A PERISCOPIC RIFLE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2554, 31 August 1915, Page 6

A PERISCOPIC RIFLE

IN USE AT GALLIPOLI. ' Interesting extracts from the letter* i of General Birdwood to the Governor- ' General of Australia (Sir Ronald Munro- : Ferguson) have; been made available to ■ the Melbourne "Argus" by His Excel-. • lft'icy 1 <■ ' ■ ' i "L have made ouf whole surroundings ■ here much safer,'' says General Bimi wood, in one of theso communications, > "by the erection of reaJly big traverses ■ aoross every path, and the cutting of i deep covered ways through all. spurs'of ■ the hills. The' rate of casualties has consequently been reduccd almost from • L 10 to 1. , "We are fortunate in having . so many excellent miners, who have . been working liko-tigers, .both at tunnelling and-trenching. In one section . we completed a.whole length of trenches, complete with traverses, fire platforms, etc., air underground. You were abla . to walk along 6ft. high passages, with almost a foot of earth left on top._ At . the last moment, and during thought,-: tie 'lid' was taken off this, and, the : I enemy were faced, with a second tow" of t entrenchmentsj complete in : every 1 re- ! spcct, and a good deal nearer to them i than they had. anticipated. ■ "Our complete moral superiority over, > fh« Turk is partly due to a very clever , f invention of a inan named Beach, who 5 prodiiced a poriscopic rifle. When we I got here we denuded'the whole of., our ■ transports of their, looking-gla-sses, and s made up some 2000 periscopes on our - > little beach. 'Hiis man then made a. very . ' simple device. .... . The result ii ; 1 the Turk only sees the muzzle of the: rifle coming over the parapet without anything behind it to snoot at, and wa understand from prisoners that he, dis< i likes this intensely 1" ; i ■' - In connection with the foregoing, the ? following extract from army corps orders ■ may be of general interest: —• t ' "The Anny Corps Commander wishes ) to record,his .appreciation of the clever ■ invention of tho periscopic. attachment - for tho rifle, the work of Lance-Corporal • W. C. B. Beach, 2nd Battalion, Austra.- ' 1 lian' Imperial Force., As, so far as_ is i laiown, this invention has not been tried ■ in France, the Lieutenant-General Comi manding has-forwarded the idea to Lord i Kitoliener for-consideration." .

1 In Perth (W. 1.), on August 11, tht Premier (Air. Sraddan) (took action, under the Act-relating to the tsmirs ■ of office of certain Civil Sen-ants, and retired a. Civil Servant of German dascent. Mr.Soaddan explained that evidence had been supplied to him that the officer in question,-who was working ; in the Taxation Department, TiacJ-given utterance to ivhat his fellow employees considercd'to be disloyal sentiments; certainly sentiments sympathetic to tbe enemy. The name was withheld, lert the man should bo unable to obtalsother employment. For Bronchial Coughs and Coldg, . .Wood' Great PepEprjnwt Cure,' 1«. 83,