Maoris at the Dardanelles

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 September 1915, Page 2

Maoris at the Dardanelles

AN 01-'l'lt'lAL A-LvOUNT. (Uy .Ualcolm .Uoss). lmbros, July Oth. At an early hour on the morning ot Saturday, July 3rd ,the .Maoris arrived from Malta, and lauded in the dark on the little pier at Auzac. it was rough and the disembarkation was diiliic-u.lt but the .took it all very quietly, and there was no mishap. That afternoon tho (jeiierail paid them a formal visit. After a mile walk we came upon them digging their bivouac in an amphitheatre, surrounded by steep fantastic chlls 01 marl and water-worn stone—the debris of some ancient river or lake bed. Hundreds were busy with the pick and shovel, working amidst the scim'b-covered knolls to get their "dug-out" ready before nightfall. Close between us two swarthy young warriors, who had thought they had hit upon a good spot for their habitation, dug into a corpse —a ghastly reminder 0.1 the severe lighting that went on in this place when our men, after the lirst landing, woe getting their grip on thi.s bit ol the Peninsula. It was the Maori'ri experience of the grim realities of war, and needless to .say. there was a sudden cessation ot digging in that particular quarter. During the forenoon the .Maoris .had their lirst experience of shells 'Oeiiig fired over them ; but these were aimed at Auzae beach and burst half a mile away. The General called a halt in the digging, and the 'bronzed warriors crowded round him. while he stood on a little knoll amidst the olive trees, and tiie stunted prickly oak. ami made them a ■brief address. "Officers and men oi the .Maori C'-on-tingeiit," he said, "l a«m glad that the hope I expressed to you when i 'ust saw you in Cairo, tha.t you should como and serve with us in the neld has been realized. 1 promised you then that I would do all 1 could to get you with this division, so that you migiit join, in battle with your comrades ol ihe -New Zealand Jniantry Brigade and me New Zealand .Mounted infantry. Your comrades, who have for some weeks now been fighting on the I'enin.sula nave covered themselves anil the name of .New Zealand with glory. They have fought most valiantly m the face of very heavy casualties, anil in every way have proved themselves efliicent and 'brave soldiers. And now upon you .\|aoris a very great responsibility rests Not only have you to prove- yourselves worthy to light with your Jjritirth comrades, who have already done .such i-'oble deeds, but you aiso have to provt> yourselves worthy descendants ol your ancestors, and worthy also, oi tli.> glorious military traditions of your raci,'. Von have to lollow in i7ie\u</L----htepb of your great cliici.s whose" names ■uc in .Now Zealand Jaiow so well. \ our nice hits always been distinguished ior its bravery and for its martial arbour. .Hid the people of New Zealand will uiilul upon i.o meet the cue i.y, and ■when you d;j .so I believe v \ou >wli piv.e yourselves absolutely ah u:\\ \; and v:iiiii< as yu i ■ forefathers uei j.'e su'.i oik under my command, and 1 wish von joined. lam very proud io have yi/i u .'■]• my coininand, . ~, t ni,,u v.-n a'! tin. best u y fortune .n 'he iif : il'at '^l , before you." At the conclusion oi t-liir- bL-ii'riiLg aildies*, the uJioJe assemblage 0.l -Maoris responded with their war dance. Jt was indeed a strange scene. As the weird cries ol the rhythmic beating of the feet upon the Turki.sii soil ceased, the mind ranged back a low thousand years, and conjured up visions of the Armadas that have .sailed these seas and the armies that have traversed these lands. The ghosts oi the great dead seemed to rise a«iun and march before us—Xerxes and .Alexander, Hector and Helen, Achilles and Lysander, with many more famous in sony, and .story. And now the coming of the .Maori!

■Behind us, just beyond the Peninsula its th<j narrow strait acrotsa which the Persian general built him bridge ol boats so that his army nught cross lrom one continent to another. There, too the Greek fleet with inlinite patience, lay for nine years, a bulwark to the host ashore. Wliere \erxe« built Uis bridge oi boats to cross an army, our enemies are contemplating the spreading of a net of steel to stop, our submarines. And now this new Armada, with its great .battlosTiips, its thundering guiiis, its submarines and waterplanes, and its balloon ship, conies upon the .scene. And with it an army from the greatest Empire the world Has known.

Across the narrow strait the other day we saw Chanak, atop oi the buried Abydos.in flames—lit .by a whip's shell which traversed the whole Peninsula and the straits as well. Quito ,closo are the now desolate plaints and the ruined cities of Iroy, with live thousand years ol history bohind them. 'Westward the sun" was placing a band oi jewelled silver across the Saros Sea. The long promontory and pointed peaJws of Imbrus broke the straight horizon on the left while nearer the bolder and steeper heights of >Santothrace, recalling other scenes and the wonderful "winged victory" in the Louvre, .stood boldly out against a background of splendid rolling cloud. In the foreground the sandy beach ol the Peninsula swept round to nhero "the 'boat of death" lay stranded at a little promontory. Beyond that again, the masts and tunnel of u sunken steamer,, and. quite close, a buoy where, in lace of the importent rage of those on shore the 'Jnumph found hei grave. H eix . j u u K , . s i,;,|| u , ViS OIR . saw for the first time the wine-coloured sea of Homer, as if tinted with the blood of the victims of-war; and in the midst of all the. Xew Zealand Coneral. like some Trojan leader, inciting his Antipodean .soldiers to heroic deeds. A* the final cadences of the 'haka wore echoed back from the fantastic dills, one pondered over this strange coining of the jMaori, and -wondered whether 'his deeds would bo worthy of the now Iliad.