A White Paper has been issued describing the typhus epideraie
in the prisoners' camp at Gardelegen, between Berlin and Hanover. It is a terrible record, recalling the brutality, callousness, and cowardice of the German officials at Wittenberg. The epidemic was the direct result of the overcrowded and filthy state of the camp. When it broke out the Germans deserted the place and only communicated with the prisoners from the outside. The disease lasted for four months, and there were two thousand oases. The disease was fortunately of a mild type, but fifteen per oent. of the patients died. The camp' contained about eleven thousand prisoners, French, Russians, Belgians, and two hundred and sixty British. The palliasses on which the prisoners slept touched one another, and there were no tables or stoves. The dying could not be separated from the living. The stench was indescribable, but the men had not enough clothing to sit outside the huts. The food was insufficient and wretched in quality, and no change of diet was allowed for the sick and dying. When Dr. Ohnesorg, of the American Embassy, visited the camp, several pieces of mutton were hung up outside. When he departed they were removed. Meat was never allowed to enter the camp.
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