THE DEFENCE FORCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3183, 17 March 1915, Page 59

THE DEFENCE FORCES.

Bv Sentry. Gazette notifications: Mounted Titles, Captain G. O. Mayne to bo major; Bth (Southland) Regiment —Lieut.- ! colonel J. ,E. Watson transferred to reserve of officers; Major G. Mitchell to bo lieut.coloncl; 2nd Lieut. G. L. M'Cluro to bo lieutenant. The 7tli (Southland) Mounted Rifles and : the Bth (Southland) Regiment, together with : the No. 6 Company N.Z. Army Service Corps and the Mounted Field Ambulance, ■will go into camp at Lumsden and. Five Rivers on May 3. The date has been ■ altered from April 26 owing to the fact that the municipal elections will take place ; on April 28. i The sprightly letter appended, from a young lady at Cosham, England, to a friend in Dunedin throws cn interesting sidelight : “My Dear Lil, —Aren’t you glad you’ve got the summer out at Dunedin? It is simply freezing here, and oh ! my poor feet. I don’t half hate chilblains! We have a great many soldiers billeted in all the empty houses, skating rink, brewery, drill hall, and so on. They look frozen when they drill out here in the road. They drill right outs.do our .windows twice a day—about 9 in the morning and again about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Needless to say, Elsie and Marjorie don’t do any work whilst drill is proceeding. We’re at the window “getting off” with the soldiers. Geo 1 but wo do see life here. We have one special sergeant and two corporals, or rather bomhadiers, whom we keep a special smile for. I think the sergeant has finished with me though, because ho asked me for my cup of tea on Thursday, and I wouldn’t give it to him. So I’ve not seen him since. Of course all this takes place through the kitchen window when father is out of the way! All the same, I think he knows what is going on pretty well, as when a whole company of soldiers turn and start whistling, waving, etc., to a window I guess you’re a bit green if you don’t think there is a girl around somewhere! ISouthsea is absolutely swarmed with officers. I think the girls there are having the time of their lives. I did when I was down. My chum, the one I went to Bournemouth with, and I went to the Mikado Tea Rooms to tea. It is a sweet place, where an orchestra plays, and someone sings to you whilst you get on with the eating part of the business. The more you oat the better they like it. There arc a good many Canadian officers down here, but I have not seen any New Zealanders yet. If you’ve any chums coming over just tell them to call at 45 street, and I’ll look after them, and keep them in mischief— I moan out of mischief ‘ for you.’ Poor boys, you must make as much of them as you can before they go to France. It’s awful out there for them. Dot had a letter from one we saw the day before ho went to Franco. He is in the South African contingent. He says they’re up to their knees and waists in slush and mud, and swarmed with fleas. His chum is suffering fearfully with h:s feet, as ho came straight homo from South Africa -and joined up, and of course the climate is so different there. Now I must finish, with heaps of love from Elsie.” A letter from one of my most consistent and most informative correspondents with the Expeditionary Force in Egypt: i ... We are still at Zeitun camp, but I expect to leave at any time for the Suez to fight the Turks. Last week, all our infantry (Otago also) left here, and are now entrenched down there waiting. They have sighted the Turks. We do a lot of shooting now, and put up some great shoots. The heat during the day is something awful, and yet the nights and mornings are that cold. When a wind springs up during the day you nearly choke. The sand gets all over you, in your eyes, etc. Most of the fellows wear green glasses to protect their eyes from the glare of the sun, and also to keep the sand out of their eyes. The reinforcements are here now, and are being attached to their respective companies. They stem j a happy-go-lucky let, and I think a' couple | of months here will give them the surprise ; of their lives—they have no idea of discipline I as .we know it. It is great to see the way i the niggers sort them out vo take them down j the way they did us. They won’c look at us I now; they all flock after the newcomer. 1 The night the infantry got word they wore to go they cheered like mad half tho"night. About half a dozen hands got going and played all the patriotic tunes they could think of, and made a great din. They left about 3 o’clock in the morning. A frneral is a curious sight here. If the relatives have plenty of money the show is very elaborate. The body, in a glass case, with huge glorious wreathe, is carried on the shoulders of four men. The rest of tlie mourners go in front or follow bciiind singing away as if there were nothing ineI he recent encampment of the Coast Defence Detachment who, with Army Service Corps and Ambulance detachments, the whole comprising over 250 men, wont under canvas at Waitati from March 1 to 9, was most successful from a training point of view, and general satisfactory from other viewpoints. The unit paraded under Lieu-tenant-colonel Fredric at the Gardens Football Ground, and about 10 a.m. commenced the march to Waitati, reaching the camp about 2 p.m. At the Upper Junction School, the detachment was joined by men from Ravensbourno, Port Chalmers, Lower Harbour, and Otago Peninsula. These had : previously assembled at Port Chalmers, and I wore marched to the Junction. During the i march the weather conditions, were far j from being what one would desire, rain 1 showers falling at frequent intervals, and during the halt at the Junction <• tlv»-W drizzle set in, but this cleared as the unit began to descend the hill towards Waitati, and splendid weather greeted their n-viv >< in camp. The time in camp was devoted almost entirely to field training, and the arduous nature of this work gave all an inkling of the physical efforts called for in the real thing. The Y.M.C.A. marquee provided amplv for the r'oreat'on of tl>o men, and supplied their wants in the way of reading matter and writing materials. Incidentally it might bo mentioned that music was supplied bv the newly-formed and somewhat microscopic band of the unit. What they lacked iu numbers they made up for in energy and enthusiasm, and great things are expected in due course. With one serious exception the health of all was good. In the case of the exception the man was returned to town for treatment. In the matter of cooking the troops were self-contained, sergeant cooks undertaking the duties to the apparent satisfaction of all. On the march to .camp it was not surprising to find an occasional man involuntarily flying signals of distress. On

account of such the route march was taken quietly. The physical benefits of the camp were obvious in the march homo to Dunedin. tin tills occasion there were, in addition to the luncheon spell, only two brief rests, and the men swung into town in fine style.

Riflemen may now definitely make their arrangements for spending Easter on the Pelichct Bay range. The Otago Rifle Association, having made satisfactory arrangements enabling them to supply competitors with ammunition free of charge, have decided to proceed with their prizefiring at Easter, and have drawn up a programme which will bo available this week. Entries will close on March 26. The meeting offers inducement to young shots, who need not fear that the crack riflemen will carry off all the prizes, as special prizes, separate from those allotted for seasoned marksmen, will be available for young Territorials and cadets. It is pleasant lo find appreciation, and to’ conic upon it unawares. Happening to glance at the Defence notes of a southern contemporary, I experienced a mild glow at finding that one of my paragraphs was regarded as worthy of a position third from the heading. The familiar look of No. 4- drew the gaze, and I followed down, to find the apiaceiation a trifle overwhelm ing, extending as it did to seven or eight paragraphs, clipped ho’.u-bolvs from my notes without acknowledgment, and occupying about three-quarters of a column. The scissors must surely have baulked at such wholesale “borrowing. The irony of the thing was that lower down the writer acknowledged indebtedness to the Bluff Press for a few inches of matter taken from that paper. History will one day do justice to the magnificent feat of arms accomplished by the 25,000 British troops under Major-general Sir Henry Rawlinson, who were sent to Ostcnd just before the fall of Antwerp. To them it fell to cover the retreat of the Belgian army, and of the remnants of our Naval Brigade. The story of their deeds (says the United Service Gazette) is probably unknown to'9o per cent, of the British people, but it is one that rivals the deathless epic of Thermopylae. They fought a rearguard action with 80,000 Germans on their sea flank, and about 200,000 pressing ou their heels. They made a forced march of 28 miles one night after fighting and retreating all day, and the overwhelming German artillery shelled them out of two successive lines of trenches. But the third they held against all odds until the recent advance began. They lost 60 per cent, of their strength, 80 per cent, of the indomitable infantry, but they aro officially estimated to have put 200,000 Germans out of action. That is the bald story of a feat of arms that challenges comparison with anything in the records of war, and it deserves to bo bettor known than the “Retreat from Mons.” The heroes who died hard in that episode of the western campaign were the men who held up the German advance on Calais, and they sacrificed their lives in the defence of English hearths and homes.