VISIT TO GALLIPOLI.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19832, 30 December 1927, Page 11

VISIT TO GALLIPOLI.

PILGRIMAGE TO A GRAVE.

'A MOTHER'S EXPERIENCES.

BEAUTIFYING THE CEMETERIES. A WILDERNESS OF FLOWERS. 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 honbur 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 Forces into the sea. Precarious though their hold was upon the ridges—very precarious indeed on Walker's Ridge, which embraced tho famous Nek—the Anzac Forces, although greatly outnumbered, retained it chiefly 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, whoso sons lie on Gallipoli, are unable to make the journey she has done, Mrs. Northcroft has related some of her impressions for publication in the 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 olse fo fight. And ve strain our eyes from the transport deck, but Anzac is out of sight-!. Valley and shore are vanished; vanished are cliff and hill; . And we'll never go back to Anzac . . But I think that some of us will. " That is Forever 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 1 ® Ridge to which Mrs. Northcroft went during each day of her stay. Behind the old line and tho mass of saps that still survive the action of weather, and along which littfe flowers bloom in their season, a sloping piece of sward, one of the sacred areas "that is forever England," looks out over the blue Aegean. 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 clifi-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 Suvla. Out at sea Samothrace, 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 tee the destroyers—Rattlesnake, Colne, and the rest —rushing to and fro upon their beats, and the water barges come stringing in.

Care of the Cemeteries. 'At Kilia, on' the shore of the Dardanelles, Mrs. Northcroft lived in a place that had been used as 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 Suvla three plantings have had to be 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 tho young trees. Rosemary Jor 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 Mrs. Northcroft found. It had beep her intention to plant a rosemary there. She took the to Turkey, but Customs officials in Constantinople, who appear to be masters in the operation of red tape, confiscated it because Mrs. Northcroft did not possess' documentary proof that her plant had a clean 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 be possible for one to leave the ship at Chanak, a fact that might be useful to others. She had no companion for the journey but with the aid of a guide, ' Mustapha," 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 Eone Pine or the Olive Grove, which had their day of importance. Goats, Donkeys and Flowers. The barren Anzac area remains in the Ktatc it was in when the troops landed. Mrs. Northcroft saw hundreds ~of black goats about the ridges, and the donkey was the beast of burden for the loca 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 drv in June there still wore lots of wild 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 & blue weed, which, while lacking beauty in a single flower, a fine pplasli of colour in the mass. A blue iris 4 is most plentiful. Mrs. ISorthcroft learned that Sir James Allen took a manuka plant from England to plant, at Chunuk 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 onlv 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.