The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1919-05-02
TELLS HORRORS
| OF HUN PRISONS
Operations Without AnestheticS
One Method of Torturing
British Officers.
FED ON ERSATz RATIONS
Captain GiIIiland Declares Many Men
Were Driven Mad by Confinement
+ Wounded Given No Medical
Attention for Months,

New York.-Capt. Horace G. Gill;
land, British officer and author, now
In this country, tells a thrilling story
Of the cOld-blooded treatment accord
ed him while prisoner in Germany
from October, 1914. until April, 1917,
when he escaped.
An officer in the Loyal North Lam
cashire regiment of the British regu-
lar army, Captain Gilliland, landed in
France on August u, 1914, with the
first division of the British expedi-
tionary force He served with that
division until October when, at the
first Ypres battle, in the La Bassee
engagement, he was made prisoner.
His company had been ordered, $40
strong, to hold a corner in front of
La Bassee while the hard-pressed Eng
fish withdrew before a numerically
Overpowering German force. They
held for % hours, and, when the men
in gray finally stOrmed over the
trenches held by the khaki-clad troops,
there was only Captain Gilliland and
three enlisted men alive. All four
were desperately wounded.
eve were ordered to the rear" said
Captain Gilliland, land commenced
crawling along as none of US could
walk. Our captOrs were enraged at
the resistance we had made against
them and refused us Red Cross aid.
Of he To 20
enough an account Of his wounds, was
bayOneted by a German soldier a few
feet in front of me. Before we got to
La Bassee I had become separated
from the other two men and I have
never heard Of them since.
Given No Medical Aid.
81 was suffering from a bullet
wound in the ankle and a serious
shrapnel wound in the chest which
had driven splinters of my ribs into
my lungs. In spite of my condition, I
did not receive medical aid of any
sort; in fact, it was year and eight
months before the Germans even ex-
amined my wounds.
"FrOm October until December 1 /
was in prison in Lille, and then was
transported with a batch of other
prisoners, British officers and men and
French, both regular and cOlonials, to
Munden, in Hanover. That trip, the
men that went on it will never forget.
"At Munden, which was not the
worst prison camp saw, was placed
in room, 80 feet by 80, in company
with 16 Russian officers. the idea be-
ing, you see, that British officers
should not have even the small COM
fort of talking to their cOuntrymen.
eve We're not allowed to read or to
smoke, and man after man went mad.
You cannot conceive of the hate that
rises in your heart when you are
locked in like that. hate not only for
your captOrS, but also for the men
confined with YOU. I have seen men
in my room go stark raving mad be-
cause the walls Of the room persisted
in being square. You can hardly real
ize that here, can you?
81 kept trying to escape but was too
weak with wounds and scurvy. They
gave me no medical attention, and
the food was awful.
"Finally got a letter home in
secret code that my mother sent to
the foreign office and finally it
reached the American embassy in
Berlin. Ambassador Gerard acted at
once. His visit to Munden in April,
1915, resulted in our being transferred