ON SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 127, 30 May 1916, Page 7

ON SERVICE

NEW ZEALANDERS' MOVEMENTS (FROMVOUR OWN CORtIESPONDENT.) LONDON, 2Sth\ April. Mr. William Guthrie Salmond (son of the New Zealand Solicitor-General), who enlisted with, the 21st Lancers, and got his first stripe in February, 1915, is gazetted to a commission in the North Somerset Yeomanry. Mr. Albert F. Sellars (Christ^hurch) has joined the Royal Naval Air Service. Mr. William H. Powell (Wellington), who is attached to the 17th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, stationed at Exeter, with the hope of obtaining a commission subsequently in -the 8.F.A., has recently undergone a. serious abdominal operation. He is recovering, and is spending a period of convalescence at Bournemouth. Mr. Robert. A. Wilson (Bulls) is trying to obtain a. commission. Ten New Zealand nurses came from Egypt to England by the hospital ship Devanhn, and are now stationed nt Queen Mary* Hospital, at Whalley. Lanes. They are : Sisters H. Carruthefs, E. J. Child, J. Lodge, D. M. Anderson, E. M. Curtis. E. H. Persen, A. A. Evans, V. E. Petersen, M. Galloway, and T. M. d'Emden. •

Second-Lieut. Noel Boas (General List) relinquishes his commission on account of ill-health . (dated 21st April). • Lieut. W. _\V. Fif/.herbevt (Wellington), of the lath 13a.ftalion, Royal Sussex Begt., is reported wounded. Stir, 0, A. JoHUtl, W:!M (if the tunlm'. Secretary for Justice in New Zealand,

has gone to the front with a draft of the King's Royal Rifles, in which he enlisted in August last. Pte. Darby, described as " a. little New Zealand soldier with a sti-ide like a, kangaroo's," won the 220 yards in fine style at the United Services' sports at Herne Hill on Saturday, and was third in the 100 yards.

I have had a letter this week from Col. A. E._ Stewart, of the' Eifle Brigade, showing that our men are now comfortably settled down in their new field of operations, Northern France. "The war has not devastated this part of France," he says, " and work goes on as aisual, bub is in the hands of women, girls, boys, and old men, more honour *o them. There are no soundbodied men left; aIL are in the trenches. I can quite understand the French soldier's love of his country. It certainly is one of the fairest countries under the sun. The southern part is a, garden of herbs, fruits, and flowers. The blossom everywhere was a- picture." Writing to a. friend in England, Lieut. Norman R. Davenport, of the Royal Nava.l Air Service, describes a rather unpleasant, if typical, experience which he had while flying a. new type of seaplane in very rough weather at a certain station on the North Sea. There was a stiff breeze blowing, a,nd he. had just risen about 30ft, and had not yet attained flying speed, when a squall struck the seaplane, which sideslipped into the sea. "My left wing hit the water, and the machine then nose-dived straight into the deep-blue. Before I coukl cay Jack Robinson both my machine and I were under water. The next thing that I remember was that I commenced kicking out hard to release myself from the machine. For an instant my leg caught round the stearing-vrheel, "but after another violent jerk I got loose, and up I came to the surface like a cork. I then adjusted my life-belt (which we always wear when flying seaplanes), and then splashed around a bit to see if any parts of my anatomy were missing or out of action. On finding that all. my limbs were in good working order, I began to wonder 3 my poor old machine had disappeared for good, and on, looking around saw her pap up to the surface in an upside down position about twenty feet away. Luckily the floats were undamaged, and they had brought her to the surface again. You can guess I wasted no time in swimming over to her aad perching myself on top of the floats. Here I sat, cold and wet, until the ship's came tearing along anil picked me up. Before leaving my machine, however, I managed to fasten a rope around her, and in a few minutes we were full steam ahead with the machine in tow. In the naval air service such occuiTences are almost daily during this bad weather, so you can guess we shall not be sorry when the good summer weather comes along."

Lieut.-Col. J. Gt. Hughes -will be returning to New Zealand by the Marama. Oapt. Leopold M'Laghlen, ' who was training recruits in New Zealand and Australia, during part of 1915, and who arrived in London at the end of that year, has obtained a commission in the 25th Royal Fusiliers. He expects to leave shortly for East Africa, Capt. M'Laghlen, who served in the South African War, is the son of the Right Rev. Bishop M'Laghlen, titular Bishop of Claremont, South Africa..

Lieut.-Col.. A. _E. Glasgow, of the Royal Sussex Regiment, has been wounded. He is art "Old Boy" of Nelson .College, and was' with the relief Wee at Chitral in 1895, for which he received the medal with clasp. Two years later he was again fighting on the north-west frontier of India, receiving a second clasp to his medal, and immediately afterwards he took part in the Tirah expedition, obtaining a third clasp. Major W. J. T. Glasgow, Reserve of Officers, has been promoted from lieutenantcolonel, Royal West Surrey Regiment, to be temporary brigadier-general, attached to headquarters unit. He, too, is an "Old Boy" of Nelson College, and was the first from that school to gain a commission in the Imperial Army. Mr. F. G. Mansou (Masterton) arrived in London on Saturday after a safe jour-* ney by the Tainui, and hopes to take up some form of war work.

Mr. W. J Farmer (Marton) arrived just too late to get into the air service, so for the present he has joined the British Ambulance, Service de Sante Militaire, which is attached to the French Army, and he expects to leave for France any day now with a new 30 h.p. Austin ambulance, which has been presented by an English parish. Mr. Farmer hopes later to be able to enter the aviation branch.

There are a number of New Zealand Army Nurses on board the hospital ship Egypt, including Misses F. Suddells (Wanganui), E. M. Martyn, V. P. Bayly, and K. E. Wright (Auckland), and A. Buckley (Waimate). Capt. the Hon. J. C. W. S. Foljanibe, the Earl of Liverpool's brother, who has just been killed in action, was adjutant of his battalion of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry. He has been mentioned' in despatches quite recently, and his promotion to brevet-major in recognition of his services was announced after his death.

Lieut. Beresford MaunseE, W.M.R. (Masterton), is returning New Zealand by the Ruahine. While'his parents were on their way to England last autumn they received, the information that their son had been killed, but on reaching London they were cheered to know that he was still alive, though seriously ill at Malta.. In due course Lieut. Maunsell came on to England, and, though he lias recovered sufficiently to undertake the voyage to New Zealand, he is still an invalid.

One hundred permanently unfit men of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces, under the command of Major F. VVaite and Lieuts. P. J. Cotton and B. Lee, left Paddington on Saturday morning for Plymouth, cv route for New Zealand. The men were given an enthusiastic farewell, the band of. the Royal Artillery attending and playing selections of music. The High Commissioner, Captain T. E. Donne, and members of the New Zealand War Contingent Association were present, and wished the men bon voyage. They are travelling by the Athenic. An interesting member of the party of overseas soldiers who attended the entertainment given by the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace was Tpr. Walter Geange, of the Wellington Mounted Rifles, who has been an inmate of St. Thomas's Hospital for some months, suffering from a. bullet through the spine. The invitations were necessarily few compared with the number of wounded in London, and it was clue to Mrs. IfVen W. Raymond that Tpr. Gconnge was one of the guests. Mrs. Raymond, an official visitor of the War Contingent Association, was especially anxious that Tpr, Geange should be included, and. when her persistent importunities of officials had only extracted a half-promise, she finally wrote straight to the Queen. Result : the invitation was received the following morning. Tpr. Geange was taken to tl\e Palace in an invalid chair, and was wheeled by the Royal butlers into the entertainment room, and also in to tea.

Dr. ,1. E. C. Maguire (Wellington) has a. commission in the R..A.M.C, and is at present at Tweseldown Camp, Faniham.

Cii.pt. E. Fotheringham , (one time of Dunedin). who saw service in the South African War with the Scottish Horse, is now in Flanders with the 6th Divisional Train Ai-my gßfricp. Cwps, Oh hi; i\xrival from South Africa, ai-41ie begin-

ning of 1915, he was sent to Havre, where he spent five or six months. He was educated at the Ota-go Boys' High School and at Cheltenham, and he served in the Matabele campaign, and got his commission in the Boer War. He has been farming and mining in the Transvaal for a number of years. Major H. T. .Fulton, D.5.0., 2nd Gurkha Rifles, has been appointed Brigade Commander, with the temporary rank of Brigadier-General. Major Fulton, who is the son of Major-General Fnlton, of Otago, was in New Zealand when the war broke out, but soon afterl wards rejoined his regiment.

Several New Zealandere, no doubt, are affected by the War Office decision to transfer O.T.C members, now training at Berkhamsted, to the 60th Division as privates.. Mi. Ellis Griffiths argued that a grave injustice had been done! these men in that they had been accepted as members of the O.T.C. to train as officers. Mr. Tennant explained that there were now over 4000 young men in the O.T.C, to a large number of whom it was impossible to give adequate training. Consequently, 139 under eighteen years of age were transferred to the 101 st Divisional Battalion as privates, without prejudice to their obtaining commissions la-ter. At- the same time, 150 men who were unlikely to make useful officers, and forty-seven others, were transferred to other Territorial units. Many of these men had been six, ten, and twelve months in the O.T.C. As to the question of general transference from one unit to another, he said it was essential from the point of view of getting a unit ready for the front that they should employ the material they had. It looked as if he would have to ask Parliament for further powers in this direction. They had been denied once, and he much regretted the necessity that would compel him to apply again.