Control y Evaluación.

1

The ‘New Zealand and Australian contingents’ disembarked in Egypt to ‘undergo training and assist in the defence of the country [before] proceeding from there direct to the front. They will thus avoid the unpleasant English winter’, wrote the Herald.2 _{The public did not anticipate a lengthy stay in Egypt,}

because in 1914 ‘the front’ lay in France, not the Middle East. Christopher Pugsley explains that New Zealand and Australian soldiers disembarked there as part of the British government’s strategic search ‘for other options to the Western Front’.3 _{By the time the Main Body of the NZEF arrived in Egypt, New}

Zealand defence authorities had already dispatched the 2nd _{and 3}rd

Reinforcements and the 1st _{Maori Contingent. The 4}th _{Reinforcements would}

soon follow.

The succession of embarkations prompted the Stratford Evening Post to report on a Defence Department statement concerning the maintenance of Expeditionary Force numbers at full strength for the duration of the war. ‘Most people are not aware of what this means’, claimed the Post:

1_{Taranaki Herald (TH), 3 December, 1914, p. 3.} 2 _ibid.

3 _{Christopher Pugsley, The ANZAC Experience. New Zealand, Australia and Empire in the First}

even a most superficial glance at the figures will show that the Dominion is setting itself a very big problem indeed; and should the war be a lengthy one – as there is every reason to fear it will be – the ultimate result must be that practically every man in New Zealand capable of rendering efficient military service will be called upon.4

The Post referred to the government’s intention to call ‘900 men per month’ during 1915, whilst keeping ‘3,400 men continually in camp at Trentham, undergoing preliminary training’.5 _{In May, the Post reported on a recruiting}

meeting in Dunedin where the Minister for Defence, James Allen, stated that, ‘considering the magnitude of the operations that were developing …. close on 16,000 men and nearly 5,200 horses’ would be needed by April 1916.6 _{The Post}

had written earlier that the task of providing so many men was ‘one of very great magnitude, and to carry it out loyally and thoroughly will tax our resources to the utmost.’7 _{How people in Taranaki responded to the call for}

more soldiers, and whether or not the realities of war affected recruitment are key questions that this chapter must address.

In October 1914, Turkey entered the war. Pugsley informs us that, ‘the seizing of the Dardanelles Straits had been the subject of ongoing [British] staff studies over the years’, and now that Germany had a new ally, ‘it was again examined as one of a range of options involving the projection of British naval power’.8 _{Against that strategic background, New Zealand military authorities}

continued to call for more volunteers to reinforce the Main Body. In December, the Taranaki Herald observed that, ‘much misconception exists as to whether there is a sufficient response to the call for men’.9 _{The military authorities,}

4_{Stratford Evening Post(SEP), 8 January, 1915, p. 8} 5 _ibid.

6_{SEP, 1 May, 1915, p. 5. TH, 26 May, 1915, p. 3. That number can be broken down into 2,250} recruits required for the 5th _{Reinforcements; 1,745 for the 6}th _{Reinforcements; 3,857 for the 7}th_; 2,346 for the 8th_{; 2,597 for the 9}th_{; and 2,530 for the 10}th_{. See a confidential statement from New} Zealand Military Force Head Quarters, 29 April 1915 in Army Department (AD) 1/9/74 Expeditionary Force Reinforcements (ANZ).

7_{SEP, 8 January, 1915, p. 8.}

8 _{Pugsley, The ANZAC Experience, p. 71.} 9_{TH, 21 December, 1914, p. 2.}

however, considered the response to be ‘quite satisfactory’.10 _{Perhaps their}

intention to send away 2,000 soldiers per month seemed daunting given the state of the enlistment process. The Herald understood that:

In the past there has been a lack of system, with resulting dissatisfaction and discouragement to the best class of men, many of whom, understanding that men were required, left their employment in the country and proceeded to the nearest recruiting station to offer their services, only to find that they could not join the forces possibly for weeks.11

Early in 1915, a new system of enlistment advertised exactly what an intending volunteer had to do, which included a simple instruction to fill in a registration card from the Post Office, send it to the nearest defence office and wait for further instructions. The system allowed the volunteer time to plan his withdrawal from civilian society, unlike the wrench of the volunteers in August- September of 1914. Jock Phillips says as a consequence of the new system ‘in the early months of 1915 recruiters filled the necessary quotas with ease’.12

Following the British proclamation of a protectorate over Egypt in mid- December 1914, the Taranaki Herald began printing regular news items on ‘Our Boys in Egypt’. The press also printed letters from NZEF soldiers describing their journey to Egypt. From early 1915, place names like, Suez, Turkey and the Dardanelles featured increasingly in the headlines. The Stratford Evening Post

introduced the Dardanelles to its readers in classical terms and as the land of Lord Byron; a land ‘shrouded in myths and legends’ where the tomb of Achilles could be found, where Alexander the Great and his army had passed on their way to conquer Asia; where Xerxes, too, had crossed the Hellespont in an attempt to conquer Greece.13 _{An increase in Turkish military actions in the}

10 _ibid.

11_{TH, 18 February, 1915, p. 2.}

12 _{Jock Phillips, A Man’s Country? The Image of the Pakeha Male-A History, rev. ed., Auckland:} Penguin Books, 1996, p. 159.

region combined with British strategic aims, especially the wish of Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, to eliminate Turkey from the war, saw ‘an amalgam of everything available’ in the Middle Eastern theatre committed to the operation, including the NZEF.14 _{The plan to eliminate Turkey}

involved New Zealand, Australian, French and British troops who had the task of securing the Gallipoli Peninsula, while the British navy secured the Dardanelles before pressing on to capture Constantinople. By invading and eliminating Turkey a free passage would then be open to the Black Sea, thus enabling supplies to reach southern Russia.

People in Taranaki first knew of the landings at Gallipoli on 29 April 1915, four days after it occurred. The Herald announced to its readers: