THE AUSTRALIAN— SOLDIER OR. COWARD?

Chronicle (Levin), 20 June 1946, Page 5

THE AUSTRALIAN— SOLDIER OR. COWARD?

DOCTOIt'S AIJ.EGATION HOTLY KEPUTED Received Wednesdav, 8.25 p.m. SYDNEY, June 19. A statement that "the trained Australian is a very good soldier but the iint rained Australian is a coward and part of a rabble," made by Dr. Bruce llunt in an address to the Legacy Club, Perth, has drawn hre from a number of distinguished Australian soldiers, including Lieut.-General H. Gordon Bennett who conunanded the Eighth Division of the A.I.F. in Mai ava. Dr. llunt, who was a majoi in the A.A.M.C., was taken prisoner in Mahiya and was one of those whc helpe'd huihl the notorious Burma Thailand railway. "1 have seeti hundreds of Australians running like sheep , without tiring a shot," he said. "Tv know ' ' of - - om opisode where ah.out a hundred not very; well trained Australians forced a wayoti to a vessel ,and Jeftv^ii>ga]ifLe _foui ; days befofe'-'the "snrffenil^T', ,pxe \ venting soine women an'd! childte'n frOm being evaeuated. On the other hand, solid and well diseiplined troops, men who had never been in action before, wero good soldiers. But the story that the Australian soldier is a natural hen is a pure myth. You watch him run. " General Bennett said Dr. Hunt's re niarks greatly exaggera.ted the conducl ot" a small handful of rabble and so were unfair to the main body of the Eighth Division men who had worthih upheld the reputation of the A.I.F. " Reinforcement depot, troops included a small number of the worst diseiplined Australians I have ever seen," said General Bennett. "This rabble — there was only a handful of them — aeted in an unAustralian way but it is unfaii to speak as though their actions were general. The allegations about a party forcing themselves on to a ship can refer only to the incident of the Empire >Star. An investigation showed those men were marched on board by their olficer and their shipboanl disci[iline when they manned machineguns against Japanese bombing attacks, was admlrable. Because of the circumstances of their leaving Malaya, they were placed under arrest in Java and dealt with offieially before being released." . ♦