WAR NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 April 1916, Page 7

WAR NOTES.

JSISHS AND COLOifIALSi ,- \WARM FRiENDS IN EGYPT, . Marked appreciation of the Sikhs is expressed in a letter from a New Zealand officer now serving in Egypt. "They are beautifully clean," he writes to his father in Wellington, "and, though not very tall, are beautifully made, and such splendid fighters. They fought side by side with us for some time on Christmas Day. Going out on our last trek we passed the Sikhs to take our place in the column. Our men gave a Maori war-cry, and the Sikhs responded with their war-cry. Our men call all Sikhs 'Johnny,' and the Sikhs grin, showing their beautiful white teeth and reply, MEllo, Johnnies.' As I| told you before, the Sikhs were nine months in Flanders. When our men came off the boat they got very excited and chattered away in great style. I found out afterwards that they were saying to one another: 'Fine men; like the Gandes we fought beside in Flanders.' " ■ WEALTHY VOLUNTEER. ESTATES WORTH £60,000. The volunteers at Sydney on a recent day included a very wealthy man. He wanted to join the infantry as a private. He had no difficulty in doing that. "Have'you any expectations?" asked the recruiting officer, with his mind on filling up what is known as -the green cards, which sets out the worldly wealth of the soldiers who go out to right. "Expectations!" queried the volunteer, mystified. ' "Yes," replied the officer. "Have you any property or income, or, if not, do' you expect to fall in for any?" "Well, I pay income-tax;" Baid the volunteer, simply. "On what?" "Well," was the reply, "I forget how much it was last year, but my pastoral properties in Queensland and this State were assessed for taxation purposes at £50,000." DURATION OF THE WAR. GENERAL BUTTON'S ESTIMATE. General Sir Edward Hutton, at one time in command of the forces in New South Wales, and afterwards of those of the whole Commonwealth, in a speech at Chertsey, England; last month, predicted a long-drawn-out struggle. It had, Sir Edward said, been asked when the war would finish, and lie would remind them of the words used by Mr. Asquith in November, 1914, when he clearly laid it down that the British Empire intended to destroy the military domination of Prussia. If they thought they were going to destroy that Prussian system of blood and iron in eighteen months' fighting, well, he considered them to be vory sanguine. He reminded them that Lord Kitchener, at the commencement of the war, put down its length at three years. He (the speaker) though this largely under-esti-mated the length of war, and so did most of his colleagues-—generals who were accustomed to study strategical questions.