THE LITTLE STOWAWAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1916, Page 6

THE LITTLE STOWAWAY.

GIRL FROM KURRI KURRI. MUST HELP WOUNDED BOYS. POUND ON TIvOOPSHIF. Melbourne, December 28. "I wanted to help at the war, and 1 still want to do something. It is. not true that I stowed away on a troopship just to see my brother in I would have gone just the same, because I really do want to be a, red cross nurse, and help the wounded boys."

That was the response which the 17-year-old girl who was transhipped from a. troopship at sea made when asked her reason for going away. The girl is a dear-skinned, rosy-cheeked, fine type of healthy country-maid, and she speaks with the frankness of a girl in the habit of associating with clean-living people. She is now at the Y.W.C.A., which has taken her in, and made her comfortable, thus relieving the Defence Department of one of the biggest problems it has ever had to face. This is the first time we have had a female stowaway on our transports. The young lady is" going on to Sydney to-night after the Y.W.C.A. people show her further kindness by fitting her out in girl's clothes again.

"Soon after the war started," the girl said, "I had a terrible desire to help in some way, but I was only a girl, and I soon found out that there were difficulties to overcome. My parents live at Kurri Kurri, and I knew it was no use staying there, because I could never learn to be a nurse there. My brother had gone to the war, and I decided to do something for myself. I took a situation in Union Street, Pyrmont, as a waitress, and while there I put in my time off trying to get in as nurse. I went to the Red Cross in George Street, and then to Victoria Barracks, but there was no luck at either place. I was only 17, and I was without training. 1 could see that I looked too young to enlist as a boy, so I decided to get on board a transport as an ordinary soldier and try my luck that way. I bought a tunic and breeches from a soldier, puttees from a George Street shop, and cap and belt from a Bathurst Street shop Tlien I was set up, and all I had to do was to wait for a chance that soon came. Last Tuesday I went to a transport almost ready to move. An officer saw me, and had a yarn with me. Of course I had friends on board, when he asked me, and as my hair was long and being in girl's clothes he walked ovet to George Street with me. I did not let on, but I had made up my mind to sco him again, but not as a' girl. On Wednesday morning I went to a barber, whom I told I had fever. He said, 'You don't look it,' but he cut my hair short and never asked any questions." Miss went to her lodgings and dressed herself up as a boy. It was not the first time she has abandoned skirts, and she makes no secret of the fact that she prefers boy's crothes. Once before she borrowed a uniform to get her photo taken. That time she wore leggings, but she likes puttees better.

"About 11 o'clock I walked from Pyrmont to the city and through the Domain to where a transport was lying at No. I wharf. I saw a sentry there, so knew it was no good trying to get past him. Besides 1 was afraid he would spot my boots, which were black. 1 couldn't buy the regulation tan boots anywhere. I had got that far, so it was no use going back. Well, I said to myself, 'Here goes for up the line.' It was a hand-over-hand job, and I didn't think boats were so tall. I got up after a struggle and crawled -to a lifeboat, in which I crept. The only provisions brought with me were some lollies, and I had not had anything to eat from Wednesday night'until Friday. On Thursday, when soldiers were about the deck, I got out of my hiding-place and walked round with them. Some asked me for a cigarette, others offered them to me, but no one seemed to suspect me. At sea everything went well, except that I was hungry. That night I got back to my hiding-place, and next morning, about 10.30, an officer came up to me on deck, and asked me what I belonged to. I said, 'The 7th of the 10th.' I went on watching the boys play cards, and gave them advice. Then the officer came back and said, 'Show your identification medal.' That was the finish of me. I had forgotten that. He said he was going to get a doctor to examine me, so I knew it'was all over. I told him I was a girl. If I had been a boy it would have been all right. I could have gone on. They took me to the captain, and he was very nice—in fact, they all were. The captain gave me a good breakfast, and it was great, but it was all over the ship in 'three minutes, and 500 of them had snapped me with cameras. They said they were going to tranship me. Then I cried for the first time. It was hard luck, wasn't it, now? The captain was a jolly fellow. He asked me why 1 didn't get tan boots, and that made me cry more." Miss had the unusual experience of being transhipped at sea. Fixing a belt round her, she went down the ship's side on a ladder into a small boat, and rowed across the rough sea to another vessel. The troopship was not calling at Melbourne, so that was the reason of the transhipment in the open sea.

"I had a great joke going up the ship's side," Miss recounted. "We were nearly up to the top when I said to the officer above me, 'You don't speak to the girl you took for a walk up George Street!' He nearly fell off with the shock, because he had not recognised his lady friend of a few nights before."

There is little reason for the officer's oversight, for the girl is the finest ladysoldier Melbourne has ever seen. She is still as anxious to help tlie wounded as when she went away. "I intend to try the Eed Cross again in Sj'dney. It is a pity they can't do anything with me, because I must do my share in the war. My word, if I was a boy I'd be in the firing-line, but surely there's something a healthy girl can do. If they would train me, I would be content to stay in Sydney to learn, so long as they let me do something of real value in the war. I had experience in first aid at a school convent, and I managed that well. I would like to see war, but I'll be content if they only let me help. I must do that; it is my duty. I had made up my mind on Friday morning to raid a kitchen that night. My, I was hungry. I would like to add that the Y.W.C.A. have been so very kind to me. They are goodness itself."