At The Dardanelles

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5, 4 September 1915, Page 7

At The Dardanelles

«ajjs»~ ARRIVAL OF THE MAORIS. A UNIQUE SCENE. j (From Malcolm Itoot;, Official War Correspondent with the New' Zealand Troops). Imbros, July 6th. At an early hour on the morning of Saturday, 3rd July, the Maoris arrived from Malta, and landed in the dark on the little pier at Anzac. It was rough, and the disembarkation was difficult, but the Maoris took it all very quietly, and there was no mishap. That afternoon the General paid them a formal visit. After a mile walk we came upon them digging their bivouac in an amphitheatre, surrounded by steep fantastic cliffs of marl and water-worn stone—the debris ol some ancient river or lake bed. Hundreds were busy with pick and shovel, working amidst the scrub-covered I knolls to get their 'dug-outs" ready [before nightfall. Close beside us two swartly young warriors, who thought they had hit upon a good spot for their habitation, dug into a corpse—a ghastly reminder of the severe fighting that went on in this place when our men, after the first landing, were getting their grip on this bit of the Peninsula.

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 the stunted prickly oak, and made them a brief address. /

"Officers and men of the Maori Contingent,'! he said, "I am glad that the hope I ,expressed to you when I last saw you in Cairo, that you should come and serve with us in the field, has been realised: I promised you then that I would do all I could to get with this division, so that you might join in battle with your comrades of the New Zealand / Infantry Brigade and the New Zealand Mounted Infantry. Your comrades, who have for some weeks now been fighting on the Peninsula, have covered themselves and the name of New Zealand with glory. They have fought most valiantly in the face of very heavy casualties, and in every way have proved themselves efficient and brave soldiers. And now upon you Maoris a very groat responsibility rests. Not only have you to prove yourselves worthy to fight with your British comrades, who have already done such, noble deeds, but you have also to .p.rOve yourselves worthy descendants of your ancestors, and worthy, also, of the glorious military traditions of your race. You have to follow in the lootsteps of your great chiefs whoso names we in New Zealand know so well. Your race has always been distinguished for its braveiy and for its martial ardour, and the people of New Zealand will look to you to prove that those qualities have in no way diminished. In a very short time you will be called upon to meet the enemy, and' when you do so I believe you will prove yourselves absolutely as brave and valiant as your forefathers before you and as your comrades whom you have nowjoined. I am very proud to have you under my command, and I wish you all the best of fortune in the tight that lies before you."

At the conclusion of this stirring address, the whole assemblage of Maoris responded with their war dance. As the final cadences of the haka were echoed back from the fantastic cliffs, on e pondered over this strange coming ,of the Maori, and wondered whether his deeds would be worthy of the new Iliad.

THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS A SPECTACULAR BOMBARDMENT Whether or not the Turk will continue to play the game remains to bo seen. Those here who know him best say that he will. Another surprise to those of our army who have not kept pace with recent developments in the Turkish Army, has been to find the Turkish trenches recently captured at H|elles models of sanitary organisation. They were every whib as clean as our own, They had been systeI matically disinfected, and there were I even receptacles for rubbish placed at ' intervals along them. This reform is | no doubt owing to German influence j in connection with the reorganisation 'of the Turkish Army. Should this cleanliness be general throughout the j Turkish Army there will not be so much danger on either side from the ' dreaded cholera. Hitherto the Turklish Army has seldom, if. ever, fought a war without an outbreak of cholera j I in its ranks. I THE RELIGIOUS WAR.

The Germans have failed to bring about a Holy War. On the Canal the Mohammedan Indians fought the Turks, and in Syria, if reports be true, the people welcome the sailors of tin; Allied fleets, and are eagerly inquiring when "the occupation" wjll take place.

i The Turks are not above having j their jibe at our religion ; the Crescent still holds the Cross in contempt. On Tuesday last, the Turks displayed three i 'crosses in front of their firing trenches opposite Courtenay's Post. The i first was a plain wooden one painted j ; red from the crcsspiece to the top and on the left arm of the cross. It was knocked down by rifta fire. The second cross had a conical top i

with a thin cylinder placed upon it. This was not fired upon. After a few minutes it was taken down, and replaced by with the crosspiece painted white, and an inscription of some sort on the left arm of the cross. This one also was knocked clown by riilo lire. The enemy lay low, and probably thought he had perpetrated a good joke in getting our soldiers to lire on the symbol of their own religion. A SPECTACULAR CANNONADE. ' Saturday, the 10th July, broke the monotony of the ordinary trench warfare that had prevailed for some days. Early in the morning a group of trawlers that had gathered oil-shore between us and the hospital ship were scattered by Turkish guns that opened tire from somewhere in the neighbourhood of Gaba Tepe. The Turkish gunners made good practice and spurts of loam almost/ splashed the little ships, but, strange to say, they .all escaped. Standing well 011-shoro, but not out of range of the Turkish fire, was one of our battleships—the Lord Nelson—with three destroyers waltzing gracefully about her and other destroyers and trawlers moving farther out. Presently from the battleship's side came a great burst of goljden flame,-followed quickly by a rush of yellowish-brown smoke that almost hid the ship from view. For a full 25 seconds there was no sound. - Then iiom across the water came a loud report and a continuing lower rumble that made the earthly walls of one's dug-out tremble and tnfcs of clay and little stones fall from the wails. This was the Lord Nelson with her big guns commending a bombardment that \*as to knock tne edge off the Kilid Bahr Plateau, upon which, recently, the Turks had been making earthworks and' gun emplacements. Our battleship opening in earnest with broadsides, sent the big shells right on to the ridge, where they burst in clouds of smoke that mingled with a shower of earth and stones. Meantime a Turkish battery from the trees and scrub on the lower land opened tire on the Lord Nelson, using four or sixinch shell. The shells fell in the sea.

all about the battleship, sending columns .of water into the air, and at any moment it appeared as if she might be Jut; but she went on firing her big guns at the plateau and took no more notice of the Turkish battery than a mastiff might take of a terrier

log barking at ins heels. From oui

position in the trenches on one of the hills overlooking Anzac we could clear- , ly see the flashes of the guns of the | Turkish battery, and presently one of the Australian batteries on our right was quickly in action against tiiem. 'Meanwhile a Turkish battery away j on our let t opened on one of our posi- [ tious, and'the Aualarta. gun ("Start-' ling Annie'') sent a lew of her whistling shrapnei .mells into our beach. ! The bathers scurried for shelter, all '_ ''.Jul two swimmers some little distance off shore. These latter continued to enjoy themselves in the warm sea though shells had been bursting al- i most over them.