Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-02-26
CRUELTY OF RED
CROSS WORKERS
IN GERMANY TOLD
Returning English Prisoners
Describe Indignities
Suffered in 1914

London, Feb. 26.-We have had
put into our hands a bundle of
papers. They are sworn statements
OF upward of hundred British of
flcers, noncommissioned officers and
men who We're captured before the
end of 1914 and have since re-
turned to England. They tell a
STORY which is now fairly we'll
known in outline, of the cruelties
and the insults they suffered on
their way to prison; but there is one
part of the story which is not so
Wen known, yet ought to be told.
IL is thee sstory of how women with
the sacred and merciful symbol of
the Red Cross on their breasts or
thelr arms treated our wounded and
suffering.
1t is clear from their statements
that the German government had
arranged sort of triumph or dis
play of their prisoners en- route to
the prison camps. The trains stopped
at railway sidings and stations,
which Were always crowded with
spectators, and at several railway
stations there We're bands of chill
dren evidently brought by their
schoolmasters to see the show.
These children sang insulting songs
IN chorus, while their elders poured
insult and abuse upon their victims
Jeered by Mob
some times the prisoners were
taken through a town in procession.
exposed to jeers and blows from a
howling mob. In these professions
the wounded had often to hobble
along among the others, and their
wounds did not save them from the
general ill-treatment. There was no
medical or other attention given
either on the trains or at the
stopping places to the sick and
wounded men.
Even when English doctors We're
among the prisoners they were not
allowed to attend to the wounded.
They were often all herded together,
wounded and unwounded, in cattle
| trucks, where they had neither food
nor water, but had to lie in filth and
| darkness through long days and
nights of jolting, weariness and
agony. The only kindness they ever
received was from some of the COM
| mon soldiers among their guard,
who now and then, out of pity or
shame, would give them a little of
their own rstions.
The whole burden of evidence goes
to show that this ill-treatment was
not any accidental neglect or Off
clal brutality, but a concerted plan
in which the local population
shared with the authorities the
pleasure and the sport of torturing
their prisoners. And in this sport
the German Red Cross nurses were
in the forefront. Not only did they
refuse any sort of aid to our
wounded, but they took a fiendish
delight in taunting and tormenting
them. But let us give a few ex-
amples to prove the truth of these
general statements.
1t should be explained that at
every station the German Red Cross
had a stall on which there was an
abundance of coffee and food for
the German troops, but the German
Red Cross gave no food to the Brit
ish prisoners, wounded or otherwise,
although they occasionally fed
French and Belgians. One of the
witnesses lieutenant colonel in a
Highland regiment, said, for ex-
ample: "At Cologne | saw a fe-
male with Red Cross badge who
was serving our escort with coffee
deliberately pour the remainder of
the coffee on the ground when asked
to let us have some 1 do not
think, says major of the artillery.
that a cup of water was given to
us by the Red Cross during the
whole journey"
Food Knocked From Hands
Very frequently" says a lieuten-
! ant-colonel of the r. A. NJ. c., when
| our men asked for coffee or soun of
the Red Cross workers, they were
spat at or had their mugs knocked
out of their hands," Another officer
of the r. A. NJ. c. says the Red Cross
women treated them vileIy. They
came to the carriage windows with
cofee and sandwiches, showed them
the food and then took it away with
out giving them any. At some places
they spat at them. and invariabIv
drew the attention of the civilians and
soldiers on the platform to their
presence.
An English officer of an infantry
reg.lnent speaks of a carriage full
OIL brltlsh wounded on which was
marked "Englische Schweinebunde {"
AT Liege." he continued "t triod
personally to get the German Red
Cross officials to give our wounded
men water They refused. saw
some German Red Cross nurses actu-
ally bring water in cans up to our
men. show it to them and then no,,r
1t out on the platform. At Aix-Ia-
Chapelle. where there was an etah-
| crate Red Cross dressing station. the
German wounded had their wounds
crossed, but our wounded wera NOT
only left untreated. but were even
refused food and water"
Another II. "A. NJ. C. officer. snaak-
ing of a train of British wounded
says: THE Red Cross officials and
women brought soup to the train
showed it to the English, then took
1t away. calling them swine and
b1ackguards."
"At all the large stations i'm Gar-
many" says another r. A. NJ. C. of
ficer were German Red Cross ala
posts The German wounded were
taken out, their wounds dressed-~ and
they were given food and drink in
abundance. When asked the Rad
Cross authorities for similar treat
ment for British and French wound
ed it was refused. not one man re-
ceiving morsel of food or drinI,
1 tried at several stations. but with
the same result. At Hanover the
Red Gross official / addressed spat
on the platform and walked awav" I"
Replied Only With Abuse
This is the burden of all the stor-
les. Everywhere the Red Cross onlv
replied with abuse when they were