There they got
out of touch with the German forces and wandered about for days in
the forest. In the course of their wanderings they requisitioned
some food from the inhabitants, and took, I believe, an old coat
for one of the officers who had lost his, and requisitioned a
wagon to carry a wounded man. After their surrender to the French,
the two officers were tried by a French court martial, charged
with pillaging and sentenced to be degraded from their rank and
transported to Cayenne (the Devil's Island of the Dreyfus case).
The Germans made strong representations, and our very skilled
Ambassador in Paris, the Honourable William C. Sharp, took up
the matter with the Foreign Office and succeeded in preventing
the transportation of the officers. The sending of the officers
and men, however, into a military prison where they were treated
as convicts caused great indignation throughout Germany. The
officers had many and powerful connections in their own country
who took up their cause. There were bitter articles in the German
press and caricatures and cartoons were published.
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