NEW ZEALAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 94, 21 August 1915, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND.

GENERAL BiRDWOOD AND HIS MEN.

Some- interesting news is contained in a letter from General Bird wood to tho .Hon. T. Mackenzie (New Zealand High Commissioner). An from the letter follows :

“At the time you were writing your letter it so happened that we wore be- i ing subjected to a most violent attack here—in fact, tho biggest which the Turks have so far attempted to launch against our troops anywhere in thc | i’cninsula. At the time i was tem- | porarily reduced to 10,000 rifles and ( aboiit 30 guns, as 1 had to send two of my brigades '(lncluding the New Zealand Infantry Brigade) and live, batteries to co-operate with Sir Tani Hamilton’s main force in tho south. J.tl was while we were so temporarily re-j duced that General Liman von Sanders attacked us with about 30,000 men and 90 guns in the evening of the 18th and throughout the 19th. Had he come on in very great strength at one »f the weakest spots of my line ho must almost of a certainty have got through. As it was*he. went in for disjointed attacks of a more or less general nature, each of which we were able to beat off comfortably with heavy loss to him. A few days later we had to ask for an armistice to bury the dead,! when we actually buried about 4000 men in front of our trenches. Ours, 1 am glad to say, numbered only 500. “During their absence from here tho New Zealand Infantry Brigade, under Johnston, came in for some very heavy lighting near Cape Holies, where 1 am glad to say Sir lan Hamilton reports to me they did quite excellently, as ,of course, 1 knew they would, and 1 am also glad to say that some little j time ago they returned to my fold. ! Stewart, of the Canterburys, you will have seen, was killed on the day we landed here.”

In speaking of the wounded, General Birdwood says:—“l have termed a very high opinion of Chaytor, who, 1 am sorry to say, was severely wounded a short time ago with a bit of shrapnel in the shoulder, and is now in hospital at Malta. Colonel Malone, of the Wellingtons, has done excellently, and is a first-class man in whom I ha've the

greatest confidence. Colonel Pluggo, of the Aucklauds, is also exceptionally good. He has twice been wounded, the first time getting a bullet through the forearm, when he quite refused to leave duty. The second time ke was wounded was when the brigade was away from me, and as ho was sent straight away to hospital—l think in Egypt—l have not seen him since, Imt J know his value. 1 had the misfortune to be slightly wounded myself. Going around the trenches one day, when a bullet caught me in the top of the head, but as it failed to fracture the skull it did not harm, i know how sorry you will have been to hear of 1 poor Bridge’s death. He was going along a path which we use daily, when a stray bullet hit him in the thigh, ' unfortunately severing both the fernI oral vein and artery. Ho is a very | great loss, which I feel much.”