A PERILOUS VOYAGE

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 March 1917, Page 2

A PERILOUS VOYAGE

BY NEW ZEALAND TRANSPORT. TWICE DRIVEN TO PORT.

ESCORT QF EIGHTEEN DESTROYERS BRITISH PORT UNDER BLOCKADE. The Minister of Defence has been advised that the Reinforcement h;)s reached its destination in .safety.—Daily Newspaper, This customary, curt, official message, periodically dismissing in its seventeen words the anxieties of hundreds, sometimes conceals, as you shall learn from Dr Bedford's story of the troopship W'illochra's passage Home, a hundred hazards run. It was not a normal troopship passage; indeed, Dr Bedford states that they encountered difficulties greater than those met by any previous vessel, taking so longto complete their passage that they reached their destination only a day or two ahead of the next reinforcement. The earlier part of the voyage was uneventful, the ship's company had shaken down into their places, and' the soothing routine of a deem-water vessel had established its beneficial sway, when the wire. less jarred them into consciousness of something wrong. They were ordered to put into port, and into a port that had never been a port of call for troopships, To this port they found a small fleet of British war vessels-—a first class battleship, three armoured cruisers, and several armed merchantmen and amongst these they lay for ten days, their company gradually swelling, as ship after ship was driven in by the same warning of danger, which at the time was a rnysuiy to u [t was evidently a pressing oaie, for within the ten days five Australian and three African transports lay at anchor beside thorn. This long and anxious wait was ended by an order to put to sea on independent coiu'scr. and make for the port where the Willoehi'a was to leceive her gun—for up to this time she wi:s uiiiii'iitcd, This port was made without alarm, ami. her gun mounted, tin l transport turned her nose towards Fugiaud. Three days she made wit hunt intetferouce, and then received a hurry call to turn and proceed at all speed balk to the port in which she had already beau hung up for ten days. The ship receive;! »■■., the wireless a full description of a raider that was out, and of soecial submarine activity, over Ihe eutirse the transport w^ s in have pursued, Again this port became the rendezvous of transput! after transport, hurriedly intercepted by the wireless, until at the end of litis third week of hilling there were 50,030 troops in that port. The composition ol the battle fleet lying there had changed. The battleship had sailed, but a fine French cruiser, had replaced her. and there were more armed merchantmen. While idbng hole they heard of the .-.inking by submarine attack of several ships lying in a certain harbour, and the shelling of Ihe town's forts, Finally the YViilochra was scut out with four other transports under escort of an firmed cruiser, which accompanied litem the, whole way. They proceeded. Dr Bedford says, like drunken ships, making a truly astonishing wake, for the bewilderment of any lurking periscope. The first point in the deadly" game with the submarine is to obscure your destination. Once he has succeeded in determining this. ho sinks, makes for a spot commanding your course, and there lies in wait for his prey to pass. For several days the" YViilochra continued to zig-zag over the face of the waters, and then dark smudges of smoke on the horizon" grew with inconceivable rapidity into the long lacing" forms of seven destroyers swinging down upon them at an even 45 knots. They were a British unit sent to escort the troopships, although the kilter were, still three days from their final port, and on the last day out eleven more destroyers appeared and formed a girdle round them, while a minesweeper slowly searched the sea ahead of them. ''We found," said the professor, "that (the port of destination) had been practically blockaded by submarines for several weeks, and 1 think we were the first ship to break the blockade. After we got in we found that the t'orinfhic had been lying there three weeks waiting to net out, with several hundreds of passengers aboard. She d not got out, 1 believe, until two weeks later." I))- Red ford spoke in terms of warmest admiration of the ship's ollieers. "1 think." he said "that the officers mi these troopships deserve the greatest praise and gratitude. With them it is not a case of one supreme and final moment of suspense, but of weeks and days whose every hour keeps the nerves astrain. Apart from the constant menace of the submarine, there is the anxiety of running at night, perhaps through thmk weather, without a light showing, and with the foghorn silent. 1 noticed that towards the end every officer was haggard with the strain. We learned gradually during the long voyage that a number of submarines had escaped from the Meditor. ranoan, and as the news was sent out ; ships in all directions hiul sought port at full speed," ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE Y..M.C.A. ; It will be remembered that Dr Bedford i obtained leave from his professorial duties to assist in the direction of Y.M.C.A. | work in Franco and London. lie ue\er . set foot in France. The protracted pas , save exhausted so much of his leave that

be ciuilcl uol give the undertaking In put in :i mouth's work there, which, was ihe necessary condition to obtain permission 1,, go. ' [in! he saw tile work of the Now Zealand Camp on Salisbury I'lains and in London, and. in Ins own words, "it is tin- finest social service !'<>>■ soldiers that, has ever been done in the history of the world."ln the New Zealand Y.M.I'.A. "hut" in London there is bed aeeoiiuiiiH.hr lion for --100 men. and meals are provided for the soldiers—men from the camps and men on leave from tilt' front at any hour, of the dav and night. It has never been closed for live minutes, and over 100 U meals; are served there daily. "'Hint •hut' " suvs the professor, "ban already saved the* New Zealand boys thousands of pounds, and made possible a eheup week's leave for hundreds of our men who else could never have conic to Loudon, so terrific is the cost of living. _ A man can get there a bed with spring mattress, clean sheets, blankets, fumigated i.\c«ry day. and a breakfast of ham anal eggs', or anything else he fancies, for the sum of Is Gd. although at times we were paving 3d apiece for eggs. 1 had many meals' there, and one, consisting of breast of lurkev, potatoes, beans, plum pudding, bread alid butter, and cheese, which 1 got for lOd, could not have been got for less than 2s Gd in the cheapest London res. taurant. The biggest proportion of the privates and non-coms, sleep and have breakfast at least in the Y.M.I'.A. hut. We have 350 waitresses there, all drawn from the leisured classes, and all doing the work free of charge. They keep it going night and day, and I have seen a titled woman scrubbing the floor. 'J he presence of these women in their pretty uniforms is quite the most attractive feature to our soldiers. It gives the atmosphere, the atmosphere of home. SADNESS EVERYWHERE. "In England now," continued the doetor, "there is so much evidence of widespread sorrow that it is hard to be anything but gloomy. The railway stations furnish harrowing spectacles. the men coming home on leave, their trench Helmets still on their heads, have been unable to disguise iust how terrible this war is, and the partings a day or two later, when the men have to go back, are terrible. J have seen well-dressed, sell-con-trolled women sobbing so that they shook from head to foot, I never spoke to a p soldier who did not (look forward to peace; but, also, 1 did not speak to one but thought peace worse than death un- . less first we realised the things for which we entered the war. The young men are we entered the war. The young men a we entered the war. The young men a cheerfully carrying a burden never placed before on the shoulders of the young men of any nation." WET CANTEEN IN ENGLAND. Tn conclusion, Dr Bedford referred to a matter which has caused him some con.

corn, and which ho has referred to Sir .lames Allen. The camps ill New Zealand have only "dry" canteens, the ships on which the men' travel are "dry," and at one at least of the main ports of call the hotels were shut down while the soldiers were on shore leave; but when the men roach England they pass under the English regulation;!, "and thsre is 'a wet canteen at Sling, the New Zealand Camp on Salisbury Plains. The presence of this wet canteen, the doctor noticed, was leading young men to drink too much, and he has foe hope that the New Zealand Government will be able to get it abolished in the New Zealand camp.