EAST AFRICA CAMPAIGN.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 March 1916, Page 6

EAST AFRICA CAMPAIGN.

AX OFFICER'S LETTER. SEASONS FOR SECRECY. .MURDER OF 15RITISH WOUXIiED. For a long time there has been a close veil of secm-y drawn over the operations ir. East Africa, and the reason for this- the fact thut only a few troops were adding a very long frontier—is revealed in a letter from Lieut-enant-Colonel D. P. DrisooP. D.5.0., commanding the l.egitm of Frontiersmen 'Battalion, the. 2atli Royal Frontiersmen Fusiliers, as they are oil'' ally designateil, to the New Zealand division of the Legion. The letter is from "somewhere in .East Africa." and was sent by special runner to the Mombasa line. Lieutenant-Colonel Di'iscoll says:— The Legion battalion it doing well, and it has more . than done its share for East Africa. The troops from South Africa are now arriving, and we have tall work in front of us in cleaning up Herman East Africa, as we have not only a large and 'well-snipped army to fight against, but we have the climate and scarcity of water to contend with. L'p to now our thin line of troops has worked hard to keep the enemy off out fully I2flo miles of frontiers, and about :>OO miles of railway, and we have succeeded well, but the enemy was cunning and enterprising and cut out our work for us. It has been a grand bit of work, and all who took part, from the generals down to the humblest carriers, deserve all. the praise that can be given tbcirt.

VICTORIA CROSS HERO. For obvious reasons the veil of sjcereey had to close down for a long time, but there is no longer any necessity for concealment as to howwe stood out here, for the danger of British-' East Africa being over-run has now passed. But we were very few. indeed, and the danger was present all the time. I told yon before that the enemy murdered most of the wounded: I suppose to strike terror into ns; but wait- a bitLieutenant Dartriell. who' was wounded in the leg, but who could have got clear, ordered away those who would have carried him off. when a small patrol of ours bumped into a big enemy force, and had to leave the badly .wounded. Dartnell stayed with his men, and when the enemy began their dirty work, pulling the clothing off the Wounded, regardless of the agony .they were causing, preparatory to torturing and mutilating the bodies, Dartnell used his revolver, and laid out a m/mbcr of the enemy all around himself and the wounded, as that' was how they were found, with our men all dead, naked and covered with ghastly chopper and bayonet wounds. Poor Dartnell has got the Victoria Cross after death. He was an Australian, and an old member of the Legion. WILD ANIMALS AND INSECTS. "The country here is covered :with dense thorn bush, and the thorns are ugly hooks, which tear one badly. vVe have to earry the drinking water in canvas hags, using carriers or porters, as the country is arid and inhospitable. Our men are'constantly being charged in the bush by rhino, or HufTalo. Lions roar cldse around our camps at night, and sometimes make ,a sentry's hair stand on end. In fact, the bush is alive with animals of, sll sort*. There are

ugly creeping reptiles and repulsive in- ] sects, poisonous ticks in myriads, from | smaller than a pin's head to as big as ! a cofl'ee bean, and these things burrow ; ii.to the skin, and cause irritating sores ■■ that lust for weeks, and yet we are all happy and enjoy our experiences. Some- ! times we are at sea level, soaking in malaria, and at other times at various : levels up to SOOflft, so yon can see we get some climatic change.'. Towering I over all the landscape >-• mighty Kili- | manjnro, with his crow;; of perpetual ! snow 20,000 ft high, and sometimes while ! v.e are trying to get cool and are all | grousing about in the terrible heat—we are about on the equator—we look up I at the peak and wonder what it would fbe like to play snowballs up there, or to ! sit round in a snow drift, PL'EXTY OF RIG GAME. I "At night we need heavy blankets; at I 7 a.m. it is very cold, at 0 a.m. the furnace heat commences, and we peel off as much as wo possibly can. It is a wonderful country for big game, and you need to see it s wonders in this respect to realise that truth i«s stranger than fiction. Yon can stand on a small rise, in an open plain, and see 10.000 to 1.'i.000 head of game of every description .grazing, from a few feet away to as far as the eye can reach. You don't shoot; yon simply look and wonder. Close to us here there is a big I herd of elephants, with tusks from 7ft ; to Bft in length, and they allow us to approach within iiOyds and. watch them. Now I must close, and f will send this in hy special runner to the railway, and hope it reaches yen safely. Good luck to all comrades of the Legion."