VISIT TO GALLIPOLI

Evening Star, Issue 19760, 10 January 1928, Page 8

VISIT TO GALLIPOLI

MOTHERS' PILGRIMAGE BEAUTIFYING THE CEMETERIES A visit was made to Gallipoli last June by Mrs Margaret Northcroft, of Auckland. It was a pilgrimage to the grave of her son, Lance-corporal H. C. Northcroft, of the Auckland Mounted Rifles (Main Body), who gallantly fell at a post of honor at the head of a sap on Walker’s Ridge during the huge attack- launched by Von Sanders on the night of May 12, to push the Anzac Force into the sea. Precarious though their hold was upon the ridges—very precarious indeed on Walker’s Ridge, which embraced the famous Nek—the Anzac forces, although greatly outnumbered, retained it cliielly because their resolute steel awed the enemy, who usually preferred to exchange rifle fire rather than match bayonet against bayonet. Realising that many New Zealand mothers, whose sons lie on Gallipoli, are unable to make the journey she has done, Mrs Northcroft has related some of her impressions for publication, states the Auckland ‘Herald,’ and these mothers will be grateful to her, as also will be survivors of whom it was written :

Well, we're gone. We’re out of it all! We’ve somewhere else to fight. And we strain our eyes from the transport deck, but Anzac is out of sight! Valley and shore are vanished; vanished are cliff and hill; And wc’ll never go back to Anzac. . . . But 1 think that some of

ns will. “THAT IS FOR EVER ENGLAND.’’

There are many cemeteries on Gallipoli and some great monuments to the memory of men whose graves are. unknown, but it was to the little one on Walker’s Ridge to which Mrs Northcroft went during each day of her stay. Behind the old line and the mass of "saps that still survive the action of weather, and along which little flowers bloom in their season, a sloping piece of sward, one of the sacred areas “that is forever England,” looks out over the bine /Egean. One should say that it is not far from the place that was known as Russell's Top. On the left across the deep ravine the Sphinx Head still holds its grip upon the cliff top. Down below the sand of Anzac Cove, now almost washed bare of the litter of war, shines white beside the almost tideless water, and away to the northward stretches the strand that terminates at Snvla. Out at sea Snmothrace, on which the setting sun painted so wondrous a scene, rises sharply and eyes that used to know it all so well half expect to see the destroyers— Rattlesnake, Colne, and the rest—rushing to and from upon their boats,_ and the water barges come stringing in. CARE OF THE CEMETERIES.

At Kilia, on the shore ol the Dardanelles, Mrs Northcroft lived in a place that had been used ns quarters by officers, and her official host was Captain J. Rule Jones, a West Australian, who is area superintendent and representative of the War Graves Commission. The sacred trust of this officer is in capable hands. By now, probably, the work of identifying graves has been as far concluded as it ever will be, but the task of beautifying the cemeteries proceeds. Each one, on three sides, will be enclosed by a belt of trees. A nursery was established under an authority from Kew Gardens to determine the class of trees suitable to the soil and climate, and as a result, one kind of pine and tamarisks have been planted around most of the cemeteries, although at Snvla three plantings have had to bo made. The heat and drought of summer have added to the difficulties where cemeteries are on steep places away from water, but no pains have been, or are being, spared, water sometimes being carted in panniers on donkeys, to nourish the young trees. ROSEMARY FOR REMEMBRANCE. Rosemary bushes have also been established, and in one of them in the Walker’s Ridge Cemetery an unknown bird had made a nest which Airs Northcroft found. It had been her intention to plant a rosemary there. She took the plant to Turkey, but Customs officials in Constantinople, who appear to bo masters in the operation or red tape, confiscated it because Mrs Northcroft did not possess that her plant had a dean bill of health. . . .

The traveller had no desire to visit Constantinople, but passport difficulties took her there. _ She learned afterwards from Captain Jones that it should bo possible for one to leave the ship at Chanak, a fact that might be useful to others. She had no companions for the journey, but with the aid of a guide, “ Mnstapha,” whom she _ engaged in Constantinople, had no serious difficulty in reaching the Peninsula, where Captain Jones was able to provide her with the only vehicle suitable for travelling the rough roads of the territory—a veteran “Liz.” Apparently a road crosses the Peninsula between Achi Baba and Sari Bair, and enters the Anzac zone somewhere in the vicinity of Lone Pine or the Olive Grove, which had their day of importance. GOATS, DONKEYS, AND FLOWERS.

The barren Anzac area remains in the state it was in when the troops landed. Mrs Northcroft saw hundreds of black goats about tho ridges, and the donkey was the beast of burden for the local residents, most of whom were employed by the War Graves Commission. Their nationality is uncertain. At present they consider it politic to claim Italian allegiance. Mrs Northcroft passed through a gypsy village on the slopes of Achi Baba. Although the country was becoming very dry in June there still were lots of wiki flowers. The daisy of the Daisy Patch and other places appears to be a small marguerite. The small scarlet poppies were flowering everywhere and the hillsides were covered with wild thyme. A mauve and white scabious was observed, and in places there were acres of a bine weed, which, while lacking beauty in a single flower, made a fine splash of color in mass. A blue iris is most plentiful. Mrs Northcroft learned that Sir James Allen took a manuka plant from England to plant at Chumik Bair, but it did not survive Apart from being “ fleeced by the Turks, and given an unnecessary journey to Constantinople, Mrs Northcroft performed what she wanted to' do without hindrance, and her only regret is that the Turks were allowed to remain in possession of the Gallipoli war zone, conceding only the land actually occupied by the cemeteries.