Item 02: Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett articles on the Gallipoli campaign, 1915 - Page 215
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 215]
officer or N.C.O and carry out his orders as to how it shall be done. They saunter down slowly sit down and light a pipe contemplating the work before them. There is very likely a millionare a cowboy a doctor and a clerk. Ecah gang has its unoffical leader who has become to be recognised by the others and after a time he will rise slowly and say 'Well boys its got to be done so the quicker we get it over the better'. Then they start in and work like niggers never stopping or slacking until it is finished.
The other day a group of four millionaires were working at mineshaft. The task was not done when another regiment came to relieve the one to which they belonged. These four men refused to go down with their battalion until they had finished their job as they wished it to be known as their job and no one else's. Tennyson's famous lines which have led to so many disasters in our military annals - There's not to make reply - There' not to reason why - make no appeal to the Colonial mind. Any order not based on commonsense is very unlikely to be carried out especially if they a better wayof achieving the same ends.
The task of commanding them is a difficult and delicate one but if they respect their leaders they will follow them anywhere. If they do not why then they will work in their own way under self appointed communial chiefs drawn from their ranks. They rarely if ever salute anyone except officers whom thek know personally. Another peculiarity of the Colonial soldier which distinguishes him in a marked degree from our own men is his dislike of clothes. I suppose that since