New-York tribune., 1918-12-22
Days
IL Without Food

A w llIlOul i OOQ
Briefly, the report shows that the prison.
ers went as long as forty-e ght hours with
out food or water, that they were abused
and beaten, that wounded were forced to
make long Marches that the sick went un-
cared for, that no sanitary provisions were
made, and that the men, in violation Of all
international agreements were forced to
work near the front line trenches where
many of them were killed by the fire Of
their own comrades.
One of the first illustrations given is that
of a man captured at Lagincourt at a. M,
March q. Fl and a number of others, in
cludng some wounded, were marched to
Villers, arriving there at o'clock in the
afternoon. From there they were all forced
to take up the march to a remote camp, which
was reached six hours later They were with
out food or water since their capture. Still
without food and with only such water as
they could get from a small stream which
flowed near the camp. the prisoners slept
on the ground. At 10 o'clock the next morn
ing the unfed men were again forced into.
lire and set out for Marchennes. In the
course of the journey they were given q
little coffee, but food. Marchennes was
reached at o'clock in the evening, when
they got the first mouthful of food since
their capture. This meal" consisted of one
small piece Of bread and little more
coffee
Another prisoner whose experience was
much the same said that while he and his
companions were starving and going with
out water their guards had plenty to eat,
being supplied with their own ratons and
an ample supply taken from the English
themselves
Men who captured at Lagncourt
March 21 and taken to Denain, which was
reached March a. said they had no food all
the way, and that when they tried to drink
at streams they crossed the guards pre-
vented their doing so. French peasants who
tried to slip food to the furnishing prison
were beaten off by the German GUARDS.
After the prison camps were reached the
conditions even worse. Many of the
details given by the prisoners cannot be
repeated. Dysentery broke out in the camps,
there we're sanitary arrangements and no
medical attention for those who we're ILL.,
Conditions soon were indescribable Men
who were i'll from the disease we're forced
to work until they tainted In one camp
the men were put to work at daylight, but
received no food or water till in the even
ing.
The German guards and nurses did
regular traffic in the Red Cross packages
and clothing they took from the prisoners
Eggs were sometimes issued for the most
desperately wounded of the prisoners those,
for instance, that had lost both legs, but
these seldom reached the patients One
nurse in particular is cited who made a
business of collecting these eggs until a
number were on hand, when they would be-
sent away in parcel 1t was in this same
hospital that this incident was reported:
"A man named Private Ellis was in my
ward with bullet through his lung. He
lay for some days unattended to, and was
then taken to see the doctor As he was in
great pain he was calling out; the doctor
hit him hard punch on the jaw and sent
him back to the ward; he came back CRYING
and died next morning. | do not know the
doctors name He treated the patients very
roughly. He used to pull men about dread
fully In the first week two was there
/ counted an average of fifteen deaths a
day | am positive that with proper treat
ment there would not have been anything
like this mortality'
The men from almost all the camps were
forced to work close to the firing lines.
some being even forced to carry ammuni-
ton to the guns When they protested that
they should not be forced to do such work
which was in effect making them fght
against their own comrades, they were told
that the first man who refused to obey
would be shot Violations of the Red Cross
were frequent, the men said Near Villers
was large ammunition dump The Ger
cans covered it with tarpaulins and flew
Red Cross flags it to give it the an
pcarance of a hospital Near Ecoust were
huge tents from which flew Red Cross flags.
and huge Red Cross sign was marked out
on the ground that British aviators could
see it All the tents were filled with am
munition-
But, say the English prisoners, bad as
their lot was, it pleasant compared with
that of the Italian prisoners The English
said they understood the Italian prisoners
had been put to work on the West front as
special punishment They were walking
skeletons" the English said and their cloth
ing was in Shocking condition"