COLONEL SCHIEL ON HIS TREATMENT BY OUR SOLDIERS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—The following extract from a lecture delivered here in Berlin on November 12th by Colonel Schiel, who was com- missioned by Kritger to raise the German regiment in the Boer Army, may interest your readers. I translate from the next day's issue of the National Zeitung. Colonel Schiel has just related bow he was injured at Elandslaagte, and continues :—" When I regained consciousness I was in the hands of the English. It has often been maintained that the English soldiers were guilty of cruelty. From my own experience I cannot endorse this. I was treated by the English soldiers with a kindly camaraderie, and have also seen how English soldiers cared for the wounded and spread their own great-coats over them. On board the man-of-war on which the prisoners were brought we were well treated, well fed, and our quarters were good. It was only on the transports that the situation became worse." Speaking of the time which be spent at St. Helena, Colonel Schiel said :—" At first life was very monotonous, and the rations very scanty. But things improved, the English military authorities doing their best to remedy our inconveniences No request which I presented to the English military authorities on behalf of the prisoners of German nationality was ever refused." One cannot help thinking that the audience, which went to hear gruesome details of the horrors of captivity in our hands, must have been considerably sur- prised to hear such testimony from so good an authority as Colonel Schiel.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Berlin. W. RICKATSON DYKES.
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