AN EPIC OF GALLIPOLI.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1916, Page 2

AN EPIC OF GALLIPOLI.

500 AUSTRALIANS DASH INTO VALLEY OF DEATH. When can tlioir glory fade 0 the wild charge they madel All the world wondcr'd Honor the charge they madel Honor the Light Brigade, Noble five hundred! Londwi, March 20, , The feature of a memorable speech by the Right Hon. W. M. Hughes, theAustralian Preiser, at the Pilgrims', dinner at the Savoy, was his poignant but thrilling story of the charge of the, Bth 'Australian Light Horse in Gallipoli. "W-i speak with pride, and rightly, of the Charge of Balaclava. Those mens went out in the broad light of day with at' the impitus and stimulus that' a knee-to-knee charge on the gallop gives to men. But the story of the Bth' Light Horse of Australia one by whieii the charge of the Light .Brigade must prile its fires. The of these men has yet to he fully told and will' never die.

"There were some 500 of them, and 1 they were to attack in three waves. They were given these orders, six, eight, ten hours before Every man knew when he got that order what it meant. They went. Tli-j' made their preparations. They handed to those who were to remain in the trench their poor, brief messages of farewell, and they went, out, wave after wave —to death. '"flie mail who got farthest was the colonel' he got 50 yards. There were 18 oft'ioers; out of those who went two only came back. Of the men, the merest handful survived. We must look, back :'n the grey dawn of history before we find a deed paiollel with this. Like the Spartans at Thermophilae, they leave an imperishable name."