Transcriber's Note:
Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Hyphenation has been
rationalised.
The flagship of the Expeditionary Forces, here identified as the Orverto,
is elsewhere identified as the Orvieto.
Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals. Italics are
indicated by _underscores_.
[_Frontispiece_: THE BATTERED "EMDEN" AFTER GOING ASHORE ON COCOS ISLAND.]
AUSTRALASIA TRIUMPHANT!
WITH THE AUSTRALIANS AND
NEW ZEALANDERS IN THE
GREAT WAR ON LAND AND SEA
BY
A. ST. JOHN ADCOCK
WITH 36 ILLUSTRATIONS
Strong Mother of a Lion line,
Be proud of these strong sons of thine.
TENNYSON
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON,
KENT & CO., LTD., 4 STATIONERS' HALL CT., E.C.
_Copyright_
_First published, January 1916_
AUTHOR'S NOTE
It is too soon to attempt the telling at large and in detail of all that
has been done by Australia and New Zealand in the Great War. There is
much that has, for military reasons, not yet been revealed; and what has
been told has come to us from various sources in more or less
fragmentary fashion, so that one must read several accounts of the same
event in order to get anything of an adequate idea of it. All I have
done here is to collate such documents as are available and gather
together a connected narrative, not only of the actual campaigning, but
of the spiritual and mental experiences the Australasians have passed
through since August 1914, the way they have faced this crisis in their
history, and the effect the war has had on their national life. I have
drawn on official documents, on the dispatches of Sir Ian Hamilton, the
reports of the various correspondents of our English and the chief
Australian and New Zealand newspapers, on the speeches of public men and
letters of private citizens, and on a few conversations I have had with
some of the wounded Anzacs whom I have met in these latter days about
London. In all which I have been little more than an enthusiastic and, I
hope, faithful compiler, endeavouring to set down as vividly as I could
the impressions I formed from my reading and hearing of these things,
and trying occasionally to guess, according to my lights, at the spirit
and inner significance of this wonderful uprising of our Australasian
kinsfolk–at the ideal for which they are fighting with such glorious
heroism and for which so many of them have ungrudgingly laid down their
lives. Some, who have had no hand in the fighting, have very confidently
criticised both the Commander-in-Chief who has led these gallant
soldiers in the sternest of their battles and the Government that has
been responsible for the campaigns they have undertaken; but I have not
ventured to compete with such critics, chiefly because I accept the
judgment of the sturdy New Zealander who said to me, discussing the
nagging diatribes of a certain newspaper: "It's all fluff. If these
fellows knew a little more they wouldn't have so much to say."
A. ST. J. A.
CONTENTS
PAGE
BRITONS ALL 1
CHAPTER
I. MAKING READY 3
II. PATROLLING THE PACIFIC 15
III. THE TRIUMPH OF THE "SYDNEY" 25
IV. EN ROUTE FOR EGYPT 33
V. CHRISTMAS AT THE PYRAMIDS 43
VI. THE FIGHT FOR THE SUEZ CANAL 51
VII. THE EPIC OF THE DARDANELLES BEGINS 59
VIII. THE DARE-DEVIL ANZACS 73
IX. THE AUSTRALASIAN IDEAL 91
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE BATTERED "EMDEN" AFTER GOING ASHORE ON COCOS ISLAND _Frontispiece_
_Facing page_
FRENCH MEN-OF-WAR AND AUSTRALIAN TROOPSHIPS IN SUEZ CANAL, PORT SAID 4
MEN OF THE AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE IN CAIRO 5
NEAR THE PYRAMIDS: THE CAMP OF THE AUSTRALIANS, AGAINST WHOM NO
GERMAN-TRAINED TURKISH ARMY CAN BE SUCCESSFUL 12
"STRANGERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT" 13
FOOTBALL IN CAMP AT ABASSIA 13
WITH OUR COLONIAL TROOPS IN EGYPT 16
AUSTRALIAN ARMY FIELD-KITCHENS MARCHING PAST AT A REVIEW OF TROOPS
IN EGYPT 17
A SMALL PORTION OF THE ARMY IN EGYPT 20
THE AUSTRALIAN TROOPS IN EGYPT 21
FROM DIFFERENT POINTS OF THE COMPASS 21
THE HORSE LINES AT ABASSIA, EGYPT 28
THE AUSTRALIAN REMOUNTS DEPOT AT ABASSIA 28
OUR TROOPS IN EGYPT 29
WITH OUR TROOPS IN EGYPT 32
AN AUSTRALIAN SCOUT IN THE EGYPTIAN DESERT 33
CAMP OF THE AUSTRALIANS AT MUDROS BAY 36
SULTAN OF EGYPT VISITS THE DARDANELLES WOUNDED 36
SECOND DIVISION LEAVING MUDROS BAY WITH AUSTRALIANS
ON THE FORE DECK 37
THE LAST SERVICE ON BOARD THE "LONDON" FOR THE AUSTRALIANS 44
THE DARDANELLES–AUSTRALIANS AND BLUEJACKETS ON A TRANSPORT 45
AN AUSTRALIAN LANDING PARTY FOR THE DARDANELLES 52
AUSTRALIANS PREPARING TO DISEMBARK AT THE DARDANELLES 53
AUSTRALIANS LANDING NORTH OF GABA TEPE 53
THE DARDANELLES–AUSTRALIAN TROOPS AT THE LANDING 60
AUSTRALIA'S SPLENDID CORPS OF MOUNTED AMBULANCE MEN (1) 60
THE BRAVE AUSTRALIANS 61
AUSTRALIA'S MOUNTED AMBULANCE MEN (2) 61
THE DARDANELLES–SOLDIERS TAKING THEIR HORSES FOR A BATHE 68
GENERAL BIRDWOOD, IN COMMAND OF THE AUSTRALIANS
AT THE DARDANELLES 69
AUSTRALIA'S MOUNTED AMBULANCE MEN (3) 76
THE DARDANELLES–MEN BATHING AFTER RETURNING FROM AN ATTACK 77
HEROES FROM THE DARDANELLES 84
HEROES OF THE DARDANELLES 85
THE DARDANELLES OPERATIONS 92
THE DARDANELLES–AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND TROOPS IN A
RAVINE 93
_Britons All!_
_In times of peace, when every wind blows fortune to them still,
John Bull and all his kindred disagree, as families will:
With wrath and hate in wild debate they shout each other down,
And split up into parties for the People and the Crown;
But if a foe would part them, he is never long in doubt–
It's "Rule Britannia!" only, and they join to throw him out._
_When the struggle's once begun
And the flag aloft is run,
We're Britons then and brothers all until that fight is won._
_Beyond the Cheviots Sandy guards the Scotsman's separate fame:
He won't be called an Englishman–he scorns the very name!
And Pat across the Channel, in an island of his own,
And Taffy, who's a Welshman, would as nations walk alone;
Yet all the four shall stand four-square–one party and no more,
And that a family party, when a foe is at the door._
_Scot and Irish there is none,
Welsh and English count as one,
We're Britons then and brothers all when once the fight's begun._
_Let Britain in an hour of need her rallying bugle sound–
Her sons 'neath Australasian skies, on far Canadian ground,
By India's streams or Africa's, shall hear, where'er they roam,
And, drawn from all the ends of earth with kindling thoughts of home,
Shall arm and answer to the call and come where danger lours
To stand beside us in the name that's theirs as well as ours._
_Side by side shall sire and son
Hold the Empire they have won:
We're brothers now and Britons all until the fight is done._
1
MAKING READY
[Illustration: FRENCH MEN-OF-WAR AND AUSTRALIAN TROOPSHIPS IN SUEZ
CANAL, PORT SAID.]
[Illustration: MEN OF THE AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE IN CAIRO.]
AUSTRALASIA TRIUMPHANT!
WITH THE AUSTRALIANS AND NEW ZEALANDERS IN THE GREAT WAR
CHAPTER I
MAKING READY
Lord, in this lull before the break
Of Thy wide tempest, let us make
Our ramparts round complete,
With noise of rivets, whirr of wheels,
And waters hissing 'neath the keels
Of our star-guerdoned fleet!
With workshops fashioning our might
With bugles singing through the night
In city and in farm;
The steady drill, the hammered din,
The quiet heart of discipline–
Grant us our hour–to arm!
ARTHUR H. ADAMS.
All things considered, you cannot help sympathising a little with
Germany's outcry against the deceptive character of the British Empire.
When an eminent physician has carefully diagnosed a patient's complaint
and pronounced, quite emphatically, that he cannot possibly survive for
more than a very brief period, it is up to that patient to fade away
within the time limit prescribed for him. Otherwise, he must not expect
his doctor to be pleased, or to express any but uncomplimentary opinions
concerning his behaviour and the general defects of his system. Well, as
everybody knows, Treitschke, Bernhardi, and other accomplished German
professors devoted many years of their valuable lives to feeling the
pulse of John Bull, and they found that, by all the known laws of
science, he was on his last legs. They assured the world at large, with
the portentous cocksureness so peculiarly German, that he was so far
gone that a properly administered shock was certain to bring about his
immediate dissolution. The shock was administered all right; Germany saw
to that; but instead of keeping to his part of the programme and dying,
John promptly woke up, got out of bed, developed a lot more legs than
anybody had credited him with, and has ever since been firmly standing
on them all.
And Germany is naturally indignant at this. What is the use of
scientific laws if they can thus be disregarded with impunity? Bernhardi
praised the British for some things, but he was sure he knew what he was
talking about, and most of the things they had done were much too
foolish to obtain his approbation. He explained how we had neglected to
train up our Colonies in the way they should go; we had never sternly
imposed our own _kultur_ on any of our "subject peoples"; we exercised
no control over Australasia, Canada, South Africa: we had failed to hold
them in subjection, and they were rapidly losing all trace of the
British spirit and would not remain permanently within the Empire.
Moreover, India and Egypt were seething with disaffection, he said, and
if a beneficent Germany only gave them half a chance they would break
into open revolt and throw off the hated British yoke. He had studied
the whole position most thoroughly and foresaw hopeful possibilities of
great Colonial rebellions–Australasia, Canada, South Africa would decide
before long to become independent States, and the old country would have
to go out and fight them in order to reduce them to submission, and then
would come Germany's golden opportunity. But it might not be necessary
to wait for those rebellions. If ever England were involved in a big war
nearer home, the shrewd Bernhardi was quite convinced that the
self-governing Colonies would naturally consult their own interests and
decline to take any part in it. He laid it down emphatically that, at
all events (to quote from Mr. Allen H. Powles's translation of his
"Germany and the Next War"), "the Colonies can be completely ignored so
far as concerns any European theatre of war."
All which indicates what a strange gulf there must be between the
fossilised Prussian mind and the mind of a modern civilisation. These
pretentious speculations looked so profound, and were actually so
shallow; yet, simply by taking themselves seriously, the German
professors and militarists bluffed most of the world into accepting them
as masterly students of psychology. There is something amusing in the
essentially Prussian idea that we were ignorant of the art of
Empire-building because we had not held our Colonies firmly in
subjection and forced our own _kultur_ upon our "subject peoples" and
thus have made them indissolubly one with us. We have not done so for
two reasons. For one, they would never have allowed us to do it; the men
of British blood are not so docile as that, thank heaven! And for
another, as a nation we have no such stupid, swaggering desire to lord
it over our fellows. We had once, but have outgrown it. As for sending
our armies out to make war on the great free Colonies if they resolved
to set up as independent States–they are independent already, and if
ever they decided to sever the formal, natural tie that links them
easily with ourselves in a federated Empire, no Government in Great
Britain would be so foolish as to do anything but reluctantly acquiesce
in their decision.
Britain fought her sons of yore–
Britain failed; and nevermore,
Careless of our growing kin,
Shall we sin our fathers' sin.
The fact is, and it is now revealing itself, Germany does not understand
what freedom means. She does not know the difference between slavery and
brotherhood, and, with all her owlish wisdom, has never realised that
love is a mightier bond than fear. She has learnt nothing from her
failures in Poland, in Alsace, in her own Colonies. So immature is her
conception of Empire that she took it as a sign of weakness in us when,
after spending blood and treasure in the South African War, we withdrew
and left the Boers and our own people living there to join hands and
make their own laws and govern themselves. "The low-Dutch are in the
ascendant in South Africa now," wrote the egregious Bernhardi, and he
pronounced that when Germany launched her legions against England the
South Africans would be quick to seize the occasion and rise and strike
for freedom.
But people do not strike to obtain what they possess. The
long-premeditated blow has fallen, and instead of shattering the British
Empire past repair has merely tightened any loose rivets in it and
welded it more firmly together than ever. German psychology has proved a
vain thing; not a single one of the solemn prophecies of her professors
has come true. South Africa has crushed the enemy at her gates, has
added German West Africa to the Empire, and is sending troops over to
fight in the British battle-line in France. The Princes of India have
rallied eagerly to the flag, and France and the Dardanelles have undying
stories to tell of the loyalty and courage of those sons of hers who
have fought and died for its honour. The moment the word of alarm
flashed over the seas, Canada, Australia, New Zealand leaped to arms and
were ready, and sent their thousands forth and are sending them still to
hold inviolate the Empire that is theirs no less than ours.
But this is to be the story of the boys from Down Under; the equally
glorious stories of Canada, South Africa, India I leave to other
tellers.
In those August days of 1914 when war and peace were still in the
balance, and we of the British Isles were waiting in tensest anxiety,
not fearing that war was to come, but dreading lest the diplomatists
should arrive at a compromise that would justify us in standing meanly
aside and leaving France to her fate; all through Australia and New
Zealand men waited as anxiously, torn with the self-same fear. And on
the morning of the 5th, when the cable told them that Great Britain had
declared war upon Germany they felt the same deep sense of relief that
the same news had brought to us at midnight on the 4th–relief, and even
thankfulness that, with Belgium's neutrality ruthlessly broken, the
Empire had done the only right and honourable thing. When the storm
burst, the Federal Parliament of Australia had been dissolved and
electioneering was in full swing. Nevertheless, in two days, with the
whole-hearted approval of all parties in the country, the Prime Minister
had offered to send 20,000 men to the front, as a first contingent, and
our Government had gladly accepted the offer. The Australian
Commissioner in London called at the War Office in connection with this
proposal, and wrote home to say that Lord Kitchener told him, "I know
the Australian soldier, and know he will give a good account of
himself"; and that his final words were, "Roll up! Roll up!"
And no sooner was the call made for volunteers for foreign service than
they did roll up–they went swarming in thousands to the recruiting
stations at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Perth, and
other great centres, and in a very short time more than the required
number had been enrolled and were rapidly gathered into vast camps at
Broadmeadows, at Helena Vale, and elsewhere, and all the States of the
Commonwealth were humming with warlike preparations. The militia were
called out; Rifle Clubs were formed; the women organised for Red Cross
work and to look after the needs of the soldiers and their families;
troops slept by their guns in the forts round the coast, for German
cruisers were prowling then in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean and
there were possibilities of raids and bombardments. Negotiations were
opened with the Imperial Government, which readily granted a War Loan of
£18,000,000. There was prompt seizure of German and Austrian ships lying
in Australian ports; there was a drastic hunting down of German spies
and rounding up of alien enemies. Word that war had been declared was
received on the morning of the 5th August, and at noon of the same day
Australia's first shot was fired from the fort at Point Nepean, when a
German cargo steamer, the _Pfatz_, was held up and captured. The first
expeditionary force was raised within two or three days; and before the
end of August a second large contingent had been formed and had gone
into camp for training, this second contingent including a Light Horse
Brigade; and "the Australian Light Horse," as Lord Denman, sometime
Governor-General of the Commonwealth, has said, "is the finest Light
Horse in the world."
A goodly percentage of these volunteer armies–for the compulsory service
in Australia and New Zealand is for home defence only–were bushmen,
farm-hands, clerks, miners, many of whom had thrown up lucrative
appointments and journeyed long distances, hot-foot to be in time. A
writer in _The Melbourne Age_ spent an hour at one of the depots in
Melbourne and gave the following list of the recruits who presented
themselves whilst he was there: "jeweller–1; cricketer–1; actor–1;
collar-maker–1; musicians–3; hairdressers–3; cooks–7; journalists–5;
teachers–8; draper's assistant, 'private means,' hotel porter, military
officer, chemist, wool classer, tailor, axeman, rubber planter,
investor, insurance agent, signwriter, and student–1 each. There were
two or three storekeepers, ten motor mechanics, and half a dozen
travellers. This list," the reporter continues, "is a typical one,
though of course in some States particular occupations would be
differently represented. Generally speaking, it would be correct to say
that at least 80 per cent. of the men–eight in every ten–have in some
way earned their livings with their hands. The remaining 20 per cent.
would be made up of clerks, accountants, shopkeepers, professional men,
and others who were not manual labourers. In the great field entered for
the greatest of all races, 'private means' shows up rather badly."
But we must not forget that "private means" represents the smallest
section of the community. What is infinitely more significant is that
before the end of November 1914 more than the 20,000 men offered had
been raised, had finished their preliminary training and sailed for
Egypt; and a second force of 16,500 was then in training to follow them.
There was also a force of some 7,000 mobilised for home defence.
Something of what Australia was doing, of the ardour and spirit and
spontaneous patriotism that animated her people may be gathered from a
communication which Sir Charles Lucas made to _The Times_. Sir Charles,
who used to be head of the Dominions Department of the Colonial Office,
was on a visit to Australia in those early days of the war, and what
impressed him greatly was the prevailing common sense and patriotic
enthusiasm with which public bodies and private citizens worked, the
promptitude and swiftness with which they prepared themselves, as if the
war had been at their very doors instead of thousands of miles away. He
saw no violent anti-German outbreak; no bombast nor boastfulness;
nothing but a sober, willing, resolute desire to participate to the
utmost in the great fight for freedom that was not to be the
motherland's only, but the Empire's. "Political parties, the churches,
and all classes spoke with one voice," says Sir Charles. "War funds
seemed to be almost unduly multiplied; young men everywhere were eager
to go to the front, and all were making sacrifices in time, and money,
and work"; and he expresses the keenest admiration of the men he saw at
the military camps, and the zeal, cheerfulness, and efficiency with
which all ranks were fitting themselves for the task to which they had
put their hands. "Australia will support the cause of the Empire in this
war to the last man and the last shilling"–Mr. Fisher knew the hearts of
his people before he drew that limitless bill upon their loyalty, and
this is the glorious story of how they are meeting it.
As it was in Australia, so it was in New Zealand. There was the same
intense suspense in those first days of August 1914, the same nameless
fear lest the old country should be lulled into accepting German pledges
or otherwise induced to remain neutral and leave France to her fate, the
same fierce indignation against the unprovoked attack upon Belgium, and
the same immeasurable sense of relief and thankfulness when the word
came that Britain had declared war. There was, too, the same spontaneous
uprising, the same sinking of party differences, the same swift,
passionate gathering up of all the energies, all the resources of the
nation and placing them at the service of the Empire–not with any lust
for glory or conquest, but with a high realisation that in so doing New
Zealand was devoting herself also to the higher service of humanity.
For, as you may hear on all hands, it was the terrible story of
Belgium's martyrdom that stirred such a passion of sympathy and blazing
wrath throughout New Zealand as in Australia–the thought of that gallant
little people so brutally wronged and battling with such desperate
heroism to drive back the barbaric hordes of a mighty invader: it was
this that so tore at the hearts of people there that they rejoiced, as
at the best of good tidings, when Britain took up the cause of the weak
and the wronged and gave them the chance to fight, and if need be die
beside her in so just a cause. No tocsin sounded in any dark hour of
attack ever called forth such myriads and such more than willing myriads
of defenders as have rallied from all quarters of the earth to the cry
that went up from those violated homes of Belgium. Australia and New
Zealand in generous rivalry made haste to subscribe funds for the relief
of the Belgian refugees, and to send them shipments of food, blankets,
and clothing. Meanwhile, military preparations went forward in New
Zealand with amazing rapidity. An expeditionary force of 10,000 was
raised, and by the time they were ready to sail for Egypt a further
3,000 were training in camp at Wellington, recruits were offering
themselves in undiminishing numbers, and arrangements were made to send
out reinforcements of at least 3,000 every two months–a figure which has
since been largely increased. There was a demand that the age limit
should be raised to fifty, such multitudes of older men were keen to go
on active service; but as this was not done, they organised themselves,
as our older men have done in the homeland and in every one of the
British dominions, into Citizen Armies for home defence. In less than
three weeks Christchurch alone had enrolled an army of this sort 1,200
strong, made up, like the New Zealand army for the field, and like all
the new British armies, of men drawn from all classes of the community.
The Premier, and other leading men of the nation, declared in
unqualified terms that New Zealand was ready to give her all, and to
shrink from no sacrifice for the honour and the integrity of the Empire,
and she has ever since been fulfilling that pledge to the utmost.
One has read many such stories as that of the college professor who
threw up his appointment at Dunedin in order to enlist as a private; and
as that of the prosperous farmer miles away across the lonely plains of
South Island, who had heard nothing of any crisis until news burst upon
him that war had been declared two days ago, then, fearing he might be
too late, left his farm to the care of his wife and whoever could be got
to look after it, hurried by horse and rail to Canterbury, took a few
years off his age, and got into the first expeditionary force. And one
could tell numerous similar stories of the Australians. There is that
record of Cormick, the young Queensland grazier, who, immediately the
call reached him, rode 460 miles to the nearest station at Hergott
Springs, then travelled 450 miles by rail to Adelaide, only to find that
the Light Horse regiment there had made up its full number. He
telegraphed to Tasmania, but the Light Horse section there had no
opening for him. He had made up his mind to go, however, and, though he
must have spent more than a year's pay in journeying from place to place
on his quest, he succeeded at last and sailed with the first overseas
contingent.
But better than I can hope to express it you find the high, indomitable
soul of Australasia revealing itself in two letters from which I will
make some short extracts. One is written by Mr. Edward Grimwade, who
went out and settled in New Zealand some years ago, to his brother, Mr.
L. L. Grimwade, of Stoke-on-Trent, in England. "My boy, Len, went away
with his regiment yesterday," writes Mr. Grimwade. "All we can say is
'The Lord bless the lad.'... On this subject his mother is in
liquidation, and his dad not much better. None the less, if the
Motherland calls, Ted must go too.... I am prepared to give another son
(as I have given one) and I am prepared to get into the fighting line
myself. Further, I am prepared to suffer loss of fortune and see
starvation, rather than sacrifice the honour of our Empire."
[Illustration: NEAR THE PYRAMIDS: THE CAMP OF THE AUSTRALIANS, AGAINST
WHOM NO GERMAN-TRAINED TURKISH ARMY CAN BE SUCCESSFUL.]
[Illustration: "STRANGERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT."
The Australian Remounts Depot at Abassia near Cairo.]
[Illustration: FOOTBALL IN CAMP AT ABASSIA.]
And here is a letter written in these later days which will serve to
show the splendid spirit that lives in Australia's volunteers. It was
written by Second Lieutenant Meager, of the 3rd Australian Infantry. He
took part in that daring and triumphant landing at Gallipoli, and was
promoted from the ranks for bravery. Later, he was killed in action,
leaving a widow and child in Australia, and this last letter from him
was received by his mother on the same day as the announcement of his
death reached her:
"During the next few days we shall be facing death every minute. If I am
taken off, do as the Roman matrons of old–keep your tears for privacy,
steel your heart, and get a dozen recruits to fill my place. Pray hard
for me, and if God wills it, I shall see it through. I shall go into
action with a clean heart, and if I emerge safely I hope I shall have
proved myself a man and a leader, and thereby have justified the
confidence of my commanders."
This is the stuff of which our Australasian brothers are made; these are
the men upon whose degeneracy or disloyalty Treitschke, Bernhardi, and
that pitiful brood of Prussian wiseacres relied. Never was any royal
utterance more profoundly significant or more simply true than the
message that King George sent to his Overseas Dominions at the end of
the first month of the war:
"During the past few weeks the peoples of my whole Empire at home and
overseas have moved with one mind and purpose to confront and overthrow
an unparalleled assault upon the continuity of civilisation and the
peace of mankind. The calamitous conflict is not of my seeking. My voice
has been cast throughout on the side of peace. My Ministers earnestly
strove to allay the causes of strife and appease differences with which
my Empire was not concerned. Had I stood aside when in defiance of
pledges to which my Kingdom was a party the soil of Belgium was violated
and her cities laid desolate, when the very life of the French nation
was threatened with extinction, I should have sacrificed my honour and
given to destruction the liberties of my Empire and of mankind. I
rejoice that every part of the Empire is with me in this decision.
"My peoples in the Self-Governing Dominions have shown beyond all doubt
that they whole-heartedly endorse the grave decision which it was
necessary to take. My personal knowledge of the loyalty and devotion of
my Oversea Dominions had led me to expect that they would cheerfully
make the great efforts and bear the great sacrifices which the present
conflict entails. The full measure in which they have placed their
services and resources at my disposal fills me with gratitude, and I am
proud to be able to show to the world that my people overseas are as
determined as the people of the United Kingdom to prosecute a just cause
to a successful end.
"The Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Dominion
of New Zealand have placed at my disposal their naval forces, which have
already rendered good service to the Empire. Strong Expeditionary Forces
are being prepared in Canada, in Australia, and in New Zealand for
service at the front, and the Union of South Africa has released all
British troops and has undertaken important military responsibilities,
the discharge of which will be of the utmost value to the Empire.
Newfoundland has doubled the numbers of its branch of the Royal Naval
Reserve, and is sending a body of men to take part in the operations at
the front.... All parts of my Oversea Dominions have thus demonstrated
in the most unmistakable manner the fundamental unity of the Empire
amidst all its diversity of situation and circumstance."
2
PATROLLING THE PACIFIC
[Illustration: WITH OUR COLONIAL TROOPS IN EGYPT.]
[Illustration: AUSTRALIAN ARMY FIELD-KITCHENS MARCHING PAST AT A REVIEW
OF TROOPS IN EGYPT.]