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Show IRISH PRISONERS EXECUTED tf C? J DROVE CASEMENT FROM CAMP' 3 3 ! 3 NEW LIGHT ON FRTATT CASE Irishmen chased Sir Roger out of camp. r"?? 1 f h i- -: .! .f. -vh -----" : Evidence Against English Sea Captain Discovered Dis-covered to Have Been Manufactured. By JAMES W. GERARD, American Ambassador to the German Imperial Court, July 28, 1913, to Feb-. Feb-. ruary 4, 1917. Copyright, 1917, by the Public Ledger Company. AT KUI1LEBKN there was a hospital hos-pital whk-h, in spite of many representations, was never in proper shade. In addition, there was in the camp a special barracks established es-tablished by the prisoners themselves for the care of those rvho were so ill or so weak as to require special attention, atten-tion, but who wero not ill enough to be sent to the hospital. This barracks was for a long time in charge of a devoted gentleman, a prisoner, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, but whose self-sacrifice deserves special mention. I arranged with the camp authorities and the German authorities for permission permis-sion to enter into a contract with Dr. Weiler. Cmlcr this contract Dr. AVeilcr, who had a. sanatorium in the west of Berlin, received patieuts from Buhle-ben: Buhle-ben: Those who were able to pay paid for themselves, the poorer ones being paid for by the British government. This sanatorium occupied several villas. I had many disputes with Dr. "Weiler, but finally managed to get the sanatorium sana-torium in such condition that the prisoners pris-oners who there resided wore fairly well taken care of. An arrangement was made between England and Germany by which civilians civil-ians unfit for military service were sent to their respective countries, and just before left I effected an arrangement by which all civilians more than 43 years old, with the exception of twenty, who might be held by each country for military reasons, were to be released, t do not know whether this arrangement was actually carried out in full. Mental Condition of Prisoners. With the lapse of time the mental condition of the older prisoners in Euhleben had become quite alarming. Soldier prisoners when they enter the army are always in good physical condition, con-dition, and enter with the expectation of either being killed or wounded or taken prisoner, and have made their arrangements ar-rangements accordingly. But these unfortunate un-fortunate civilian prisoners were often men in delicate health, and all were in a constant state of great mental anxiety as to the fate of their business and their enterprises and their families. In 1916 not only. Air. Grafton Alinot, who for some time had devoted himself exclusively ex-clusively to the Kuhleben prisoners, but ir.. --n;. "n.nM o ,1 i ot i ti on i ;Vi n.l lnm-rer of Boston, who had joined the embassy is a volunteer, took up the work. Air. Drcsel visited Iluhlebcu almost daily, and, by listening tu the storiPs and complaints com-plaints of tho prisoners, materially helped their menial condition. v : Chased Out of Camp. The Germans collected all the soldier prisoners of Irish nationality in one camp at Limbuig, not far from prank-fort prank-fort a. At. There efforts were made to induce them to join the German army. The men were well treated, and were often visited by :ir linger Casement, who, working with the German authorities, authori-ties, tried to get these Irishmen to desert de-sert their flag and join the Germans. A few weaklings were persuaded by !$ir Kcger, who finally discontinued his visits after obtaining about thirty recruits, re-cruits, because the remaining Irishmen chae.l him out of the camp. I received information of the shooting of one prisoner, and. although the camp authoiities had told Dr. AteCarthy that tho investigation had been closed and j the guard who did the shooting exonerated, exoner-ated, nevertheless, when I visited the ! camp in ordir to invest igat e, I was told 'that 1 rou hi not do so I.e. -.i use the mat-: mat-: trr of the shooting was -rill under in-ve-titration. Nor was 1 allowed to -:i c:i k to those l.riMiucr v. hn ha.l be -n l-urcc at the time of the shooting. I afterward learned that another Irishman Irish-man had been shot by a guard' on the day before iny visit, and the same obstacles ob-stacles to my investigation were drawn about this ease. The Irishmen did not bear confinement confine-ment well, and at the time of my visit among them many of them were suffering suffer-ing from tuberculosis in the tamp hospital. hos-pital. They seemed also peculiarly subject sub-ject to mental breakdowns. Two devoted de-voted Catholic priests, Father Crotty and a Brother Warren, from a religious house in Belgium, were doing wonderful wonder-ful work among these prisoners. Enslaving Prisoners. The sending out of the prisoners of war to work throughout Germany has had one very evil effect. It has made it to the financial advantage of certain farmers and manufacturers to have the war continued. The Prussian land own- British merchant ship, was captured and taken to the civilian camp at, Kuhleben. Tn searching him the Germans asserted that he wore a watch presented to him for an atftmpt to ram a German subma- I Captain Fryatt condemned to death. mmmmmmmi mis ers or Junkers obtain four or five times as much for their agricultural products as they did before the w-ar, and have, the work on their farms performed by prisoners of war, whom they are required re-quired to pay only 6 cents a day. When the Tageblatt called attention to this it was suppressed for several days. At many of these so-called working camps our inspectors were refused admission ad-mission on the ground that they might 'earn trade, or war secrets. They succeeded, suc-ceeded, however, in having the men sent out.-ide. in order that they might inspect in-spect thcm.and hear their complaints. There were in Germany about 100 central cen-tral camps and perhaps 10,000 or more so-called working camps in summer time throughout the country. Some of the British prisoners were put to work on the sewage farm of Berlin, but we succeeded in getting them sent back to their parent camp. The prisoners of war were often accused ac-cused of various breaches of discipline and crimes. Atembers of the cmbassy wouid attend these trials, and we endeavored en-deavored to see that the prisoners were properlv represented. But the Germans often refused us an opportunity to see the prisoners before their trial, or even Mei'ore their execution. The case of 'a'jrain l-'ryatt i in point. Ct.ptaiu Fratt. who commanded a rine. They therefore took Fryatt from the Kuhlelien camp and sent him to Bruges for trial. When I heard of this I immediately sent two forma! notes to the German foreign office, deniauding the right, to sec prya-t and hire, counsel coun-sel to represent him and inquiring what sort of counsel would be permitted to attend fhe trial and asking for postponement post-ponement of the trial until these matters mat-ters could be arranged. The German foreign for-eign offi'e had informed me that they had ba.-ked up these requests, and 1 believe them; but the answer of the German admiralty to my notes was to cause the trial to proceed the morning after the day on which my notes were delivered, and to shoot J'ryatt before noon of the same day. As to the evidence regarding the watch, the British foreign office learned that when captured Captain Fryatt had neither a watch nor any letter to indicate indi-cate that he had tried to ram a submarine! subma-rine! This' cruel and high-handed outrage caused great indigoatjon in England and even in certain circles in Germany, and the manner in which my request was treated was certainly a direct insult in-sult to the country which I represented. Iln conversation with me Zimiur-rmann land th- chancellor aed Von .lagow all" I expressed the greatest regret over this incident, which shows how little control the civilian branch of the government has over the military in time of war. Later on, whetl similar charges were made against another British sea captain, cap-tain, the foreign office I think through tho influence of the emperor was able to prevent a recurrence of the Fryatt outrage. ' As I have said, many of the camp commanders in Germany were men excellent ex-cellent and efficient and kind hearted, who Sid what they could for the pris-'ohets. pris-'ohets. It is a pity that' these men should bear the odium which attaches to Germany because of the general bad treatment of prisoners of war in the first days of the war and because certain cer-tain commanders of prison camps were not fitted for their positions. Prisoners Hate Germans. The commander at the camp at Wittenberg Wit-tenberg was replaced, but the Germans have never acknowledged that bad eon' ditions had existed ih that camp. Shortly Short-ly before wo left Germany the war department de-partment seemed to gain more control of the prisohers-of-war situation, and on our representations at least one camp commander was permanently relieved. If examples had been made early in the of the camp commanders who wero not fit for their places and of those who had in any way mishandled prisoners of war, the German people as a whole would hot have had to bear the burden of this odium. The many prisoners' pris-oners' will return to their homes with a deep and bitter hatred of all things German. The British government took a great interest in the British prisoners in Germany. .Nothing was omitted, and every suggestion made by me was immediately im-mediately acted on, while many most valuable hints were given me from London Lon-don as to prisoners' affairs. Their majesties, ma-jesties, the king and queen, showed a deep personal concern in the w-elfare of the unfortunate British in German hands, and this concern never flagged during the period of my stay in Berlin. Lord Robert Cecil and Lord Newton were continually working for the benefit ben-efit of British prisoners. At a time when the British prisoners were without proper clothing, overcoat? and the like, the British government sent me uniforms, overcoats and so on, and I hired a warehouse in 'Berlin as a distributing point, but after some months the, German authorities refused to allow me to continue this method of distribution on the ground that it wa3 the duty of Germany to provide the prisoners with clothes. But Germany was not performing this duty and the British prisoners had to suffer because of this German official woodenheaded-ness. woodenheaded-ness. In the spring of jOlG. quite characteristically, charac-teristically, the Germans broke their "treaty"' concerning visits to prison-'-rs, and refused to permit us to speak to prisoners out of hearing. Von dagow told me that this was because of the trouble made among Russian prisoners'; 'u by the visits of Aradame Sa.zonoff, but this had nothing to do with tho arrangement ar-rangement between Great Britain and Germany. I think that the Germans suspected that I had learned from fellow prison ers of the cruel and unnecessary shoot ing of two Irish prisoners at Limbuig It was not, from prisoners, however, that I obtained this information, but from Germans who wrote lo me. In addition to the English and Jap anese, I had the protection of the Serbian Ser-bian and Rumanian subjects and t he protection of the interests of a vtt; small country, the Republic of fcan Ala rino. Soon after the Serbians and Ku maniaus appeared in tho prison camp?., of Germany we made reports on the condition and treatment of these prison- ,f ers, as well as reports concerning the British. I was able to converse with somt Serbians in the first days of the wai in their native tongue, which, curiously enough, was Spanish. IminediMiely af fer the persecution of the Jews in Spair L by Ferdinand and Isabella and other kings a number of Spanish Jews emigrated emi-grated to Se'i bia, where' they '-"ha ve remained re-mained ever since, keeping their old customs and speaking the old Spanish of the time of Cervantes. The German authorities, in the most, petty manner, often concealed from m the, presence of British prisoners, especially espe-cially civilians, in prison camps. For a long time I was not informed of the presence of British civilians in Sonne- L.rrnr .,.-..1 tf n-n o nK. l,.r otIiw. R surj rise visit, by motor to the camp f; at Brandenburg that I discovered a few-British, few-British, the crew of a trawier, there. It was on information contained in an anonymous letter, evidently from the, wife of some Geunan officer, that I visited Brandenburg, where the crew of this trawler, deprived of money, were without any of the little comforts or packages that mitigate life in a German prison camp. |