One of the most damning indictments the Kaiser and his Government will have to face when the war is over will be charge of inhumanity in connection with their treatment of prisoners of war - particularly the men of these islands, wrote the Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph in its front page lead story.

Many grievous narratives of the lot of these men now in German military prisons have been published, but of all nothing strikes us as being so pathetic and tragic as messages received from Cpl William Smart, son of Mrs Smart, of 12 Wenlock Street, Luton. His present address is "3892 Corpl Smart W., 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, No. 10/10 Hut, Gefangenen-Lager, Doeberitz, Deutschland".

He was L-Cpl Smart when he was drafted to France at the outbreak of war, and was promoted corporal out there. He was in the earliest of those terrible days at the beginning of the war and was wounded in the back. Nothing was heard of him until the family received a message that he was a prisoner of war, and although his letters and cards home teem with the hope and cheerfulness which is ingrained in the British soldier, there is also convincing evidence that since his wound has begun to heal he has lacked the necessities of life.

With pitiable iteration he literally cries for food, and he leaves no doubt that, besides pain of his wound and the hardship of being in the hands of our enemy, he has suffered the pangs of hunger. With practically every card is the request for bread, and one wonders if the nation, after all, is doing its duty to these men in German bondage.

It is an absolute fact that they are not being treated with the same consideration as the Germans over here, or Cpl Smart's messages would not contain such frequent demands for food. It is in the lines left out, or cut out by the German censor, that we find evidence that many of our heroes have been on the verge of starvation. It is yet another instance of the depths of wickedness to which the Kaiser and his satellites can descend.

With reference to the application for parcels, Mrs Smart wrote to the County Fund, and received a reply from Miss Alice Gurney, the Hon Secretary, in which she said she was afraid she could not send to Cpl Smart as she was only sending to men of the Bedfordshire Regiment. She communicated, however, with the organisers of the fund for the Rifle Brigade who were prisoners of war, and received a reply stating that they would send Cpl Smart a 3 shillings parcel weekly.

Mrs Smart also communicated with the Town Clerk of Luton (Mr William Smith), and he replied stating that a parcel had been sent to the corporal, although the fund was solely for men of the county regiment, but he would also communicate with the Rifle Brigade so that Cpl Smart should now be faring much better, but even so he is not getting enough, and his colleagues are in the same plight.

The Saturday Telegraph printed several extracts from often heavily censored postcards sent by Cpl Smart, most of which made urgent appeals for weekly supplies of food (especially bread), smokes - and money, usually 10 shillings, with the comment, "I will explain when I come home".

German censorship perhaps did not allow him to say what a relatively large sum of money for the time was really needed for. He also complained of some letters and parcels he was expecting not arriving, and often his appeal was written in capital letters for emphasis. Phrases like "I CAN ASSURE YOU IT IS ESSENTIAL" and "I WANT TO GET HOME SOME DAY" suggested they were ways of saying his plight was desperate.

Following one postcard, the Saturday Telegraph explained that the German censor "has excised very heartily here, but it needs no vivid imagination to understand that the poor fellow endeavoured to say that unless he got food he would be starved to death".

Another Lutonian held in the same interment camp near Berlin was Rifleman G. T. Hepworth, whose wife lived at 100 Langley Street, Luton. He had kissed goodbye to his wife on August 20th, 1914, was in France two days later, and "after four days' terrible rearguard action was among a brave little group who were left behind as a sacrifice to the invading hordes" attempting to enter Paris in August 1914.

But to Mrs Hepworth's surprise she received a couple of postcard photographs (reproduced above) on August 19th, 1915, that included her husband - and one including Cpl Smart. Riflemen Hepworth is shown in shirt sleeves on the left of the group in the top picture, and also left, standing, in the bottom picture, with Cpl Smart on the right, standing. No indication was given about when the photographs were taken, but Cpl Smart appeared to be recovered from his wounds.

[Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph: August 21st, 1915]