The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1919-04-12

Charge of Everything Within the
Prison Confines-Prisoners ORGANIZE
and Force German Commander to
Place Sergeant HaIyburton in CHARGE
of camp-5eat Them at Own Game.
The true facts on the life American
prisoners were forced to lead in Ger
many are told by Sergt. Edgar NJ.
[HalyburtOn, Company F. Sixteenth in
fantry, who arrived at Vichy, France,
recently. Sergeant HalyburtOn was a
prisoner of war in Germany for 10
months. He was the Commander" of
the American prisoners at Rastatt and
is qualified to describe conditions as
they actually existed.
II passed seven months at Tuchel,"
said Sergeant Halyburton. "It was a
strafe camp and a hell-hole in every
sense of the word. We were hitched
to wagon like horses and forced to
draw wood ii kilOmeters all day long.
Dirty German guards were constantly
Insulting us at the point of bayonets.
We wore wooden shoes and for socks
we used winding of fabric and paper.
Scantily clothed and half-starved, we
pulled our wagon through snow last
winter that was above our knees.
| Saved by Red Cross.
There were 10 Americans in Tuch-
el. had written postcards to the Red
Gross from each town we had been in
previously, but they could never have
been sent, for no answer was received
until four months after we reached
Tuchel. 1t was then March II, 1919
that the first Red Cross parcels ar
rived. These parcels saved our lives.
If we had been forced to continue two
months longer on the prison food and
under the harsh treatment, l am GER
tain most of us would have died of
starvation"
Sergeant Halyburton and his COM
radeS were transferred to RaStatt on
August IA, 1918. There were approx
nately $50 American prisoners in the
camp at that date. At the close of hos
Utilities there were 2,400.
"Rastatt was a propaganda camp"
said Sergeant Halyburton. "Pro-Ger-
mans were in charge of everything
within the prison confines when we ar
rived. The noncams, clerks and BILLIE
chiefs were all working hand in han
with the propaganda leaders, the pril
cipal of whom was none other tha
Captain Won Tauscher, the Germa
american that was implicated in Il
plot to blow up a bridge in Detrq
Mich.
Captain Won Tauscher was eau
with suitcase of dynamite. He
tried, but the jury failed to find
tent" and released him. He was
ordered out of the United States
Pro-German Papers in Gag
captain Won Tauscher mads
attempts to introduce the Ca
Times and the American il
into Rastatt, but we told b
blank we would stand for IN
propagandist paper in the
When Sergeant Halybut his
comrades first reached Rast or
ganized and demanded thai vser-
geant be given command 1ll the
American prisoners. They wi so per-
sistent that the Prussian geh Hal gave
his consent. Sergeant Halyburton i'm
mediately ousted the pro-Germans and
replaced them with true American SOL
dierS.
"We perfected crude but efficient or
ganization," said Sergeant Halyburton.
"When the armistice was signed we
had a hand-picked intelligence staff OF
$50 men working in, the camp, all
Yankees we knew to be absolutely free
from PrusSianiSm. We beat the Hun
propagandistS at their own game. 1t
was the duty of these men to preach
into the ears of every prisoner the true
facts on prison life in Germany and to
teach every young Hun soldier that he
met, that it would be essentially bet
tel for him to surrender to the Amer
Jeans when he got into action. Inc
Yanks impressed them with vivid stor-
iea of kind treatment and wonderful
food for every prisoner taken by our
forces. We met many young Germans
and / firmly believe our propaganda
bore fruit among them"
Fought With Propagandists.
1--WE worked night and day to defeat
the propagandists at Rastatt," said the
sergeant, land nullify their work. IL
the army officials conduct an inquiry, L
am positive they will obtain great
deal of surprising information on Ras-
TAFT and the careers of some OF the
khaki-clad men that sojOurned there"
Sergeant Halyburton interfered so
much with the propaganda work at
IRastatt that he was sent to Heuberg
(Baden) and confined in a "strate"
camp. Private Charles A. GeOghegan'
Company B, Eleventh engineers, VINO
acted as his "adiutant," was sent with
him, They were forced to do hard
manual labor, insulted continuously
land given insufficient food to subsist
lon