WHAT MAKES THE ANZACS SO TOUGH?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 119, 3 October 1941, Page 15

WHAT MAKES THE ANZACS SO TOUGH?

American Journalist Comes Here To Find Out

6 UT soft, we are observed," as G. K. Chesterton (or was it Hilaire Belloc?) put it. This time the observing is being done by Howell Walker, writer and photographer for the well-known United States National Geographic magazine, and the subject of his observations is the Anzac. What, his employers have asked him to discover, is it that makes the Anzac soldiers so tough? From the Australian and New Zealand point of view, his assignment is an important one and it would appear to be important from the National Geographic’s point of view too, since they have thought it worthwhile to send one of their staff half across the world for half a year to cover it. Mr. Walker left his home town, Washington, D.C., on April 24 last, and he had already spent four months in Australia when a representative of The Listener ran him to earth in Auckland last week. The Best Fighters? "In America," he said, "‘we have an idea that the Anzacs are the best fighters of the lot. We admire their spirit and we admire their fine physique, and what I am trying to do is to find out the background of the Anzacs, I have spent four months in the Australian States and now I have come to New Zealand to discover what, to put it tritely, the NZ in Anzac stands for." No casual investigator is Mr. Walker. For him the background of the Anacs is not something which can be investigated in a superficial once-over fashion or by a high-speed tour. His job, he explained,

is to find out what Australian and New Zealand men and boys do before they enlist or are called up, what kind of jobs they work at, on the land or in the factories, how they live and what they learn-all the factors which may have sorhe bearing on the military material which has been acclaimed as 100 Al by the rest of the world. Every Walk of Life In New Zealand, he will follow the same technique of investigation as he used in Australia. During his months in the Commonwealth, he saw at first hand Australians in every walk of life. He watched them at work in the heavy industries of New South Wales and the populous eastern seaboard, he travelled north into Queensland and the sugar country and west to the dry lands. He watched them build ’planes and armoured cars, milk cows and muster sheep, fell timber and do most of the things which are summed up to-day in‘the phrase "war effort." He did more thar that. He paid attention to young Australians in school, he looked at the schools themselves, he got right down to the roots of Australian life. Outdoor Living Even now that he has finished his investigations in Australia, he is not yet

quite ready to say just what it is that makes the Australian such an indomitable fighter, but he feels that the outdoor life which such a large proportion of them lead has more than a little to do with it, "I understand," he said, "that both Australia and New Zealand have been mainly primary producing countries, though Australia is becoming more industrialised, and I think the outdoor, natural existence of the people has made them strong and virile, and has given them a carefree outlook." | What he called the carefree nature of the Anzacs had made as much of an impression on the people of America as their courage and fighting qualities. Sons of Pioneers "TI can explain better what I mean by ‘ carefree ’ if I tell you how I watched some Melbourne recruits entraining," he went on, "I saw these men-there were about 1,500 of them-getting ready to leave for overseas at one of the military camps, and I watched them get aboard the train. But none of them seemed to give a darn about it, and I couldn’t help feeling that if any of them were told to stay behind out of the scrap they would have burst into tears.

"The impression I have got is that these men are like the people who came out to settle in the early days. They came out here prepared to take a risk because they wanted life that way. These Anzacs to-day are the same. There is a gambling streak in them and the riskier the situation the more they like it," Steam Heating is Enervating Away from the city areas of Australia, Mr. Walker found much in the rural life to remind him of his own country. The wooden frame houses in little country townships, the big main streets with very little in them resembled much of the Middle West. There was the same general absence of the more refined creas ture comforts. The latter, it was pointed out, was a frequently heard ‘criticism even in New Zealand. "Don’t think," he protested, "that I’m making it a criticism, I think it is a good thing for the people themselves and probably helps to keep them healthy. You can have too much comfort, too much central heating and pink feather mattresses." Start on Schools ' Howell Walker will be in New Zealand until the end of October. When in« terviewed in Auckland he had only been in New Zealand for a couple of days but what he had seen appeared to have impressed him favourably. One of the first things he did was to look over two average New Zealand schools and both of them received his commendation for their general layout and sensible appointments. He was particularly interested in the amount of window space and light allowed in the .classrooms, and also in what he saw of the milk-in-schools scheme,