A HERO OF LONE PINE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2838, 1 August 1916, Page 4

A HERO OF LONE PINE

NATIVE OF DUNEDIN. Among the passengers to arrive from Sydney bv the Manuka yesterday morning was Private J. L. Croft, of the 4th Battalion of the Ist Division, of the A.1.E.F., who, having been in Australia for eight years, enlisted there at the first call'for men. He belongs to Dunedin, and is about to visit his relatives, whom ho has not seen since he was injured. Private Croft had tho misfortune to be badly smashed up in the attack on Lone Pine Ridge on August 12, and as the result his left leg had to bo amputated. He is one of the Australian soldiers who has been fitted with the improved artificial limb, with the patent knee joint that allows a certain amount of free play. Ho exhibits a photograph of himself, wearing his new limb, and engaging in a sparring match (a photograph that has been reproduced in the papers), but he admits that it would not take much of a punch to knock him off his balance. Private Croft was ono of the men who were in Cairo ori the night of the big riot, and he resents the whole blame being put on to the Australians, ns lis has heard has been the case here. "As a matter of fact, the row started through a Maori being knifed by-an Egyptian in a, brawl, and those who started in to clean up the quarter were Australians, New Zealanders, Britishers—a mixture of all the troops in Cairo. The affair was disgraceful, everyone admits," said the visitor, "but it is unfair to lay the whole., of the blame on to the Australians."