A CHAPLAIN'S STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1915, Page 6

A CHAPLAIN'S STORY.

THE WOUNDED IN El! ITT. CLOTHES AND MONEY NEEDED. Duucdin, June IS. Under date May iith, Chaplain Bush King writes to Canon Curzou Siggcr from Zcitnn camp : "By this time you will be aware tliat our troops have been under lire 011 the Gallipoli Peninsula. The fight evidently took place on April 25th, 2fith, 2t)th, anil on April 30 and May 1 the wounded began to come on this far. The worst cases were left at Alexandria and only the lighter cases came 011 here, although these cases are, serious. We have seven hospitals with wounded in—Mena House at the Pyramids, thirteen miles from here ; Gizereh Palace, and Kasr El Aini Hospital. These hospitals are out in Cairo West. Then close at hand we have Abbiissia, about two miles from the Ifeliopolis Palace Hotel, a large building beautifully fitted up, with 1500 rooms, huge halls, balconies and staircases (all built of marble); out on wonderfully large balconies we have beds everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of them, nearly all occupied. Close by we have Luna Park Hall, quite the size of the Garrison Hall, with 700 wounded and sick. The beds are packed close together 011 the floor of the hull and all round the gallery, quite a wonderful sight. The New Zealand wounded and sick are scattered amongst these large hospitals. We have no buildings for our own, 110 nurses and now no doctors. We are dependent upon the Australian and Egyptian Governments for hospital room, for doctors, for nurses. and when the wounded come in we chaplains have to go from bed to bed to to liud out who it is, where he comes from, what church, and who his people are. After a week's work we are beginning to get an idea where our men are.

"We wish that instead of sending clothes and money to Belgium we had some of it here. The- men come to, us from the field with clothes torn by shrapnel or bullets or wire, stained with mud or blood. Some men have no clothes. We need money to get them fruit, stationery, shirts, etc. Some may ask, Where are the regimental funds '! The officers commanding have charge of them, and these officers are away on active service. The chaplains have no funds, and it seems a pity we were not entrusted with some funds for this necessary work. ''Then about our wounded. No matter how serious their wounds may be, our men are wonderfully cheerful, and ;j 11 anxious to get well and get back. But some of those poor fellows will never go back to the firing line. Some have lost a limb, some an eve, but it would do you all good to see how wonderfully cheerful they all are, glad to have su/l'ered a little bit. It was not so much fighting as slaughter, for as our troops were landing the enemy simply mowed them down. At first our men hud 110 chance of returning tho fire. Horace Braithwaite is seriously wounded in (he heart. A bullet entered the top of his head, traversed the curve of his skull, and is now lodged in the temple. Poor boy he is almost unconscious, screams with pain, but when 1 go to him he holds my hand tight and usually goes off to sleep or else lies quiet. He is entered on the notice board as 'dangerously' ill. We have our grades gene, rally—' ill,' 1 seriously,' ' dangerously,' ' very dangerously.' ''These dear fellows are so grateful for even a little thing done for them. One of our confirmees. Captain Price, was killed in action, and another confirmee is here with a badly smashed shoulder. It would take 100 long to write about the hnndreds of cases we have to deal with.

To refer back to the campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula : The troops were to land 011 a beach ahout 1500 yards wide between the water and the Turkish trenches, and the Turks had wire entanglements submerged to hinder the landing. It was quite .1 good scheme (for them). As the boats from the transports were closing in <lll the shore those in front were hindered and the boats in the rear crowded in on the former. The result was a splendid target for the Turks. They poured shells into those crowds and the result was disastrous for our troops. When a number got landed they dropped their packs on the beach and made a great rush forward yelling 'lmshi !' the Arabic word ordering common people to clear out — ' rmshi yalla higgery' ('Clear out quickly'). The Turks quickly dressed themselves in the clothes of our killed and wounded, and some who spoke English quite well got into our trenches and gave orders. Some German officers did the same. Another scheme the Turks had was that they dressed themselves up as shrubs, even painting their hands and faces. These particularly were snipers who picked oH with precision officers and particular men.

" While we cannot but admire some of their cute schemes, we are horrified at what they have done and the results of their schemes. Again, the wounded toll us of atrocities committed on our wounded, where Turks cut out the tongues of our wounded and cut oil' tlieir noses or hands and other parts of their bodies."