German officers escape from Welsh prison camp

Cardiff, 8 April 1915 - Two German officers who escaped from the internment camp at Denbighshire in Wales last Sunday are still at large. The men are believed to be somewhere in the mountains of north Wales.

German prisoners who had been pretending to garden had actually constructed a tunnel some eight yards long. They had passed under a wall and were on the cusp of reaching open countryside. 

A further escape attempt by other German officers imprisoned near Maidenhead was discovered just in time.

Prisoners treated humanely

These reports come as the United Kingdom defended its policy of keeping officers and men captured from German submarines segregated from other prisoners of war.

Sir Edward Grey has stated that German prisoners of war are being treated better than their British equivalents (Image: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington D.C. 20540 USA)

The British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey said that German prisoners were being treated with humanity, given opportunities for exercise, provided with German books, subjected to no forced labour and were better fed and better clothed than British prisoners of equal rank in Germany.

He continued, however, that the crews of submarines rescued from the seas had engaged in sinking innocent British and other merchant ships, had wantonly killed non-combatants and therefore could not be considered honourable opponents. This warranted, he claimed, that they be kept separate.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]