New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25

I have lust returned from Switzerland.
went there TO see a soldier who was wounded
by an explosive bullet, and who, after three
grave illnesses, was delivered to SWISS
internment camp. / have heard not only his
story, but the stories Of several OF his com
rades. am going to write the essential pas
sagcs-thoss which are impersonal and have
a general significance. They will constitute
faithful picture Of the regime under which
our men suffer in Germany.
But first Of all. / must express for them
their gratitude for the afectionate and de-
voted care which they have received In Swift
erland. They are being born again there
After having been treated moro harshly than
animals, they are astonished at being treated
once more as human beings.
I shall describethe three successive regimes
70 which our men have been subjected: The
ordinary camp, reprisal treatment in Poland
and reprsal treatment on the Western front
The Ordinary Camp
This is the way things are done at the Stuff
CART camps, where two brutes hold sway
Feldwebels Nirngarten and Aichinger. Men
were punished there with imprisonment for
trifes; and the days Of the prison sentence
are multiplied automatically three times by
the commandant of the camp. Daily exercise
was varied with barbarous innovations. Once,
in a glacial cold, the feldwebel kept them
for half an hour at attention absolutely
immobile. Another time he made them lie
down in the mud. The rations were: In the
morning q boiled black water, misnamed cof-
l. -. -.
evening, another soup made of French con.
serves, stolen out of the prisoners packages
All the boxes Of conserves were opened under
the pretext Of looking In them for papers ex-
horting the prisoners to apply sabotage to
the crops. The ration Of bread was about
three hundred grammes day. Our soldiers,
especially those without means, were able to
live only by virtue Of the forty-eight biscuits
1.-TWO kilos and half week. sent weekly by
the French government and by virtue of the
packages which the Red Cross delivers to the
INDECENT, under the direction Of our own pris.
oners.
Reprisals on the Russian Front
The journey from Stuttgart to Suwalh was
made in three instruments, each twenty-four
hours long. The prisoners, shut up by ffties in
cattle cars, remained for twenty-four hours
without any food. Their cars were locked and
barred, so that no one could get out.
The work there consisted Of loading trees
on fiat platforms, pushing them TO the saw
mills, saving them up and putting them in
wagons. The pay was 30 pfenngs, or As cen
times n day. A canteen sold cakes and honey.
For food barley coffee on rising, farina soup
and potatoes at noon, and in the evening 800
grammes of bread, which, for the sick, was
reduced TO 200 grammes, on the plea Of econ
omy Never any meat-a little piece of sau-
sage once a month. Work lasted from a. m.
to 80 a. m. and from l p. m. to p. m.
The men slept on the floor without any straw,
in huts sunk into the ground almost to the
roof and covered with branches and mud. Our
soldiers were almost devoured by lice and
mosquitoes, rsvaged by malaria and dysen-
terry. deprived of sleep, passing the short
nights Of that latitude in contemplation of
the heavens, lghtened by the magic OF dawns
which follow close to the heels of twilight.
Their packages arrived, after two months
of travel, completely empty. Their CORE
spondence was cut off. For five months their
families remained without news Of them.
Reprisals on the West Front
Our prisoners, divided in commandos Of
one thousand, were sent to this front from
January 1 to May I. These reprissls ended
on May because their purpose was attained
and their practical utility then ceased. Our
men were brought to our front in order to
construct there the famous Hindenburg line.
II was they, to the number of about thirty
thousand, who dug the system of three or
four lines of trenches and connecting bitches
which constituted the defensive position to
which the so-called strategic withdrawal
led.
The rcprisal commandos were brought be
hind the front from Armentieres to Verdun.
The 9th and 9th Commands were debarked
at Queant and directed first upon Ervillers,
six kilometres north of Bapaume, and then
upon Villers-les- Gagnicourt, on the road from
TT ~