NOTES.

Marlborough Express, Volume L, Issue 82, 6 April 1916, Page 5

NOTES.

I A' Grevinou.tli telegram states that, livottt-ithotahding .the extra iarjge draft of -infantry, the Fifteenths",* mobilising a re'."■only, fourteen short,. ihi- .smalleston tho West Coast since' ; December last. Seventy out of the 84 required were secured. . . '. ' The director at base records has ■■received cable* advice that a , : sailor ; named GiMVithieson, on the hospital ship Mavamu. had his leg smashed, 'and thai the limb was amputated. The unfortunate victim ::s reported to re doing we)}. Any person knowing ihfi name :md address of the man's next-of-kin is requested to notify the same to the Base Record Office, Wellington. At the monthly meeting of th« New Zealand Trotting Association, held at ■ Ghristchurch yesterday, it was resolved.that r.o future license tv ride, drive, or train, will be granted to any single person eligible for recruiting, and that it be' an instruction, to all trotting clubs to obtain from the local recruiting committee a certificate that an application is not eligible before endorsing, the motion to apply to all future applications for licenses.

"I believe the people of this country are at last taking the v.ar seriously and earnestly," remarked Mr Massey at a Salvation Army gathering: in Wellington on Tuesday evening " Mr Massey said he was not pessimistic, hut ne realised that, the war had never been brought home io Now Zealand as it had' to England, which was visited by air raids, in which non-combatants —men, women, an 1 children—were murdered. Killing: these people was not

w;ii\, but cold-blooded murder, and ho hoped ( that such acts would not go unpunished. However, with Divine help and Divine guidance, victory would come. • '

Some striking figures, showing the appalling toll or war among the liritish troops- 'it tno front, were quoted by Mr Frederic Coleman, the international journalist, in. the course ola short address delivered .at the Wellington Patriotic Society's concert m the Town Hall .on Friday evening, says the Post. The speaker .said that very strenuous fighting had taken place on the Western, front. One division, after six months, had only 348 out of 14,000 who went out to fight, and those who filled up the ranks afterwards. One battalion had only 15 men left and no officers. The fir&t btftialion of the Black Watch had 50 men left and only one .subaltern. Some troops had been practically wiped out, and there were lour battalions with no men left to answer the roll call;. ; >Gnly 43 of the 4C4 officers of the ■Se^e.Bth Division returned,; while the..-official roll call showed, that 2386 wei'e left of the iti.SO© an that division. The Canadians ?iad saved the, day at Ypres nfter the Huns had launched thenfirst gas cloud and a small party of. them, although <auroimdpd and called upon to surrender,- fought till not a. nsam of them -was..left." , .. An instance which illustrates the popularity of 'General Birdwood, officer in command of the Australasian Expeditionary Force, was described the other morning by Chap-lain-Captain Blamires, who recently returned from Egypt. As he was about to leave Egypt, said Captain Blamires. General Birdwood, who was greatly beloved by the men ot the forces, came down to the train to farewell the returning > soldiers. While he was in conversation with the men., as the train was about to move off, one of them remarked that a number of them had served under the general and would, esteem it a favor" if he would1 .shake hands with them. His-. reply was, "The honor is mine." ■ ; .