GETTING TO GALLIPOLI.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 270, 17 August 1915, Page 3

GETTING TO GALLIPOLI.

No. 1. ADVENTURES ON THE WAY. ANZAC, Juile 24 It is one thing to start for Gailipoli; it is quite another thing to get there, especially if you are not a fighting man. "You'll never get there," they told me in Cairo.; "I wouldn't build on it," said a man who had just come back on a special mission. "Indeed, I should say you haven't a hope." However, 1 interviewed colonels and generals and sent my credentials along to Sir lan Hamilton. Then I waited. In the meantime, there was plenty to do at Cairo and Alexandria, for cur men were coming back with stirring stories from the front. Then there came one day a message from Sir lan. The answer was "Yes." That was very cheering. General Maxwell sent for m e and gave me the news. He gave me a letter to a colonel at Alexandria, and the colonel looked me up and down and in the eye, and sent me out to a general at the headquarters at Mastapha. It was all right. I could leave in a ship that was gonig to a certain island that day. But the ship caught fire in her bunkers; she had ammunition en beard and the crew began to leav e . in a hurry! That

ship was out of the question, so I dashed about in a motor-car, and in

the afternoon fcund myself with a very limited amount of kit on board a Cunard liner, now a trcopsnip.

We sot away next -roriung. The shin was crowded with troops—mostly Highlanders, with khaki aprons over their halts. There were also various odds and ends of companies and staff, cured of their sickness or healed of their wounds, going out to rejoin. Mcst cf these had teen through strenuous days and. nights in the trenches and on th e beaches and cliffs before there had been time to dig trenches As we

headed cut to sea, what appeared as chacs quickly developed into order, and as we sat down to dinner the fine pipe band of the Highlanders ?av e us a taste of their quality. The "Sassenach" and a few degenerate Scotsmen may joke a s they like about the pnos. but the:'3 is no, finer musi?, and that evening in the twillight "The Barren Rocks of Aclen," "Pibrori o' Don s ld Dhu," and other favouri f es*. blending with th e throb of the engines and the eternal swish of the water along the vessel's sides, seemed most appropriate and stirred memories of the dim shelling and islands in many a Highland heart. .These troops, finelooking young fellows for The part, Avere going out to a strange land to fight side by side with the Australians and New ZealanoVrs and the French against the German-driven was an alarm, and w e all took stations Turkish Army. That afternoon there with our lifebelts on. There were submarines about, and it was just as well to be prepared. Lat e in the afternoon a watchful observer on deck might have seen one of the wireless operators hurrying up on to the A few

luutec. later the wak-. of the shin was

graceful curve in the calm waters

of the Mediterranean, and it was clear that we were lie;.ding back for Alexandria. The timid ones immediately thought of submarines. The optimists let their thoughts run on three things (1) That there uas an armistice to discuss terms with the 'half-conquered Turk; (2) that Roumania and Bulgaria rad "come in"; (3) that we were through the Dardanelles. But no one seemed to knew the reason for oar sudden recall. We had dinner, and the sihip became hermetically sealed, to hide all lights. Thi s was decidedly unpleasant, and you felt as if voir would iike to take your flesh off and sit in your benes. During the night we felt th c ship quiver as if she had hit something. "I hope it's an enemy subma-

rine." said scmecne, as the quivering exactly knew, except that cur ship had shed a propeller blade or two, and was not now in so good a condition as before for dodging a German submarine. Alexandria th e . low coast-line of Egypt. In the early morning we could see through the smoky haze blown up from cea?sd. What had happened we never Two hours later we were slowly steaming to an anchorage inside the harbour. Evidently it was cne thing to start for Gailipoli. but quite a different proposition ct get there. We cursed our luck, and went down to breakfast.

Then came another period cf waiting was no more room fcr troops at the front, and for no other reason. The Inst words were underlined. The orders alio stated that the troops were to disembark and proceed to Aboukir. Unattached officers would "probably" embark on another ship on the following day. While wo were kicking out heels on deck and speculating upon the more or less immediate future, we saw' a second Cimarder returning with her trccps through the harbour neck. She must have been well on towards her journey's end be fere she had turned. She seemed to have a list to pert, ar.d the rumour ran that she had been torpedoed. It was not so. She also had come beck, etc., "and for no other

reason." We the unattached, who were

anxi-us to get our) possessed our souls *v-d uncertainty. An order was posted that Wo had turned back because there in netienre nil that day and edl the n n xf. d*>y. At noon we bearded the oilier steamer and watched them loading things—things that the Censor might deal with in an article. About G o'clock we wer2 ready but some of the crew and half the s'okers were ashore —drunk! Several cf those who detained on board had never been to sei before. It was doubtful if we could s n .il tha*; night, after all. The ship's siren sounded many and weird blasts, nnd nresently various men came rolling down the dockyard streets, "drunk and raising Cain.'" They were hauled and pushed on board. Then we sheered off from the stone quay, glad to get

away from the stinking old town, for

the "khamseen," accompanied by an inseparable dust that got into out eye s and ears and throat, had hit us in the early morning, and remained with us all day—a gruelling blast from the furnace of the Lybian desert. It cooled off in the evening, as we head- I c\ cut to sea, watching the last, of i

the Highlanders embarking for their

new camp, and listening to the dyingstrains of their pipes blown faintly across the waters.

The harbour was crowded with many ships, amongst them some Greek vessels held up on suspicion of contraband. The German submarines were suspected of having a base in the islanded Aegean. It was a time to beware cf the gitfs cf the Greeks. We were glad to b e at sea again. In the tents at Zeitoun and at Alexandria it was 115 deg. F. At any hour of the day in Cairo you might pass a native funeral with its human hearse-bearers carrying the strangely-draped coffin shoulder high the weird procession of chanting mourners scurrying along on foot through the crowded streets. At Khartum the average daily temperature for three weeks—for three weeks, mind you!—had been llOcleg. in the shade. One day in Cairo 'it had climbed to 112 in th e shade, or two degrees below the record cf thirty years. The next day we had a cold snap-r-it fell to 90' One began to sympathise with the wounded man back from the trenches, who said he would rather be dead at Gallipoli than alive in Cairo' Personally, I found some solace in reading again Stcevens' inimitable chapter on the pathology of thirst, and in subsequently endeavouring to get the Arab barman to concoct an "Abdul Hamed." This he. did with so much success that for once realisation came speedily and surely in the wake of expectation. As I write we are somewhere off Crete, aval th e sobered stokers are getting an extra kick out of the screw. Like many of our ships this one has been at the making of history and has herself made history in these last few months of the great war. The Cunardev which we left with her winged propeller had been fat the landing- on Calijpoli and had been hit. She. too, had been cut to th*.Peninsula and had had scm 3 lucky escapes, especially when th 3 "taubes" were dropping bomb 3 in expectation of finding the general staff. Onca in England she had been the home of some hundreds of German prisoners—classed as a prison hulk! At another time —owing to the stranding of a big troopship—she had housed 4500 British troops and had fed them for three days, though she was just elf a long- voyage. The other day Blip, brought the 50 New Zealand nurpg. from England ot Egypt. It have just been tasking to cue of our Ergli'h ->vVe.s anr>ut them-. He was struck with <V!o? r r for their work and thoii' ndaptability and w.illuigneßs to ,'~ n-nvtMne that their way—sueb Mp""! ?.<*. he fid. the English T»urso« way out ther,. was a tug~o'war. an a the New easily nulled thVir sisters from the Motherland across th e mark. ' : ''""