New Zealand

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 89, 17 April 1915, Page 6

New Zealand

RETURNED SAMOAN TROOPERS RE-EN LIST, Per ; Press Association. Well! linton Am il 17. Only 239 or the-Samoan- Garrison have re-enlisted. The number includes three majors, live captains, and nine lieutenants. They will go to the front with some of the reinforcements leaving at intervals. DRUMMED OUT OF THE -ARMY. Wellington, April 16. An unusually impressive ceremony ■ was■ performed at •Trcntharn camp, at five o’clock this afternoon, when four members of the 3rd reinforcements ,'wiio had missed their boat at Albany, and had been brought back to New Zealand, were paraded for punishment. After having been duly tried and convicted by the district court martial. The whole of the forces in the camp, comprising some 4000 men, were drawn up on the parade ground and formed into a.hollow square with the officers in front. The offenders, when the Signal was given, were marched out from the camp detention enclosure, each prisoner being bareheaded and accompanied by an.armed guard of military police. yl As each man was brought up bis sentence of six months’ imprisonnmet with hard labor in the common gaol, and dismissal from the New Zealand military forces was read out by Major Neill, staff officer of the 4th fein- . Each man as he received

■ his punishment was then led away under armed guard before the whole, force. | The men so sentenced were : Privates Walter Walsh, Edward Crawford, William Doyle, and James McCutcheon. THE FIGHTING AT SUEZ. Wellington, April 16. The Minister of Defence has received from Major-General Godley an account of the fighting in which the New, .Zealand forces under his command were engaged against the Turks. At! the beginning of February determined attacks, lie reports, were made to crossthe canal near Tussoum, which result-J ed in severe lighting. A few of the enemy managed to cross > but nearly all were accounted for on the same day, and the remainder were bounded up on the following day. At daylight the enemy were, found close to the post, and their guns opened oh both Toussum and Scrape urn.

Our ships’ guns and the artillery engaged the enemy, who, after a certain amount of lighting, including an advacne from Serapeum, retired, leaving many .dead, and nearly 300 prisoners. At Izmailia terry the enemy were found entrenching about half a mile east from the post at daylight, and the two battalions opened lire soon after, but no regular attack was made. ( Intermittent shelling continued during the day, large numbers being fired, many of which exploded in our camp.

Shipping detained in Lake Timsiih was under fire, and suffered .slight damage, but no loss of life. Shell-fire also took* place at El Ferdam, where some slight damage was done, but no casualties occurred. At Kantara tho outposts were attacked at 5 a.m., but the enemy was driven off without loss, and later in the day a partial attack was made from the -south-east, but the enemy were stopped 1200 yards from the position.

Military casualties during the day were: British officers, killed 1, wounded 4; British, Indian and Egyptian rank and file, killed 17, wounded 79. The enemy along the canal at all points attacked. They appeared to number in all some 12,000 men, with at least six batteries. One six-inch gun was also located, and is thought to have been silenced. Some 150 of the euemey are still entrenched on the canal bank one and a-half miles south of Tussoum. They were rounded up by the troops from Serapeum, after (having treacherously fired on onr men, though they had raised the white flag and made signs of surrender. The demeanour and bearing of our men in the trenches, and going ~nt of them, was most satisfactory. Over 500 of the enemy were buried by mir • troops, and 652 are prisoners in our ■hands. It is calculated that on tne basis of three wounded to one killed the enemy must have suffered a loss of at least 1500 wounded, making total casualties of between 2500 and 3000. The enemy is now in lOtre-it all along the line.