A "DRY" TRANSPORT

Evening Star, Issue 16994, 17 March 1919, Page 3

A "DRY" TRANSPORT

NIGHT RAID BY TROOPS. Tim following story was related by a soldier who returned to Auckland by the transport Port Melbourne regarding an incident that occurred, in the mid-Atlantic on a “ dry ” transport. One night as the bugler sounded his soothing lullaby, and the fading lights put an end to the “twoup” mission meeting, half a dozen soldiers, who must bo nameless, heaved up Ihe hatch cover, and one by one slid swiftly down an obliging rope into the nether regions. The club obtained an increase of membership within the half hour. The nows spread luce a scandal in a steam laundry. Men who had slept soundly even as Fritz came over the top woke with a cold sweat. Beer on a Now Zealand transport! Every case within range had been opened, with results that would have done credit to a Lord Mayor’s banquet. It was a perfect welter of beer, stout, and lager, tinned fmits, tinned fish, nuts, lollipops, and other sustenance beloved of the gods. A sack of loaf sugar was also tapped. The feasting and drinking went on till the early hours of the morning. The menu was limited, but the supply never failed. Anon there were affectionate adieus, and not a few bellicose benedictions as tho participants crawled to their hammocks. What pen is capable of describing the scene when the cock crew ? The bottles and corks, shells and sugar, tins and bones, and concomitant symptoms of the Bacchanalian beanfeast need not be particularised. One wild-eyed soldier leaned against a wall and sang : Tire officers’ mess have puddingsh and pies. The soldiers’ shwives have skilly. Two or three others zig-zagged along carrying a rope. The deed was not yet discovered, so a case or two more of beer was drawn from the hold and smashed open, the contents being furtively distributed in odd corners. The breakfast was porridge, liver and bacon, and beer. The hue and cry came in duo course, and it was not hard to discover some of the delinquents. The bill when duly presented footed up to £7O for liquor 'and other goods. Every man on the ship was mulcted to the extant of Is 2d, thus a thousand men had to pav for the act of about 30 of their comrades