Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-01-07
SERBIAN PRISONERS MARTYRS
Mere MouthfuiI Of Meat Given The"
Once, Wesk-Many Dying.

More MouthfuiI Of Meat Given Them
Once q Wesk-Many Dying.
Washington, Jan. THE Serbian
Legation in Washington issues the
following for publication:
Col. Nikola Tomashevitch, OF the
Serbian army, who has passed nearly
two years in captivity in Austria, and
who. being an invalid, has been ex-
changed and transported to Switzer-
land, has made the following declara-
ton to the Serbian legation at Berne:
4 ,"a The food given to Serbian
prisoners in Austria is extremely bad,
especially in the case of private SOL
diers, who are enduring absolute mar
tyrdom in the prison camps. They die
continually Of hunger because the
quantity Of food given them is not
only insufficient, but harmful. In the
morning they receive a kind of hot wa
ter mixed with coffee or tea-quite
unfit to drink: at midday and in the
evening they have a soup made OF the
Feelings of potatoes and other vege-
tables. mixed with roots and leaves, so
that 1t Is impossible to tell exactly what
1t is composed Of. There is meat only
once week. a mere mouthful. In the
winter we watched our soldiers on one
occasion passing our barracks on their
way to the next camp. They met a
load of turnips guarded by sentinels
but they threw themselves on the cart,
seized the turnips and began to eat
them without stopping to clean them
and paid no attention to the blows
given them by the guards. We often
saw them searching the refuse heaps
for bones or scraps Of food. They just
rubbed the bones little before begin
ming to gnaw them. Sometimes we
would see them pulling up grass for
food.
I'm general the food Of the officers
is better than that of the men, and es-
pecially recently, when some food was
sent from abroad by charitable COM
mittees. The privates naturally are
much more numerous and only few
of them receive any Of this food. IT
should also be remembered that there
are in the camps, besides the prisoners
OF war. many interned civilians, wo-
men and children. The parcels which
arrive are distributed among these
people and everybody gets only a very
little, because those who send the par
cells are probably not aware that there
are civilians as well as soldiers in the
camps and what a great number there
are to be helped.
1.-THE greatest relief. especially for
the soldiers, was the bread which was
sent by the Red Cross society in Berne
two or three times month. If it is
in any way possible, these consign-
ments should be sent regularly, as it is
the only help of this kind sent to the
prison camps.
"The nursing Of the men is done in
the camps by themselves, but, accord
ing to the statements Of the doctors,
any nursing Is useless the food being
so bad and so scarce that the soldiers
are slowly dying OF starvation. 1t is
not only the sick, but also those suffer-
ing from no actual malAdy who are so
exhausted by hunger they suffer much
in winter from insufficient warmth, so
much so. that the morning often finds
them dead or frozen. So far there are
in Austria Hungary at least $4,000
graves Of Serbian soldiers.
ii There are no sanitary supplies; for
instance. sterilized cotton wool is lack
ing, and instead Of 1t some kind Of soft
paper is used"