V.C. HERO.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18906, 22 January 1927, Page 11

V.C. HERO.

TROUBLES IN CANADA. RETURN TO ENGLAND. (TEOU OTO OWN CORREBroHDENT.) VANCOUVER, December 1. Widespread attention has been attracted to the lamentable predicament in which Michael 0 'Leary, the first man to win the "Victoria Cross in the Great War, has found himßelf while trying to eke out a livelihood in Canada, where he had become domiciled after the conclusion of the late unpleasantness with Germany.

In vain had he endeavoured to obtain employment in the Dominion during the last few months and he had no alternative but to return to England, leaving the shores of Canada, perhaps for the last time, when he sailed out of Montreal on the Cunarder Ascania, bound for Liverpool. "I am sorry to be leaving Canada," were his last words, as he mounted the gang plank. "I may be going away for good. I don't know, but-1 hope to visit the country again some day. I have spent too many years in Canada not to like the country." He stated that in London a job was awaiting him, a job which ho said was satisfactory and in his old line of business—dry goods —in which he is a salesman. His wife and family preceded him to the Old Land a few weeks ago, and they were, at the time of his departure from Canada, in Ireland, o'Leary's native land, and hoped to join him later in London. When interviewed, just before embarking from Montreal, 0 'Leary admitted that reports were true that he had recently been offered a civil service job. He said he had waited a long time while the red tape was slowly, gradually unwound by governmental machinery, finally leaving a small gap through which he might enter into Government service—a job as investigator in the Soldiers' Aid Department at 100 dollars a month.

Inadequate Pay. This, he felt, was hardly adequate remuneration for a man with a wife and two children to support, so he acoepted an offer to go to London, which he considered more satisfactory. He said he would not divulge the names of his future employers at present. Early in the war O 'Leary, then a sergeant in the Irish Guards, was bathed in a blaze of glory for his exploits at La Bassee, where he gained Britain's most coveted war distinction—the Victoria Cross. In post-war dayß he again came into the limelight, but this time it was the glare of. notoriety. His troubles started, he said, when he entered the service of the Ontario Government as an enforcement officer under the Ontario Temperance Act. He claims he was too honest to please the leaders of the bootlegger rings which operate on the International border between Ontario and the United States. They swore to get him, he declared, and since that time misfortune bad dogged his steps. In his own words: "Tbey got me and that is why I am leaving Canada. I have my family to look after and cannot afford to battle any longer at present." o'Leary first came to Canada from his. native Cork in Southern Ireland in 1907, liked the country, and returned again in 1911. Later he joined the

Royal. North-West Mounted Police, and was stationed at the "Mounties" headquarters, in Regina, Saskatchewan, when hostilities broke out in Europe in.August, 1914.

Was Commissioned. An Imperial reservist, he was at once recalled to' his regiment, the Irish Guards, and reached the battle front in the early days of the war. Following his winning of the Victoria Cross, he was commissioned and later served with the British troops in Salonika, wearing his crown as an acting-major before he returned from the East. He stayed with the regulars for some time after the cessation of hostilities, holding the rank of lieutenant in the famous Connaught Rangers. In 1921 he returned to Canada, and in Toronto he obtained a good remunerative position with a publishing concern which became insolvent before his eontract with the firm expired. It was then that he became an enforcement officer under the Ontario Temperance Act at 125 dollars a month, he said. It was his activities in this capacity, he asserted, which aroused against him the ire of the bootleg barons of the International border.

"They swore to get me," he continued, "and they did. I have had opportunities to lend my name to various advertising exploits, but I have always refused to capitalise my V.C. "I have been offered jobs in the United States, but I prefer to stay under the Union Jack. I am an Imperialist, and hope to remain one. Some day I hope to return to Canada," wers his last words as he waved farewell to friends who remained behind. He said he was in Al condition and suffered from no war disabilities. He looked Btrong and fit as he boarded the Ascania, his face just a little sallow, the result of malaria, which he contracted while on duty in the East. In his remarks 0 'Leary made a boast. He said that "if I were the chief enforcement officer in Ontario for 18 months I could make the province go wet. I would make it so dry that no one could get a drink, and the next vote would j see wet victory." j