ON OUR WAY TO THE FRONT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 196, 27 January 1915, Page 6

ON OUR WAY TO THE FRONT

THE SINKING OF THE EMDEN. IN THE INDIAN OCEAN. (Specially written for the Taranaki Daily News). •As I sit here, stripped to the waist in the tropical beat, our transport, the Arawa, is even yet humming with the news of the morning—that the Eintf.cn iias ben beached by If.MS. Syd'ney, one of our convoy, and the life of the destructive will-o'-the-wisp is ended. '"Emden beached and done for," is the final brief confirmatory message which hides in its lack of verbiage much that is worth the telling. At an early hour yesterday it became apparent that something was in the air, for tha movements of our convoy became suspicious. The cruisers steamed here and there, and finally one of them became a mere column of smoke on the horizon. But it was only to-day that news of the Emden came to hand, and it did so in a manner dramatic enough in all conscience. COCOS ISLAND CALLS.

Cocos Island is a mere dot in the Indian ocean, with a handful of inhabitants—one European family, somo natives, and four wireless operators—but Cocos Island has a cable station and an operator there who, if surmise is correct, deserves no grudging recognition of a claim to heroism. At 0.31 a.m. to-day the wireless operator of the Arawa sitting by his instrument heard the crackling of a wireless making its mysterious annihilation of space and distance. And the call was "5.0.5.!" and "5.0.5.," and again "S.O.'S!" Vet again the message crackled and hummed with the addition "Strange warship approaching."

GIVING THE ALARM. j The rest of the story may be gathered in its brief essentials from the following messages of to-day. The first | i 3 from the Arawa to the .Maunganui ] (flagship of the New Zealand transports) and runs:—"At 0.31 a.m. Cocos Island cabled 'S.O.S.' some fifty times, signalling also 'Strange warship approach.' I tried to inform H.M.S. Melbourne and you by wireless, but could not. At 6.45 a.m. your wireless signals concerning lights of convoy commenced, and stopped further wireless reading. At fi.nO a.m. I reported to 1 you by semaphore. Cocos was cabling I for eight riiinutes after my semaphore finished." The next message is from H.M.S. Sydney to the Maunganui at 11.20 a.m.: I "Emden lias beached herself to save i sinking by H.M.S. Sydney." I At 11.34 a.m., she was wirelessing:— i "Am now pursuing collier. News eon- | firmed. Minotaur full speed ahead toj wards transports." I Then the Sydney to the Minotaur: | "Emden beached and done for." WHVT THE MESSAGES LEAVE OUT,

These messages tell the story in curt official wording, but what a multitude of incidents they leave untold! It is hard for us to realise that a few miles —some 50 or so —astern of us a battle was fought this morning, and that while we smoked and lounged in the tropical heat, men laid down their lives for thrir country. The messages don't tell of this. They do not tell how the alarm flashed round. How the Minotaur raced away, how we watched t-ho Japanese battleship "Ibuki," suddenly level all her wicked-looking guns and ■■hum the water over her deck as she sped to the assistance of her sisters of the convoy. lAnd the message cannot tell of this. I Out in the Indian Ocean, on tlmt lonely ] island c:'ble station, one operator held life and death in his hand, weighed tlie value of his own life, too, and —did his duty. The wireless operator on the Arawa. who picked up the S.O.S, call, says that his communications from Cocos were cut into by a hostile and strange, plant, that of tile Emden. Ife also says that to do this, the Emden must have come within about 500 yards lof the coast of Cocos. So that operator, sending out bis S.O.S. calls, battling against tile force which tried to block him. did not know when a shot I from the Emden's guns would shatter the cable station. So he went on doing his duty, as other Britons have done—- ■ and the Cocos Island cable station lias I not been "spoken to" since up to the I time of writing, despite many efforts. One wonders what happened and how i the operator who saved the situation was rewarded for his devotion. You folk in New Zealand may knoiv more than we by now. This is our first realisation that war is war. There is another name deserving of praise in this connection, that of Private Falconer, of the Taranaki company, for it was due to his keenness and attention to duty that the Cocos | Island message was picked up. He was ! acting as assistant to the regular wireless operator on the Arawa, and first • picked up the call /the Arawa was the | only boat of the 10 New Zealand and 2S Australian transports to do so). Falconer could not make out the message, but at once aroused the operator whom he was relieving, and it was due to the capable action of these two men that the opportnuitv came to lay by the heels the notorious harrier of Indian Ocean trade routes.

j TX GEIUIAX F,YES. j -'Villi what of the enemy? The Tara- | naki boys have the somewhat unique I experience of Being able to answer that I question at once, lor to-day as a'c lie j oil Colombo, thirty-three German prisI Oilers from tile JSmden are beiu;; lin.ugjit ' "ii board our boat for safe custody. | Of these, one is an engine-room lien- | tenant, and two are warrant oilicers, I and by virtue of their rank, these three I an- allowed on parole. 1 was told off | on first guard over the rest, and thus i had the first experience of our friends, ' til'- enemy. They air a mixed Jot, these i men wliom we are travelling so many j thousands of miles to fight, rather cheerful on the wliole, and one has the 1 '.ace of a young philosopher rather than! that of tlie barbarians their nation has j forced us to think them. Big fellows, i the*', and hefty lighters, although not | breathing the spirit ol our voluntary j soldiers. One of the greatest puzzles j to them is that so great a force as ours should be out "looking for trouble." ' 'lhey, if they could do so, would gladly , stay out of tlie turmoil. r l"hey luive a fearful story to tell, and one of fchem who speaks English fairly well, tells it not without dramatie effect. "There was much fear on the Emden," he says, "wiien the Sydney opened fire." The , Herman boat knew nothing of us or our I convoy, and was bent on landing a' party to destroy the C'oios Island cable j when the Sydney sighted her. The Emden opened fire, hut tlie Australian gun-1 ners were too good. Two "range-lind- j era," and then the Sydney never missed,! and stern to inn „hc suvpl, the (Jer-! man vessel clear. All her boats and all j her guns were swept away. The com-! mander of the Emden issued an order, ' and the battery officer reported that lie had only one gunt left. Then the Sydney

signalled to the Hmdcn to ask her if she would surrender, but the Germans could not read the signal and they could not haul down the (lag, because the halliards were shot away. So the Sydney put in six more shots before the Emd' i could float a white sheet astern. When the firinig ceased, 200 Germans 4 Wcv' killed, and the Emden was without water. iSome of her wounded went mad and jumped overboard. Need we wonder that the prisoners are glad to bo out of the strife? | CAMPED IN EGYPT. And now we are camped on the Nubian desert, seven miles from Cairo, and have been under canvas just a week. Unexpected orders were issued at 'Aden that we were to land at Alexandria and winter in Egypt, and here we are in the familiar tents, around us tile unbounded horizon of sandy plain. With us are encamped thousands of English Territorials, and a lately attached company of Indian tea-planters, line young Englishmen of a workmanlike type. We may make history in Egypt before we. leave, for the Turk is threatening, the Khedive is reported disloyal (though the people of the country are loyal) and there is a probability that Egypt will be declared British territory, but of all this more anon. The Australians are encamped under the Pyramids, some miles away, and by night the. streets of Cairo are alive witlt khaki-clad men on leave. The New Zealand Expeditionary Force is getting into harness.