"IN A PRECIOUS FUNK

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2494, 22 June 1915, Page 5

"IN A PRECIOUS FUNK

London, June 19. An officer who was at the Dardanelles on recent dates writes: "There has been a great deal of firing from tho trenches. The trenches are most interesting; ihey are mostly deep enough to walk upri.oftt in without exposure. T went round with General Birdwnod and Admiral Thursby one day. They fired at us a lot, but never got nearer than six inches. We saw the mountain guns at work. The enemy caught ono of the Australian guns a fair smack, and killed the officers, wounded seven men, and killed twenty-six horses and mules. Subsequently wo sat on the top of a hill where four days before it would have been highly unsafe to even lie. On returning we delayed to collect firewood. This undoubtedly (saved our lives, as four shells suddenly burst thirty yards away. We bolted to a dugout. I was in a precious funk and felt like a tortoise on whose shell some i£ne was tapping with a coal hammer." ■ ASKED FOR STEEL AND WE GOT IT 'A'- Waihi boy, writing to his mother from Heliopolis Hospital, Cairo, describes the death of Trooper Williams, of the Sixth Haurakis, and how he (tho writer) was wounded, as follows:— "Well, we asked for the steel, and we have got it now. It was a great day. I was hit in the elbow while I had glasses-to my eyes, the bullet travelling up my arm and breaking the bone. Nat Williams was beside me, and, as he turned to speah to mo. a shot entered his back. A companion dressed my wound with first aid dressing. All the ■wounded in my immediate vicinity had to get down to the beach, but could not go down the rid"e because it was under heavy fire. Consequently, the wounded had to stick to a winding gully full of undergrowth, with sudden drops of six feet, and for most of tho way with mud up to the knees." : Tlie writer, who is a lieutenant in the 6th Haurakis, pays a. high tribute to Major Stuckey. "He was a great loss, and was a grand chap and true as a die." The Trooper Williams referred to was a son of Colonel Williams, of Dorset (England),_ and some_ years back was a captain in the Territorials. Ho was ■well known in cricket and golf circles, and was a mombor of Lord Hawke's crickot cloven. WHEN TEE WOUNDED CAN HOP "I can honestly say that I don't want to go through the same tiling again; it was simply awful," writes Private Thomas Edward Rowo, of Onehunga, in a lottor home from Luna Park Hospital. _ ,"We landed on an open beach whilo the enemy was on tho top of a ridge strongly entrenched, and with plenty of cover. They were firing at us while we were wadin<* waistdeop through the water. We had about six warships covering our landing, but still many .were killed beforo they got put of the boats. "I had only about eight hours of tho sport, and then I retired with a bullet through my leg. I was also struck on tho back with a shrapnel bullet, which took _ about a pound of meat away with it. I expect to bo back again about Juno somo time, I hope (this was on May s)—not back homo, but at tho front with tho boys, enjoying a bit of shooting again. I beliovo my poor old 16th Waikato Company got an awful timej as wo were tho first of tho New Zoalandcrs to land in the firing-lino. "It is vory funny here in the hospital. Peoplo come and give us concerts, also fruit and cigarettes, and placo flowers in pots all about the wards. Thero are about 400 in the ward I am in, so it is pretty noisy sometimes. When tho boys with v/ounds m their feet start hopping about, tile hoys start to whisilo a tune for them to hop to. It is very furny to watch them."

While a man was feeding seagulls on the Thames Embankment he was molested by a, drunken soldier, who finally chased him along the Embankment, with 0, bayonet, compelling him to take rfefuge in a, tramcar. The soldier was sentenced to sis weeks' imprisonment •with hard labour.