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Show ARUW PRISONERS ALLEGEJBUSES Witnesses Testify to Alleged Al-leged Cruelty on Part of Under Officers, i WASHINGTON'. July 15. Six former American soldiers testified today before a special house committee investigating alleged cruelties to military prisoners in France, declared that merciless assaults were committed without provocation on the prisoners by arrogant officers in charge of the prisons and camps. Only one of the witnesses, all of whom were charged with being absent withodt leave, was convicted, the others having been acquitted or the charge dismissed. The "bastile, " "the stockade," "prison farm No. 2," and "St. Ann's hotel," also known as "the brig." were the places named by the witnesses us the scenes of the alleged cruelties, which were said to have extended over several months -in !! IS. Some officers in charge of the i prison camps, it was said, have been convicted by court martial and others were awaiting trial. ' ! Lieutenant "Hard Boiled" Smith, one i of the prison camp officers, was mentioned men-tioned frequently while others named were Lieutenants Mason and Sullivan, and Sergeants Ball, Wolfmeycr and Bush. "Did they try the general in charge or the camp?" asked Chairman Royal Johnson, John-son, who left his seat in congress to serve with the army abroad. "Not that anyone heard," responded the witness. When Lieutenant "Hard Boiled" Smith was tried at Tours, early this year, a hundred witnesses appeared against him, and he was convicted, testified Sidney Kemp, New York City. "Fifty witnesses, whom I can name, will verify everything said here, and tell mere, too," asserted Kemp. Several of the soldiers testified that, in addition to being beaten, food in small amounts and ot poor quality was supplied, sup-plied, and that the bedding was poor, sometimes the mattress being in mud under a small tent. "A prisoner was smiling and an officer said, Take that smile off, or I will,' ' A. H. Mendleburg, Baltimore, who served with base hospital 42, testified. "The officer did by rolling the man in the mud." Mendleburg added. "Did you get that officer's name?" asked Representative Flood, Democrat, Virginia. "i'm too sorry I did not take his name," answered Mendleburg, When telling of poor food. Mendleburg said that "if ynu asked for an extra piece of bread you were flat on your back." Meals, he and others said, consisted of a Fitcw made "f canned beef, one slice of bread, and part of a cup ot coffee. Some-i Some-i imes only Jie stew was served, witnesses wit-nesses raid. (".larles Goldberg, New York City, a corporal in company G. Thirty-eighth infantry, in-fantry, said wh le at "the Brig" he was knocked down by an officer at id one of his teeth knocked out. when he refused to "surrender his money belt. "once, when I was scrubbing a floor, a sergeant swung a club at my head every f ive seconds." testified Goldberg. Paul Boggs. Baldwin, New York. 318th Afield signal hn ttalion, said men at the TLfarm were often so hungry that they "were "glad to eat dirty potato peelings." He said that he dipped a tin cup in a swill barrel so as to get some grease that he would eat "with a relish." "In giving a command, it was generally with a club," asserted Boggs. who said he saw at least .fifty men beaten. Alvln Bates, Brooklyn, who was with Jr . the headquarters troops, second army, j said whenever "there was a formation, r a man was bea'en up every five minutes' at the prison farm. He and Boggs said that a Pole, serving in the American army, was brutally beaten, and soon afterwards aft-erwards the prisoner cut his throat with a razor. "Medical inspection was a farce," said Bates, referring to the farm. "You went in one door and were kicked out another." an-other." George L. Pallitto, Newark, N. J.,, private pri-vate in company M, 113th infantry. tfd of many cruelties in the prisons in France, and admitted that he' was absent without leave, for which ho was sentenced. sen-tenced. , |