A company commander received an order from battalion headquarters to send in a return giving the number of dead Huns in the front of his sector of trench. He sent in the number as 2,001.
H. Q. rung up and asked him how he arrived at this unusual figure.
"Well," he replied. "I'm certain about the one, because I counted him myself. He's hanging on the wire just in front of me. I estimated the 2000. I worked it out all by myself in my own head that it was healthier to estimate 'em than to walk about in No Man's Land and count 'em!"—Aussie, the Australian Soldiers' Magazine.
HUNS STARVE
AND RIDICULE
U.S. CAPTIVES
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A.E.F. Soldiers Compelled
to Clean Latrines of
Crown Prince.
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GIVEN UNEATABLE BREAD.
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Photographed Sandwiched Between
Negroes Wearing
Tall Hats.
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EMBASSY HEARS THE FACTS.
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Repatriate Smuggles Addresses of
Prisoners' Relatives Into
France.
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Ridicule, degrading labor, insufficient food and inhumane treatment generally are the lot of American soldiers taken prisoner by the Huns. This is the experience of three Americans captured last Autumn by the German Army at the Canal de la Marne au Rhin, in the forest of Parcy, near Luneville. The deposition of M. L. Rollett, a repatriated Frenchman who was quartered in the same town with the American prisoners, made before First Secretary Arthur Hugh Frazier of the United States Embassy in Paris, throws ample light on the methods of the Boche dealing with his captives.
["How were the Americans treated?" M. Rollett was asked.]
"They were obliged to clean the streets, and the latrines of the Crown Prince [The heir to the German throne had his headquarters at that time in Charleville, the captured French town to which the Americans were taken.] [This was done in order to make them appear ridiculous.] [They were photographed] standing between six negroes from Martinique; and when the photograph was taken [the negroes were ordered to wear tall hats."]
"Did the Americans have sufficient food?" Secretary Frazier inquired.
"No," replied M. Rollett. "Their food was insufficient. They received a loaf of bread every five days, which was as hard as leather and almost uneatable. [Occasionally they received a few dried vegetables.]"