It will have been noticed that several public spirited offers of a like kind have been communicated to the Government from different parts of the dominion.
We think there can be no doubt that Mr Watson and the other residents of the dominion who have, by their sense of the needs of the forces from our country, have moved to offer gifts of machine guns to the authorities have rightly estimated the value of these weapons and have justly concluded that the operations of the colonial, together with the British and French, troops would be more successful and less costly if the infantry possessed a larger supply of machine guns.
Mr Lloyd George expresses the opinion, which is entertained by some of the German military experts, that machine guns have almost superseded rifles.
This opinion may not be wholly sound and will not be generally adopted, but even those who are not prepared to accept it will admit that machine guns have, as the Minister of Munitions says, ''proved to be about the most formidable weapons in the war''.
This being so, the desire, which is manifested in the patriotic offers by Mr Watson and others, to secure that the New Zealand forces, in common with the forces from other parts of the Empire, shall be more liberally supplied with machine guns is one that merits every possible encouragement.
• The Hon. James Allen received the following cablegram from General Sir Ian Hamilton last night: ''The commander under whom New Zealand troops are serving reports as follows, and I fully endorse all he says: ''I cannot tell you how magnificently the whole of the New Zealand troops - artillery, mounted rifles, infantry, and Maoris - have done in our recent very severe fighting.
''Trench after trench and ridge after ridge were successfully taken by them with a dash which prevented the Turks making any stand against them, over country as precipitous and difficult as that we took on landing. Among our fallen comrades the whole force deeply deplores the death of Colonel Malone and the loss of Colonel Bauchop, who had proved themselves first class soldiers and real leaders in the field.'' (Signed) Ian Hamilton.''
• Mr J. L. Stewart Wright, secretary of the Otago Expansion League, is in receipt of a letter from Mr M. O'Brien, Assistant New Zealand Commissioner at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, dated July 14, 1915, and also some booklets illustrating what the Californian business people are doing to advertise their respective districts.
Mr O'Brien says: ''The illustrated matter concerning Dunedin and the Cold Lakes districts which was supplied has been greatly appreciated and was distributed to the best advantage.
• ''As a result a great many inquiries have already been received regarding not only the tourist attractions of Otago, but also its possibilities from the viewpoint of the business man and settler. It is regrettable that, with the exception of North Auckland, none of the other districts took the opportunity of advertising their splendid lands and commercial opportunities.''
- ODT, 17.8.1915.
