“UP AGAINST A” BIG THING.
"SICK OF THE CLAP-TRAP."
An officer on one of the ships in the Dardanelles Antes to his brother in London —
"We have been all sorts of things since, we came here—mine-sweeping, patrolling, and mine-laying, tho latter being much the most hazardous, and, in fact, w6 had a lucky and miraculous escape once or twice. Then we do a bit of bombarding. But between one thing and another we are kept going all the time, and never know from day to day what the next job is. The troops have done great work so have the smaller ships and some of the larger; but the accounts in the papers are rather misleading. For one thing, the Big Lizzie is a bit over-rated or, rather, her reputation overshadows other ships that have done grand work. One gets horribly sick of the clap-trap in the Home press, and the sooner people at Home realise that they can't sit on tha fence and sing "Rule Britannia" and " The Boys of the Bulldog Breed" the better. We're up against a big thing, but nothing short of a German army in London would wake some of them up to a sense of their duty. That alien question should have bsen tackled ten- months ago. also the munition question. We ought to have had a lesson from South Africa. That was only a flea-bite to this, but it was serious enough for us at the time, and we added the " Recessional" to the hymn-book and sung it with gusto • but did we forget? I rather think so' God grant we remember now and in the future.
Its a pity they dont leave the treatment of German prisoners to those who have had to deal with them. I can quite understand how you feel, so does anyone after hearing of their fiendish tricks. The end of the war may come soon, but centuries will never wipe out the German's disgrace. We require no Hvmn of Hates and the poet isn't born who could adequately write one; but there's something singing inside us, and if it could only find words and music fitting it would make the Huns turn- pale*
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16026, 18 September 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)
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366“UP AGAINST A” BIG THING. New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16026, 18 September 1915, Page 2 (Supplement)
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