THE DARDANELLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16547, 22 November 1915, Page 5

THE DARDANELLES

POSSIBILITY OF EVACUATION. LONDON, November 19. The Manchester Guardian doubts whether the Government will decide in favour of the evacuation of the Dardanelles. Possibly some portions of positions may be abandoned, but it does not believe that the Government will ivoluntarily release their entire hold on' the peninsula. KAISER AND VON MACKENSEN. BOTH ON THE' SPOT. ROME, November 19. It is stated that in anticipation of Lord Kitchener's mission, the Kaiser directed Marshal von Mackensen to hurry to Gallipoli and direct the German and Turkish forces there. Marshal von Mackensen arrived at Constantinople on Sunday, and left again on Tuesday. Other reports state that the Kaiser is personally directing the operations against the Serbians and Anglo-French troops in the Balkans. LAST GERMAN RESERVE. RAILWAYMEN REINFORCE THE TURKS. • (Times and Sydney gun Services.) LONDON, November 20. The Petit Parisien has published a message from Geneva stating that the Germans are engaging the Russian and French prisoners on the Munich railways for loading material for an expeditionary force to the Dardanelles, thus releasing railwaymen, who constitute the last reserve. Seventy-two thousand Germans have been despatched to reinforce the Turks. AUSTRALASIAN WOUNDED. LONDON, November 19. Large numbers of Australasian wounded have recently arrived in England. Several prominent officers state that the arrangements for the transport of the wounded have greatly improved. Many dysentery and enteric cases have been brought to England, also scores of operation cases. All the patientsi are anxious to make a speedy recovery, so as to enable them to make the earliest possible return to the front. They are determined 1 to hold on to Gallipoli, if necessary, despite the rigorous winter and the possibilities of pneumonia. They emphasised the fact that the men cannot have too much warm clothing, although there is so far no shortage of it. Several officers deplored the tendency to send mqre wounded' to Egypt now that the cooler weather has set in there, because the constant arrivals of wounded arelikely to have a bad effect on the natives. Lemnos, Malta., and England are the places to which, in their opinion, most of the wounded should be sent. AUSTRALIAN CASUALTIES. SYDNEY, November 21. (Received Nov. 21, at 5.5 p.m.) The 115 th casualty list contains the names of the following New Zealanders :— Wounded and Admitted 1 to Hospital in London. —Private J. . Wilson. 11l and Disembarked at Malta.—Sapper ' L. Salek, Privates' Wt E. Knowles and E. W. Russell. In Hospital at Heliopolis.—B. Osborne. Admitted to Hospital at London (previously reported ill and wounded). —Privates L. C; Wood', B. F. Young, and B. E. Culpan. Admitted to Hospital at Birmingham.— J. Dawe. Embarked for England.—Lance-corporal R. W. Deck, Privates P. Tait and C. L. Mollard. The total casualties to date are :— Officers—DeadS, 309; wounded 1 , 413; missing, 17; sick, 444; prisoners, 6; nature of casualty unknown, 31. Men—Dead, 5425; wounded, 13,244; missing, 1461; sick, 9927; prisoners, 47; nature of casualty unknown, 239. The dead include a chaplain and a nurse, and the wounded two chaplains. The grand total 'is 31,637. NO TRUTH. LONDON, November 19. (Received Nov. 21, at 3.30 p.m.) Reuter states officially that there is absolutely no truth in the reports of the German press that Britain has informed Russia that she is withdrawing from the Dardanelles. LORD RIBBLESDALE'S INDISCRETION. LONDON, November 19. (Received 1 Nov;. 21, at 3.30 p.m.) The newspapers protest against Lord Ribblesdale's statements and blame his indiscretion regarding General Monro, which, they say, is the worse as he is married to Mrs Asquith's sister, and was at one time chief Liberal Whip. . Lord Ribblesdale lost his, only son at Gallipoli. The Evening Standard says that the extent to which Lord Ribblesdale is helping our enemies cannot at present be estimated. " The Morning Post says that disclosures of this sort seriously affect the safety of our armies. [Lord Ribblesdele, in the House of Lords, when asking the Government whether the report on the position was that effective progress was being made by the operat:ons in the Near East, said it was common knowledge that General Monro had reported in favour of withdrawing from the Dardanelles, and adversely to tiie continuance of winter operations. He would like to know from the Government whether Lord Kitchener hod gone to act or to withdraw the mon. Me hoped.that, in the case of the Dardanelles, we would be successful in withdrawing the troops if military opinions favoured their withdrawal, and that we would not be over-anxious about our prestige. Europe might yet see a peaco arrived at which would not be imposed by •anybody, but which was being imnosed every day. It was best not to talk of terms of peace.] ACTIVITY AT SEDD-UL-BAHR. AMSiI'jROAM, November 21. (Received Nov. 21, at 11 p.m.) A Turkish communique states : There has been artillery fighting at the Dardanelles, enemy cruiseirs participating. During a violent storm on the night of the 18th two enemy landings were made and bridges were destroyed. A tugboat and nine large boats were stranded. The enemy at Sedd-ul-Bahr continuously dropped bombs on our trenches on the centre. MR CHURCHILL'S STATEMENTS. WHAT LORD C. BERESFORD SAYS. LONDON, November 21. (Received Nov. 21, at 11 p.m.) Lord Charles Beresford, in a communication to the press commenting on Mr Churchill's statement, says that he is convinced that if the policy to attack the Dardanelles had been brought by the Admiralty before the naval and military war staffs for their decision such a mad scheme as attacking the Dardanelles without military support would never have been initiated. , u ■■ BILLY-CANS FOR AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS. A movement is afoot in Australia to forward to each of "the boys" at the Dardanelles an Australian billy-can, each "billy" to contain something to cat. something to Gmoke, something to uso,_ and something to amuse. The probability is a s : rnilar movement will be inaugurated here in this dominon. Amongst tha eomething-to-use" articles a tin of Red Cross Ointment would be acceptable. Many of the boys were each furnished with a tin before leaving the dominion, and reports come to hand of good work having been accomplished thereby. This handy first-aid is the mighty healer of renown in all cases of skin abrasions. Its popularity throughout New Zealand is such that chemiets anj] grocers everywhere sell it at 1b 6d a box. —3.