"MISSING" SOLDIERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15950, 22 June 1915, Page 8

"MISSING" SOLDIERS.

INFORMATION BUREAU.

TURKS MOVE SLOWLY.

[Br, TELEGRAPH.—PHESS ASSOCIATION ] ' Wellington', Monday. His Excellency the Governor recently cabled to the Secretary of State for the Colonies asking for information regarding those soldiers reported missing. Mr. Bonar Law' replied stating that the Turkish Government had agreed to establish an information bureau, but its proceedings appear to be slow. Particulars will be cabled «t soon as received.

THE POISON GAS.

"SCIENTIFIC TORTURE."

FEARFUL SUFFERINGS CAUSED.

The use of poisonous gases by the Germans forms the subject of a letter from an English officer. " I went to see some of the men in hospital at — who were !' gassed' yesterday and the day before on Hill 60," 'he writes. " The whole of Eng | land and the civilised world ought to have the truth fully brought, before them in vivid detail, and not wrapped up as at present. " When we got to the hospital we had no difficulty in finding out in which ward the men were, as tho noise of the poor ■ fellows trying to get breath was. sufficient to direct us. We were met by a doctor belonging to our division, who took at into the ward. There were about twenty of the worst cases in the ward, on mattresses, all more or less in a sitting position, propped up against the walls. "Their faces, arms, hands, were of a shiny grey-black colour, with mouths open ■ and lead-glazed eyes, all swaying slightly backwards and forwards trying to get ■ breath. ' It -was the most appalling sight, all those poor black faces, struggling, struggling for life, what with the groaning and noise of the efforts for breath. Colonel —, who, as everyone knows, has had as vtfde an experience as anyone all over the savage parts of Africa, told me to-day that he never „felt bo sick as he did after the scene in these cases'. " There is practically nothing to be done for ,them, except to give them salt ?no water to try to- make them sick. " Eight died last night out of the 20 I saw, arid most of the. others I Baw will die; while those who get over the gas invariably develop acute prieumoriia. It is without doubt the most awful form of scientific torture. Not one of the men I saw in hospital had a scratch or wound. "The'nurses and doctor's were all work ing ■ their utmost against.this terror; jut one could see from the tension of their nerves that it was like fighting a hiddeu danger which was overtaking everyone •"A German prisoner was caught with a respirator in his pocket; the pad was analysed and found , to-contain hyposulphite of soda, with '1 per cent.' of some other substance. % • "Tho gas"is"in a cylinder, from which, when they send it out, it is'propelled a distance of 100 yards. , It,there spreads. "Please make a point of publishing this in every paper in England. English people, men and women, ought to know exactly what is going on— members of both Houses. "The people'of England can't know. The Germans fiaVe given out that it is a rapid, painless death. . - The liars! No torturo could be worse, than . to give them a dose of tieir own gas. The gas, I am told, is chlorine, and probably some other gas in the shells they burst." . ..." ' ...

COOLNESS UNDER EIRE. WALKING ABOUT AND JOKING. PLAYING CARDS IN THE TRENCHES . Private T. Daley, who left Sydney with the 3rd Battalion of the First Australian Expeditionary Forces, .writing to his sister at Waterloo, dates his letter from Ghezireh Palace, and states:— v ,' ; •../,■;■,"_,,,, : ,.- ; • '• "I am back in the old place again in Egypt, having a spell. I. got at the Dardanelles a. bullet, a big: toe; and they took me about; 800 miles to-get it well again. It is very nearly'right now;, it was worth getting; it. to, see the way they look after you." They cannot do' 1 enough for us. They had'- special trains waiting forius, with' beds for each one to lie on, and the way they look after us is tip-top. "1t,., was a grand sight;' .yoji would nev£r forget. it if you had ( seen . it. The enemy was waiting for us \ where we landed, and we chased them about,two miles before they started to fight When they did it was fast and furious.. It was a great sight to see the big shells bursting all round us. The boys took to it like a duck to water. ' You'would think, it was a picnic they were at the way they were walking about and joking. They even got the cards out and were playing. You would never think that the bullets were falling like a shower of rain, and \ when the r cannon roared they would say, •>' Gc on, r you, beauty.' Nothing" worried them. We've lost a lot of men so far, hut we will get square with the Turks before we are finished. About half my company are gone." There is one thing, they'-wont be able to blow about the six bob a day tourists now; I think we have kept the name of Australia up all right." '

SAVED BY A >OCKET.BOOK. AUSTRALIAN'S NARROW ESCAPE. A narrow escape from fatal injury is described by Private Croft,- of Bulli, N.S.W. "Towards noon on the day of the landing at the "Dardanelles," he writes, " the, Turks Vera knocking us over pretty often; and I stopped a bullet in my pocket-book after it had been through my left forearm. It was a good thing for mo that it turned against the bono, causing it to come out broad ' le on, as the doctor says, in which fashion it entered my pocket-book, going 'almost entirely through it. Had it done so there would have been no more Turks for'me. I thought I was finished as it was, bo cause the blow over the heart' knocked me out. I will send you the pocket-book to keep for me as soon as I get to Cairo. It is no use to me now, but as it saved my life I would like to keep it as a curio." , SPIES IN THE TRENCHES. GERMAN OFFICERS IN KHAKI. Writing frdm a hospital in Cairo, Sapper J. H. Hague, Ist, Field, Company of Australian Engineers, gays:—"The Turks are very treacherous. They do not recognise the/Red Cross, but fire indiscriminately at anyone. Our Red Cross men have done marvellous work. The Turks constantly hoist the white flag: they even try to give our bugle calls. German, officers come into our lines and give orders, but all their deep-laid artifices fail. We had interpreters in every regiment, and many have been found out to be spies. A German officer was found wearing the uniform of an Australian.' He came into our trenches ana said: ' Now, boys, we will give them a bayonet charge!' One of our officers standing near asked him who he was. 'An English officer,' he replied. 'Cover him, boys!' was our officer's order. Our men will be even with them before many days.. I only wish to be back again to dp my 'share. "The > Australians have made a name for themselves. The navy cannot praise them enough.'. In fact, they-say that they are doubtful whether British regulars wpuld have effected a landing at'afi. I may say here that the Jack Tar's, don our uniforms and creep' up to the trenches to have a random shot. The navy has done wonderful work in every way. They put out of action a howitzer battery at one shot,* and .silenced a fort of 30 guns in a few minutes. An armoured train was destroyed by, the Queen Elizabeth by means of a single shell. The Turkish losses must have been enormous."