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[Page 31]
has returned from England looking very fit. Brig. General Russell has done magnificently all through. His Brigade now is reduced to 250 of ranks from an original 1500. The New Zealand Infantry Brigade including the Maoris is only 1150 strong and the 4th Australian Infantry Brigade 850 strong. We evacuate about 110 sick daily to the hospital ships. We welcome every reinforcement that arrives. You seem to have been leading a dog's life in New Zealand what with staff work and hospital difficulties. Whenever anything goes wrong in New Zealand which could possibly be attributed and laid at the door of an official the people lose no time or opportunity in hunting him down. Personally I should have thought it would have been better to have billeted all your reinforcements in the [indecipherable] during the winter months. We are all dreading winter here because we are told that the cold is intense, the wind north-east and the sea rough. I should not be surprised if we are wrong and that we shall enjoy winter similar to that in the south of France. Skeen has also gone sick. The 1st Australian Division is now commanded by Major General Walker with the second by Major General Legge. White the G.S.O. 1 has also gone sick. Water was our great difficulty here when we first started on this new venture and at one period it threatened to be quite critical but thanks to a wonderful Australian water diviner, Sapper Kelly of the Australian Engineers who found us 200,000 gallons a day, we have been saved. Major General Shaw brought out his 13th Division and fought with us through these days but getting dysentery he went home and his place has been taken by Major General Maude. Our men are wonderful at trench warfare now and their trenches are a lesson to those troops from home both K and territorial. Reinforcements should be trained in the use of periscopes, periscopic rifles and the throwing of bombs, trench digging and trench discipline and trench interior economy. Our chief concern at present is the health of the men and their cooking. They should almost be taught to cook. Every man should be able to cook for humans. We have now received 14 new [indecipherable] mechanism guns and we captured 2 Turkish machine guns. We require every machine gun we can find. In future I predict that Infantry Regiments as such will only exist as escorts to say 32 or 64 machine guns and every man should be trained as a machine gunner. The only attack against formidable positions which has any chance of success is night attack with the bayonet fixed and no noise and you ought to protect your men in night operations.
I think with the 5th Reinforcements we are getting the finest body of men sent out subsequent to the main body. Their discipline and training seems to have been very excellent and it was a sad thing losing a man like Hume. I hope that you will be able to keep up the reinforcements