RACE OF GIANTS.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13825, 21 July 1915, Page 8

RACE OF GIANTS.

AUSTRALASIANS' PHYSIQUE,

"I d$ not suppose," wrote Mr Ash/mead Bartlett/ while the New Zealand* ers and Australians were preparing for and rehearsing their Dardanelles exploits, "that, any country in its palmiest days ever sent forth to the field of battle/ a finer body of men than these Australian, New Zealand, and Tasmanian troops. Physically they are the finest lot of men I have ever seen in any part of the world. In fact, I had no idea that such a race of giants existed in th© twentieth century. Some of their battalions average sft lOin, and every man seems to be a trained athlete. The flood of volunteers to the colours was so great that thousands had to be rejected, and only the most perfect selected. There are doctors, lawyers, civil engineers, gentlemen of independent means, farmers, and miners in the ranks ready to fight side by side, each carrying his seventyodd pounds of equipment and ammunition as if he had been born with it on his hack. Many have left lucrative professions bringing in thousands a. year to fight for the Mother Country at the King's wage.

"Every evening for some days past we have had a full dress rehearsal of embarking and disembarking at night time from the warships which are to convey the covering force ashore. At dusk about 601) Australians are brought on board, and stay there until after dark. They are then formed up by companies on places which have been painted and numbered on the quarterdeck. Each company has a separate wooden ladder by which it must descend to its particular boat. When all arc aboard th© steam pinnace takes the boats in tow and convoys them to the shoro., when they disembark, iform up, and rush some selected position in absolute quiet. The men are then practised in digging .shelter-trenches in the dark, and are afterwards rapidly re-embarked and conveyed back to the transports."