SIDELIGHTS' ON GALLIPOLI

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 263, 11 August 1915, Page 7

SIDELIGHTS' ON GALLIPOLI

SOLDIERS’ GARDEN CITIES. As socn as an Australian soldier finds himself settled down in one spot for a few w.ooks, his thoughts seejm to turn to gardening. Around the dug-outs of Gallipoli several cultivation patche 3 are already begimTng to appear, and it is not unusual to sea a soldier tending his little spot of green with, ishrapt*?!! .shell .bursting near by. Some of the troops have planted melon but vegetables and flowers are more popular. A few of the most enterprising horticulturists ar e attempting to improve the native; rhododendron, holly, and scarlet pimpernel, by lavishing attention upon them, but it is too early yet to judge the results During this we,ek a Victorian soldier received in a letter from home a small packet of phlox seeds, Which wer© immediately planted, but next day he was wounded arid, was s'ent to the base. His last request to a comrade wag that care should to given to the garden during his absence. Nearly every dug-out has a name. Away lip in the firing line; a carefully-painted Sign ha s been nailed to a tree, with a linger pointing towards the east. On it .is written in black letters, “To Constantinople!!’' A paper is circulated in the firing line. It is known as the “Peninsula Press,’ and contains all the war news. The paper consists of only a single sheet, and is a military production, being printed at the island of Imbros.