CALL TO ARMS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2324, 4 December 1914, Page 6

CALL TO ARMS

» — . BOXERS IN THE SERVICES ASHORE AND'AFLOAT If the great cohibat oould have bees -Battled by the arbitrament of straight, quick lefts and solid right punches "our toys" would have been, in Berlin long.' ago. That is something like the way a member of the National Sporting'.Club put the matter. The art of boxing is akin to a sixth sense in the race. It has its degrees— rugged hero,and there, '• perhaps—but it is always a sporting channel for getting rid of bad blood .If you want to find the whereabouts of our leading amateur boxere (and many; professionals too) it is necessary to consult the Sen-ice lists or plod through- . the appointments, in the "Gazette." Out: boxers enrolled with the uuuniy of : thoir friends the Rugby Unionists. Real warfare and these BPortß are convertible terms. In Ms own - usefulness in the, i "noble art" your. Britisher has a su--i' preme belief. There are not many con. , ners left in his character when the dis-: ciplinary sport of the ring has . up his sporting-instincts. And now that it is war'timo th'e'gym- r i nasia of London, where the evening : used to be so well spent, are virtually; , deserted by the more matured folk; they are away at the front or at'sea' ; or in camp with Regular's or , Terri- , torials. Nearly all of them have found . some way of "Joining the Colours." A.1 search of the old haunts recently disi covered none of the right sort who had ..< ■ not gone.. The men who fought-in tha i 'amateur championships at the Ale&r . andra Palace last .April volunteered vir-' ; tually to a man. The imagination con/ . ]ured u'p : the lot that an opponent 1 i would have with that handsome heavy*' weight, E. V. Chandler, of the Stoolt - Exchange, if it came'at the-finish to?., , a case of fisticuffs. And Chandler was i the man of "the hour on thai last hisl torio night at Alexandra Paalce. All ,' the Stock Exchange boxers have'gone r i —all the young guard, anyhow—much' , to the chagrin of their young friends i whose welfare is the concern of tha i Children's Happy. Evenings' Associa-, . tjon. Maybe that-veteran sportsman of- ; the House, Mi. B. "Jack" Angle, will . , be able to devise some scheme to tide. i over the momentary loss of the plucky ' i little urchins of ''the, Poor, Law schools' i who take to' boxing as to the mannei! , -born. ' -,-. ' , Solrlt of the Sport. : _ The Services play such a great parti ; in the development of boxing as a na- ; " 1 honal sport that their-competitions will . i be much missed during the winter ' months. In thinking of the silent vigil-• ; of:'the Navy men in the North Sea or'j of the hard work of the soldiers in the r trenches the mind goes' back to many a! ( gloraous night's sport in the Head- . auarter Gymnasium,' Aldershot, or "tha. j Town Hall, Portsmouth, when the.Se> , vice championships were under way,; r How keen the otticers wero to keep the . men "playing the game"! • Whether it• . wae Captain R. b.- Campbell,- of -tha;' Gordon Highlanders, .or Ooriimiihdej! Arthur Snagge or Lieutenant Burnett; R.N., or Major Heathcoto, of the York. shire Light' Infantry—whosever "watch'* it was, there was the same '..wariness for, straightn'esa.'. "Jones, you Vara] keeping that left too'low!" ."Smith; you must not hold I" "Fight on!.?t These and other warnings : would keep. & tha men'ln the-game. Boxing owes . much to the officers of the Services.- la , these last few years they' have litriven . with 'unwavering zeal for the upraising [ of boxing, believing in its splendid chapiis, • actor-building endowment: And now ' the compulsory stay-at-homes can only ! mentally re-liyo the rousing hours thai were spent at. those, great cbanipion-ships::-to;..remember,.how-.,,Lioutenant . Martin 1 H. Collier, of His 'Majesty's' ship' Dolphin, .beat Captain G. M. Eilii- - son, of- -the' Lincolns, in the slashing : bout of the Light-Heavies j how LanceCorporal Jones, a South Wales Bor- , derer, beat Sergeant MacEhroy, of tha Irish Guards, after two extra rounds.: These were hghts.- The spirit,of thi sport is taken to tho front; Here -is Bombardier Carton, of the ,of the champions—writing "It is/pretty .hottwork out here. I am sending home my boxing medal for safe keeping."' Admiral Sir Hedworth Meux had an extra word of praise for Carton as he went up for that precious medal at Portsmouth. The boxers are doing their duty. Thej; are the stuff that.V.O. men.are mad? of Anyone who has.-seen' them af work, whether in the Publip Schools ring or in the Services tournamonta,' °~ knows this. They like to win; but they, know how to lose as well; And E. B. 0. himself has confessed that there, ia even'a glorious feeling in the "coming to"i after a' knock-out.' If all' thesa heroes are; for the moment-/away \ tha , ■ prayers of all sportsmen go'up for their welfare, a-s_ they are . engaged in thf loftiest daring. . -7■ ■. ■-, - . Some Famous Naffles. ' ' ' In the "Call to Arms"-'the profeg« sors have not lagged behind-r-or at leas' a good proportion..of. them have not. - We hear of those clean fighters—thai ■ Bandsman Rice. and the Bandsman . Blake—with, the "Colours;" as well as , that smashing-boxer,> Private' Ba'sham -,- (what a name for a boxer!), who. re*' . joined directly there was 'war abroad], And our old .friends, Petty, Officer Currah, whoso zeal has so often out-run his discretion,, and. Pat O'Keefe,. are back. in.the Service.. Maybe "Bombardier "Billy" Wells will follow his friends of the ring. Were he to do this soon he' might bo in time when Ghent is re-' taken'to have at least a friendly spa* ■ \yith Georges Carpentier, who was long ago in the thick of it at tho front. It is all out-fighting where he is now. Ha '.will have to wait for more of his, lights' ■/' hing right and left short-arm work, \ . The National Sporting Club has worked hard ,in the Tecruiting'. ; .business.-; Many of the members are away on Service; the ineligibles have been busy do-, ing something or other for the National •• Funds or the welfare of tho Forces... As the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour's : estate at Pahiatua'has come. iii: for a . > good deal of attention lately, it : is ih'teresting to note that at his meeting at : Mangatainoka Mr. Escott, referring : to • it,' said the people of Pahiatua had tried to get it-cut up for closer settlement -for,'many, years, and that the Massey Government haid attempted to-buy the property, but the price asked for' tha land had been considered too high;> A'clause had, however, been inserted in the Land Laws Amendment Bill, parsed by the present Government, which gave power for. notice to bo served upon . owners .large estates, stating that the land was required for closer settlement.- If .at the end of five years tho owners had not cut up the land, tho Government could tako : it at tho .valuation placed on the land when the notice was served, and any increase in vahio, m the intervening period, -would bo lost to the owner. Mr. Escott m»n. tioned that the Right' Hon. Mr. BaJ. tour had been served-with a notice in compliance with- the abovo law.—Ex* 'change. ■ I ,