ON GALLIPOLI.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 December 1915, Page 3

ON GALLIPOLI.

SITUATION ON THE PENINSULA. RUMORED ATTACK ON EGYPT. (From the Special Representative of the Melbourne Age.) Eastern Mediterranean, October 26.

The recent attack by the Turks on the British position at Suvla Bay and the demonstration at Air/ac came to break a period of comparative quiet on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The attack was apparently launched in the belief that the British army on the Peninsula had been denuded to swell the force landed at Salonika. To his cost the Turk discovered the mistake, and after suffering heavy casualties he once again settled into his trenches.

None of the Australian or New Zealand army corps has been sent to Salonika, nor are they likely to be sent there while the position at Anzac remains as at present. The men of the Ist Australian Division in reserve at Mudros have been making the most of the rest which they so richly deserved. Sports, drill and good food have enabled the battalions to regain their old fighting strength, and it will be as veteran troops strengthened by reinforcements that they will return to the trenches. In fact, by the time this reaches you they will be once again in the firing line. Most of the leaders have paid hurried visits to Egypt on military business, and have returned to assume command again, bringing with them many of the men who have recovered from wounds, and are eager to join up with those of their comrades who are left.

FORMING WINTER QUARTERS. As far as possible efforts are being made to provide suitable quarters for the coining winter months. For this purpose timber and sheet iron have been landed by the Xavy, but up to the present there has been no great call for urgency. One rain storm swept across the Peninsula, and for tt day the position was disagreeable, as the trenches were wet and the saps were drains for a short time, while the tracks were dangerously slippery. The water soon soaked in, but it gave the troops a taste of what is to be expected. Many trenches have been shored up where they are particularly exposed to the weather, and a system of drainage is being carried out by the engineers. The Turks have confined their offensive to mining, which cannot he considered in any way a success. Though no longer held by Australian troops, Hill (10 was mined by the enemy. The crown of this point is covered with trenches running in all directions, which are partly occupied by Turks and partly by British troops. Evidently miscalculating their position the Turks exploded a mine without doing harm to us, hut efl'ecting considerable damage to their own trenches. On the Anzac front a mine entombed three Australians, who, however, managed to dig themselves out, and appeared safe and sound before their astonished comrades. Otherwise the front has 'been quite quiet, the casualties at Anzac being negligible. THE .MEDICAL SITUATION. At Anzac preparations have been completed for the care of the sick and wounded in tents—(later huts will be built,) —on a site at the foot of Tlugge Plateau, north of the present beach clearing station, which had to be evacuated owing to weather conditions. This station is situated at the foot of the clilTs with a narrow strip of beach, not more than thirty feet or forty feet wide, between it and the high water mark.

The new site is at the mouth of the gully, where a low plateau forms an excellent situation for a clearing hospital, while an adjacent position is occupied for army servico purposes. Both points are, unfortunately, still open to shell (ire, but not to the same extent as those on Anzac beach were. Colonel —— arrived buck from a visit to the front, and has left again for Malta and London, whore he will finish hia report on the medical situation. He spoke to me in terms of the highest praise of the work done by the Australian division, As far as that branch of the service is concerned, all details of dressing and clearing stations were complete and adequate, and as far as I was able to judge, no alteration can be suggested tltfere, whatever the recommendations may be in regard to the hospitals at the base and at T.emnos. At Malta he hopes to find the key to the situation, as far as Australian care and treatment of wounded is concerned. Prominent above other considerations stands out the need for a proper ration for the I troops and increases in the quantity of vegetables and fatty foods. THE BALKANS PROBLEM. The general opinion here regarding the Balkans upheaval is optimistic, and the prospect of the Kaiser expending his last effort on a futile attack on the Suez C'anal and Egypt is regarded with no apprehension. That Egypt is the dream of the Germans may be gleaned from the magnificent promise of that territory and the North African eoast as far as Morocco, which was given to Turkey, Meanwhile, every effort is being made to push forward the railway on the Sinai Peninsula, which will form the slender thread for the invading hwt to travel to the canal. The moment for our attack will fo.llow on the arrival of the Gf.rinun force (and very necessary ammunition supplies) at Constantinople, but German hopes are centred on the complete junction of the Bulgarians with the Austro-German force that has crossed the Danube. The advent of Greece on tho aide of the Allies is anticipated. It is doubtful, also, if Bulgaria ean rely on her troops to tight the Russians should a force invade Varna. Turkish troops, which can ill be spared from Gallipoli Peninsula, have been sent to the Black Sea and tife Aegean coasts, SUBMARINES IN THE AEGEAN. In view of the bombardment of the Bulgarian coast and the stream of transports between England, Aloxandria, Miulros and Salonika, the German and Australian submarine menace in Mediterranean waters seems to have grown less dangerous, A Greek steamer was recently stopped by an Austrian subnutrine under peouliar circumstances off Crete. The Bourulos, two days out from Athens, picked up two boat loads, af English sailors. The ship helng- in need of boats, these two were hauled on deck.' Shortly afterwards, against the ravs of the setting sun, the gleam of the'baek of a submarine couid bo seen th»o miles to the west. The submarine alongside, having signalled the steawer to stop. In antiQty&tian of the order, the were lowered, but twin? te the rush for them a ge-

curred, and many persons wc-re thrown into the water. The British sailors, who had just been rescued, made heroic efforts to save the\lrowniug passengers, ibut many lost their lives. The commander of the submarine went on board, reassured the passengers, and sent the vessel on her journey. Recently a submarine base was discovered and destroyed by a patrol of warships, whose beat is along the coast of Asia Minor and Egypt. The troops have come to regard the dangers of war. as commencing in Egypt, instead of on Gallipoli, and are undisturbed by the sinister presence in these, waters of the enemy submarines. The fleet operating off the Dardanelles and the Bulgarian coast is well protected by a screen of destroyers and trawlers. Moreover, the warships of the monitor class, which are armed with 14-inch guns ,are almost invulnerable wider the water owing to their hollow sides. Besides, there are cruisers of the Allied fleets built on a similar pattern, though drawing a greater depth of water. The monitors possess an enormous advantage in being able to go close in to the coast and remain immune from torpedoes. Some splendid shooting has been done by three ships, which have been particularly active on the right flank of the Anzac position, in the direction of Maidos. It would appear now, however, that the whole of the French and British fleets have left Mudros harbor, and they could be seen from Anzac firing along the Bulgarian coast—visible late in the afternoon, a faint blue line of hills marking the ports of Enos, Dedeagateh and Kavala,