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Observer, Volume XXXVI, Issue 49, 12 August 1916, Page 11

Letter from returned soldier in Wellington "Times": It is. regrettable that newspapers are so ready to publish every bit of "piffle" that comes their way regarding the Anzacs. Quite apart from the fact that it is very objectionable to be for ever talking about ourselves, fully threequarters of these "stories from the front" are absurd on the face of them, and merely serve the purpose (perhaps, after all, a useful one) or proclaiming the ignorance of the average journalist. I noticed a very ridiculous story in your Saturday s issue, alleged to have been told by General Bird-wood. It referred to Australians and saluting—or rather, non-saluting. General Birdwood is related to have said that in going the round of the trenches one day he passed a big Queenslander who took no notice of him whatever, etc. Perhaps it will be news to the journalist responsible for the publication of this anecdote that at the front saluting is strictly forbidden, and that had the Queenslander taken any notice of the General he would probably have been severely reprimanded. It must surely be obvious that drawing the attention of possible enemy watchers to your officers especially officers as highly placed as General Birdwood—would scarcely be good policy. A soldier who did so (whether he were, an officer or a, private) would certainly "catch it, and from no one more hotly than from the English colonel "of the ramrod type" whose indignation at the Queenslander'* conduct is so naivo-ly reported.