TACT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 10 January 1944, Page 3

TACT

A charming man, an officer in the army of one of the Allied Nations, chanced to be my neighbour the other evening, and it happened that one of us had earlier attended a purely Australian function. Australia soon became the chief topic of our chat, because my neighbour knew less about that continent than I. “At least, brother,” said he, although we are not related, “you’ll agree you’ve made a mighty mess of Australia in this Empire or Commonwealth, or whatever you call it. And so you can’t be really surprised if the Aussies look to us as their big brothers after the war packs up.” “Why can’t I?” “Why; what do you ever do for Australia. anyway? You just play cricket with them, and that means ihey hate your guts every time a Test match is on the schedule.” “Listen, my poor friend,” I replied. “I’m not a student of First-Class Cricket. but I'd like to get you to assimilate this one item of information. We do not scrap with Australians about cricket. Our scraps about cricket keep our country and theirs enthralled—when they are not helping us and you to put down human vermin. But you think they therefore want to lose us? Or we want to lose them? “Brother,” I said. “You couldn’t hold Australia for five minutes. You can’t even play cricket! “Ha-ha!” I said. “Ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha !”— (H. T. W. Bousfield, gossip writer in the London “Queen”). VAREX! VAREX! VAREX! Simple home treatment for Varicose Ulcers and bad legs. Proved method Inexpensive Write to-day for Free Booklet Ernest Healey, Pharmaceutical Chemist. Varex Ltd Box 1558 N 21 Grey Street. Wellington