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The Cambria Daily Leader

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"SEMI-STARVATION" I

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"SEMI-STARVATION" I IN A GERMAN CAMP I LLANELLY MAN'S STORY í The first Llanelly prisoner of war who has been repatriated is Lce.-CDrpl. Roberta, of PGnymorIa? Lce.-Carol. K< b- erto has MO»V arrived at Uanelly. a*ier having been in (J?rmany since AprT last. When interviewed, L&p.-CorpL l\pbel" who has been -t)a?ly wc-?-?-.iided, 1. wag wounded in the back, and I could see that I was surrounded by Jerries, but hav. ing succeeded in jumping a little stream, I managed to go another twenty yards; then I had an explosive bullet in the thigh. I was ultimately captured by the eli y. On the way to Germany I was ;ti in a, closed van with four other wounded Tommies. Some were terribly mutilated, and I shudder il recalling the agonies they experienced. 1 was tiiken to Gardelegen Camp. Dur- ,ing tho who-le time, my wounds iveto dressed only once. I was operated upon on the 26th April, but this was unsuccess- ful. In ail, I underwent five operations, and three of these had to be undergone without any anaesthetic. As you can see, my right leg is now five inches shorter than the other, and I shall have to un- dergo another ope'ration. H CAMOUFLAGED TEA. I IN-o were kept in a stare of semi-star- vation, and were it not for the parcels I received from Lady Howards Prisuners of War Fund, I don't think i would be alive now to tell the tale. At 7 a.m. each day we were dished out' camouflaged tea, which was made from leaves gathered trom trees. Soup was served each day at 11, and there was nothing nutritious about it. With the soup wc were given a sniall piece of black bread. At 5 p.m. we were served with potatoes, which had been boiled so long that they were like soup. PAPER CLOTHES. I We were each given a suit of clothes made out of paper and two pairs of clogs, the latter also being made of paper, with wooden soles. Words cannot dcsciibe the agonising pains I have undergone in Ger- many. For nine weeks morphia was in- jected into me to c-ase the pain." ESCAPED FROM GERMANY, t Alter undergoing the hardships of the German priicn calups for four years, M. Maurice Phillips, a young Belgian sol- dier, who fought at the detence of Liege, has ma.de a remarkable escape from Ger- many, and has just set foot on British eoil for the first time in his life. He paid a visit this week t^ the Rev. W. E. Thomas, English Wesley an minister at Ammanford, who is his first cousin, and -h.- rf"i(ie at the rev. gentleman's home at Caerphilly. The first three years ci his captivity were spent at various camps in the. heart of Germany, from which, owing to the intervening distance, escape was impossible; but he bided his time, and when he was transferred to Gustrow Camp, in Mecklenburg, a few months ago, he immediately saw that the opportunity he had longed for had at last arrived, for there was only a score miles or so to go to get across to Denmark. Ho &id another Belgian soldier car-efuliy planned a way of escape, and matters were greatly facilitated by tilefact that early in August the German guard were reduced in number, presumably as the result of urgent calls for men to with- stand the Allied blows in the west. By a clever artifice they got clear of the camp without being detected, and they tramped the country for two nights and two days, suffering sorely from hunger and thirst. Their final bound for freedom was a very -i--iting afbÜr, as on the last moment they were seen by a German sentry.. SCANDALOUS CONDITIONS. He states that the condition of the Ger. ni uii prison camps is scandalous, and the food is mainly made up of maize soup and turnip cabbage with black bread. «Tlie Germans, he says, show some partiality towards the French soldier, hut they had no liking for the Belgians, and the Eng- iiih they thoroughly detected. During his stay in Ammanford he. paid a visit to the Gorman prisoners' of war camp" at Llaadebic. and was impressed at the ih- comparably better treatment and food which those received. Mr. Phillips is an educated young man of considerable linguistic ability. He speaks French fluently, as well a$Russian an in the days of his exile he picked up German, and a Yorkshire soldier, whom he met in one of the prison camps, taught him English.

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..STAGE AND STALLS I

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