THE DINKUMS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 187, 30 June 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE DINKUMS.

BY AN OFFICER IN EGYPT. The great camp world that has come .into being along the Suez Canal and is sheltered by the new canal defences presents within ite sun-baked area of .sand all the contrast* of war. To say that here, between Suez and Port .Said Ea-st and West meet, is to say too little. Tommy :'s here, and the Australians and New Zealanders are here, and the Indians. Through and amid their thronged encampment-, wind, day in and day out, the leisurely and imperturbab'c •caravans of the East. Beneath the palms and acacias of the little towns the vociferous Egyptian native world barteio and clamour, in its crowded -alley*, while about, monoplanes roar through the hot, resonant air. The great canal dredgers clank and rattle. Motor lorries clatter along the lakeside roads: despatch rulers whirr ny on their motor cycles. From far across the desert comes the dull vibration of big gun.- at practice. And to the glittering sand ridges, from the lonely places, stately Arabs come on their camels and stand watching, with coldly curious eyes, the scene. 1- THE DINKUMS. Everybody calls them the Dinkums. It is'u term of respect as well as of endearment, for they are as tine and keen a body of young men as any in our armies. When they pay a visitto England, which they all intend to do before they go home, everybody will call them' the Dinkums, too, and everybody will come very soon to mean by the word just the same affection and respect that we mean. The Dinkums are the New Zealand Rifle Brigade. Some of them have been in Egypt for the past three month, or so, and have seen brisk service on the western frontier. The others are new arrivals, and are hard at work completing their training and getting thoroughly acclimatised. New Zealand worked out for herself a singularly happv social arrangement for her units. The wealthier young men and those from the leisured class are largely in the mounted brigade—the Cantcrburvs, Wellingtons, and so forth—who formed the first New Zealand contingent and joining up with the Australians, became tin: immortal Anzacs. The New Zealand infantry, the hist contingent, were largely farmers and men from country districts. •The Dinkums, on the other hand, had mostlv from the towns. They come from law offices and business bouses; they are students, young men in merchant adventures of their own; journalists., Civil Servants, and clerks. Tliev represent the younger industrial ' generation of New Zealand. .Shrewd oommon-sense, well balanced, tenacious of purpose, firm in speech and bearing, the Dinkums carry no stamp of the office or counting-house upon them. They are lithe and strong; even- man of them plays games. In ■tearing they do not differ from Englishmen. An Australian you can tell at a glance from build and manner; a certain freedom of bearing, a certain assurance, a spareness of figure reveal him. But until you talk to a Dinkum you would not think him other than a young Englishman who has passed from public school into business along customary roads, is keen on his work and on Ins games too. The Dinkum is only revealed to you as a New Zcalander in his talk, which has the freshness and buoyant unronventionality of a young country combined with shrewd forßsigiite'dness. He is widely curious, boyishly interested in the life of the East.

The Ar.zas, of imperishable memory, have expanded mto an army which in physique and zeal can hardly have its equal in the world to-day. But the Dinkums do not "swai.k"; they are proud of their fellow countrymen in the mounted units—"good men with horses." said one to me the other day. And the older New Gealenders think a great deal- of the keen young Dinkums. It is a pleasure to talk to a Dinkum about the war. He shows, with the Australian, a far-sighted and practical patriotism. To him. from a land with high hopes for the future, the •war is as much a war of markets as of weapons. Australia and New Zealand are working with relentless method and in countless ways to stamp out German trade, so that after the war they may benefit by the new markets, lii victory they see a great opportunity. For them the war is to open a new err.. They are working for that. They will get it. The Dinkum has no false sentimentalism about these things. To him, m economics, as in the trenches, war is war. Some in England might learn a lesson from the Dinkum.