IN AUSTRALIA.

Evening Star, Issue 15907, 13 September 1915, Page 6

IN AUSTRALIA.

WHAT NATIONAL SERVJGE MEANS. SYDNEY, September 13. ißeceivcil September 13, at 9 a.m.) Mr Holman. in a statement on the Universal Service League movement, said: " Though a number of Ministers have been appointed, the movement has gained them as individuals, without formal Cabinet consultation. The movement does not mean that the Australian tail is to wag the Empire dog. It does not mean a levy on •the whole population, or even universal drilling. What it does mean is liability to be- called on for service, either military or civilian. When every allowance has been made, it is evident that the voluntary system has not brought forth anything like the results achieved in England. If we axe to have the full striking force of Australia manifested, at must be by a more rapid method. It must be realised that we have reached a stage where everything must be isubordinated to the necessity of placing oi.r full power in the field." . SALUTARY FINE. SYDNEY, September 13. (Received September 13, at 9 a.m.) A man ha© been fined £IOO for distributing literature detrimental to recruiting. AN ESCAPEE. MELBOURNE, September 13. (Received September 13, at 9 a.m.) While being transferred from Adelaide to the concentration camp at Liverpool a German prisoner of war escaped.

DENTISTS' STATUS. MELBOURNE, September 13. .(Received September 13, at 9 a.m.) It is announced that in future- dentists working for the Defence Department "will receive military rank, and pay in accordance therewith. WOUNDED SOLDIERS' FUND. £35,000 IN EIGHT WEEKS. [Per United Press Association.] TIMARU, September 12. At a largSxmeetins; of contributors to the sink and wounded and. dependents' fund, repressing South Canterbury, it was -announced that the £35,000 whieh had been named as South Canterbury's minimum quota had been obtained within eight weeks, entirely bv voluntary subscriptions, in sums from £I,OOO "'downwards. The average per subscriber was £6l. One hundred and twelve subscribers gavo £IOO and over, providing £22,000, and those from £5 to £IOO over £B,OOO bums below £5 totalled less than £2OO. The subscribers agreed to form themseles into a. legally constituted society ;o awist in relieving sick arid wounded =ol. diers and dependents, and favored joining the federation of kindred societies, subject to local contro 1 of the fund. „, D *? e ? ates '"'ere appointed to attend the Wellington conference on Wednesday. CLERGYMAN'S APPEAL. ASHRURTON, September 13. Rev. J. R. Burgin. at the close of his ■sermon at St. Stephen's Church yesterday morning, made an appeal to th<! People to subscribe liberally towards the £25.000 which the Patriotic Committee have set themselves to raise for the Ashburton District Wounded Soldiers' Fund, and stated that he had had given to him that morning from an Ash'hurton lady 000 guineas in bank notes for the fund. BACK FROM SAMOA. AUCKLAND, September 13. Thirty of the Samoan garrison returned last night by the steamer Navua. They reported that everything was \ quiet at Samoa, and the health of the men good. ALLIES' STRONG POSITION. "SUPREME TASK AHEAD." of Router's special correspondents at the General Headquarters of the Briti hj Mediterranean 'Expeditionary Force, writing on July 17, siys: '' For goodness' sako tell people at home what a tremendous proposition we are up against here." So spoke a battalion com-n-ander to me as we crouched in thy parched, earthincss of his dug-out. watching tho puffs of enemy shell-bursts in the rear through the fly-netting which screened the sloping entrance. The Turks were merely pin-pricking, their favorite method of keeping up an irritating liveliness between our own attacks and regular response of counterattack. Their prodigality of ammunition m this direction certainly does not lend much color to the rumors of shortage. That wo axe no longer holding on wivh the skin of our teeth, but are in solid occupation of a zone about three miles deep south of a lino drawn from wheTe the French are resting upon the mouth °( *«e Kereves- Dere to a point south of Krithia. Ie a- triumph of sheer dogged determination and Homeric courage. ."But it is an achievement which still leaves tho supreme task ahead. The sandy, fire-ravished soil is furrowed by trenches as though a. titanic ploughing competition had been held across every acre. Fragments of shell which would aggregate iron enough to build a battleship are strewn in pink and blue and rusty segments athwart whatever path one may choose in this now trackless waste. _ They, have left their marks in an interminable warren of blow-holes and miniature craters. Barbed wire of enormous gauge (nothing like the Turkish barbed wire has ever yet been seen in warfare) trails through the scorched yellow stubble at every dozen steps. GRIM BATTLEGROUND. True, these are the commonplace details of this sort of fighting, and I only refer to them at all because they so grimly illustrate in their crowded grouping "how our progress has been a series of terribly blood-stained steps, with an ever-increas-ing difficulty of natural obstacle. There is no depression, no faltering on the paTt of our men. Of the nolitical aspects of a campaign it is not the business .of a war correspondent to speak. He is only to consider the military aspect. The price of victory—that is to say, the military price—is a supreme- effort. We hold an excellent position, now for the development of that effort. Twelve miles up the west coast forces hold a wonderful cliffperched enclave, which compels the enemy to maintain at least two divisions to counter the permanent threat to their communications. Tho French artillery has established a moet effective dominance along the spur of a ridgo extending from the shattered and baked village Sedd-el-Bahr towards the eastern slops of Achi Bobs. Iho legend that the defences of the peninsula include heavy guns travelling upon rails through tunnels may be dismissed. At the first discharge any heavy weapon so mounted would pitch off the metals. Here, then, is the position as it stands to-day. It is known that tho Turks are being well and abundantly fed, and, recollecting their terrible privations in the Balkan War, this fact must exercise a great influence upon sustaining their war-worthiness. Prisoners admit a weariness on the part of the enemy, but it is clear that a complete misconception as to the causes and objects of the war is general amongst tho Turks. They arc undoubtedly convinced that England is conspiring to betray them into the hands of their hereditary enemy, Russia, and they still regard the annexation of the two battleships building for their navy as a sheer act of piracy on the parti of the British Admiralty. "Germany, by " giving" them the Goeben and Breeiau, and by sending submarines to attack the warships of the Allies, not unnaturally stands in their distorted vision as a genuine benefactor. A Sydney message states that Private H F. Spooner, reported killed in action, was formerly well known in Wellington and Auckland. Mr R. J. Barrett has been advised that his eon. Gunner Leonard E. P. Barrett, who was wounded and invalided to England, is progressing favorably.