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WAR PRISONERS.
"Duty to Harass Authorities."
MELBOURNE, Aug. 14.-One rea
son for failure by the authorities
at a Victorian war prisoners' camp
to establish the presence at the
camp of 3 German prisoners who
were accordingly reported missing
was adduced in official circles to
day. It is open to all war prisoners
to recognise it as a duty to harass
and embarrass the authorities as
much as possible in order to affect
discipline and compel the use of as
much enemy manpower as possible.
It is thought that the 3 Germans
pursuing such tactics had secretly
dug holes in the ground in which
they hid during roll call and be
cause of the large number of men
in some camps the men could have
later rejoined their comrades with
little fear of detection. These tac
tics could have been repeated daily.
The present position of Victorian es
capees is that Lt Simone, the Ita
tian, is definitely known to have
escaped from the camp and that
there are 2 Germans who, in the
words of the Minister for the Army
(Mr Forde) on Thursday "are re
garded as being missing" from a
camp.
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