The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1915. THE CRY FROM GALLIPOLI!

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14743, 23 October 1915, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald (Published Daily.) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1915. THE CRY FROM GALLIPOLI!

How can the Minister for Defence possibly expect the young fellows in New Zealand to realise a' sense of their responsibilities, when he publicly declares, as he did ht Christchurch last Sunday: “I don’t want the country to spend all its efforts on recruiting just now, for to make a tremendous spurt now and leave nothing in reserve for the coming months, would serve no good purpose.” Has Mr Allen taken leave of his senses? What are the Premier, Sir Joseph Ward, and other members of the Cabinet thinking about to permit such arrant nonsense to be uttered at such a critical state in affairs at Gallipoli and at such a period in the history of our nation? Is this the spirit that has animated Lloyd .George or Lord Kitchener in their appeal for every man that can possibly be sent, with or without equipment? Does this accord with the Sydney cable to-day: A feature of the new recruiting campaign is the addressee by. returned soldiers and their pressing insistence on the urgent need to send IMMEDIATE help to the hoys in the trenches? Is Mr Allen’s view in harmony with the necessity for men revealedby the cable from New York, which states that 115,000 Britishers are confronted with over 200,000 Turks, and the latter in almost impregnable positions? What sense is there in holding back for to-mor-row men in New Zealand when the depleted ranks of our gallant lads at Gallijioli are not strong enough to withstand the foo to-day! Yet that is what Mr AHcn suggests. He is more concerned rabout what reinforcements we ought to send in 1917 than in pushing in all iperi possible, so as to end the war before that date. The Minister’s arguments cannot possibly be sustained in view of the urgent calls from Gallipoli. A rapid disquieting feature of recent communications from the front has been a note of weariness in the writings of men who have been on Gallipoli for long periods. Some of the letters ask almost angrily why the men of New Zealand are not coming forward to give their brothers in the trenches a breathing space. A well-known Canterbury, footballer, writing from the treno]*es in Gallipoli on September 3rd to a friend in Wellington, gives a vivid idea of the pressure to which the New Zealanders at the front have been exposed during the last five or six months:— , , “It is the .same old thing day after day, and week after week—hutting up against the Turks, in a closely packed Mgnhunage with an occasional break-away in which you may get knocked out or nfay .not, ■ and in any case get little furtherphead. I shall never regret coming here, for I know better than ever it was playing the game; but, to-uight, I am sick , and tired, and Wondering if the people i)f New Zealand arc sending someone along to take my place. I would give half my accumulated pay for a drink of cold water< a sight of green grass and a place to 'stretch my' limbs. Ton soon get used to bullets and bombs and other trifles of the, kind that are flying about hero, but the heat and the dirt and the flies are unendurable and our waking dreams are of rest. I thought I was a pretty tough sort of fellow, and was never troubled .with’an ache or a pain; but now I am flat and stale, and sometimes altogether unprofitable. We were cheered up to-day, by a whisper that something sensational was going to happen oft the Western front that would speedily bring the war to an end. and I hope it is true. We pball all hang on here as long'as we are wanted, but the prospect of spejid- ' . - > - •

ing a winter, in one of those gullies is not pleasant. “Nothing would hearten us up fid much as to hear that all the young men' in New Zealand are crowding one another in their efforts to get to our assistance, ,bufc the news that filters through does not give us the impression that they arc. I wish they knew how much they arc wanted, that men are sickening and dying for want of a few weeks’ rest, and that wo are all waiting and hoping and still waiting for the help of our old mates. Give everyone of them a shove along when yon get the .chance. My wound is now quite healed and gives me no particular trouble, but like hundreds of better men who have been here from the first i want a month’s rest, and if I don’t get it—well, it won’t matter as far as I am concerned, but I should think when the chaps stopping at home know all about it they would he a little sorry they didn’t come over and help us.” In face of numerous similar appeals, Mr Allen says; “I don’t want the country to spend all its efforts on recruiting just now!” 1 , '