The issue, almost daily, of lists containing the names of members of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force who have suffered casualties in the operations at the Dardanelles should serve to impress the community with a strong sense of its duty towards the fallen and wounded.
The grim reality of war has never before been brought home to the people of the dominion so directly and so vividly as it has been within the last week.
It was not supposed by anyone that the New Zealand volunteers for service in the war would not have to experience severe fighting in the course of which they would sustain losses.
But it can hardly have been anticipated that their casualties would be so heavy as they have already been.
The losses in Egypt were numerically trivial, even when the deaths from disease were included, but the casualties that have been suffered by the New Zealand troops at the Dardanelles have been exceedingly severe.
Already they have amounted to over 800 - a number that represents a surprising proportion of the total strength engaged - and to this total has to be added the number comprised in the list of the killed in battle, which has not yet reached the dominion.
This serious record of casualties constitutes in its own sad way the proof of the difficulty of the task that was set the New Zealand troops in company with the Australians and of the fierceness of the conflict in which they have taken part.
It was a compliment to them that they should have been selected for a particularly arduous service, and the dominion cannot be other than proud of the gallantry and heroism which, as is chronicled in graphic descriptions that have been published of their exploits upon their landing on the Gallipoli peninsula, has been shown by its young soldiers.
They have done, and are doing, their duty nobly by the Empire.
It is for the dominion to do its duty fairly by them.
• At the present time there is a proposal awaiting discussion by the executive of the Otago Patriotic and General Welfare Association for the allocation of a sum of £14,000 to the maintenance and assistance of returned soldiers and their dependents. If this proposal is adopted, it will mean that a handsome provision for this object will be made by the Association out of the funds at its disposal. But it is not to be anticipated that a sum of £14,000 will prove to be sufficient. In all probability a very much larger sum will be required. In the circumstances it is pertinent to suggest that the time has arrived when steps should be taken to build up a fund of sufficient dimensions to meet suitably the cases that will call for the kindly help and sympathetic support of the community. - ODT, 12.5.1915.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
