This Week In 1914

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 280, 26 November 1938, Page 11 (Supplement)

This Week In 1914

New Zealand Undertakes Supply Of Reinforcements

AN announcement that New Zealand would send substantial reinforcements to the Mother Country at regular intervals was made by the then Minister of Defence, the Hon. J. Allen, at this time in the first year of the war, and it was reported that 3000 men would be sent overseas in the next month, in addition to the 10,000 already at sea. It was stated that the next month's contingent would be followed t>y the departure of another 3000 men and that from then on reinforcements would be sent every two months. Mr. Allen said that the Imperial authorities had asked for men and that accordingly the Government intended to keep up the first lot of territorials to full strength and to gradually make it stronger. Heavy reinforcements, said Mr. Allen, were liot necessary to make good the losses only, but they were sent with the double object of replacing men and also relieving men who had been at the front for * long time. It was al«o intended to expand the original force.

So far. added the Minister, there had been no difficulty in obtaining recruits and the Government had had only to ask to receive a splendid response. The second set of reinforcements in Trentham at the time was, he said, an even finer body of men than the original troops.

Some of the restrictions on the publication of war information, especially that in connection with the Expeditionary Force, were removed at this stage and letters from New Zealanders already at tlie front and from the troopships were published in many of the papers. One soldier writing home told his relatives that there had been a decided change for the better in the canleen arrangements and added naively that he had no longer to pay "twopence for a penny stamp," Other prices, he said, had been reduced, and the coupon system lia/1 been placed on a better footing.

Many amazing and entirely unfounded reports found their way ittto papers during the war, and New Zealattders warming an Ottober number of the Edinburgh "Scotsman" were surprised to read that the Dominion Government had 5000 German prisoners safely stored away on an island surrounded by sharkinfested waters, The statement originated from a vessel named the Delphic, Which had berthed, at New York. It stated that the inland was only a short distance from the mainland, but added that fell who had attempted to swim across had bten "gobbled up."