SHACKLETON'S APPEAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3039, 28 March 1917, Page 4

SHACKLETON'S APPEAL

TO THE MEN OF AUSTRALIA,

TVhon Sir Ernest Shackleton was in Sydney last week he was invited to address a recruiting meeting in Martin Place, outside the Chief Post Office. He spoke to- Borne eight or ten thousand people in the open air, and made a stirring appeal to the men of Australia to come forward and take their places in the ranks of the fighting forces of the Empire. Subsequently he was asked'by the Recruiting Branch to give a message that might Lβ distributed throughout the Commonwealth. His message was as follows:— "When I came out from the South, after long days of struggle and strife in stark Polar solitudes, I had my first impression of the war at Punta Arenas. A little British community lives there under a foreign flag, and 40 per cent, of its men had gone to the front, not because they had to go or even because they had been asked'to go, but bscatise they knew their country had need of them. '..-■'

"Here in Australia, the call to service sounds loud and clear. .

"I speak to you men as one who Kas carried the King's flae in. the white warfare of tho Antarctic, and who is going now to serve in the red warfare of Europe. I say tt> you that -this call means more than duty, more than sacrifico, more than glory; it is ihe supreme opportunity offered every man of our race to justify himself before his own soul.

"Love of ease, love of money, love of, woman, love of life—all these are small thinas in tho scale against your own manhood. ! . ..'.'■

"The blond that hss been shed on th». hurnine hills nf Gallipoli and tlo sodden fields of Flnnders calls to you. "Politics, prejudices, pHtv personal Interests are nothing. Fight because you have the hearts of rnen, and 'because if you fail, you will know yourselves in yonr own inner conscience in he for ever shamed. "And to the women of Australia! I would say just this —be as tlie women of Sparta, who - said to husbands, oro'thers, and fathers: 'Cnmo hack victorious or on your shields 1'"