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Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16798, 1 April 1920, Page 6

According to a cable message, the Australian and New Zealand authorities in London have dccided to commemorate Anzac Day by a ser- ■ vice iq ckurch of St.

Clement Danes, on April 25th, and a reunion of soldiers at Australia House the following day. The old church of . St. Clement Danes, which is known to 1 most New Zealanders who have visited London, stands on an "island" in the middle of the Strand, facing the main | entrance to Australia House. It was ; designed by Sir Christopher "Wren, and was built in ICBI on the site of a much earlier building, traditionally believed j to be the burial place of Harold Hare- j foot, and other Danes. Dr. Johnson was a "worshipper in St. Clement Danes, which is also the burial place of Thomas - Ouvay and Nathaniel Lee, the dramatie poets. The church tower contains the famous bells whose peal inspired the line in the well-known nurserv rhyme— " 'Oranges and lemons,' say the bells of St. Clement's."

Considerable interest attached to a question recently put to the First Lord of the Admiralty in the House of Commons. He was asked whether he was aware that there was great discontent on the part of the men in the Navy who enlisted to take part in the war against Germany and who felt very keenly at having to fight against the Soviet Government of Russia. The First Lord replied that he was "not aware of that.'' On the contrary, lie said, the Navv was a voluntarily enlisted service, and "everyone enlisted for general service and to ooey orders." Subsequently he admitted that three officers and 87 men of the - Royal Marines had been tried by court-mar-tial for military offences, and nine ratings of the First Destroyer Blotilla for naval offences in connexion with the campaigns in Russia. Some days later a further announcement was made on the subject. Thirteen men had been sentenced to death, but this hn.ji been commuted to five voars' penal servitude. while the others had been sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment. Tt must he regarded as significant of the force of public opinion on the Russian question, that, after tho matter had been ventilated in the House of Commons, very substantial reductions were made in the sentences of all tho men concerned.

In August of last year two young British navnl officers in command of motor launches made a very daring raid on the Bolshevik fleet in Kronstadt Harbour, and succeeded in torpedoing two large battleships, for j which exploit they were awarded the Victoria Cross. At the time it was stated that tho ships had been sunk, hut recently it -was ascertained that they aro stiil afloat, and seemingly, as good as ever, although the official announcement that they had been sent to the bottom was quite true. What happened was this. The middle harbour at Kronstadt, where the Red ships were at anchor, is very shallow, and when the battleships ■were torpedoed thov sank only three or four feet before coming to rest on the bottom of tho harbour. A few days later our air scouts, flying over tho port, w,ere astonished to find that both ships had been raised and placed in dock. Whatever other defects tho Russian navy may suffer from, it has always been good in repairing ships, and in this case both battleships appear to have been recommissioned only a few ■weeks after being sunk.