The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-14

ullallon The outfit running farm No.
 during the period described had been
 in France only since the latter part of July or early August, 1918, and none
 or the men ever saw any actual fight ing. These officers and sergeants were only too glad to rob the men who iought for them of their hard earned trophies. It was a common thing to
 see sergeant knock a man down or peat him up on the slightest provoca- tion. One morning the men fell in tor breakfast one man was slightly out or line. A sergeant went up to him and punched him in the face six times.
 "A most horrible incident was the
 case of soldier who could not speak English very well, much less under stand 1t thoroughly. He was struck ana beaten for not snapping to a minor command. He cried, this is terrible
 We will show you how terrible
 1t is' replied those who were beating hlIn, and he was taken before the personnel officer and two sergeants. heutenant beat him again and put | him in cell on bread and water. Evidently they considered this too soou TOT nm, so he was placed in pup tent for solitary confinement. af-
 ness was noticed and when they went
 over and tore his tent down he uss lying on his back with his throat c,,t IL was about an hour before the am- buIance arrived and the silent form borne off to the hospital. And tbor- sanus or miles across the sea and land
 Pernaps there waited a gray haired mother with a service star In the
 "inuow or her humble home who received word from the War Dep.r+- fnent that General Pershing had re- ported her son among those who died from other causes
 The prison number of this unfor | tuhate young man prosecuted into committing suicide was 634; the date aoout December or 6, 1918 and inc hour his body was borne avav u,.s about 3 in the afternoon.
 one morning about 9 o'clock fo,r men were taken into one of the staI1s Tn the stable and beaten with b1ac Jacks Tor twenty minutes When +bey, ! came out the blood was streap,i,o ! rom their faces and they were in 2
 horrible condition. A Lieutenant . sergeant and duty sergeant of Com pt'Hy h' l5Sth Infantry, together with
 seheral prisoners. entered the | staIl with these four men who vara | beaten up A guard with 7. rif1a ,
 ms shoulder stood at the door. Aftar ehe men came out the Lieutenant ar, | another stood in the door exapintno | their fists. The men were taken ovo7
 to wash off the blood, and when one | man a little weaker than the otbe,
 three, fingered behind the sereean, | punched him in the ear from behind
 anu KicRed him into line with the other three. These men were nut or bread and water. A prisoner n,II
 carried the water to them said tb,
 guard Inquired at the kitchen fo,
 their bread, but the mess sereean
 told him there was no bread. so th.
 men had to go without 1t.
 Some of the men were kent a,
 long as three weeks at this farm ant
 then were sent to the stockade jus outside of Cholles. This stocka d,
 was a. regular military prison, with :
 DIE Iron fence around it and lookou , posts about 20 feet high. The stock ade was even worse than Farm No 2. The men received the sam criminal treatment ana the Twin, conditions were worse if possible tha, those at Farm No. 9, because tn stockade was simply an enclosure O mud with no shelter of any kin, aside from miserable little tents. Tw
 of the prisoners at Farm No. 3, afte 7 the armistice was signed, said the. , had been prisoners of war in Ger , many and that the treatment the received in the German prisol l camps had been far better than tha which they received in the Pari T prison, at Farm No. 2 and in tn 1 stockade.
 r The incidents I have related fl ] thls letter I can substanttate in an of hcial report from the Inspector-Gen K eral Of the Second Army Corps t general Headquarters, A. F. F., am ,. represent only few of the atrocitie committed at these places
 Newly returned soldiers whom }. know personally and on whom I rel !. inform me that conditions such as }. have described still exist and tha d there seems to have been no i'm a prOyement" ]"