THE DEFENCE FORCES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16259, 17 December 1914, Page 6

THE DEFENCE FORCES.

«. By Sbhtbi. Colonel Nichols, Major Hiokey, and Mujoi- Uriuit will leave jjuneOiU ou Saturday for ijuubuu k> attend Lkt) annual nonunion course of instruction, 'ilifcy expe«t k> return to Dunuuui on tne iMin. One uaavoiaabie consequence of tne war is uiat tue annual leave iur memoere of the litatt Corps and I'liruw. „ Staii hae been canoodled. 'ihe slack-«.itr period about Cnxistmits wai» usually availed of to give most ot the stall' tneir annual leave, it is hoped Unit tiie loss ol annual leave will be compensated Jor later. A letter from a .-nember of the New iioakuid Expeditionary Force: — Open Sea, It'r Any, November 13. "Dear 'Sentry,"—His deep 6ea majesty King Neptune and consort are to arr»ve ou board at 2.60 p.m. to-day, and we will iuve to 'pay homage:.' 1 tuink we are as lucky ub any of Uio New Zealand ships. We have got iar more deck space; also a grand piano, an orchestral trio, and a mixed band (recently formed), consisting of combs and tissue paper, whistles, etc. The weather since leaving Albany has been absolutely periect, and a trip acroas to Broad Bay is about as rough as we have had. The horses on board are keep.ng as well as can be expected, and so tar only threo have gone over the side. With the exception of our horses and a few of those belonging to the Mounted Field Ambulance, moet of the,horses can be exercised round the ship. As many of the men ae possible sleep on deck while going through the tropics. I never thought it possible to sweet so much ae I ihave done lately, even when doing nothing. It was a good job the canteens were taken over by the Government. Occasionally we have a fire alarm and boat drill. Freeh water for washing is not obtainable, but we are getting used to washing in salt water now. We were only 70 mfles away from a *naval battle, , but I suppose news of that has reached you ere -thie. We sarw the British boat leave us at full speed after the enemy, and a couple of hours later word was received that the enemy had been beached, with her foremast and three funnels missing." For the regimental tour, to be held in the vicinity of P&lmerston, the general idea assumes that South Canterbury, North Otago, and South Otago are small but warlike States. A defensive alliance exists be- . tween South Canterbury and North Otago. The northern frontier of North Otego is the Waitaki, and the southern the Shag River. North Otago o'eclares war on South Canterbury on December 31, 1914. South Otago orders a general mobilisation on that date. According to the special idea, North Otago wants to gain a decisive victory over, South Canterbury before South Otago can assist. The forces to be engaged (in spirit) are the sth Regiment Mounted Rifles, B Battery Field Artillery, and one section Field Ambulance. These troops are assumed ' to be at Hampden on the night of December 31. The remainder pf the troops are on the line of the Waitaki River. The scheme will be worked out from this basie, and should prove engrossing and instructive to those participating. If you ask the Bfc soldiers of the sth Mounted Regiment who spent a week from December 5 tinder canvas on Mr Gow's property, "Invermay," whether they found tba experience pleasant, as well as profitable, you need expect none but an affirmative reply. If you ask if there was any wind throughout the, week you will get a most emphatic a/fimtative. The wind blew almost without "pssafcron, and, as this was a camp for practical as well ae theoretical musketry, the shooting could not fail to be affected. N-everthele*. although but a few qualified for marksmen's badges, the general average was fairly good. Reveille wae af 5.50 a.m., and from then on to 5.30 p.m. work was carried on steadily. In the evenings football was the principal attraction. The rationing of the oamp was in the hands of caterers, Messrs Frew Bros., of MoegieJ, and the best tribute to the manner in which they played their part is the circumstance that not a single complaint against the food was heard, at any rate, officially. Chaplain Captain Aitken read prayers in the morning, and also conducted divine service on the Sunday. Tiie squadrons were inspected on Friday by the officer commanding the regiment, Lieutenant-colonel Macdonald. Captain Black was in command of the camp, tbe Territorial officers associated with him 'being Captain Slinger and Lieutenants Miller, M'Kcgg, and Wileon, while the Staff was represented by Captain Shand, Sergeant-major Henderson, and Quarter-master-sergeant M'Lean. The gale that wae so severely felt in the town on Saturday, December 6, struck the , camp at ''Invermay" with such violence that the marquee pole was snapped like a cairot, with the inevitable result that the marquee collapsed. The incident wae the occasion of minor heroics. When the hurricane reached its height the tables in »the marquee used for the officers' and sergeants' mess were covered with crockery. Despite an orninous and obvious heralding of the impending collapse, two mesa orderlies remained in the swaying marquee until they had stowed away the crockery and preserved it against inevitable destruction. That good news as well as bad newe travels fast was illustrated in a whimsical way at the "Invermay" camp. The rotund cook, who is quite a character at Otago military camps, and who is a notorious wag, casually mentioned to one man that he might bring his " mug " along to the cookhouee that evening, as the caterers were turning on cakes. When the hour of the rendezvous arrived almost every man of that squadron seemed to have an appointment at the cookhouse, and the " mug '* appeared to be a condition of the appointment. When neither cakes nor tea materialised the disappointed recognised that the cook had been having his littio joke. Although the matter has not yet been definitely determined, it is probable that the sth Regiment's annual camp will be held at Matarae. The band of the 4th Regiment has sent no fewer than nine of its members away with the Expeditionary Forces. Seven capable musicians constitute a heavy toss, but the men have been spared for a worthy, object, and the bandmaster has addressed himself with resignation to the training ol recruits to fill the vacancies. The writer of the following epistle, who, on investigation, has been found to fall considerably below the lofty standard ot patriotism suggested in his letter, would need to be mightier with the sword than ho is with tie pen if the defence of Samoa at a critical moment were to depend upon him:— "Capton i am Write, to yon ask you if you can get me a Way" if you plese i have got my papers from the Dr he as paes me The defence apartment never sent my papers to do Clapton try and get me a Way if yon plese i want to fight for ray country . . . if you get me a Way i Wont for get you Kindly let me now by return of male • " The secretary of the Southland Rifle Association writes as follows:—-"Dear ' Sentry,'—You will notice by our programme that the meeting is open to the whole dominion, and that passes have now, been granted up to 100 miles instead of in' group XIV only. We expect a big entry, aleo some very strong teams in the Champion Teams' Match. I have just received word from the secretary of the Otago Rifle Association that the annual interprovincial match, Otago v. Southland, will be fired in Invercargill at our meeting on Monday, December 28. With respect to ammunition, it is very hard to get down here, and i would ask you to let competitors know, so that they may be certain to bring their own. We have not able to do much shooting down hero owing to the terrible weather." The German naval authorities, appear to , have planned for every eventuality, including a means whereby any oktheir torpedo craft or submarines as are not too seriously ' damaged in a sea fight may be repaired practically on tho spot. They have built several sea-going dockyards, in the sharxs of huge double-hulled vessels, filled with machina tools, which can lie behind the actual fighting l'nc and pick up and repair any ot their mosquito fleet. These vessels have boon built in accordance with the plans of Ph. von Klitzing, of Kiel, their chief- n'avat constructor, and which, it may bo mentioned, were drawn out under the direct supervision of the Kaiser himself. The first of theso repair vessels was laid down by the Howaldtsvverke at Kiel, but it is not definitely known how many are actually in commission at the present time. The distinguishing feature of these vessele is their immense beam ns compared with their length. The reason for this is that there is sufficient, space between the twin hulls to accommodate one of their big 35-knot tor-pedo-boats or a submarine of the latest type, such as that which sank the Aboukir, Cressy. and Hojnie. These hulls are linked together fore and aft by steel girders built Tip of angle and plato steel, and are ot groat strength. During , the construction ofthe first doek~hi;i a number of experiments wore made before the final arrangement of thi'se srirders was agreed upon, but such ia the stiffness of the latest form that a submarine or torpedo-boat, when housed, can continue to run under its own power, and so aid the joint progress of 'tself and its deck without bringing any unduo strain on nny pint of the structure. The linking arid ioininir of the girders is such that the (lockfii'p can either steam up to a damaged boat, ami pick her up, or remain stationary whilst the veasol runs between tta hulls.