FAIREST ENGLAND!

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2615, 10 November 1915, Page 6

FAIREST ENGLAND!

NEW ZBALANDER'S. IMPRESSIONS.

Writing to Mr. W. T. Grundy, Headmaster of the Clyde Quay School, on September 25, from the Military Hospital, Chorlton-on-Med'lock, Manchester, England, Mr. Alfred East,, who went away with the Ambulance section of tho. Main Expeditionary Force, says:— "It is now nearly five weeks since I was hit at tho last new attack at Suvla Bay. Our boys had been going night and day for five days. We needed three times our number to cope with the wounded. I cannot describe what it was like: When I 'stopped it,' as the boys say, I was going back for another wounded fellow. As I was crossing a flat two Tommies warned l me to run as snipers were busy picking off anyone there. Just as I was thinking about hurrying I hoai'd a shell coming, but judged it to be fairly high up. However, it must have burst somewhere nearly overhead. I just remember a similar sensation to going off under chloroform. I must say I didn't enjoy, the next two days on the beach waiting to get oft' to the hospital ship 1 . The day before reaching Malta the sister on the ship extracted tho shrapnel pellet from the top of my head. I felt the refief two days afterwards.. Now 1 am thankful to say the wound has nearly healed. I couldl not move ;my arm or leg much for a fortnight, that-part of the brain which controlled their movements haying been injured. My leg has still very little sensation, but I am able to get about Tory well. "We arrived here the night _beforo last. I have never enjoyed a train ride so much iu my life as tho journey from Southampton here. I had enjoyed a glimpse of the woods and fields when steaming up Southampton Water, past tho Isle of Wight, but when we sped along on tbo train I felt what it must have meant for those who had left the dear Homeland to come to Zealand in tho early days. TIIO woods in their autumn garb, the quietly-flowing streams, meandering through newlyploughed 1 fields, witli tlieir shapely naystacks, the wealth of grass in the meadows, and the country lanes with their quaint homesteads far surpassed any mental picture I had formed of English landscapes. I am waiting patiently for the time when I will be sent off to tlie convalescept camp somewhere in Middlesex, so that I' shall be able to go about more."