BISHOP CLEARY'S RETURN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14441, 30 October 1917, Page 5

BISHOP CLEARY'S RETURN.

Bishop Cleary, who has arrived from the front, explained to a New Zealand Times representative that, under medical orders, he could not be interviewed, or give public addresses as he had been requested to t do. ' In the course of a very brief conversation, however, lie ™ft4s. one -oi- two interesting remarks about the. war "."• Tim Allies had, he said, a preponderance m men, guns, and, above all, morale. The guns outnumbered thpse of the enemy by about* five to one, and the domination of the British air service had been of immense adVantage. • A -..British advance now meant an expenditure of a million shells a day m. the bombardment of a sector. The worst German projectiles were the minenwerfer and .the 5.9 shell, which latter had a more, extended an£le of explosion than the others. During his period of service, said tbe Bishop, there had been three changes m the bayonet syllabus, and m the last the "guard" had been abolished, on the assumption _ that the German will not stand up to"' our men. He could tell an interesting story of a little fellow of five foot, six who bayoneted two very largo Prussians, and was making for a third, when he was hit through the right shoulder. Asked if he did not find constant work among the -wounded and dying depressing, tho Bishop gave an emphatic negative. No'one could help being cheerful, he said, when ho saw the soldiers' indomitable^ spirit . .Bishop Cleary had many narrow shaves m. the fighting line, and is suffering at present from an iniury to the ear. - » Asked his opinion on the duration of the war, the Bishop said. ho believod the end of next northern summer would see the thing through, but many military officers of high rank were not sanguine of a finish under .another two years.