squarely behind the government, for it's no good now talking about the water that's gone under the bridge.
 For my part, I think speak the satisfaction of all our people wher.