"SAVED AN ARMY."

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1918, Page 6

"SAVED AN ARMY."

WATER DIYINKII'S TALL CLAIMS. London, Nov. 27. A few days ago 11m/ London fSt.iii' devoted Lli(' liest pan, (if a column of its 'united spare to the recital of an Australian soldier's story, which, if true, provides Mil ;isiomidiHl4 cxaof Governmental iii<> 1:1 titinle and parsimony. It is to he presumed that the Star. which certainly has 110 reputation for exploiting "mures' nests,'' vj; satisfied that, the soldier's talc contained at any rate 11 fair proportion of truth, but most, people will timl it more than a little difficult. to believe that a man who had done the things Stephen Nelly claims to liave done should ne turned nut of the Army with a temporary pension of 7s Cd a week. However, here is the story as it appears in the Star, and pending developments the only further comment one feels inclined to make is that it seems strange tlmt (so far as memory serves) in all the reams of writing concerning the Gallipoli adventure one has read, the wonderful achievements of Sapper Kellev have failed to receive even honorable mention: THE STORY. When the Waters were dried an' the Earth did appear, The Lord He created the Engineer, His Majesty's Royal Engineer, With the rank and t the pay of a sappe*! Science still laughs at the "dowser," the water diviner who finds drink in the desert by the bending of a twig; but one such, at least, lias justified his claim to be able to strike the rock and bring forth the precious fluid. This is Mr Stephen Kelley, lately senior wireless engineer of the Third Light Horse Brigade, Australian Engineers, with tli rank and pay of a sapper; now a civilian with a temporary pension of 7s Gd a week. DARK DAYS 'ON THE PENINSULA. ]n the darkest days of the Gallipoli campaign, when our soldiers on that sun-baked peninsula were dying of thirst, Sapper Kelley went out, wounded though he was, and indicated a dozen spots where water would be found. And found it was. Within a few hours borings were made, pumps rigged up, and Gurkhas, Anzacs and English were drinking their fill and bathing in what was over. "Our water supply used to come to us in tank barges," he told a Star man, 'but in May. lfll/5, I told the authorities that there was plenty of water on the peninsula. They bored where I told them and found it in abundance. Later I WK3 asked to go to Suvla Bay and report on the probability of water there. IN THE TURKISH LINES. "With a covering party I went out towards the end of .May, lflln, and penetrated sonic 3CO yards into the Turkish lines. There the ofiicer in charge of the party refused to go any further, and I was left to carry on alone. I worked my way through the enemy lines and wandered right into Anafarta village. Several timou I was challenged by the Turks, and once I had to hide in the sandhills close to a party of the enemy. "While I lay there, near enough to hear them talking, the searchlights from British gunboat discovered the enemy trench, and shells began to fall among the Turks. I had to lie still, expecting every minute to be killed. ..ATER, WATER EVERYWHERE. "That danger over, I had to lie in my hiding place all through the next day until dark, when I once more got through the Turkish lines, dodging our own searchlight?, r.r.d reached Waflhfa Ridge. As a result of that excursion reported an abundance, of water between Auzao Cove, Salt. Lake, and Anafarta village. I estimated thftt at least 100 wells could be dug there, each to produce at least 200 gallons per hour. "f do not use a twig, as most diviners do, but a piece of copper, a penny, or a length of wire, or, as in this case, the copper driving band of a Turkish shell. "After/ that affair my services were applied for by Captain Shearer, of the New Zealand Engineers, Imt my brigade refused to pnrt with me. Later 1 was sent to G.H.Q., and ordered by the Director-General of Works to go to Mudros, where I located a number of, wells, which were of great value to the hospitals there. I also visited Tenedos and other inlands for the same purpose, and supervised the erection of reservoirs. Next I was borrowed by the French and found a number of wells for them 011 the Asiatic side. A GENERAL VISIT. "In July 1 reported back with my own brigade and returned to my ordinary work till August 7, when I was transferred to the lines of communication of the Bth Light Horse. On August. 11 I was wounded and taken to hospital. There it was that General Hughes came to see me. "The General pointed through the hospital window to No. 1 Outpost., where the water tanks were, with a cloud of soldiers clamoring round them. 'There's no water left,' ho said; 'the barges haven't arrived, and the men won t go back to the trenches without water. You are wounded and can't go out. If you can do thijs,' he said, 'you will save an army!' "I told him that I was not bndlv wounded,' said Mr. Kellev, "and if he would get me earned out 1 would find the. water. So in tno morning at seven | 0 clock they carried me d6wn and a. number of officers asked me if I thought there was any chance of finding water. 1 said there was. because I had prospected that part of the country before; and J promised .them at least'one well before midday, giving 2000 gallons an hour. 10,000 MEN DRINK. "And I did it, „oo! About 200 yards from 0.1-I.Q. I ordered a Bit borin? to be made, K'»iust 2000 gallons an hour, I found another five wells, and bv fi p.m. eic.-y '.nan of the 100,000 troops' had his water bottle full, his thirst quenched, and many of them were bathing in buckets. During the 11 e\'t two days I located thirty-tivo springs, the deepest only 25ft below the surface. "A few days later T was invalided Koine, and thousands of troops, black and white, lined up to give me a. cheer. Arid now I'm invalided out as unfit, and have had to fight the authorities to get my pension of 7s fid a week, while my ofi'ers to go and find water on any front- in the world have been rejected." Mr Kelly has been conscious of his peculiar gift, since he was five years old, when he used to find water in the fields near his Australian home. ITe describes his sensations when over a hidden spring as like little shocks from a galvanic battery, and believes that an electric current passes.(from his body to the water. His killed in Gallipoli, had the same gift to a l«Mer degree.