ANZAC REVISITED

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 102, 27 October 1925, Page 7

ANZAC REVISITED

NEW ZEALAND'S HEROIC DEAD

A TRIBUTE BY SIR lAX

HAMILTON,

General Sir lan Hamilton, speaking before the Hull Rotary Club recently, said that he had revisted Gallipoli a little while ago, states the London correspondent of the Sydney "Sun."

"Entering the scene of the naval battle on 19th March, 1915, I could not believe I was awake," said Sir- lan. "The theatre was the same, but where were the actors? They already were dim as tho heroes of the Iliad. I 1 revisualised the cripple warships slowly steaming towards tho open sea with their pumps going, and their crews standing to attention us steadily as if in parade, although they knew .their ships might sink like stones. I passed Seddel Ba.hr, whose little bay once was crimsoned with the best of our blood, and then through the Narrows, whoso Turkish side is now dominated by the ghosts of New Zealnnders, Gloucester^, and Wiltshives. Their position is marked. on the skyline of Chanak Bail- by the wonderful New Zc-aland monuments. A naval authority second to none that ever sailed tho seas kept exclaiming : "These narrows arc broads. Compared with a reconnaissance off the Belgian coast,, sailing through here would be child's play.'

"We anchored at Kilfa, whereH.M.S. Queen Elizabeth, with her third shot across the mountain range from the Aegean, sank a Turkish transport full of troops. We then inspected the beautiful monuments- at Suvla Bay, notably on Green Hill. There are more beautiful cemeteries on Gallipoli than anywhere. ' They are set with cypress pines, rosemary'", white lilies, and irises. While I was staff officer to Lord Roberts the latter never missed visiting a graveyard, therefore my experience is unique. I can say" that these are the loveliest in the world.

"The obliterating hand of time has been busy at Anzac, so I had difficulty in finding Field Marshal Birdwood's dugout in which I used to shelter during special 'hates.' The principal Australian cemetery is at Lone Pine. Where would any hero sooner be bur-, ied than on the site of the most superb feat of arms ever performed, even by those magnificent fighters? "I have seen beautiful cemeteries in Australasia, but I can assure the relatives of the fallen that the cemeteries in the Anzac sector are lovelier and more glorious. Wo traversed Helles, where tho harvest of death was the heaviest, as might be expected. Krithia ceirietery holds 10,097 brave soldiers of the Twenty-ftinth, Forty-second, and Fifty-second, aud the naval divisions

"The Turks commemorated their dead differently. There are only two memorials on Gallipoli, both to individuals. The first, to a certain Osman, behind the lines at Krithia, is falling to pieces. "Tho second, to Mahomed Chavouch, on the neck between Walkers' Ridsre and Baby 700, is kept in good order. It consists of a concrete plinth, surmounted by blocks of concrete, one bearing a steel plate, in which there is a sharpshooter's loophole, the whole being surmounted by a shell. The plinth lias at each corner a bundle of small'steel head pieces worn by the sniper.

"Although an English farm labourer could have made the whole thing for £12, the true meaning of martial glory has been captured. No Field Marshal could desire a finer memento. Qn!y ten men abreast could attack along the neck, fnr which there was a lot of desperate lighting. Sergeant Mahomed was posted here for days, and remained after his comrades fled. He had over twenty wounds, and whenjie felt he was dying* riddled with bullets, he shoutod, "My brothers ! You must avenge me. T die happily for my country." Mahomed now personifies Turkish 'bravery and pilgrims come from Constantinople to do homage at the shrine.

"How we could sail away, leaving these, will always be to me the most profound of mysteries and the saddest, as well as (ho most fatal of actions. But I do not wish lo talk strategy. I only thank God that no graves or-memorials. no.t at Gettysberg or'anywhere else, can vie with those of our Dardanelles heroes."