TALES FROM GALLIPOLI.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1915, Page 5

TALES FROM GALLIPOLI.

•' I TOLD BY RETURNED TROOPERS. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, Sept. 12. IHie newspaper men who were let loose aboard the transport Tahiti for an liour 01' two prior to the berthing of the ship on Saturday, will have flooded tlie columns of the Press with the stories told them by the returned soldiers. Good stories they are, too, for the most part, and if they have been embellished a little in t'he telling, who is to complain? The tactful reporter continues to look innocently receptive when he . catches the interviewer "tipping 'the wink" to a grinning comrade. But it must not be lmagiiied that these tales of Gallipoli's battlegrounds are all that the soldiers have to tell. The men in the higher ranks, especially, have knowledge of many events that have been proceeding behind the veil of secrecy maintained by the Censor, and a quiet chat with one of them is well worth while. They can throw light into many dark corners. One may not repeat for publication all that they have to say even in this distant quarter of the Empire, but perhaps one may risk the displeasure of the censor on one or two points. THE PHILOMEL. Presumably most New Zealanders know that they are represented in the war area by a warship—not the big 'battle-cruiser, New Zealand, which is serving as a unit of the battle cruiser squadron in the North Sea, but the comparatively small and insignificant Philomel, maintained and found at the expense of this 'Dominion. We have not heard muck of the Philomel during the last year, beyond an occasional .casualty list, but it appears that t'he old cruiser has been making a name for herself in near Eastern waters. She has bombarded camps and ports, she has chased submarines and she has assisted to sav# from a colored enemy one of the most important coaling stations of the Empire, Hardly a ship of the navy lias been more continuously active and' more often in action than the Philomel since the outbreak 01' war. EGYPTIAN ARMY. A question upon that point and the reference t'o a threatened coaling station led to another query, What has the Egyptian army been doing of late'! Tile fine lighting force which Lord Kitchener created in Northern Egypt, now a gathering ground of the Empire's soldiers. The New Zealanders have no exact information on the point, but tlicv can .say that they scarcely saw an Egyptian uniform, and there were rumours of movements further south, '■BIG LIZZIE." ''You heard that the Germans claim to have got the Queen Elizabeth with a submarine?" was a question put to a 'Press representative b.v a soldier. A statement of the kind, qualified by an assertion that the big ship was damaged, but not sunk, was published locally and contradicted by an American' correspondent's account of his visit to the battle licet a few days when lie saw the famous ship in her place in the line. What the enemy submarines did ,- get." one is told, was a dummy Queen Elizabeth. in the form of a big liner which had been turned into the semblance of a super-Dreadnought by the cutting away of much top-hamper and the skilful use of wood and canvas. There were at least two of these dummy battleships, your correspondent was informed, serving as decoys in the Aegean Sea. Gossip of this kind was to be heard in plenty on board the Tahiti, and if it wai= not all reliable at least it was vastly interesting. Some of the less credible stores your correspondent will not repeat. He has a notion that some of them were impromptu efforts for hie special bsnofltl