WITH THE FORTIETHS

Evening Star, Issue 16908, 4 December 1918, Page 6

WITH THE FORTIETHS

AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE. The following letter, written from Codford Military Hospital by a New Zealand soldier, under date September 14, will be read with interest: I hope you will he able to read ( the wobbly handwriting, as my hand won’t go the way 1 want.it to. It is very annoying to‘think I have the main part of a long letter written in my kit bag, and we cr T get at them. As I forget where. I lei. if exactly on the boat, I suppose I had , otter start afresh since leaving Sierra Leone. Since then we have had the worst time a New Zealand transport has ever had. I suppose it has all come out in the New Zealand papers, but I can give you the true version, and, although it is harrowing, 1 can describe it now we are safely" in England without alarming you unduly. Soon after we left Sierra Leone, which is an awful fever-stricken hole, there was a tremendous sick parade at 6 a.rn. We paraded, about 50 of us, with mostly all the sapie complaint—namely, a violent cough and' faint Reeling, although several of) us, including myself, complained of a severe pain across the small of the back. It had been awfully painful, and I got no sleep at nights, as, no matter which way 1 lay down, it hurt just the same. They treated us nil the same, and gave us all a good dope of pills and other stuff. I asked the chap at the dispensary what the trouble was, and he said it was all a. kind of influenza, probably caught from the drinking water taken on at Sierra Leone or the fruit sold bv the natives from canoes till it was stopped by orders, after it had gone on n day. Of coarse, we anchored out in ruid-stream, and no one went ashore except the skipper, I think.

The boat for two nights was swarming with niggers, who coal the, vessel at about the rate of 2!b of coal per man per night, and all the work they seem to do is jabber and laugh all night. I was on military police duty, of course, for my usual hours at night, and one of rny jobs consisted in showing the niggers where the water tank on the aft well deck was, so I came in pretty close contact with them. They treat an M.P. with great respect, I found, call him “ Sah,'’ and are frightened as the dickens of you when they see your arm badge. I have wandered so far off Use track of what I was telling yon about that / tell yon some more rather cheerful things about tbo blacks. When they wore ordered away from tho boat the second day in port they would take no telling, so the skipper, who is pretty cool, produced an enormous revolver, and, after several warnings, lodged several shots into the water, vdthin about 6in of the canoes, much to iho nigs’ alarm, who speedily made off. The adjutant and one of the officers also did some sharpshooting, much to the amusement of us chaps who lined the rail of the ship to nee the discomfited blacks. They retired to what they thought out of range, and gave slack, which they were not. interfered with in, however. We set sail on the Monday, with our convoy, which consisted of a large number of steam vessels of alt descriptions, mounted with one, or more guns, and hideously camouflaged in different fashions. The biggest one vent ahead most of the time. It was a large two-funnelled passenger steamer, converted into a cruiser, with a good number of invisible guns. I believe. T heard she was an old P. and 0. boat, and must have looked all right painted in her original colors.

Sunday. S rotember 15.—After the second day out the morning sick parade trot so largo that it took till long after break fast time to examine them all, and one doctor was had himself, 'flic hospital was by now full, am! all the chaps sick had inure or less high temperatures, so all th» decks had to be converted into places for beds, and you could not move for chains anywhere. In a co'upk- of days the pain went out of my back, and I went on with my duties, although I felt very shaky. In another couple of days I developed a. temperature of 103deg., and so was immediately put into, “ hospital ' ' —i.e.. on the bridge deck on second deck, I had • plenty of .com-

jmnions. hut I soon got a* deaf a* a }):■•<*». so that I didn’t f».\»l too bright, espcciady as I felt as weak us a chicken. Then the deaths started, to occur, and it was a most dismal proceeding for us chans to sec too poor fellows being carried in on a stretcher off the decks, covered mi with a blanket; and the next morning iv-ont half a dozen would bo canned out for disposal overboard, snv.wd up in hammocks, and evidentlv well weight?!!, as it took four .men to carry them tlrs time instead of two. In fart, I hare src;i stokers every day bringing im big slaps of dirty cast, iron from down below. Ilowev'w, I won't give you too many of the details, hut will say that thr number of deaths tot .died about, 70 or mi.ro, inr!infing five nr six of the crew. The si.'tors on icard did splendid work, and they had nlcnty to do. An infliction wo had to put up with was frequent d->sps of rum and condensed mill':, and if you asked for a drink thov gave you this beastly hot milk, which has a mewt peculiar taste. The meats were, about ns good as could be expected, and were inostjv ssgo cm! tapioca of a ven' gluey consistency, but nemo of us !wd much apWo arrived in port on the 11th. and T petite, bad been told we were going to London. T had no idea where wo were when wo arrived. Soon some Tommies belonging to th.e ]\.A.?J.C, arrived with stretchers and carried us oft the boat to a waiting Led Crops train, where we occupied hunks. After much shunting the train rattled off out into the country at a great rate. A nurse on duty came through several times, and. T asked her where we had come from, and she said Plymouth. I could catch glimpses of the scenery by ■■fi-f.u’ug my nock, and the country looked very pretty nun green. "'Ye stopped nr several largo stations, (he name of one T saw was Exeter. The wax’ the trains gather speed after leaving a station j mores?ivi me. They seem to pick up so quickly and rattle off at n great rate. I caught a glimpse of several en-

"irie-a. which were the typical English (vpe I have seen in plct-urcf. After .we time we arrived at our dp-'-tinalion (where, I dkhi’t know), and I was carvied out and the stretcher placed with three ethers in racks in a motor ambiiiaiico. We were bowled along several roads and round corners, also up a- hill, where the driver changed gear, which T could .tell by the .sound. I could see beautiful white reads lined by hawthorn hedges. A good many New Zealanders and a few Australians soldiers were about. We stopped inside the camp, and were ■carried into a long ward and put to bed, where wo have boon ever since. It is a big improvement on the boat, and wo have a large number of nurses and several orderlies to attend to us. Several military doctors come round to see us, and wo have our temperatures regularly put on. a chart. The tucker is pretty good for war time, but we get little or no sugar in our tea ; the, bread is coarse, brown stuff made of bran or something of the sort. Our usual breakfast is a hard-boiled egg. Wo are on different diets, and I am on chicken for dinner, which is very good when I can work up an appetite for it. They are rather liberal, and I generally ha.ve to leave some. Tho worst of this place is the scarcity of stuff to rend. Wc see nothing but an occasional London newspaper, such as the " Hally Mirror.’