WINTER TIME IN GALLIPOLI

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16542, 16 November 1915, Page 10

WINTER TIME IN GALLIPOLI

NEW PROBLEMS TO BE FACED. ft (Fbom Oob Own Correspondent.) LONDON, September 30. On September 10, Reuter's special correspondent in Gallipoli wrote Home another interesting despatch, referring once again to the coming winter. He says: "The last 10 days nave brought a decided fall in temperature. The great winds of the equinox have begun to blow, and night and day the north-easter sweeps over the peninsula and across the tossing iligean Deyond. Fortunately, all the landing places are sheltered against a storm from this quarter by the high hills and cliffs of the peninsula. The colder weather is a foretaste and a warning, not to be disregarded, of what is in store for us if the army is to pass the winter in its present positions. We are in a country which can provide us with nothing. In ordinary times it supports a sparse population of peasant'farmers and a few villages. Even if we were well in possession of it, instead of merely holding the fringe of its inhospitable coast, it oould not provide food, shelter, timber, or any of the things we stand in need of, in appreciable' quantities. No doubt places will be found where our men can be brought back for a time to rest and tune but they will be far, more difficult of access, and whatever shelter they afford to men weakened by exposure to an inclement climate will have to be built by ourselves. Huts can be built for a certain number, but the timber and the nails, the galvanised iron for the roofing, and whatever else goes to the ma-king of them, will, have to come from England or from somewhere overseas. The peninsula and the islands give us nothing. GENERAL DECEMBER.

"To the right of Chocolate Hill the plain is uncomfortably rich in water. One has only to dig down a few feet to strike water anywhere, and the troops who hold the line to the left and around the base of Hill 60, actually have in one of their trenches an old Turkish well properly built up with stone, and yielding an abundant flow of water. The Turks, of course, know all about this well, which must haive been one of the landmarks of the countryside for generations, and fought hard to prevent it from falling into our hands, but the have it, and will keep it. T^he abundance of water beneath the soil is no disadvantage at the present moment, but it portends marshy ground and wet trenches during the winter. It is obvious, indeed, that the whole of the plain must be very wet in winter. ■ The sides of the great hills drain into it, and the Salt Lake, now a flat, dry expanse, is invaded by the sea. Our point of farthest penetration is still on the Gulf of Saros ridge, where, our front trench is about three miles from the point of Biyuk Kemikli. The trend of the line is backward across the plain, and where it crosses in front of Chocolate HilJ it is abo.ut miles from the sea. Across"the plain to the right this distance decreases, and there are places where the sea is less than a mile away. The Turk seems disposed to confine himself to shelling the beaches, and let _us .alone in front. Perhaps he is counting on Generals December and January. It must bo our business to see that when those eminent strategists take the field our anny is in good 1 case to withstand their attacks."