New Britain herald., 1918-05-31
Prisoners in Germany.


 forms of German barbarity. and we have no words left in which to de- scribe the new evidences which pour in upon us every day of calculated torture under Teutonic authority. The public has learned through the report Of Justice Younger's committee how British prisoners at the front, cap tured in open warfare. have been handled with a ferocity which sur- passes all description.
 Let us get clearly the main facts of the case. It was discovered as early as July. 1916, that British prisoners of war were employed on the western front within thirty kilometres of the firing line. When expostulated with, the German government denied that such employment had taken place, and sought to justify it, where it ex- isted, as an act of reprisal. The en- emy's contention that we were orig finally to blame was, of course, ab- solutely unfounded, for we have been scrupulous in our treatment of pris- orers, as, indeed, might be expected from a nation which had not lost all sense of the chivalry of war.
 The next fact to be noted is that an agreem ent was concluded between Great Britain and Germany at the end of April, 1917, expressly forbid ding labor of prisoners of war within thirty kilom etres of the firing line. It will hardly surprise those who know how the enemy regards his formal contra cts to learn that that agree ment was entirely imperative in German practice.
 It must be remembered. too. quite apart from solemn engagements that this particular work of prisoners is interdicted by Article VI. of the An rex to The Hague Convention. labor immediately connected with the oper- ations of war being in express terms forbidden. Berlin had agreed to The Hague article, as we'll as to the pro- posa]s, put forward by the Britis, government; but the report states clearly that the German military au- thCrities took no notice whatsoever of either covenant or agreement
 So far, we are merely making our usual discovery that Teutonic faith, like that old Punic faith which was SO notorious in the times of ancient Rome, is the last word in unscrupu- lous evasion and reckless mendacity.
 When, however. we come to the actual treatment of British prisoners Of war, the story takes on a still more sombre tinge. The prisoners were not only forced to work on such occasions as making roads,. repairing railways, erecting wire entangle nEents, digging trenches, filling muni- ton wagons and constructing light railways, but they were absolutely starved in the process
 The wretched pittance doled out to them consisted of quarter of a loaf ~ 1,1 quarter of pound--with coffee in the morning. then soup at midday, and at 4:30 in the afternoon coffee again, without sugar or milk. On this a man had to carry on heavy manual work for over nine hours. while the German soldier at the same time was enjoying a whole loaf of bread, cof- fee jam, sugar, good thick soup, with two cigars and three cigarettes.
 These wretched victims were so hungry that now and again they left the line to obtain any chance con- tributions of food from French vil- lagers, although they knew that the penalty of accepting such doles was death. If they failed in doing their quota of work they were beaten, l,lshed with a dogwhip, kicked and maitreated in every way until at last they became so reduced in strength that they were no longer of any use, and then, only then, were they sent to hospitals or internment camps.
 A few men who managed to escape and got over to the British lines were so emaciated as to be nearly unrec- osniza ble Their clothes were vermin- GUS, they had had no opportunity of changing them for months past; they had no ovcrcoats: drenched to the skin, they were obliged to lie down in any kind of shelter. or want of shelter in their wet clothes, and as clearly attcsted in this report, they were driven almost to madness by sheer lack of food and the brutal tyranny of their captois.
 No mere words of reproduction can do justice to horrible facts like these. and the expression of our indignation our utmost desire to unpaCk our soul in wordsworth fall far short l of the actual horror. It is not only 1 that the Germans deliberately frus- l trate every obligation into which they ! enter, though that is bad enough. But 1 what really appalls the conscience of | humanity is the innate beaStl1ness, the atrocious and fiendish cruelty of ] the men with whom we are strug- l gl1ng in this war. I
 The historian of the future will be | puzzled to explain how this German l race, capable of such action could 1 ever have been considered a part of l civilized Europe. We ourselves can 1 hardly understand the phenomenon: | we can only note it as one of the par 1 amount reasons why in this combat 1 of ours. and in this solemn crisis of l our fate, we are compelled to say that ] no truce or peace is possible with ] Iel anic militia ri isr1a=-the rnuS 1