A TASTE OF WINTER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144860, 11 December 1915, Page 6

A TASTE OF WINTER.

GALLIPOLI _ MAILS LOST , (By Captain Bean.) GABA TEPii, Kov. IS. Vosteiday, for the lirst time since Binding, a south-westerly storm clesounded on the beaches at Anzye. About 9 o’clock small craft bejrun to clear for a safer anchorage muter the lee of one of the islands. The sky was blue, .but the weather was too much fur the smaller boats. A tug carrying a largo part of the Christmas mail for the Australians foundered. The crow were, happily saved, but 1.68 bags ol soldiers’ Christmas letters wont to the bottom. Jiy the afternoon the seas v, ore b>vsting over the steamer which had been sunk as a permanent breakwater, Hinging the spray as high as the mast tops. "With the sunset the wind reached the force of more _than hall a gale. The hcaoh was one of aisiievellod litter, great beams from some of the more exposed piers mixing with the half-stranded lighters, the whole moving and doglng backwards and forwards as if in some elephantine dance. At this moment thestoim burst in a downpour of rain lasting twenty minutes. Streams poured down the gallics, many dugouts being drenched. The beach was knee-deep m slime, the waves actually washing into the beach dressing station. The weather afterwards 'moderated.

This afternoon a German aeroplane (Hine over. Hying low down. Turkish guns started a desultory fire on the beach, and have been keeping np the hre all night, evidently under the impic.vdon that wc must be busy replacing the damage. The weather is chilly, but the days are still gloriously line. The storm is merely a forecast of what we have to expert continuously from Chi Limns onwards. The troops arc exceedingly confident, and cheerfully endnre through all hardships. That statement is made not in any oon-entional way. but represents the actual truth. At the same time it is necessary to face the fact that the winter here will he one of severe hardship. AVc can no more compare the facilities of Franco with those of Gallipoli than London with Timbuetoo. For example, the Bid Australian Brigade, who wore the first troops to laud in Gallipoli, and who made the hist famous rush up the hills af Anzac in April, is .still in the trenches, which it lias occupied con-tinuou-dy since the first week without any relief. Only at the present moment is it being found possible to give part of this brigade some relief.