[Official photograph.
A U ST R A L IA N C H E E R S A N D SM ILE S F O R T H E K IN G IN F R A N C E .
On one of his visits to France in 1916 the K ing had a full-hearted greeting from some Australian tYoops. The men were lined up by the roadside
and cheered him enthusiastically, to the evident pleasure of his Majesty.
are liab le to be so h ig h ly tried. N o t o n ly w as there n o t th e slightest
confusion on th e p a rt of th e troops, w ho q u ietly fe ll in and prep ared
to m eet w h ate ve r fa te m igh t be in store, b u t later, w h en there w as a
prospect of th e S o u th lan d being able to m ake w a y under her ow n
steam and stokers w ere called for, th e m en a t once cam e forw ard
and successfu lly helped in gettin g th e S ou thlan d in to p ort.
The supreme courage displayed by the 21st in the face
of imminent danger was shared by the whole Anzac force—
a statement warranted by the behaviour of the men when
the risky business of the evacuation had to be faced.
The steps by which the decision was
Quarrel of the taken to evacuate Gallipoli, and the
“ Diehards ” success attending that remarkable opera
tion, have been detailed at length in
Chapter CVII. The most delicate part of the whole
scheme had to be entrusted to the Anzacs, for they held
the extreme outposts of the British area on the Peninsula.
One little mistake would have involved the men who
held these advanced posts to the last in a rearguard action,
in which they would probably have been called upon to
sacrifice themselves to ensure the safety of the scheme. The
men selected for this danger were known at Anzac as the
“ Diehards,” and there was a great deal of heartburning
there, because only a limited number might aspire to
the honour. Men who had landed on the first day, and
who were still at the post of duty after eight months of
continuous danger, went to their commanding officers
with tears in their eyes, to urge their claims to this
distinction. The men quarrelled about it as they had
never quarrelled before ; for every Anzac wished to be a
“ Diehard.”
The sacrifice they offered was not called for; for it is
now a matter of history that the miraculous evacuation was
accomplished without any loss of life whatever. So the
Anzacs turned their back upon the place where they had
won so much glory, as well as a title which will abide with
them for all time. If they had any regret in leaving a
place where they had endured so much to such little direct
purpose, it was centred in the lonely plot of ground which
held the mortal remains of their gallant d ead ; but they
took comfort in the thought that the graveyard on the
rugged Gallipoli hillside would be respected by a foe of whose
chivalry and honour they had formed the highest opinion.
Among the many great services rendered by Australia
and New Zealand to the Empire during the Great War,
none will do more to strengthen the warm sentiment that
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unites the scattered Dominions than the forbearance from
criticism or complaint in this moment of trial. Through
no fault of theirs, the first great warlike enterprise in
which they were intimately concerned had ended in ghastly
failure, and the sacrifices they had made had come to
naught. The total number of Australians and New
Zealanders lost on Gallipoli may give some measure of
the extent of that sacrifice. The figures a re :
A u s t r a l i a :
K ille d ..................... Officers 350 R a n k s 6,750 — 7,100
P riso n ers .... „ 6 ,, 52 — 58
S ick and W o u n d ed „ — .. — 30,000
T o ta l A u stra lia n C a s u a l t i e s ...................... 37,158 37,158
N e w Z e a l a n d :
K illed . . . . O fficers 1 16 R a n k s 2,625 — 2,741
Prison ers .... „ — ,, 22 — 22
S ick and W ou nd ed , 210 „ 4,691 — 4 ,9 °i
T o ta l N e w Z ealan d C a su a lties..................... 7.664 7,664
G ran d T o ta l o f A n z a c C a su alties . . . . 44,822
The Empire waited for Australasian comment upon
the evacuation, and thrilled to the unanimous voice of
both Dominions. “ It is a blow, but it will only serve
to nerve us to greater efforts.” W hatever criticism may
have been hurled at the conception of the Dardanelles
adventure, and whatever comment may have been passed
upon its execution, no word of the kind was heard in the
Antipodes. Later, when the High Commissioners of
Australia and New Zealand were invited to sit upon the
Commission of Inquiry into the operations in the Dar
danelles, there were voices raised in protest from Austral
asia. The people of “ Down Under ” did not wish to
appear as questioning in any way the Imperial authorities,
to whom they entrusted their share of the direction
of the war with supreme confidence.
The debt of the Empire to Australia The genius of
was augmented by the war services Mr. Hughes
rendered by the Prime Minister of the
Commonwealth, the Rt. Hon. William Morris Hughes,
P.C., during a visit paid to Great Britain in the spring
of 1916. The mission which brought Mr. Hughes to
London was of vital Imperial importance. He came,
in the first place, to represent the feeling prevailing in
all the Dominions Overseas that, just as they had borne