A "DISGRACE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 241, 12 October 1942, Page 3

A "DISGRACE"

ATTITUDE TO THE WAR

Unreality Of Australians Sharply Criticised

Special Australian Correspondent

United Press Association—Copyright Rec. 12.30 p.m. SYDNEY, thus day

Criticism of the public "attitude of unreality" towards the war has been made in Australia. It was a disgrace after Mr. Curtin's austerity appeal to see 74,000 at Randwiek races on Saturday, said Mr. Arthur Mailey, the international cricketer. The money spent at Randwiek would have bought 50 planes.

Organised sport in wartime should be confined to schoolboys, declared; Mr. Mailey. The nation should forget every game which took manpower and money from the war effort.. Sport, however, should be encouraged among the troops and every available ground should be turned over to the fighting services.

A bombing raid or two on Australian capitals might be a lesson in disguise, said Mr. H. J. Timperley, adviser to the Chinese National Government Board of Information. Comparing the attitude of Australians to the war with the stubborn heroism of the Chinese, Mr. Timperley, himself an Australian, said that when he heard his well-fed countrymen complaining of shortage of luxuries he thought of the millions in China living on the verge of starvation. Debates as to whether Victory suits should have waistcoats made him remember the millions in China with scarcely a rag to their backs.

"Our responsibility as Australians is to try to live up to the Chinese example of bravery and endurance which has never been excelled in human history," Mr. Timperley declared.