"COUSIN BERNARD"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 13, 15 July 1939, Page 20

"COUSIN BERNARD"

The former manager of a bank in Melbourne, Mr. Charles MacMahon Shaw, has written a book about Australian relatives of his cousin, the famous George Bernard Shaw. Published under the title "Bernard's Brethren," it contains interleaved remarks in red ink by "G. 8.5." himself.

Charles narrates that he visited his relatives in Ireland in 1871. "I don't remember much about cousin Bernard," he says, "except terrifying him with my pretended Australian language and pelting him with pebbles. He was a lean, carroty, youth nicknamed 'Copperhead' and 'Ginger' which he resented."

Bernard comments: "Charles undoubtedly met cousins, but I was 15 in 1871 and had started life in an estate office."

A newspaper paragraph suggesting that Bernard, rwhen he met cousins from Australia, wept because they were not black, has produced the comment from Bernard: "This is too silly! That I, 15. and precocious, expected black cousins, is a sample of the reckless rubbish passed as Bernard Shaw news in Australia."

Charles recalls Bernard's attack on Melbourne in 1925 as "a stuffy old hole." He asserts that this created a stir in Melbourne, which could only be compared with the excitement caused by Clara Butt's "Sing 'em muck!" story about Melba.

The Prior Memorial Prize has this year attracted 165 writers, including a number from New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. This total is five more than last year's. The judges appointed for this year's competition are:—Mr H. M. Green. Fisher Librarian at the University of Sydney, Mr. Louis Esson, widely-known Victorian writer, and Mr. Frank Dalby Davison, the wellknown Australian author. No award having been made for the past two years, the prize has mounted to £300. The results should be announced about the first week in August.