The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-04-03
OF HUN
RED CROSS FIENDS
Savage Treatment Of British Prisoners
"A Veritable Journey to
Calvary

ire a civilized people or that their |
men and women observe the ordinary +
lecencies of human intercourse would
be well advised to study a document
which has Just been issued by the Brit
ish government 1t is a Report on the
Transport of British Prisoners of War
to Germany in August-December, 1914.
1t contains the first hand statements
and dispositions of As officers and u
non commissioned officers and men,
most of whom fell wounded into the
enemy's hands.
That civilized men and women should
deliberately insult, torture, and abuse
wounded or dying captives seems
thing past belief. But the fact is es-
tablishcd here indisputably by album
dance of evidence The infamy was the
greater bccause-though this is not
statcd-it had been deliberately organ
lied and prepared by the German staff. |
1t was the German staff which spread |
the story that British soldiers carried
knives of peculiar pattern to gouge |
out the eyes OF the German wounded. |
Precisely the same wicked lie was cir
culated about the Belgians, and two
years later it was cynically withdrawn.
1t was the German staff which pre-
tended that the British soldiers used
dum-dum bullets, supporting the charge,
as Captain II. 6. w. Irwin tells US in
this report, by showing cartridges
which ''were in every case of Mauser
pattern =
For the British wounded, the progress
to Germany was a vetiable journey to
| Calvary. and its miseries and agonies
were cruelty enhanced by the merciless
savagery of the German Red Cross
women. Forgetting the symbol which
they wore, they behaved as though
they had been barbarians. Witness
after witness testifes to this. Lieu
tenant Colonel Neish says:
At Cologne | saw a female with
Red Cross badge on her, after serving
our escort (of German soldiers) with
coffee, deliberately pour the remaining
contents of the can on the ground when
requested to allow us to have some.
During the journey to Sennelager-
some As hours-we were given one
meal (soup).
Major A. 5. PEBBLES states:
At one station we asked two Red
Cross ladies for a glass of water. say
ing it was for a wounded officer; they
burst out laughing and said, . Nothing
for you English.
Captain Beman SAYS:
The German Red Cross gave no food
to prisoners, wounded or otherwise. AT
times it is shown to them and then
withdrawn. with kindly remarks that
; it is not for swine.
Captain Iiargreaves gives an even
more revolving account:
!, At Liege | tried personally to get
the German Red Cross officials TO give
. our wounded men water. They re
fused | saw some German Red eros.
To- nurses actually bring water in cans NJ
I to our men, show it to them, and theI
E, pour it out on the platform. This ais,
f happened to me personally. At AK
- la hapelle the excitement and ange
r. Iof the crowd were indescrihable. Their,
:, was an elaborate Red Cross DRESSING
{ station here. All water and food wa
!; vigorously refused rs. The . German
I wounded in the train had their wound
dressed. This was refused us.
!. Another officer, Major Meiklejohr
d deposes:
4 German Red Cross women refused Il
l. any food. calling us insulting name
V and spat towards US, telling us the
> would give nothing to the Englis
= " Schwcinhundc, although we toll
them some of us were very i'll and a
= were wounded. =. | myself sal
's one, and other officers saw severe
4 German women. dressed as nurses an
II ladies and wearing the Red Cross, dc
s libcrately empty bowls of soup on tn
= platform before us, saying somethin
y about nothing to d" English swine
3 Other officers. among whom l III
derstand was Captain Pelham Burr
= Gordon Highlanders, saw Red Cro>
8. women spit in the soup before offc
3: ing it to them.
II Throughout this journey the condut
IN of the German women, especially tho!
. dressed as Red Cross nurses, was I
~ voting and barbarous beyond word
NJ and as a result of the continuous br
NJ tally of Red Cross women and official
4 many prisoners OF war besides mvse
30 have still a repugnance to seeing RI
- Cross armlet.
In another case an officer tells ho
), a Red Cross womaL brought him
. glass of water and spat in it befo
handing it to him.
ie In this continuous record of cruel
m to helpless and suffering men there
lv- only one ease given where Red Gro
women showed any human sympath
This was at Coblentz, where, in (
1r. words of Captain II. G. Gilliland, IT
III sliding doors of the truck (in viii
a number Of wounded had Travelled
two days without water or food we
pulled open and two or three Germ
women of the Red Cross came up a
asked when we had food last Wa
they found we had none they went
and got MS some sausage sandwich
but before they could give them to
they were prevented by German o
GERS, who said, These are English pr
oners and they are to have nothing.
The German soldiers were err
enough, though here and there some
. the escorts showed some sense of nj