MONEY MAKING?

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 264, 7 November 1935, Page 17

MONEY MAKING?

BOYS' TOUR ABROAD.

MANAGEMENT UNDER FIRE.

YOUNG AUSTRALIA LEAGUE,

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, November 2

Tor some months past a party of Australian boys has been touring South Africa under the auspices of the Young Australia League. The league has made feature of these tours ever since its inception, and during the past 20 years .! jj' as arranged six of them —three for which the parents paid expenses and three in which the sons of relatively Poorer families arc enabled to pay their way by giving concerts and entertainments. According to Mr. J. Simon, who founded the Y.A.L., this system of tours has been highly successful and one is now being planned to enable 50 girls to visit Japan next year. In addition to the commander and the musical director (both family men), the party always includes a qualified tutor and a certificated so that everything possible is dono to ensure the comfort and enjoyment of the young travellers. It is claimed by the directors of the Y.A.L. that such "visits help to build up friendly feelin" between Australia and other countries, particularly other portions of the Empire, and that the effect of these experiences abroad have been most beneficial to the boys.

The party which has been touring South Africa was originally "booked ■up" for a two years' trip. They left in January and were to go first to South Africa, then on to England and lack home by America and New Zealand. But the trip on the moneymaking side was so successful that the •party "staved on in South Africa long after the date fixed for its departure— thev were supposed to be in England by "June last—and then various things happened which gave the tour much undesirable publicity. Newspaper Criticism. In the first place certain Australian newspapers printed extracts from the "Natal Witness" criticising severely the character of the tour and the entertainments staged by the boys. The "Natal Witness," which is one of the oldest of South African newspapers, expressed strong objection to "an organisation which, seeming to bear a commercial aspect, sought civic receptions and free hospitality such as would he freely extended to a genuine noncommercial and educational tour." Moreover, it made some very caustic comments on the nature of the "show" provided by the boys. "Revue scenes," it said, "in which a wife shoots herself and characters arc seen listening to race results over a radio and being ejected from a bar, are all right for adults if their tastes in humour happen to run that way. There are many of us, however, who would, not take our own •children to see such items, and very few of us, we hope, would allow our children to participate in them. We do not think it funny to see a 12-year-old boy play a drunken comedy part and if'there is any mother who applauds pe.idea.of. her llryear r old son being arrayed in woman's clothes and padded to imitate a woman and. sent on the stage to mimic the language and deportment of a woman whose world notoriety rests on her sexuality—we can only saythat the fact does her no credit."

The young "female impersonator" mentioned above is Colin Croft, an 11-year-old boy, living at Canterbury, one of Sydney's* numerous suburbs, who has gained considerable celebrity here, by his characterisation of Mae West. But (strange as it may seem the boy's mother at once rushed into print protesting against the "Natal Witness" criticism, and offering as a counter-blast extracts from the "Pretoria News" and the "Band Daily Mail," in which the boy's "turn" receives high praise and the entertainment generally is described as brilliantly successful. One Youth Recalled. Before Mrs. Croft had contributed her quota to the discussion, trouble for the Y.A.L. directors had arisen in another quarter. Mr. John O'Carroll, of Rozelle, another Sydney suburb, having read the South African papers came to the conclusion that the tour presented undesirable features and decided to recall his son. Robert O'Carroll, aged 16, is an amateur violinist of great promise who had been allowed to go on the trip on the understanding that his musical education would be promoted by his new experiences. The father, therefore, wrote and cabled to South Africa to this effect, but it was only after reiterated and peremptory requests that the boy was finally released from his numerous engagements and allowed to come back. He arrived liere from South Africa last week and the circumstances of his withdrawal have led to a vigorous public controversy between his father and Mr. Simons, the founder of the Y.A.L.

The defence put; forward by Mr. Simons is, as indicated above, that these tours benefit the boys, and that the experience in vaudeville is a special advantage to those who have . any musical knowledge or training. He suggests further that the adverse criticism to which the programmes have been subjected in certain quarters is due chiefly to the prejudice against Australians which, he asserts, is prevalent in the South African Union. As to Mr. O'Carroll, he alleges that the father made no objection to the tour or the entertainments till he had asked for special payment for his sons's services and had been refused. . Little Sight-Seeing. Mr. O'Carroll wisely waited till he had his son safe home again before making further comments. When Robert O'Carroll got back last week he fully confirmed all the adverse criticism directed by his father and others against the tour. The boy is 16 years old, he had won a three years' scholarship at the Conservatorium, and relinquished it to go on this tour, and he evidently knows what he is talking about. He says that the boys were kept going continuously, playing their "shows" seven days in the week, with two or three matinees, and that they got very little: time to do any sight-seeing; and that | after his father's final refusal to allow 1 him to go on tour any further, he was rushed away from Johannesburg to Capetown at half an hour's notice, without even having a chance of saying good-bye to his companions, and the boy was leading violinist to the company, and was therefore almost indispensable for their entertainments; and this, though it cannot excuse the attitude of the directors, may account for their reluctance to let him go. As to Mr. Simons' charge that the boy's father had tried to blackmail the YA.L. by demanding payment for his eon's services, 3lr. points out that he had been put to great expense to fit the boy out for the trip; that he had been induced to let Mm go on the

ground that he would gain musical experience abroad, and that when he found that the entertainment was "cheap vaudeville" and that the tour was being sacrificed for the boxoffice receipts, he thought that the boy deserved some material recognition. Mr. O'Carroll objected especially to the fact that the manager had "signed on" the boys for a second season in South Africa without consulting their parents; and on the whole he seems to have made out a very good case for himself.

As to the financial success of the tour, that is undoubted. At a branch meeting of the league it was stated the other night that the touring party, had already cleaved £4000 in South Africa, and expected to make another £1000 before leaving. Good work this for an eightmonths' tour! But it is most unfortunate for the prestige of the Y.A.L. that the necessity for such criticism should havo arisen—more especially as there seems to be a. solid foundation for most of the charges directed against the tour and its management.