BRITISH WAR CREDITS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLV, Issue 3988, 22 July 1915, Page 5

BRITISH WAR CREDITS.

GOST OF THE WAR TO DATE. AN AMAZING TOTAL. LONDON, July 20. Mr Asquith in the House of Commons moved a credit of 150 millions to meet war expenditure, making a total of 1012 millions since the outbreak of war. For the first seventeen days of July, he said the expenditure was £54,190,000. The expenditure during the current year to the 17tii was roughly £301,000,000 whereof £241,093,000 was for the Army and Navy, while loans to the Dominions and AII10& wore roughly forty-four .millions. 'The balance was expended on' food supplies and other purposes. He estimated that the present vote would last till the end of August. xvi,r Asquith intimated that Parliament would reassemble in the middle of September., Air Asquith stated that the item “Advances to Allies” might grow with the adhesion to our cause of iStates which took no part in the war in its earlier stages. He nointed out that the wording of the clause dealing- with loans had been altered, to authorise the expenditure by loans and grants for purposes connected with the war. 'i’lie clause previously restricted the advances to the Dominions or Allies. The Government purposely eliminated the limitation and trusted, the House would not aslc for details. The Government desired wider powers in respect to countries whereto advances might possibly be made. (Received July 21, 9.25 p.m.) ‘The House of Commons passed the Credit Vote.

Mr. Asquith stressed tlie efforts being made against wasteful expenditure.

Messrs. McNamara and Forester, at- Mr. Asquith’s request, detailed the methods of the War Ollicu and. Admiralty for carefully waidling expenditure.

Mr. Hobhouso ?nid he was present at the recapture of the Hill 60 salient, projecting into the German lines. 'The concentrated fire, made it impossible for troops to remain upon the hill, but it was essential that their withdrawal should not be known by tlie Germans. Afterwards Hill 60 ceased- to be of military importance, and that was probably why it was not mentioned in earlier despatches- to tne War Office. IN THE BALTIC. LARGE SQUADRON .STEAMING NORTH. CO.REX I IAGUX. July 20. Several large cruiser?. torpedo boats, and transports have been observed from Gothland steaming north. They ace supposed to he German. ITALY’S WAR LOAN. A SPLENDID SUCCESS. ROME. July 20. 'Flu- second national war loan of one milliard lire lias closed at 950 millions. The Bank of Milan underwrote two hundred millions. A STIRRING STORY, (By .Malcolm Ross. Official War Correspondent wifli the New Zealand Forces.)

A pale young soldier in an ill fitting uniform and dusty hoots, ,his hand bandaged and in a sling, was sitting on a couch in the great hall of ,Shopboard \s Hotel, 'l’lie oorporal, wlm was sitting beside me, telling me of those stirring day- of tlie first attack, rose suddenly, for ho had recognised a friend whom he thought to he dead. Such greetings are rather common nowadays in .Cairo. “Great Scott!” he cried, “that's Riper!" In half a minute I was introduced, and soon I was listening to another stirring stnrv from the battlefield. The wounded man was Corporal A. H. Piper, of the Otago Infantry, and from Oamarti. It appears that- tliore are two other Pipers-—M . Riper and J . Riper—-in tlii- New Zealand Forces. One was killed in action and tlie other died of wounds. Corporal A. H. Riper was nl first reported missing, because he had got among the Australians, and had been fighting with them. ‘ It was six days before he could rejoin his own battalion, and then he found-that he hail been reported as dead by the sergeant who had buried the other Riper. Subsequently Corporal Riper mine over o Cairo with J. Riper, who died in the Ksr-cl-Anv Hospital of a septic wound. When the former went to camp to get some clothes, and gave hi? name as Corporal Riper, they asked hi? number, and, in reply they said : “Oli. hut you arc dead!” The corporal— he was the one who threw back the hand grenade, ail incident related elsewhere by Mr Malcolnm Ross —however, was able to prove to them that he was ,?:till alive, even though they handed him a letter stamped “Dead.”

Corporal Piper in the folk I had with liim said lie had been splendidly' looked after, and spoke in jirai.se of the self-sacrificing way in which the women of Cairo wore working in the hospitals. Among those who were untiring in their efforts was Lady Rogers, who not only cabled to his people, but wrote letters for him to Now' Zealand. He also pays a high tribute to the work of the New Zealand Army .Medical Corps. Doctors and everyone connected with the corps did. splendid work under fire. The orderlies were most tender and solicitous in their care of the wounded. Indeed, said the corporal, they might almost have been women so gently did they deal with us. In the section in which he was’ fighting the stretcher-bearers did splendid work, as did the doctors. Quo Australian doctor climbed into atrench, and for live hours attended there, under heavy fire, to wounded who could not be got out. Later two stretcher-bearers got into the trench, and started to pull a badly-wounded man along the trench on a. waterproof Sheet. By this time it was clear moonlight. One of the strcicheibearors said; “I think I must-be hit; I’m'spitting blood. Ho was hit sure enough, but he stuck to his job and got bis man out of the trench, which was too narrow to permit of the taking of a stretcher into it. Then tlioio was bn© of the New Zealanders —a corporal —who all through the day, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. was under fire bandaging wounds and taking water to the wounded. He was an Otago man. My informant did not know his name. “But,” ho added, “if ever a man worked that chap did.” Ho was under heavy fire nearly all the time'. Continuing his story, Corporal Piper said :“I got opt of'the (Australian trenches on the Friday night, ■when I was relieved by a man from the R.M.L.I. When I got into the Australian trench there was neither officer nor n.c.o. with them, so I' had to take charge. Such was the nature of the fighting that many similar incidents'happened'. ' Indeed, in some places senior privates wore in charge of a trench a hundred yards long'.”