The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1918-05-23

Punish ummarIy-PrisonerS Beat
ing on Bars for Release From Burn
ing Cell Are Prodded Back Will
Bayonets-"The Tree" a Form o.
Torture Worse Than Anything
Known to InquisItIon.
| Horrible as are many Of the tales
which have been published of German
brutality to prisoners of war, there
are many others still more harrow.
ing If they could only be printed. And
the worst tales of all could be told of
the Hun treatment of naval prisoners.
Fortunately these prisoners are COM
paratiyely few in number, but the
Boche hatred of their enemies vents
itself, for reasons which probably
seem good to them, in greatest meas
ure against the British navy.
have been permitted to read some
letters from English seamen which
somehow have escaped the eyes of
the German censors. Some of the
stories one would not dare to quote.
They are horrible beyond description,
says a writer in the New York Her
aid.
The flthiest of stables or vermin in
Tested COW sheds are good enough for
the English swine" from the sea.
Guards Laugh as Men Die.
Were it not for the parcels of food
sent from England by the Prisoners
Aid society they could not possibly
live, and even the best of that food
often never reaches them. To COM
plain is to risk punishment for in
subordination. Sentries and guards
are encouraged by their officers to
punish summarily, without any
charge or sending them up for court
martial, which Is always farce any
way. And those sentries, who would
seem to be men selected for their lack
of feeling, are never slow in taking adj
vantage of opportunities that present
themselves of inticting the most in
human tortures on their prisoners.
Picture cell catching fire. Picture
the prisoners beating on the bars for
release. And picture the sentry, with |
sardonic laugh. sticking them |
through the bars with his bayonet. |
That is what actually happened to two
men. And their deaths were officially |
recorded as having been due to as
phyxiation.
It recalls story recently heard
in the American Y. M. G. A. Eagle hut,
which wounded Canadian soldier
told of a brutal Hun who killed a
helpless wounded English soldier by
sticking his bayonet again and again
into his body, laughing and gloating
over the blood as 1t dripped from the
blade.
The naval prisoners of war are
forced to work in coal mines, labor for
which they are totally untitled. Dis
located wrists and broken limbs are
not infrequently the result. But what
do the German slave drivers care The
class of work, however, to which they
delight in putting the naval prisoners
is the making of munitions. Naturally
they rebel. But 1t is no use for re-
fusal means for them one of the most
terrible of punishments, or tortures-
''the tree"-a method of cruci6xion
which recalls the days of the inquisi-
ton.
Torture of "the Tree"
Here Is how the punishment of "the
tree" is described in plain and simple
in a prisoners letter home
"a big party of Uhlans rode into the
camp and surrounded the men (who !
had refused to work on munition maxi
ng) and started pushing and showing
hem about, and digging them with
heir rifles. The officer in charge, who
,ould speak English, told the men that
hey were only prisoners of war, that !;
hey would have to put up with what
hey could get and do as they were {
'rdered. He gave them five minutes y
o get to work or he would order them
o be shot.
THE men were literally starving, so
hat nearly all gave in. They were
marched back to work, which they had n
o do with nothing to eat until eight p
.clock at night.
"But 81 men remained on the parade {
round, refusing to make shells to kill 6
heir own people. They were not shot, !,
ut far worse. The officer sent them
lto the wood and ordered them to be
led TO trees. Some were tied up, cru 9
ifx fashion; some were hung by one S
ag or one arm; some We're made to a
tand on stools while their hands were II
ed TO trees above their heads. Then :
ne stools were kicked away from I'M :,
er them and they were left hanging =
t the mercy of the mosquitoes, and D
ne sentries who came around prod
Ing them with their bayonets. a
after a time the German captain OF
anne round to view his glorious work.
hiding one of our fellows in a faint. :,
2 raised his head and punched him =
the 1ace. Then he ordered him to a.
2 cut down, and he fell in a heap on 81
le ground. Left lying there till he
lme to, they tied him up again.
after two hours of this treatment
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