Second Edition The War on Gallipoli.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIII, Issue 74, 26 November 1915, Page 6

Second Edition The War on Gallipoli.

'.KOfES BY A RETURNED, NEW ZEALAND SOLDIER, LEWNQS—LAQT LAP-To-day i.o i... 1 iv,.ti:.iiy hear the last of''Lemu«>, u;..ugu .. is a.i interesting place, . and ens it.mid probably write about it for a long time, if one descended to extraneous and irrelevant matters, like" the baggy pants the men wear and.things of a like sort. But I am set on finishing my recital of what I saw (with particular reference to the war), and that will I now proceed to do with all possible haste, lest some extraneous matter catch me napping and creep in "unbeknownst/' There only remains to be dealt with the land operations on Lemnos outside the hospitals. As previously stated, a certain number of B Australians landed at Lemnos before . the first landing on the Peninsula and made it their home for a time. Since then, I believe, there have • always been a smaller or larger nnmher of British -or Colonial troops on \ the island, waiting for the word to : proceed to the Peninsula and disturb » the, peace and quietness of the home of J. Turk Esq. Behind the hospitals there is a big flat, and here the troops bivouac. As far as I saw, no tents were provided, but this was no hard-ship-in the mild summer climate of the Mediterranean, .as rain was.infre- ■ ,qufnt and never very serious- On this .flat' the troqps during the day went Ihrough drillevolutions, and didn't ' hey just raise a dust! Motto! One otiltl only tell where - the column or ine was by the cloud of dust raised, ,nd one was sure there were men in he dust because, of the dust's habit f about turning and. rigllt wheling in ■ response to - the word of command-, While I was in- hospital I saw great numbers of troops, coming and, going J They stayed a longer or a shorter time—some seemed to- come to-day and go to-morrow. They were all British troops, wearing distinguishing . hat-colors in the form of triangles; but what Brigades they belonged to II know not. Not over-much work was, I; ' dune, on the dusty flat, and the most j M. frequent form of training was a day's! route march into the interior of the; . island; and-no doubt the 'gentle sou*-1 '. iers were practised in advancing over hilly country. Lemnos has some nice ■.! altitudes, but unfortunately none are I so high or so rough as Hill 971, for the attack on which, T-doubt not, the i troops I saw wore being prepared. It was noticeable that a good number of f '"' these "soldiers had adopted "shorts," R, which; are very popular among the • 'New Zealandeis. Perhaps, they are not so popular now/ when i winter has K set in and "the' stormy winds do, . .biowi" These v British troops: I had bugle calls a little different to til©, ones we were used to. There was I one particularly pretty revielle. Per- [:'•" haps the authorities'make the revielles pretty as some sort of excuse for interrupting the soldier's dreams of ? home and mother qr making him "rise frqm dreams of thee." Once in I 'Egypt—this is extraneous, but just this once let us let it pass, and we'll "i pretend it go in "unbeknownst." I Once in Egypt I was on guard at two o'clock in the morning—"a time when " all good little boys and girls should i be in bed." But the trumpeter of some mounted corps wasn't a good ' little boy, and he entered upon the revielle at that unheard of hour. It : was extremely pretty, and sounded particularly fine in the clear, still morning air. At Lemnos, in my time, som© French cavalry were there, but .. we saw nothing of them in operation. Away up in the hills were to be seen a number of tents in a gully, but I (■ was never told what they" were there ; for. There were some Egyptian soldiers on the island, i whose duty was to do the heavy navvy work. They wore fatigue dress—-no boots, funny pants, something between a smock and a shirt (applied outwardly) and the sunshade issued for use on the.regulation fez, which (the fez) was not worn while working.(Talking about shirts: In Colombo I had the privilege of dealing with a highly respectable dealer who had a whole white i shirt. T/here was no doubt on the question—dt was.not just dickey and cuffs, with .which articles the Westerner does not to impose on bis neighbours. ■But this chap's was. a whole white There could be no doubt, behe wore it in,place of a coat, Hall outside, displaying to all the whole from collar band to the utter■itnost, ultimatest tail.) Going back to Egyptian soldiers i. One day it ■was pay-day. Pay-day usually does round, though sometimes one Spunks it didn't come the nearest way. Rind the Egyptians went in a body to ■the settlement and, no doubt, each ■iad a pennorth of pea-nuts. At any R-ate they all rolled home about umptyHim o'clock at night singing like sparHow 9. One gentleman sang a line and H;hen the rest of the mob sang a line B" chorus, apparently the same words, to the same.tune. The lack H>f instrumental music was supplied by And, arriving at their they kept on singing in a line for two or three hours, Rhd to all intents and purposes it was 81l one song—songs sung to the same concludes the tale of) —including revielles and {-', ■ : ...,'■'< '..,. . ■