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Show 4 . Prisoners Held by Ger- mm$ Shamefully Treated. i WORSE THAN OTHERSi Men Deprived of Clothing Cloth-ing mi Only Given Scant, Poor Food, .ION,Noy. .23-r'lifrhla conditions condi-tions among" Bfftish prisoners' oC var J vho havo been liberated by the Ger-. mans since the signing of the arm'is-' tico are described by Ileuter's corres- i pondent at French headquarters. Thou-', sands of tlteso men, mostly British, are 1 entering France daily, Tho corres-' pondent mites: "I have never seen human beings in j such a state of raggedness, hunger, j and misery. When tho camp at For-bach, For-bach, thirty-eight miles east of Itfetz ' ns well as those elsewhere, were brok- ' en up, the prisoners, most of whom were captured during the March offensive, of-fensive, were told to clear out and seek help from their allies. They start-' ed to walk tho fifty or sixty miles to j the allied lines, but were given no I food and had uo money. 'They were in shameful rags, the soles dropping off tholr boots. Some wore clogs and no socks. Die From Hardships. "They left the prison camps in droves of hundreds in chargo of German Ger-man officers and soldiers who had deserted. de-serted. The weather was very cold and many died by the, roadside within a few miles from friends. When the survivors entered the French lines, French soldiers who were hardened war heroes, were horrified to see men In such a plight. It is not doubted that this suffering was Intentionally Intentional-ly Imposed upon the British. Prisoners Prison-ers of other nationalities arc agreed that tho British were treated worse than the other prisoners at all German Ger-man camps." A further report of Sir Robert Younger's committee dealing with the treatment of British prisoners in the coal and salt mines of Germany, gives harrowing details of brutal treatment by the Germans. This report says: j lirutal Treatment. "From tesl'mony scarcely a month old, It is evident that there is no sight of improvement whatever in tho Ireal ment of prisoners in Germany. This disgraco is open and flagrant and tho only possible inference is that Berlin deliberately approves of it. There is no doubt that work in the mines is inflicted in-flicted as punishment. Hero is an extract ex-tract from a letter dated May 20, last, from a British private soldier: " 'Wo have had little to eat since wo left Hameln. Two of our number have gone to the hospital with broken arms and the remainder are suffering from cuts on their heads and bruises as tho result of floggings they received at the last place. I fell in a faint unable un-able to work any longer last Saturday and the mnn in charge, a civilian, kicked me back into my senses and kept me down in the mino sixteen hours after all my gang had gono up. If you could only see tho boys hero! They all look liko dead men. They are worked to death.'" To scores of men who have given evidence concerning the mining camps, kicks, blows and insults, became a part of the normal routine. It is impossible to say how many prisoners' lives were sacrificed for until un-til more cvldenco is given by men who have been sot free, the exact conditions condi-tions must remain in obscurity. nn |