ON SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 94, 20 April 1916, Page 7

ON SERVICE

NEW ZEALANDERS AT THE FRONT

(FROM OUR OWN COW.ESPOXDBXT.) LONDON, 25th February. Colonel Walter Wright, an olrl Dunedin boy and an old boy of the Otago Boys' High School, was warmly congratulated this week by Field-Marshal Lord French, General Sir Archibald Hunter, and General Sir Francis Howard on the occasion of a- visit to the headquarters gymnasia at Aldershot. When war broke out the gymnastic staff of the Army was automatically dispersed, the officers and instructors re joining their regiments in the fighting line; but within three weeks Colonel Wright was ordered to reorganise the whole tiling and form a new staff. Ho did this by re-enlisting old graduates of the school who had left the service, wounded men who had returned from the front, and candidates selected by commanding officers from their battalions. By compressing a four months' curriculum into 21 days, the school can now train GOOO regimental instructors per annum as compared with 360 before tile war. In view of the great enrolment of civilians in the new armies, the work of the . instructors became of supreme importance, especially as hand'to hand righting developed. Canada has adopted Colonel Wright's scheme of training. Dr. W J. Porteous (Duncdin) arrived on 18th February by the Remuera (accompanied' by his wife and two children). Two days later lie .accepted a commission as temporary lieutenant in tile Royal Army Medical Corps. His work will begin on Ist March, and he expects to be posted to the Southern Command in England for a few months. Mr. D. E. Harkness (Nelson) completed his course of training in flying at Eastchurch in December, having received his commission, sis a flightlieutenant in the ißoyal Naval Air Service the previous month. He is now stationed at the war station at Dover. Lieutenant Harkness was in town for a few days this week. Lieutenant W. J. Sim. LL.B., of the 3rd Battalion the Argyll and Sutherland HigMandeio. is stationed at Edinburgh. He was a member of the first New Zealand force"'which occupied Samoa. \ .Lieutenant E. A. M. Whitcombe (.Royal Field Artillery) lms been acting for some time as adjutant to his brigade at Salonika. • »Miss Agnes Allan, matron of the Wainpu Hospital, came to England on leave with tho object of engaging in military nursing. She has for some months been attached to the Military Hospital, at York, and is now on furlough in London. recovering from a mild attack of. pleurisy. . She expects to return to York next week. Her sister (Miss .Jean Allan) is still nursing at the Military Hospital at Gibraltar Miss Taplin Allman (Talmerston North) arrived by the i Ttemuem to do military nursing, probably tinder the St.' John .Ambulance Association. Mr.. J. A' (t. Wilson (Palmerston North} is a recent arrival. He is hoping to ge't into one of the munition .works. 2nd Lieut. .Rudolph D.. Vavasour, R.F.A. (Blenheim), who obtained his commission about the middle of,-1915, is now a flying officer of the R.F.C., Military Wing. . ' It is mentioned1 that < two young New JJcalancicrs—Messrs. Fred Nichols and Henry Benge (Greytown), have received commissions in t'ne .Royal Flying Corps. Lieut. T F. Corkill, U.A.M.C. (Wellington^ has passed liis final examination in medicine at Edinburgh : and another young New Zealand medical student,' who has just got through at Edinburgh with first-class honours, is Mr. W Brownlie. M.A., B.Sc. (Invcrcargill). He intends trying for a commission in the R.A.M.C. Mr. E. A. Westwcod is driving a motor ambulance attached to the Im"perial Forces "somewhere in France." He is the son of Mr. W Westwcod (Epsom, Auckland), and an Old Boy of Wellington College and the Auckland Grammar School. . lie was in the United States when war was declared", studying at the North-western University, Chicago. . '2nd Lieuts. L. M. Abraham (Palmerstoh North) and W J. Smeston (Auckland) have been promoted Ist lieioenants. Both are in the Royal 'Field Avtillery Mr. R. l-iowai-d-Webster (Wellington), who holds a. commission in tho Royal Garrison Artillery, ia stationed l'or the present at Woolwich. The statement of tho Rhodes Trust, for 1911-15 shows that the war lias continned to interfere seriously with the normal operation of the scholarship system, as it has with university life generally throughout the Empire. Nearly all the colonial undergraduates have entered the Imperial Service for the j period of the war. In all cnees the trustees have granted leave of absence to such scholars, reserving to them tlifc right to resume their'scholarships when they are set free from military service. Only eighteen colonial scholars continued in residence up to the end of last term. ,Of these five have either obtained or applied for commissions, four aro unable to serve for, reasons of health or defective eyesight, and six, vrho are pursuing a medical course, arc advised to- continue this work at the university. Permission to postpone entrance to colonial scholars elected for 101G, so as to leave thorn free to respond to the call of national duty, has been granted. The 1011, 19.15, and 1916 New Zealand Rhodes' scholars are all j on service, and have not yet taken up ' residence at Oxford. Up to tho present time 107 scholars and ex-scholars of.Oxford are known to have taken commissions or enlisted in the Imperial .Ami), and us colonial contingents. Of these, South Africa has contributed '53, Australia 43, Canada 42," Lurmuda 8, Jamaica 8, Newfoundland and. N Tew Zealand G each, the United States 1 "Among the New Zealand lihode.s scholars who have lost their lives is A. Wallace (Auckland), tho New Zealand 1912 man, who wag a student at Balliol. Tho High Commissioner has received the following iette^r from A Tew Zea landers and Australians interned in Ruhlfiben Camp:—"Dear Sir, —Australasians in Ruhleben Cnmp send their heartiest congratulations. The New Zealand parcels have arrived regularly up to date. Tho undersigned gentlemen send their best thanks and wishes: Tom Sullivan, N. Godfrey, L. Carr, YV. Morris, E. Turkey, W if. Webb, L. B. J Sullivan. H. G. Hunt, A. H. Jones, T. H. S. Rirangi, W. Morrison. P.S. —Should so like some butter " "A Few Grateful New Zealanders" write from the base depot at Hornchurch to The Times voicing sentiments which will be very generally echoed by all our wounded men who havti come for treatment to England. They say :" On the eve of our departure from England, we feel wo cannot leave without thanking the people — especially > the women —of England, Scotland, and Ireland for the spontaneous hospitality extended to us. We landed on these shores sick and wounded, without friends or relations, after months of perhaps the most terrible fighting the world has ever seen. We were "strangers in a strange land. It made no . differenceall classes doing their utmost to make us happy and comfortable, both in and out of hospital. We New Zealanders ha.ve always called England ' Home,' and ■a home it ha* been for us in every sense.

We are also indebted to that fine body of men the London police, whom we have always found true friends and advisers." Canon H. D. Burton, who holds the rank of lieutenalit-colonel, and .is attached to the hospital ship Marama. is at present on sick leave m England, [t is probable that he will remain behind for the present for treatment, and will rejoin the vessel at a later date. Dr. Walter Fell (Wellington), who ob-. tained a commission in the R.A.M.C. last June, immediately on arrival here, ■is now on board the Mauritania. in October he was in the Mediterranean on the hospital ship Hunslet.