From the News

London, October 5

An official White Paper will soon be issued, giving authentic particulars of the treatment of British prisoners by the Germans. The cases relate principally to the employment by the enemy of prisoners on military work immediately behind the front. Many have been killed by shell fire. The treatment generally is abominable. Numbers have been starved to death. Others reach Germany in a dying condition, their bodies so wasted by unremitting toil, disease, and insufficient food that they are described by British soldiers who have seen them as walking skeletons. Cases are known of men who weighed 170 pounds when captured and who dwindled to half that weight after a few months. The refinement of cruelty is to employ these helpless men in removing the debris of ammunition dumps partly exploded by British airmen. The work is too dangerous for the Germans to undertake themselves, deaths from exploding shells being numerous. The unhappy prisoners are subjected to every insult of which their brutal captors are capable. They are not reported until, as worn-out wrecks, they reach Germany, if they ever do so. The Hun method is to work them until they are incapable of any further effort. They are then sent to camp much and as an old horse goes to the knackers yard. As a rule the strongest and youngest man are selected for this work and are driven until they drop. When wounded they are sent to hospitals which are a disgrace to the name. These prisoners are not only unreported, but have no communication with their friends in England. If sometimes they get postcards to mail, these missives never reach their destination.