"If _Yarrowdale_ prisoners have not been released, please make formal demand in the name of the United States for their immediate release. If they are not promptly released and allowed to cross the frontier without further delay, please state to the Foreign Minister that this policy of the Imperial Government, if continued, apparently without the slightest justification, will oblige the Government of the United States to consider what measures it may be necessary to take in order to obtain satisfaction for the continued detention of these innocent American citizens." [Sidenote: _Yarrowdale_ men reach Switzerland.] On February 25 the American Ambassador at Madrid was informed by the Spanish Foreign Office that the _Yarrowdale_ prisoners had been released on the 16th inst. The foregoing statement appears to have been based on erroneous information. The men finally reached Zurich, Switzerland, on the afternoon of March 11. [Sidenote: Treatment cruel and heartless.] Official reports now in the possession of the Department of State indicate that these American sailors were from the moment of their arrival in Germany, on January 3, subjected to the most cruel and heartless treatment. Although the weather was very cold, they were given no suitable clothes, and many of them stood about for hours barefoot in the snow. The food supplied them was utterly inadequate. After one cup of coffee in the morning almost the only article of food given them was boiled frosted cabbage, with mush once a week and beans once a week. One member of the crew states that, without provocation, he was severely kicked in the abdomen by a German officer. He appears still to be suffering severely from this assault. Another sailor is still suffering from a wound caused by shrapnel fired by the Germans at an open boat in which he and his companions had taken refuge after the sinking of the _Georgic_. [Sidenote: Drowning preferred to German prison.] All of the men stated that their treatment had been so inhuman that should a submarine be sighted in the course of their voyage home they would prefer to be drowned rather than have any further experience in German prison camps. It is significant that the inhuman treatment accorded these American sailors occurred a month before the break in relations and while Germany was on every occasion professing the most cordial friendship for the United States. [Sidenote: Mr. Gerard is deprived of means of communication.]