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Rh came the tent was moved to Pinne, on the other side of the river, where deep mud took the place of snow and ice inside the tent.

There was no water supply; such water as there was, was obtained by melting ice from the river or by digging down into the marsh, where filthy polluted water was obtained. Most of the men had no wash during the whole time they were there. The treatment was bad. Were it not established beyond the possibility of doubt, the story would be unbelievable. Men were driven out to work—breaking ice on the river, felling trees, making and repairing trenches under fire—when they could hardly stand, and had to be supported by their comrades to and from their work. One man died while being carried home; another, who had fallen exhausted on his way back to camp, was shot at point-blank range by the sentry; while a third man, who did not turn out quick enough one morning, was first abused and then attacked with a bayonet by the Sanitäter; further investigation disclosed the fact that he had been dead some hours, frozen in his bunk. The only punishment was tying to the post outside the tent for two hours after the men returned from work, under conditions hardly differing from crucifixion. A sergeant-major, having been urged by the interpreter to write home how they were being treated, eventually did so: “next day,” he proceeds, “I got the letter back marked ‘five days strong arrest.’ After being hard at work from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., I was tied to the pole from 7 P.M., during 36 degrees of frost.” This is corroborated by several witnesses.

That this treatment was deliberate and inspired by higher authority is evident from the fact that the sergeant-major says he obtained a copy of the orders from the guard, which stated “that no mercy was to be shown to us; we were men who had, every one of us, assisted in stopping the Kaiser's army from going to Paris; and they were to think of their comrades who were being brutally treated in France. Any soldier failing to carry out these orders was to be severely punished.”

The guards were given three-quarters of a loaf each day, the prisoners, doing hard work, received one-sixth of a loaf. The guards were given good, thick soup; the prisoners, soup “that you could drink straight off.” To such straits were the men reduced that it is recorded by more than one witness that the men became so ravenous that they would eat anything. “There were,” says one, “many unburied Russian bodies lying round the camp. Some men were so reduced that when they saw any bones they would rush at them and eat them like a dog. It was pitiful to see men reduced to such an animal stage.” No parcels were allowed before April, and no letters. When the remnants of this unhappy company returned to Mitau, 20,000 parcels were found stored. Had they been forwarded much suffering might have been avoided and lives saved.

The result of this inhuman treatment was what might have been expected. At the end of April 1917, there were 77 men left in the camp out of the 500 driven there in February. Of these, no fewer than 47 were certified by the German doctor as unfit to leave their beds. No less than 23 had died from exposure and starvation—some 16 in the camp, the rest in hospital at Mitau, besides those killed by the sentries or permanently injured by shell-fire or frost-bite.

There can be no doubt whatever that the sufferings endured by this unfortunate 500 were directly due to someone in authority in Berlin. The terms of the notice read out to the prisoners and of the orders given to the guard are in exact accordance with the terms of the note verbale of Jan. 24 1917.

Western Front.—The story of the treatment of the prisoners on the western front is not less terrible, indeed in some respects it is worse in that their sufferings were more prolonged, though they were not exposed to the same climatic conditions as their comrades in Russia. There is overwhelming evidence in this case also of the deliberation with which the suffering was inflicted.

In April 1917 it was agreed, after the communications of January and February mentioned above, that neither belligerent would employ prisoners within 30 km. of the firing-line, and on April 28 a telegram was sent by the British authorities informing the German Government that orders had been issued

that all German prisoners were to be removed. On May 30 a further telegram was sent stating that they had all been withdrawn to a distance of 30 km. from the firing-line, and requesting immediate information that the British prisoners had been so withdrawn on the eastern and western fronts. No reply was received till July 4, when the British minister at The Hague transmitted a communication from the German Government stating that “there can be no question in any case of intentional retention or concealment of British prisoners,” and on July 9 a further communication was received, dated Berlin June 15, saying “that the withdrawal of British prisoners of war in the German fighting zone to a distance of 30 km. behind the firing-line has been completed everywhere.”

On July 2 the British and German representatives at The Hague had made the following important agreement:—

“Reprisals against combatant and civilian prisoners of war may only be carried out after at least four weeks' notice of intention so to do has been given”; and second, “all captures are to be notified by the captor State to the other State with the least possible delay: every prisoner captured is to be allowed to communicate at once with his family and is to be provided with the means of doing so and the dispatch of his communication is to be facilitated: as soon as practicable after capture every prisoner is to be enabled to inform his family of an address at which they can communicate with him.”

The statements with regard to the removal of the prisoners were not true. From early in 1917 up to the Armistice prisoners were kept by Germans within 30 km. of the front line and were there subjected to the most cruel treatment. After the above-mentioned agreement, and up to the date of the German offensive of March 1918, their number was probably not large, but after that date thousands were so detained under very bad conditions. No notice of the fact that they were to be so detained as a reprisal was ever given to the British Government.

In April 1917 a notice entitled “Conditions of respite to German prisoners” was handed at Lille to a British noncommissioned officer to be read out to his fellow-prisoners. It runs as follows:—

“Upon the German request to withdraw the German prisoners of war to a distance of not less than 30 km. from the front line, the British Government has not replied; therefore it has been decided that all prisoners of war who are captured in future will be kept as prisoners of respite (sic). Very short food, bad lighting, bad lodgings, no beds, and hard work beside the German guns under heavy shell-fire. No pay, no soap for washing or shaving, no towels or boots, etc.”

The notice proceeds to the effect that prisoners are to write home of their sufferings and that “no alteration in the ill-treatment will occur till the English Government has consented to the German request” and then the prisoners would be removed “to camps in Germany, where they will be properly treated, with good food, good clothing.” Stationery would be supplied and “all this correspondence in which you will explain your hardships will be sent as express mail to England.” Similar notices were read out at several other places. The threats were carried out to the letter. The accommodation was everywhere and always as bad as it could be. In the spring of 1917 prisoners were confined at Lille in conditions comparable only to those of the “black hole” of Calcutta, the crowding was terrible, there were no washing arrangements, and the only sanitary accommodation took the form of tubs in the rooms. The same conditions were renewed or continued in 1918; in the spring of that year the men were told that they were being badly treated as a reprisal. Prisoners were sent to places behind the lines, where they had to work for eight or nine hours on end and even longer on entirely insufficient food. The evidence of over 2,300 men has been obtained with regard to 78 of these places, at 20 of which they were exposed to Allied shell-fire which caused many casualties, while at 38 they were engaged in work directly connected with the operations of war, being required in some cases actually to take up ammunition to the German guns. They were forced to do this by brutal ill-treatment, and were worked till they could do nothing more and either died or were sent back to Germany mere wrecks of their former selves. Men died in the train, their bodies being taken out at stations on the way; many more died within 24 hours of their arrival at the