GALLIPOLI MEMORIES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3112, 16 June 1917, Page 5

GALLIPOLI MEMORIES

MAJOR. WAITE'S LJiCTUBE. Yesterday evening, to aid Dr. Arhcs Bennett's Motor Ambulance Fund for work in Serbia, Major Wai to save a very interesting lecture dealing with his experiences on Clnllipoli. Mrs. A. R. Atkinson presided and introduced the speaker to bis audience. Major Wailo began by describing the, preparations for the landing at Gallipoli, and tlu- iiever-to-l>e forgotten landing itself, at least that part of it that came into his own circle of experience. Gallipoli Major AVniti; described as being nt that time aud in certain part-: of it like nothing so much as a. rock garden, the hills bcni!r enrpelcd with wild flowers interspersed with creeping plants. Later on in the snninicr heat, they died and {•rumbled into dust. ' The description of the fighting w«s necessarily very much lonetf down to suit the audience, and f ' thing of (he' tactics employed was J--ieny touched nnc-n. The sinking of the triumph was descriM and tho impotent Hint was felf by the men on the benches and hillsides' as they sn«- her »ec mar and then aradimlly sink head

first beneath the wain.-. That same ininoioneo was felt on (ho occasions when the aeroplanes sailed overhead and dronned their hombs. The monotony of Ihe toori at GalliTioli iras humornuslv touchMl upon, and the advantages of hiivin" m, rou ? ™igious prejudices pointed out. I no Tndian troops, because ~f, (heir beliefs regarding cerlain matters of food, were followed everywhere liy thnir flocks of eoats an,| sheen, while the casual A us-. ralasians (and British) subsisted upon tinned beef and biscuits. The dittidviintllßP was obvious. ~nd' severely felt. JJeeply interesting was the description «?™n ol Armistieo Day wlien between went in tho morning <md half-past four in the afternoon d<loo men were buriedHritish and Turkish dead. A verv warm tribute wns paid by Major Waito" to the nien oi tho trawling fleet. They were mdeod heroes of the war, he considered. From (he Scottish coasts, from Icelandic waters and from all the Northern reEions these, men hod made their ivav without charts to lit,, waters of the Dardanelles, where their absolute fearlessness their, resource, and their tenacity "ad "one such splendid work. At the close of the lecture Mrs. Atkinson (president) proposed « very heartv vote of thanks to Major Waite for hi< most mterestinc talk. What the men on Gallipol, sufiered, their magnificent couraw and endurance, they never wanted to forget.