GALLIPOLI, 1915.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11482, 2 September 1915, Page 5

GALLIPOLI, 1915.

I | A boxing tourney without glove.-, or a 1 referee; !A football match without an umpire or i spectators ; A game of golf with steel balls and red flesh fur bunkers; Another bout for the victor And a grave for the vanquished; This is War. Drab vessels in a silken bay j Vomiting fighters and tabloided death ; j Sea-salt ranklivvj in raw, aching | wounds | A clawing at saud walls and stunted j bushes . ] Alinus the martial music and tho pomp ; That gat.her round trreat deeds in piping Pea,co, " ' j (When Governors lay foundation-stones; ! A tuneloss medley of banal fries I Rirging like clarion calls : J Torn tunics splattered thick vritb Asian j blood; | Tho red sun glittering on reddened steel; And the mad joy of the .super-hunt: Loud cries for Allah : Shrill shrieks of the disembowelled ; j The sullen flopping of the pierced of | heart; . j The fantastic stagger with the punctured brain; Humming pallets and the dolorous boom of £uns; Hi.fcked throats and tired limbs.: ifhe racked of men with slaughter i j sick ' | Who kill nc"iin : j ! This is Gillipoli's hell-haunted coast. When Death slipped the leash And a new nation stormed it-s legended shores. j These are the fragmentary details that } filter through the Censor's office, j Deeds of men who succoured dying sheep And drovo gaunt oat tie along dusty ; roads to water, ; Or scored dull figures all day lone; in j iedwjl's, | Till T'\i te's wheel turned i And mad - them warriors in ancient • lands. 1 Men who faced an unknown hell With a grin and a casual eur.se; ; Men who lump: on when the Unjtom seemingly dropped nut of things; i Ful'-bloodeii men who did a thorough j job : U'T'i'ise it was their custom ; | j Dead men who bequeathed a word to | i rouse sore smitten comrades I ; H.• Southern Sea* j ! And manu;rove swamps and mulffii scrub j Iv the dnrk davs to come, i When alien hordes press on _ lis; j The crv that will "rinc triumphant _ | Fro v n Storm Bay to the no'-them f| jfa all the grim days of Australia >' j i irnvad. <Ya!'irH : ! ClalHpoli! t ' ■—Pontius Potter, in tho " Bulletin." | The Leeßton correspondent ot j the '"Star" states _ that- it is worthy ot' noto that sist y-vven out j of one hundred and eight men i<»nning j the A Squadron. (C,XX--) : l-M- Canter-) bury iiei'inii'iii, have enlisted fur the irei'i