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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16219, 23 May 1918, Page 6

•Mom unlikely things may lumpen niter the war than a tour <>i' Australia :i!id New Zealand 1)y a French Rugby foni'wll tcr.m. According to ilio Zsew ■wilnnd correspondent at the front, the I'rt-noh arc let-on 011 sir-ii :i tour, anc! tiio visitors, niu- may La sure, would have 110 reason to regret their enterprise. 'I h:it they would give their opponent.; a gnr.d g :l mc ir, certain. TLtf team rcprc-.-outnijj the French Army which played the annual match against Xt-iV Zealand on a roc-ent Sundaj* in Pan's, before a crowd of 1-jjOJO or iio,ooo, was defeated only by a goal and a try to a try, and it was admitted by all Xow Zcalanders present that the better team lost. The French team included seven airmen, two members of the Tank Corps, and two sergeants of infantry, who had escapcd from a German prison camp by killing two guards, and had then actually worked as plumbers in Germany, including a stay of a fortnight in Berlin, until they could make their way back into France. The team played a fast, hard game, both sides making it so "willing" tliat there were frequent stoppages to allow men who had been knocked out to be revived. Football promises to become as popular in Franco as at Home, and in NewZealand and Australia; in fact, it has beeii said that it can already bo looked upon as the national game. It was growing in favour beforo the war, but the presence in Franco for more than three years of huge numbers of British troops has given it a great impetus. Of late, as Mr Malcolm Ross says, the whole French Army has been playing it at tho front, and their representative team this year was 40 per cent, better than last year's team. The correspondent in Paris of a Canadian paper lately asserted that moro than 500 elevens play in Paris every Sunday. If this is so, it means that Association is the popular game, but it is just possible that the correspondent knows more about baseball than football, and talks of "elevens" when ho means teams. At all events, Rugby appears to ho the game favoured by tho French Army, and ono at which tho young manhood of France is bocoming remarkably proficient. 0 Among the many items in the recipe for ''that popular mystery, Known tc the World as a Heavy Dragoon," as given by the Colonol in "Patience," is "The Keen Penetration of Paddingtoi: Pollaky." It is extremely probable that not ono person in every thousaiu who have heard that song sung have had any idea who Paddington l'ollain was, or why ho wits renowned for penetration. The recent death of the original gave the London "Times" ar opportunity for telling the public something about a man -whose name the\ had lieard so often. Mr Ignatius Paul Pollaky, it seoms, was at one time well known in London as a private enquiry agent, who establishes "Pollaky's Detective Agency," ii Paddington, about 1862. Tho "agony' column of "The Times" is said to have afforded ovidence for sonio time in the lato sixties and earhr seventies, of his varied activity, as also did tho recordf of the B'ivoreo Court, his services bo ing in great request by petitioners foi divorce. In his time he must have helped to end many unhappy marriages, but he and his wife lived to celebrate their golden -wedding some years ago. A striking instance of tho univorsal misconception that prevailed at the outset of tho war regarding its probable duration, was given a few weeks ago by Sir Robert Hudson, treasure! of the British Red Cross Society Speaking at a public gathering in London, ho said, that early in August, at tho ver.y beginning of tho war tho governing l>ody of the Sociotj pledged, or had begun to pledge themselves not to ask the Government 01 tho public for moro than £200,000, bemuse they thought that amount woulc carry thorn through the war. Thej ivere probably rather impressed with its magnitude, for it represented tor years' pre-war expenditure. It wonk now last just twenty days. Tho present cxponditnro of the Society, saic" Sir Robert, was three anel, a half millions a year, which meant that everj morning* £10,000 had to come in foi the day's work. "The extraordinary thing was that-it did como in." Hui considering all that the Red Cross ha. l lone, all that it stands for in the war, it would be even more extraordinary il the nation and the Empiro failed tc provide it with sufficient funds.