The daily progressive-miner., 1918-09-05
FORTY BRITISH
 KILLED BY
 THE BOCHES
Escaped Prisoner Tells How Huns Mistreated Captives, Tortured and Starved Them. :.
 So Many Died

A member of the royal naval divis- ion of Great Britain who was cap tured at Antwerp in 1914 arrived in England June 6, 1918, after escaping to a neutral country; he narrates in i Current History an appalling story of German cruelty t., British prison. CTS, as follows:
 On February 25. 1917, British pris- oners at Libau were told to march to Kelsen, 36 kilometers away. Uhlans urged us forward through the snow. Often we came to drifts which were |, waist deep, and any one who halted was prodded on by the Uhlans with their lances. In the ordinary way the 36 kilometers were two days march in winter for the German troops, but we were told we had to reach our des- tination by that night.
 On we went without food and with out halt. One man-A. Sawyer, R. N. D.-stumbled in the snow, adn was at once charged by Uhlan whose lance entered his head just behind the ear. The Germans took no notice of the incident, with the result that the frost got into Sawyear's wound. Ninety men out of 200 collapsed on that march, and many others were 1 bleeding from lance bricks. If a man fell out he was left and he had to take his chance of a humane transport driver coming by and giving him a i lift
 At the end of our journey we dis covered that we were to be employed in the lines. For an hour and half we were kept standing in the snow while Russian shells were bursting in the district We were then told to go into a large cavalry tent, and we found no sleeping accommodations except pieces of wood across which was stretched wire meshing Those who managed to keep their blankets during the march had covering, but many threw these away in order to keep up with their comrades.
 Early the next morning we were aroused by the guards prodding us with bayonets and crying "Get up" We were kept on parade, while or ders were read out to us, according to which any man found smoking would be shot, and disobedience of orders
 would meet with death. We were told that the reason we had been brought there. was that the English had German prisoners working in their trenches and in the firing line, and it was intended that we should carry out the same work against the Russians until England had given a satisfactory reply about German prisoners. News had been brought to Germany by escaped prisoners sthat British sentries had foully murdered
 36 German prisoners, and it had been
 decided that 36 out of the 800 men
 now there should die. Every man
 "oS 6AVcH pIASOH AuMDcT, duu t groups of three were formed, so that , for the misdeeds of one of them all
 three were taken from the working
 parties at the end of the day, made
 to mount on brick, were then tied
 to pole, and the brick kicked away
 leaving their feet little way from
 the ground. In this position they
 were kept for two and half hours
 each night for IA nights in intense cold.
 Forty men died under this treat
 ment, for when they were released
 they were like blocks of ice, and cir.
 culation had to be restored by their
 comrades. A man named Skit, Gren. adler Guards, was shot in cold blood
 He ha dcollapsed in the snow. and