BOXING

Evening Star, Issue 16195, 17 August 1916, Page 5

BOXING

FREDDIE WELSH IN A NEW ROLE. .

TOURING FOR WAR FUNDS.

[Fhom Our San Francisco Corresl'ONDKNT.]

_Freddie Welsh, of Pontypridd, South I v\ ales, light-weight boxing champion of the world, has embarked upon a new sphere of endeavor, and is now busy raising funds for war relief purposes. He recently went to Toronto, where boxing is frowned upon, but the municipal "lid" was lifted, and Welsh gave a series of boxing exhibitions, the procoeds totalling many thousand dollars being devoted to war relief funds. As a result, he told our San Francisco correspondent, 12,000 serviceable gifts were distributed to the wives and widows of Canadian soldiers. "I am now in communication with General Sir Sam Hughes, commanding the Canadian Militia," added Welsh, "with a view of making an extensive tour of Canada, where I have offered to give a series of boxinf exhibitions to swell the war relief funds. I am intensely anxious to do my little bit for the cause of tho Allies." The champion said he had received invitations to visit Australia and New Zealand, and, much as ho would like to appear before the sporting fraternity in tho Antipodes, ho had decider] to retire next season from the ring: but it was his intention to take a trip to Australasia at tho first opportunity, but simply on a pleasure visit. Hb had tho greatest regard for tho -Anzacs, who had given the British Empiro further proof of their unexampled fighting abilities iu tho Gallipoli and Flander3 campaigns.

Aspect if he intended to return permanently to Wales, the champion said thai-, as all his business interests were now indissolubly linked with America, ho had resolved to make the United States his home. '■"! have always had an idea of establishing a physical training farm on Long Island, where the business men of New York could have ready access. Professor Muldoon has made a success of it, and as he is 73 years of age and there is no cno to succeed him, I discern my opportunity. American critics talk of my age as though I wen; an old man. Thirty is not old for an athlete, but I have been 13 years in tho game, and that is a long time. I have enough propertv to get mo my coffee and rolls regularly for as long as I expoct to live, but when t retire from the ring I am not going to hide myself away on a farm and become a recluse. Far from it. lam purchasing a farm on the north shore of Long Island, and'will start one of those retreats where the tired business man and others who are in need of rest and rebuilding may get tho outdoor life. Easterners understand this better than those in the West, where the pace is not so strenuous. I know enough about training and physical culture to put nr.inv a tired• man on his feet, even if he didn't get his tired feeling from too much business. I also plan to einbark upon writing for papers and magazines. During (he past two years, while l have been subject to censure for not risking mv title, T have fought over 40 times. These bouts have ranged from six to fifteen rounds' duration, and in every one of over 400 rounds I have been taking the chance of getting a. punch that would end mv term" as light-weight champion. Stanley Ketehel was cr0,1i,,,| w jfi, the onlv champion who ever came back, but I did" a 'come back' myself. After losing the English championship I worked through Hie champiois of Frame. South Africa, and Australia, and recovered my English title from Malt Wells.'' Welsh, who is a thorough gentleman, well frnnmod and excellently ' educated, loves Western America, and 'especially Canada. TVs. l,,,rriod trip across the American continent to San Francisco was to fulfil an unusual engagement—to bid adieu to his genial ■• r >-s Tf : .!ie Welsh Church, who had i acted as his trainer preparatory to many of I hi.s American triumphs. Katie was leaving America for Singapore on a matrimonial ex-nn-l-tV.n. The leave-taking of the boxing champion and his former lady trainer was of a most tearful nature, and as the giant Jannncso liner, tho Shinyo Mani, "gradually drew away from tho San-Francisco dock, the charming and petite Font vpridd lady, who had only returned to the United. States from nursing Helgian refugees near Birmingham, was so overcome fmm pnrling with Welsh and his wife that she broke, down, and was unable to wave further adicux. Pretiily attired in a blue silk costume, the former Katie Welsh, amidst much blushing, said homission to Singapore \v;is Cue culmination of a romantic meeting in London of Mr Charles W. Rail, a structural engineer who has ex-!<-nsive rubber plantations in the Malay Peninsula. The friendship ripened into affection, and Katie decided to essay the three-weeks' trip across the Pacific to Hongkong, where the Londoner had arranged to meet his prospective bride and journey to Singapore, where the marriage ceremony will be solemnised. "Curiously enough," said Katie, ''Hall is our family" name, for that is _ the second name of "my brother Freddie.'' Scores of admirers deluged the bride with presents, and when Mrs Church went aboard the liner she was loaded down with gifts. Katie clung to Ihe champion in a long and feud embrace, shortened only by the implacable shrill siren of I lie Maru for id! visitors to regain shore. Pressing a handful of 50dol notes into tne prospective bride's hands, the champion boxer said: "Return immcdin->.ly if the Malay climate is unsuitable," and he laughingly added " or I it' the bridegroom is not to your taste!" Mrs I Church quickly assured him that there was no 'liffi.c.uHy on the last score. Whilst regretting his sister's removal to the Malay territory, Welsh said his sister bed 'in excellent prospect. Speaking of her wedding gifts, he said they included a rubber plantation given to her by Mr Hall. "In about ihrec years' time that plantation will be producing a large rubber crop, and soon after that; I shall have ceased to be a chamii pion boxer, and rn.n find a refuge there from I the ring," he added, with a merry twinkle in his eye. j Welsh., who is now worth nearly half a million dollars, has gone to his summer home at Los Angeles to see "Freddie .Junior, who is two vears old, and Bet.He, who is one." "Did you know that Bet tie g->' the gold ,"'dol in a baby show in Xew York wit'-"r>-y>i babies entered in the competition?" i a.-'„ ' ".■*''- The interviewer confessed I ihat no dkl not know ihi..\.- were two cham- ! pious in the famdy.