THE GALLIPOLI STAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1917, Page 7

THE GALLIPOLI STAR.

CAUSES DISAPPOINTMENT AND DISCONTENT. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, Dec. 3. The conditiona under which the Gallipoli Riband and Star are to be awarded are bound to give rise, to a great deal of disappointment and discontent, According to the message from the War Office, the decorations are to go to meli who sailed in 1914 and who took part in the Qallipoli campaign. This means that members of the Third New Zealand Reinforcement will be debarred despite the fast that some, of them took part in the 'landing oil the historic April 25, 1915. The star will be given to men who spent an hour or two on Galfipoli if they were members of the Main liody or the first two reinforcements. It will be denied to other ra?n \Vho fought there for months.

Another aspect of this matter is discussed in military circles. There is a feeling that it is not wi«e to allot decorations for special campaigns at this stage of the war. A proposal that memhers of the. first six divisions of the British Expeditionary, Force should have a special medal has been strongly resisted in the highest military circles at Home, on the ground that it would not bo possible to avoid injustice in drawing a sharp line of demarcation between the original members of the divisions and the early renforcements, composed of men who wer.e called to the colors at the outbreak of war and were moved to Prance as required. While tlie New, Zealanders and Australians were fighting at Gallipoli 1 the Canadians were holding on grimly in the terrible Ypres salient and encountering the Germans' first gas attacks. There are difficulties about drawing distinctions.