SHORTAGE OF WRITING PAPER.

Otago Witness, Issue 3201, 21 July 1915, Page 54

SHORTAGE OF WRITING PAPER.

IMMIGRATION OE BELGIAN WOMEN.

WELLINGTON, July 15. The Minister of Defence has had a telegram from Alexandria advising him that as there is a shortage of writing paper and envelopes at the front, every person writing to a soldier should enclose in the envelope one sheet of unused notepaper and one envelope, which the soldier in his turn may use, and write a letter from the trenches.

PROPOSAL REJECTED. WELLINGTON, July 19. ✓ In reply to a letter forwarded by the New Zealand Government in April _ to the Belgian Minister in London regarding the immigration of Belgians to the dominion, the following cable message was received to-day; “ With reference to your letter of April 7, the Belgian Minister states that, owing to the heavy loss in population sustained during the war, the Belgian Government much regrets that it is unable to consider the suggestion for the encouragement of immigration of Belgian women. It wishes to express thanks for the kind proposal of the New Zealand Government.” JOTTINGS. The employees of the various saddlery establishments in Mastcrton have contributed 174- pairs of leather slippers for use on the hospital ship. The work was done in the'men’s own time (says the Wairarapa Times). Lieut. F. Y. Brown, son of Lieut.-colonel and Mrs Brown, of High street, Greymouth, arrived in Greymouth last week from Duntroon Military College on two weeks’ furlough before proceeding to the front. Lieut. F. S. Yarnham (son of Mr John Varnham, chief clerk of the Wellington Education Board), who wont -away with the Fourth Reinforcements, has been promoted to the position of quartermaster of the Now Zealand infantry base details, Zeitoun camp, under Captain Wilkinson (also of Wellington). He has taken the place of Captain Sanderson, who has been granted sick leave. Mr Duncan Rutherford is issuing an appeal to sportsmen for 10,000 hares for the hospitals which arc dealing with the wounded soldiers at Home (says the Christchurch Press). Arrangements have been made with the freezing companies to send away 30 crates (360 hares) by each ship sailing for England. The hares should bo consigned to either of the freezing companies, freight forward, and advice sent by telegram. The tally should; be sent to Mr Duncan Rutherford, Culverdon. Letters received by Mrs Maclean, of Glenalvon, Auckland, show that her con Lieutenant Cuthbcrt Maclean, of the 4th Fusiliers, who recently won the Military Cross in France —is now with the Royal Flying Corps, and engaged on observation work. Lieutenant Maclean’s wife, who is in London, stated in a letter that the machine gun officer’s work proved too great a strain for her husband’s knee, which had been injured: by shrapnel. He did not walk at all lame, but be was transferred to the Flying Corps. Writing on May 23, Lieutenant Maclean refers to his growing enthusiasm for hying, and adds that he was thinking of bringing a machine back to Now Zealand with him. The patriotic carnival recently hold in Arrowtown resulted in a net profit of £492 (telegraphs our correspondent). It has been decided to send half of this amount to the Southland Belgium Fund and half to the Otago Queen Carnival for the Country' Queen. Our Wellington correspondent states that Sir Joseph Ward has received word that bis sons, Messrs Vincent and Gladstone Ward, have arrived in England, and, having passed their examinations, have obtained commissions in the army. Nows has been received in Wellington (telegraphs our correspondent) that Major W. J. TTardham. Y. 0., who was wounded at the Dardanelles on .June 3, has been discharged from the hospital at Cairo, and is now in one of the convalescent homes there. Dr 'Aa Moncrieff Finlayson. lately geologist to the Tndo-Burma Oil ComnCny. has returned to London, and obtained a com-

mission from the War Office. lie has boon appointed a lieutenant in the 10th Bat* talion of the South Lancashire Regiment. In a, letter to his father (the Rev. A. M. Finlayson, of Waitati) he says that the people in England are “ beginning to realise the seriousness of the war, and the whole nation will require to make a good deal more effort and sacrifice than it has yet done to see it through.” Soldiers in the firing line on Gallipoli Peninsula seemingly experience a difficulty occasionally in finding writing material. There arrived in Wellington last week from Gunner C. J. Edwards an ingenious postcard made out of a portion of a cigarette box. The writer was of a cheerful mind. Ho says: “Wo are simply in clover here compared with the training portion of our service. Wo have ‘AI ’ dug-outs and the food is good. To be precise, I would not have the ship on my mind. The weather is perfect and sea bathing an everyday practice. The country is beautiful, and if it were not for the noise of the guns and the whizz of bullets I could imagine mystolf back in Now Zealand. Mr E. Fcden, of Hawera, has four sons out of a family of five in training with the Expeditionary Foroo. Three gifts of land have been made within tho last few days to the executive of the War Relief Association (says the New Zealand Herald). The donors were Mr G. Alley, who gave two sections at tho Western Springs; Mr W. N. Glasgow, three sections at New Lynn; and Miss Van Ronon, a section at Birkenhead. An offer by Messrs S. Vaile and Sons to dispose of all the sections free of charge has been accepted. “ Private W. Smith,” 20 years of ago, Auckland Battalion, reported to have died of wounds, was ically Private Con Dooling, son of Mr and Mrs C. Dooling, of Gisborne. He was opposed to compulsory military training, but when tho call came ho answered. Thinking he would bo prevented from going to the front if it was_ known he had been evading military service, ho registered under an assumed name. , Lieutenant Sydney Cook, son of Mr Joseph Cook, married Miss Elsie Sheppard a few days before ho left for the front (says the Wairarapa Times), and Mrs Cook, who was a nurse in the Prince Alfred Hospital, left (Sydney for England. The Kyarra, however, landed the nurses in Egypt, where Mrs Cook resumed her nursing duties. Lieutenant Cook, wounded, was in bod in hospital at Alexandria, when, to his amazement and delight, he saw his wife walking down the centre of the ward. He put up his hand and called her by name. The meeting was quite unexpected. The curious position that may arise under the present system of gathering and distributing- war news was well illustrated on Thursday (says tho London Observer of May 2). A Router despatch, dated Wellington. Thursday, \ received by tho London papers between 11 and noon, sot out that in the capital of Now Zaland there had been a great meeting of rejoicing following Mr Harcourt’s congratulatory message on the bravery of the Now Zealanders in the operations at the Dardanelles. No one in England (outside official circles) oven know that they had been engaged, and at 3.15 the only information New Zealand -headquarters in London could give was; ‘Regret I have no information on the matter.” A resident of Hamilton has a letter from a relative in France in which it is stated that the French are gradually replacing all the 75m,m field pieces, which have done such splendid work, by guns of larger calibre —namely, 105 mm. Tho new weapons are described as being very much more formidable. • The resignation of Dr Alex. Stewart as medical superintendent of the Wakatipu District Hospital has been received by the Southland Charitable Aid Board (says the Lake Wakatipu Mail). Ho has handed in his name to the Now Zealand Government in response to tho call for 100 doctors from the dominion. In a brief note to his father, Mr D. Campion, Private C. Campion describes life in tho trenches at the Dardanelles (states the Wanganui Chronicle). “"We are turned into infantry for the time being. Accommodation is very cramped in trenches. We got an allowance of a pint and a-half of water a day. The enemy keep up a continuous fire. Wo had church service in a big trench, with rifle bullets and shrapnel humming over tho lop of us. So far I am doing all right, and am well.” One of the wounded men returning from tho Dardanelles states that women took part in the attempt to repel the Australians (says a telegram from Fremantle to a Sydney paper). Ho saw three armed Turkish women equipped .with ammunition bolts lying dead near a deserted house, and a British Tommy had also told . him that his regiment had accounted for more than a dozen such women. The local Defence office is asking for a member of the Veterinary Corns, to report at Trenthara as early as possible. Word has boon received by cablegram that Mr Victor Gallic, the youngest. son of Mr and Mrs John Gallic, of Wellington, has passed his examination, and *has received a commission as lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery. Mr Gallic, who went Homo in the lonic recently, was for four years a sergeant in the D Battery, and previously hold a similar position in the Wellington College Cadets. One of the officers of tho Otago Infantry Battalion, in tho course of a letter to his relatives in Dunedin, says:—“l went to dinner at the Continental (Cairo) with Miss Batchelor and Miss Forbes. These girls have been marvels, and if people in Dunedin knew how much they had done for the wounded, how much time and money they had soent for the comfort of the men, they would give them tho freedom of the city or something that the recipients could appreciate equally much. They were particularly kind to one of. my men who died in hospital (Private Hanly) ; ” _ Tho writer goes on to refer in appreciative terms to kindnesses that he had personally received at the hands of tho same ladies. Colonel W. G. Will (Assistant Director of Medical Services, New Zealand Expeditionary Force), who returned invalided by the Willochra from Egypt on Thursday, had tho misfortune to bo sunstru.ck while pursuing his duties, and his health became seriously affected, but the sea voyage out has done him a groat deal of good. lie intends recuperating for a couple of months, after which he will report himself for duty. Colonel Will has been succeeded bv Lieu-tenant-colonel Matthew Holmes, of Wellington. who also left New Zealand with the Main Expeditionary Force. As the result of « concert given by the Maoris of Putiki, a cheque for £365 has been handed to the Wanganui Patriotic Committee. The fund now stands at £26,249.