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[Page 33]
I would like to see 2,000 or 3,000 more Maoris here. They are most excellent workers and the best material we have for working in the trenches and they fight like tigers. I do not think you could send too many of them and I should not let their height or size interfere with their qualifications. I cannot see why you should not be able to get more non-comm. to come out of administration. I notice from figures in the New Zealand illustrated papers thousands of young able-bodied men loafing about the streets while a few here are doing their duty. Rub it into them well and make them ashamed of this for not coming forward in their thousands. The seriousness of this war has evidently not reached everyone. Now that the cold weather is coming on please induce the New Zealand Government to send us fortnightly supplies of New Zealand butter, New Zealand frozen meat and New Zealand condensed milk. At present we have no butter, very little condensed milk and fresh meat is practically unknown and I attribute the health of the troops mainly to the want of a change of diet. Please get these going at once for it is a very urgent matter and there is no reason why we should not reap the advantage of New Zealand products. I am glad to hear that you are getting a regular R.A.M.C. Instructor. It was about time. I should cease employing these amateurs at the head of affairs such as Purdy and Will, they only increase the inefficiency and cost of this campaign.
We have been issued with 14 new [indecipherable] mechanisms. By degrees we shall be armed with nothing else.
Lt. Col. Chapman's (commanded the 4th Waikato Mounted Rifles) death was a very serious loss, he was a great personal friend of mine and did extraordinarily well and held several [indecipherable] in the Opoteki district. We have 5 out of our 6 batteries on the Peninsula. Nicholls Mickle's 6th Howitzer Battery is still in Egypt and I do not know exactly what became of him. I do not fancy he is still in command. Please remember me very kindly to MacDonald and General Robin. Mabin is in Malta attached to the staff of Lord Methven and has never done an honest turn for the Maoris since he left.