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Otago Daily Times, Issue 16546, 20 November 1915, Page 6

In its major incidents the war has furnished magnificent examples of the triumph of steady courage and discipline over the fear, and frequently the certainty, of impending death. Not a few of these episodes in which the best traditions of British intrepidity and valour have been most nobly sustained have had relation to naval disasters. No severer test of discipline could probably be encountered than in the scene following the torpedoing or destruction by a mine of a warship. In what may be termed its minor incidents the war period has provided examples of heroism at sea equal to any which it has produced or is likely to produce. Of the tale of such incidents, more than the tenth part will never be fully told. Such an episode as the sinking of the hospital sliip Anglia—the same vessel that conveyed the King across the Channel after his accident in France—as the result of contact with a floating mine, is one of those happenings attended by circumstances which may well bring a thrill of pride to all British people. The vessel was within sight of the English coast and had on board a large number of wounded soldiers, including, it is stated, 200 cot cases, when the disaster happened. Time was of the utmost consideration if life was to be sawed, yet we read of no confusion and no panic. Instead of that ensued an interlude of quiet, desperate effort. To the last minute the attempt to run the vessel ashore was maintained, the work of rescue being gallantly continued the while by assisting craft under great difficulties. We read of the soldiers emerging from below, lining up on deck, and waiting their turn to enter the boats as if the vessel had been lying at a quay, while the slightly wounded saw to it that the more seriously injured took precedence. '' The nurses, of whom only three are known to be saved, worked splendidly, devoting themselves to assisting the wounded." The story as we have it has been told in but a few words, but they are words that leave an ineffaceable impression. The picture of the quiet heroism of wounded soldiers and their nurses on a doomed hospital ship touches the sublime. The episode has fittingly been compared to one of imperishable memory in the annals of which the British race is proudest—the loss of the Birkenhead, immortalised by artist and poet—when "half a thousand Englishmen'' went down—

Not with the cheer of battle in the throat, Or cannon-glare or din to stir their blood, But roused from dreams of home to find their boat Fast sinking, mustered on tho deck they stood. Biding God's pleasure and their chief's command.

It is satisfactory to observe that at the conference yesterday in Wellington, convened by the Government for the purpose of considering the question of the administration of the -war funds, a resolution was passed affirming the need for the provision by the Patriotic Associations of certain comforts for the sick and wounded members of the Expeditionary Force in England, Egypt, and elsewhere. The Government holds that it does not come within its province to provide these, and it does

s&em to us that the matter is one with which the local patriotic organisations may well regard it as their duty to deal. Mr P. R. Sargood, who is a member of the executive of the Otago Patriotic Association, has very strongly urged, in a letter which he has addressed' to the chairman, that that association will not be fulfilling its trust to the public if it does not place funds at the disposal of the duly constituted authorities in England and' Egypt to enable them to supply comforts for the Otago soldiers who may be wounded or invalided, and we think this view will find general endorsement. What is really required, however, is that not Otago soldiers only but soldiers from all over New Zealand who. have had the misfortune to become hospital cases, wherever they may be, shall have cause to realise that the people of the dominion desire that they shall lack nothing in the way of reasonable comfort during the period of their suffering and weakness. If the various patriotic associations throughout the dominion act in the spirit of the resolution that was adopted at the conference yesterday there will be no danger that the authorities, which are devoting themselves in England, Egypt, and elsewhere to the care of the sick and wounded in their respective countries, will have in future to complain of any lack of funds to enable them to carry on the important work they have undertaken. It may be that the funds under the control of some of the patriotic associations are so largely earmarked for specific objects as to leave only insubstantial amounts available for application in the direction that is now suggested. But, if that be the case, the associations have only to appeal to the public for fxesh funds to enable them to meet their fresh needs. Of that the proof is furnished in the liberality of the response we hmve ourselves received to an appeal which we thought it necessary to make in order that the dwindling resources of the New Zealand War Contingent Association at Home might be strengthened.