From the News

Dated: October 10, 1918

VICTIM OF HUN CRUELTY EXPOSES FIENDISH FOE

Pte. Trueman, Three Years a War Prisoner, Describes German System.

"Some of the experiences I went through in Germany, I do not care to state, as their awfulness would seem unbelievable," said Pte. Melville Trueman, who returned to Toronto on Tuesday night, after spending almost three years in German prison camps. 

He enlisted with the 48th Highlanders on the day war was declared by Great Britain, when only 17 years old.¹  Going overseas with the first contingent, he came through several severe battles unscathed, till, in the second battle of Ypres, April, 1915, he was slightly wounded and taken prisoner. 

From that time till February of this year he lived under frightful conditions.  The severity of his treatment was such that it took six months' convalescing in England to enable him to return to his home at 1524 Queen Street west.

He was interned most of his time at Giessen, but was also in Meschede, and Spotto² camps for a short while.  Six months of his confinement went to "strafing" punishment.  From seven o'clock in the morning till nine at night the prisoner was compelled to sit on a stool with his fellow and during that time if he spoke to his neighbour or tried in any way to relieve the monotony, he was subjected to a beating, given only too willingly by the guard.  On one occasion he was hit on the head by the butt of a rifle, and it took 3 stitches to heal the wound.  The extreme brutality of the guard displayed against a friend of Pte. Trueman's resulted in the amputation of both legs.

Paper bandages were the nearest to luxury they ever got in the treatment of these injuries.

Pte. Trueman, unwillingly, cited further instances of Hun methods.  For refusing to work in a foundry when too weak, a prisoner was rushed upon and killed with a bayonet.  Being sneered and spat at by German soldiery was their common lot. Out of gratitude for this treatment they were compelled to salute anything wearing a German uniform.

The hospitality tendered him in regard to diet consisted of "slops of water" or to give it its dignified name, barley soup.  This together with black bread and potatoes intermingled with a good proportion of sawdust, made up his "meal."  Boxes of food and comforts sent by relatives were seized by his captors and if every other one got to him he thought  himself lucky. 

He stated that at times he never expected to live through the awful strain.  It was in this condition when almost starved to death that he was repatriated.  In Spotto² camp, where a great many Russian soldiers were in prison, the rations were so inadequate that starvation claimed nearly 12,000 prisoners.

The quarters consisted of a long hut with accommodation for only half the number that were crowded into it.  This hut was filthy.  The floor was the one and only place of sleeping.  If he was not in his hut by 9 p.m. he woudl be confined to a small cell for an indefinite period.

Pte. Trueman is still suffering from the effects of German ill treatment.

Can one wonder at the sentiment expressed by these soldiers, that peace should not be considered till Germany is invaded and ransacked just as Belgium and France were devatated by the Hun in his fierce offensive of 1914?