"A YEAR OP LES DARCY"

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2776, 20 May 1916, Page 6

"A YEAR OP LES DARCY"

■ ' MEN WHO STAY -AT HOME. ' ' "Professor David is serving ivith the colours at the age, of fifty : eight; Professor David's, son :is i at--the front. Les Darcy will box. at the:.' Stadium next Saturday nii'ht, says the,-'' Sunday Times" of May 7. "Darcy. is twenty years of. age. Darcy; has ; , already.! made'--'.euough'.» money to provide !his lnotheiv'brothers, .sisters, and father'hvith a-comfortable home. Darcy now' 'owns- and drives . a motor-car—ail acquisition since August, 101-1. ; "These two paragraphs sum up the .it-: titudo .of Australia ■: to the . war. They illustrate what is meant.. by. voluntary service. Certain of the British papers have referred to the year 1915 in Bri-, tain'as a year of Charlie Chaplin.' We may well refer to the past year as a year of'Les'Darcy'. : What.'we want now is a. year .or more .of Private 1 Les '-Darcy. Wo have Ijeen told that the champion mid-die-weight boxer of. the 'world lias offered his services.'™;'thb;.;AustTalian Plying Corps. We aIEO.-. understand-that he once offered l\is sorviceji- iii any capacity, but had to withdraw,fat. the'j instigation of bis; family, to' whc«e ivill he bad to bow, being-a minor.. , "Those are explanations excellent '.of their kind; but in accepting them we' are condemning ourselves. The time came long since when ho ■ man had any right to ''offer* bis. services. The time came, long sinco when, the eligible manhood-of this country, should liavo been called by the Government-. Britain, who lias al-J ready, devoted 10.per cent, -of-her available, strength to tl;6 Army, now intends, to enforce by . law'a still greater sacrifice. That amazing country from which we have sprung maintains a Navy that is the present; and. future guarantee of the world's ultimate' salvation. That ■ country, is now an jiu-med camp, in which nian, woman and child has been im-j pressed in the service of the King. Australia has made ' tho sacrifice of .something like. 5. per cent, of its available strength', in men; By an extraordinary. | >lfort it is like to add another half-per cent: to that. - Australia is ran. armed: camp of imported takers. Its war indus-tries-aro at the liiercy.of the. labour-.agi--tator. ; So much so that we are hard put to -it to send away the men wo have enlisted decently clad .and equipped. For. tho seven Parliaments of the Common-; wealth the war is a rather annoying side, issue to the great effort to amass tho sweets of office against the day when the. "ins" shall be the "outs."

"To enlarge further upon the argu-: ments lor conscription ,as regards men,' money, and labour, is to labour the point. . Mr. Hughes is at Home, demanding in tho name of Australia a voice in ;the post ■war 'settlement. "What have wo done to deserve it? A Conscription Act might be; accepted as evidence of good intentions. Let us try and wrangle bur way that far. Les Darcy may yet have a friendly bout with Georges Carpontier behind the lines Somewhere-in-France.