Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1918-02-28

the war correspondents uessdBeS
from the different fronts that the
prisoners presented a pitiable ap-
pearance and that their morale is
very low?
Reliable testimony as to the condi-
tion of the German army is not to be
found in the prisoners of war
cages" 1t is rather revealed in the
documents and letters taken in ac-
tion.
Generally speaking, the statements
of German prisoners of war, unless
independently corroborated, are un-
reliable.
have met causually and talked to
all kinds of German prisoners, both
Officers and men, captured on differ
ent parts of the western front ever
since the opening days of the war.
Ny experience is that they fall
roughly, into three classes. The
most common type is the clumsily-
cunning fellow who will affirm any
thing that he thinks you want him
to say, without regard to dignity or
truth. Then there is the surly kind,
who will tell you string of lies.
Lastly, you have the frankly hostile
German, who will turn his back on
you rather than open his lips to
speak to the hated "Englander."
The first German prisoners l saw
in this war were in a hospital at Ver-
sailles just before the battle of the
Marne. They lay in the wards mixed
up indiscriminately with the British
soldiers, and it speaks volumes for
the high character of our men that
these helpless Germans, many of
whom must have taken actual part
in the perpetuation of the Belgian
horrors, were treated by our soldiers
as fellow victims of the war and
nothing else.
In an isolated ward at this hos
pital l came across a German, who
was dying of gangrene, side by side
with a fair-haired west of England
corporal, who was smitten with the
same dreadful evil. Both men were
dying, and 1t was this corporal who
drew my attention to the German.
Il feel kind of sorry for the old
man, sir" he said to me, for there's
no one here as can talk his lingo and
it must be lonely for him lying there
all day."
So spoke in German to the other,
a sunburnt, black-bearded man who
must have been so, l should think.
He was of the hostile kind, and his
eyes looked at me with no friendly
gaze when | first addressed him. He
told me he knew he was dying. !
asked if | could do anything for him.
He shook his head. He had no rela-
tions, he said. His only care was
his farm in Hanover, and he told me
about it, saying that the war had
ruined him, for he had no one to
look after things in his absence.
When next l went to see him, two
days later, he was dead-one of the
millions of humble victims of the
kaiser's ambition.
At the height of the battle of Loos
was witness of very amusing
scene at railway siding. About
500 German prisoners were installed
in cage there, waiting for train
to take them down to the base for
shipment to England. The railway
transport officer was beside himself.
He could not speak word of Ger
man, and he had to get the whole
detachment issued with rations for
their journey to the coast before
they could entrain.
One of the party of war corre-
spondents, who had come to visit the
prisoners, gallantly went to the res
cue. The journalist spoke German
fluently and, at the r. T. Oo's re-
quest, he undertook to superintend
the distribution of rations. He stood
up in front of the prisoners-a regu-
lar rabble sprawling in the sunshine,
all very dirty, many slightly wound
ed, listless, Indifferent. Then he
roarde at them in German, Party,
shun!" The effect was electric. To
man the prisoners scrambled to
their feet and stood rigidly to atten-
tion, after which the correspondent
called out the n. c. o. and set them
to organize the party into squads for
the distribution of rations In half
an hour the thing was done.
German officers are the most diff
cult prisoners of war to handle.
Nearly all cases of treachery in the
surrender are directly traceable to
the instigation or example of officers.
Most of them, when captured, are
surly and insolent, but full of de-
mands for their rights" Still, one
meets exceptions.