WAITING FOR A MOVE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11507, 1 October 1915, Page 6

WAITING FOR A MOVE

: f - LIFE ON GALUPOU. : BOYS BEGINNING TO FEEL LIKE FIXTURES. Sappor F. S. Wilkinson, of Bromley. in a letter from Gnliipoli to his , I friends at home, .states that he and j his mates aro fretting quite settled j down, and are beginning to feel like a part of tho fixtures on the peninsula. ! All the .soldiers seem to dislike being stationary, and are never so happy as ! when on tho move. They were onJ joying lovely weather, much like New Zealand weather in summer, Dut had no strong winds. Since leaving Wellington iu April they had had only an hour's rain, and that was near the tropics. •' I don't know want the scales would say," the soldier continues, " but there are a lot of us who will be ashamed to look at them when wo get tbe opportu- j nity. Sid. Hawkins used to call mo i ' fencing-wire ' when we were playing j hockey together, hut I shall soon be ' fine j>iano-wiro ' —finer, but tougher. This position in many places is too steep fo ropeii tracks, and so stops have to bo cut in the hillsides. These give the boys plentv of exercise, especially as there are no horses here for transport, but only a few mules that the Indians use. You would smile to see a long string ot men, with a shell in each hand, plodding up the hillside track, to tho gun that tnev are supp ying. There is a cood bit of the brook business about them—' I go on for ever" Describing incidents of the war, he oays:~ " You have read in the papers a great deo 1 about bravery, but it never j strikes one the same as when one sees it for himself. The bravest here, in jmy opinion, are the wounded. Theirs ii an entirely different sort of bravery from what you get in a charge or where excitement runs high. A sergeant with his arm all but .\hot off with shrapnel is baing carried past on a stretcher. Ris disabled arm is hanging over the side: he just reaches over with his other arm and places his useless arm on tho stretcher, saying, ' I don't expect this will be any use to me again' Things like that make you have a great love for the boys. I have not come across F. Wilson yet. J. Rennie and F. Hardly are both well. I have not seen S. Whit worth or A. Cotton since I saw them on the hospital shijv I am sorry to say S.J. was killed the other day. He was a real good soldier and comrade, and alwavs had a cheers' word for one. My work takes me to the trenches, and I met him on the slrft that, morning. He took a great interest in his work and showed me all Jimmy's doings during the night. I had only left him a few minutes to go and cook my breakfast, when a shell got him. He is one more of the brave boys gone, although here one does not seem to see or feel the brave side of this business. Wo just do our work and carry on the game, with a more silent and mysterious force bringing us closer together, and as time goes on wo learn more of the true moaning of the word " Comrade.' " It is surprising how much water it takes for a large body of men. The best we get is brought in the water ships from somewhere outside. Every

week we get ono whole table-spoonful of iijncjuico, which is of the best. But I have a weakness for limejuico and one spoonful is eoon settled. We occasionally get mm, but I think it is being stopped. I can always get plenty of volunteers to take my share, as I havo no mo for it. The food is a great deal better than it was, and the boys arc p eking up all round. I am now feeling my best since coming here. " I have not received any parcels as yet, nor have any of thg_.boys here, though I have received advice of quite a number that are to oorne. Our inajoi is writing to Alexandria about parcels, as they are perhaps hung up there. " Our aeroplanes- are often overhead, and to watch them with the white puffs of smoke from the enemy's shrapnel around them is a s'ght worth seeing. I have not heard the pilot\s opinion, but our airmen are real brave fellows. "We have an assortment of big game about here; tortoises up to a foot long, and plenty of smaller ones; snakes about four feet long; bats that are on show at dusk, flying and tumbling about aimlessly. We have also doves wlith a musical coo-coo; and to finish up we have big black vultures, that only get a move on when a shell gets in their midst. You can understand what their diet is when war is on. Perhaps their presence may explain some roports about the treatment of the dead. They are uot often seen from our position except -when they get a stir-up and get on the wing."