A SOLDIER'S NOTE-BOOK

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 156, 2 July 1917, Page 7

A SOLDIER'S NOTE-BOOK

DURING WAR. „-« ZEAXJVND TROOPS. IBS Iffiw jgj COLON!APPOINT <* ™\V. (B _ private rrrvNK. THE FvWP SCARCITY. „__- i, a war on. I'eople at Home al_3tbad realisation forced upon how' Peer is a shilling a pint. **_» pet ton- * u P lr -"'" I lol ' lon; at 111... in the period of a tortnight f^rafps from :* to 00 (.steak costs you at the rate ?£_._-■ montbful. and nowhere is procurable at less than •"ftS. » «m are limited to two '''J and ihe b™" l allowance > 5 I*. indeed- In fact, bread, potatoes. °IVar represent the three items on £sof any cafe over which the cusZk shows mest concern, l-or the past _7«*ks I h av(> lH,pn <- ravpllin S ,llmost £____-*, Staying at good hotels, and : U ;, in tb.t period have I seen a *L Rice and butter beans are the offered That even applies to V v.toy. in London, where 1 happened L'diiie recently with some of our lmlial Conference people. The Box-he is Umbteoly playing his best trump card rid* now, but the faith of the Hoi/ie n,.p!e in their leaders is no whit, diminyei Tbe scarcity of food is causing .verTOM grave concern, but there is not ,_j_jgestion of alarm, or of diminishing eafident- in the future, and there is -ore talk about the prospects ol the Pair not being run this year than there j. about the ultimate issue of ration tjfiets to the people. Yet it is possible (tat the latter system will be in operation oven before this letter reaches you. _j__VAL OF THE TWENTY -SECOND KEINFORCF.MKNTS. Tie TVentv-second Reinforcements are t_ litest to have arrived in England. They bad a narrow escape in the (____! Tbe smallest of the transport, conveying the Twenty-seconds n! the first to arrive. By now m will know that an Australian boat test down, torpedoed, but you probably tfjlnottnow that the New Zealand boat was her companion at tlie time. The tt'M two boats also had an exciting experience as ther came up the Channel a reek later, .last before sunset a sub- ____ appealed, and tilings looked o_inotis. Her -onning tower showed like j faall black box on the water. Two destroyers were at hand, and before the trfinv tin-fish could get a torpedo away tbe destroyers Had her. Three shots only roe fired, and our troops, as they _____ part, saw the submarine Moating bottom upwards. From this incident you rill judge that the submarine does not vet hold complete sway over the Channel. ITSELESs. TMREDIMENTA. Talking 1 oi newly-arrived reinforee_fr.t_. there are one or two littit marten. I _ay-» had it in mind to write about for a long time past. Troops cfily-arrived from New Zealand bring (nth them great kits, r-hock-a block full of useless Stuff. They never use it here AH a man takes to France is what he an carry on Iks back, and whrn his pack includes great-coat and a blanket there i : notroom for much else. The new men mot off the transports green and soft. haded with these heavy kits, and find they have to carry them, on arrival at Sing, for a mile and a half. I: is an -solute heart-breaker for them. They Mould reduce their personal kit to a minimum. Every man, for instance seems to arrive with a forage cap. Krmn _t day he arrives till the -lav he die--never uses it. And he wouldn't if he .-mid. Trie bunched-up hat is our on, iistiaguishing mark as New Zealanders, and ire are mighty keen about novel Wsg mistak, n for anything eUe. Sr. rat out the caps and all similarly un necessary thing.. To sidt -track, let nu -cation one little thing which may servi to illustrate what I mean about New M-cders h-aig anxious to preserve •seir tadentity as New Zealand.-rs. ()-. ill colonial troops I really d onot lielieve «. reach S ( high a standard as our Ml Their behaviour i- nlwavs splendid, wrely in London or any part of England have I seen _ drunken Dominion HWier. very rarely indeed. And in other I sjx_ts it is obvious that our men are T "ilddisciplin e). y. t another thing has rerack mc. Soldiers n n the cadge arc wooing very common. I have frequently Wn stock np here in London, bin never . i -Jew Zealander. Ye.-, our boys We .good nam». And they will keep fOEK BY NEW ZEAL/AND WOMEN. X c» women are doin" a very »0-_srh_ work here in England and in Just how wonderful you people "Home do not realise, and not till the "Mumon's history of the war comer, t, r° *nte_ .. iil -~„, -eallv kn-nv. Fot Unce: The other day I was travelling y into Ilcvon, and the only otiiet _ie carriage ua- a n ''i. Inok"fprf. My N.Z. were Intro"Wjon and I learned that for °»nyt_o years that girl had been a '«k m New Zealand hospitals, she »-,,. **>r--..ir Zealander. and her father £«il a few years ago a Well known '"- p ? tanner in Hawke's Bay lie made **» to retire on and came to Kngland VV_.n war broke ..„, i„s diTugh. ;• ;fce d Mr . frvi( ...... .„,, ,„ r Iloarl , "o .rears she has been c ...km" without or pay- of any kind. Zea ** hospitals in Kngland and France **T the motto -p our „,. V oir" eoul,] jj\" ,h .«- The,, take what ,s happen rj_,„ , m The \>w Zealand W. 4 ,hp X-Z- War Contingent (~'v tlO . ar e institutions run entireh -fcuand lal-es. [ ... . , :rlf . real need, for they are homes awuv s*W»m the real wn*.- of the word" ffl-nVI, • Wa£ " ri ?i"-il]v some rid J«»bo__. m Rußse i, lian , |t nev<il Thnl 1 rm?h '' A N'-Z- tidier cat »»_fc, .m' aud •-"• t ■' '""■ '•"•'»' b, S J yhd Ui keep , ; , ~,,,„,1ay ane frit,,-. ladies i;ive iheir service.Hr» ' ■■ ,„ s hour shifts. inJT 7 i ' uaictl "' N '" w Zealand ar, " a . as mU( . il? int™ th « "*J«rt. let mc mention ln r , tWO , UUk - ""' d Uf '" «*ifre__,«. even il lo W X eonJ yi> u .<- l ased a. -„p of teat iacinKapenny^ , p r lt; Wht , ' f' au ' '* ?*_? w_; "' >ann '" s ln - N>w <!inin_- rr ,_.._ ~ Contingent Association "25 _^n. h l- other ,la - v a *«-11-i»ten ''" c iWria. i , thought lllrt Wth_.M muKtstill a vp ] yfttr a _n_T *' 'knight he would be r k ? d, - v "»""< -to him. ~ .Htifft,- ''"".rpener. To this day I ttc laddie knows, that he tipped

In- rnme Minister's daughter, for Mi-s Massey intends keeping those four Coppers as the must prized of the matty iittie mementoes of her sojourn during these momentous days in old Blightie. . •lust one other incident Second in command at the Club is a delightful lady who is particularly well known to ihe residents of Henderson and thereaboutsOne night recently she saw a drunken New Zealander leave the Chib. lie \, as little more than a boy. and it was Hearing midnight, lie was in that state when a rutin fall.- an easy pre-, to the nightbirds of London. The woman bad pluck enough lo follow tiial boy out into the streets, and after a great deal of ditli- , n'ty got him into the Club again. Somebody's mother may feel glad. A TKRRIBLK FAIL. I am much interested to see that New Zealand in general, and Auckland m particular, is devoting quite a serious amount of attention to what popnlarly conic* under the heading of "I .imaged Goods."' (The play of that name, by the way. is still running very strongly in London, i Bui there .eeras to be no set movement in order to get at the root of Ihe thing. I was in the House of Commons tile other night when a bill came forward for consideration, a bill intended to deal with that aspect of the problem known as the amateur prosti tute — the flapper element which Moats in myriads round London, and is mainly responsible for keeping constantly tilled those barbed-wire enclosures within which live two army divisions of men. hopelessly out of action. When the matte.- eatne before the Commons the same old thing happened. Tiie House refuse,l to tackle the question, and a 'Minister moved that it be referred lo a Grand Committee. A member got up i.lolm Ue.lmond it wasl. and pleaded with the members to take tbe gloves ..IT. and handle it. as it was one of the most vital problems of tlie day. But it was no use. The subject remains too un savoury for polite discussion, and the cancer that has existed throughout the u_os continues to thrive in the dark nes. . Meantime men no longer of use here because of the ravages of venereal disease upon their system are dribbling back to New Zealand. Thank Cod there are not many of them, but they 2o back in small occasional batches. What about them' They are still in the nature of hitman blow-flies, liable to contaminate all with whom they I come in touch. It is just an aspe,-; of 1 the problem, but it must uot be lost j sight of. £N<;Ll<n CLASS DISTINCTIONS. Our Homelan.i is truly a very lovely and a very interesting country. But I think every colonial is glad he lives in the colonies, and not in Kngland. For why? Well, if only because of those little restrictions which the average F.nglisiiinaii does not seem to mind very much, but which tbe colonial resents exceedingly. For instance, it gft.s mc very mad to go into an hotel and read on the bar door: "For officers and civilians only." The unfortunate ranker can go and recite Kipling's "for it s Tommy here and Tommy there." and gather what solace he can over his pin: of bitter in some back bar. And the same -with some shaving saloons: 'This I saloon is reserved for officers between ! 4 p.m. and 7 p.m." I guess I know I what would happen to that shop in our j part of the world. ilight here, though. I let mc emphasise that our colonial otliI cers are lor the most part quite un I spoiled. Invariably the best relations j seem to exi_t between commissioned J 111.11 and those in the ranks, and while the necessary distinctions from the point of view of discipline are maintained, there is 110 attempt to come at the kind ; of nonsense that one finds in some Home 1 ro_iments. One other illustration of ' what tnav happen here, but not in the 1 colonies: Kngland is nearer to starvin_ ! than she hats ever been. In Wales the j other day I myself saw scores o! . pheasants rooting out the seed potatoes that a farni'-r had just put in. The I potato patch adjoined a noble earl's 1 preserve and tiie farmer was a tenant of the !,„!,:,• earl. It WOIIM be as much as hit. tenancy was worth to harm one of his landlord's birds. _____ 1