Gossip from Sydney.

Free Lance, Volume XV, Issue 817, 25 February 1916, Page 9

Gossip from Sydney.

Deak Christabel, — WE are just recovering from the shock of a disgraceful meeting at Liverpool Camp. Under ■weak militia officers —the Defence Department has no highly-trained men it can spare—this camp has gone from bad to worse. * ■ # * ■* Much was hoped from the appointment of Colonel Miller. But, after all, his career has been that of a Government official. Since the Boer War, in which he took an honourable part as a volunteer officer, he has had no soldiering in the strict term of the word. Traditions of insubordination and open defiance of military regulations are in tne very air of Liverpool Camp. Only a, staff of experienced regular service could clean up the Augean stable. * * # •* As the rioters in uniform —one cannot speak of such a rabble by the honoured name "soldier" —fled through the city streets, the public, who scattered for safety, saw that many of them wore drunk. Most of them appeared to be very young men. The ringleaders, much older, went ahead. Buglers with this horde or. rabble had the impudence .to sound the call "to arms!" The alleged trouble, that General McCay (now returning again to the front) had ordered them to speed up their training by an extra hour and a-half a day, was a flimsy excuse. * tt * * Mutiny has been in the air at Liverpool. In the past the men had serious cause for dissatisfaction. But most of these causes have been removed. The next great improvement will be to break up the camp at Liverpool, and dismiss a few hundred mutineers. Any woman who manages a house can see that is the only firm course to take. Yet our men in control, with something like anarchy staring them in the face, have been singularly weak. * * * * Strikers are "entreated" to go back to their well-paid work, and Liverpool mutineers in the past have got off with trivial fines. Half-a-dozen business members of our sex would begin by allowing the publicans to retire to their suburban palaces at 6 p.m. Wet canteens, strictly supervised in every ■camp, would be another reform. Good drink under reasonable control is infinitely better than bad liquor, anywhere, under no control at all. Minister Pearce will not, however, allow the soldier his immemorial right to get, occasionally, decently drunk, on his own premises, instead of being indecently drunk all over the city. * • * * Forgive me if I have bored you with this long tirade. But the recent mutiny, and the disgrace it brings on us all over the world, is the vital theme of the hour. * # * * On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, Fanny Durack again proved her right to hold the world's championship as its greatest woman swimmer. She gives a sense of superb poise and almost masculine power, and she gets through the water with her famous "crawl" stroke. A crowd of enthusiasts went from Sydney to see the contest at Manly baths. Mina Wylie, the dogged rival, who as yet can only finish second to Fanny Durack, put on a wonderful spurt at the beginning of the 100 yards contest. Tense excitement stilled even the barrackers, when Mina led at the 50 yards turn. Then the lady champion's mop of wet hair (she wears no cap) forged ahead. The finish was inevitable. * * * # Queensland amateurs—some very buxom girls—came here to tako part in the recent swimming carnival. Mrs.

King chaperoned the juniors. Her own daughter, Miss Jane King, promises to be one of Brisbane's leading aquatic ducks. As fourth in the great race with Fanny Durack, an unbeaten first, the Queensland girl did very well. Mrs. Hugh Mcintosh is president of the N.S.W. Amateur Ladies' Swimming Association. Since the arrival of the visitors, she has been their hostess at pleasant launch and theatre parties. The Sydney secretary of the Association, Mrs. Chambers, has also done her part to give the visitors a good time. «• # * « Sir Gerald Strickland, is intensely interested in the new fund to financially help the voluntary workers for disabled soldiers' homes. The beginning at French's Forest—clearing rather unpromising areas of land for settlement by returned soldiers who are unahle to do much work—must now be regarded as merely a beginning. In every outlyng district near the suburban' fringe of the city, workng bees are likely to spring up like mushrooms. The Governor has given £100 to the Voluntary Workers' Fund. * * * # The Horticultural Guild for Women has languished since the war. In fact, it was not a very flourishing concern even in the piping times of peace. It was new, and was feeling its way when the enemy ran amok in Europe. Now, that Miss Brace, who is regarded as an expert in these horticultural matters, has returned, enthusiasts hope for a revival in the interest taken by women in spade work. ■»*#■» Personally, I doubt whether gardening—unless as a means of livelihood— can absorb much feminine interest till the war is over. Red Cross work and Battalion Comforts Funds come before anything else that claims the effervescing energy of our sex. Miss Brace, indeed, devoted all her spare time in England to Red Cross duty. In France, she gave her services for some time as a worker in a soldiers' canteen at Dieppe. After about 18 months' absence, the strenuous lady came back to Australia in the Niagara. She travelled across the U.S.A. before catching the boat at Vancouver. California is her favourite patch of American soil. **■»•» The lectures given by Mr. Ashmead Bartlett suffer chiefly by comparison with his own brilliantly-written account of the Gallipoli campaign. In addition, he has very little new ground to cover. His comments are, of course, clever and interesting. But we have been stuffed with comments in every Jocal press summary of the war. The famous war correspondent had no official reception in Sydney. There may be two opinions as to the results of the Northcliffe press denunciation of the British Government in the hour of national crisis. But the manner of it was distasteful to moderate minds. Mr. Bartlett's criticism of the Dardanelles campaign, therefore, did not exactly endear him to the Imperial authorities. * # * # The public has been very curious to see the journalist who made such a stir. Our Town Hall has held great audiences, and the Tait management have had the financial success it deserves. It was very enterprising to engage such an expensive attraction. Mr. Bartlett's fee is said to be £200 a lecture. I give you this item for what it is worth. The sum is probablv approximate. * * * * Miss Kathleen Levi,, a daughter of Mrs. Blanche Levi, of New Zealand, has been in the forefront of musical students in London. A few "weeks ago, the Maoriland girl was chosen out of 600 students to play the famous Beethoven Concerto. This was at the concert given by the Royal Academy orchestra at the Queen's Hall (London).

The French, concert on February 24th is the most interesting musical event of this month. A Belgian singer, Mademoiselle Lore, as I may have told you, is going to make her first public appearance then. * * * * Mr. Beeby, a Sydney lawyer, who was a former member of the N.S.W. Labour Government, came back in the Niagara. He had been with his wife on a trip to Honolulu. Mi-. Beeby, whose views were not cast in a sufficiently adamant Trades Hall mould to keep him inside the Labour hedge, is no longer in politics. His health, which had long been impaired by the strain of office, is now completely restored. * * * * A Canterbury (N.Z.) girl, Miss Irene Bartrum, is having a look at England in war time. She has been staying in London with an aunt, Miss Eleanor Hayden, who is a writer. And writers ."just now have plenty of "copy" on the other side. No shilling shocker of long ago could detail such cold-blooded murders as the kultured Hog has sprung on the still trembling earth. * ■* * # Re atrocities, an Australian woman just back wishes the German apologists could have been with her recently in France. She would a]so like them to see an English soldier —an old-time friend of her family. He is now a maimed wreck in a London hospital. Slightly wounded in the stomach, but too weak to move, he was lying in the open beyond the French trenches. Quite conscious he watched the Huns rob, bayonet, or shoot our wounded. His own turn came when Kultur approached. The Hun first spat in his face, then shot him in both arms. He mercifully knew no more. Now, both arms have been amputated. * * * * The Semitic race has evolved out of its mediaeval miseries a wonderful musical sense of harmony. Recently, the London press has referred to the clever compositions of Lieut. Arthur Benjamin. The young Australian comes from Brisbane. He has been studying at the Royal College of Music, where he won a scholarship about three years ago. His orchestral scherzo, performed by R.C.Mv at a London concert a few weeks back, is said to be full of brilliant phrasing. Lieut. Benjamin has won a commission, and will shortly leave England for the front. * * * * A Chinese wedding is rather an extra special number in war time. Miss Mabel Quoy, the eldest daughter of a wealthy Chinese merchant, was married in some splendour, to William Lumb Liu, formerly on the , staff of the Chinese Consul-General in Melbourne. The bridegroom, who is very good-look-ing—even according to Western notions —was educated at a high-class college here. The service took place in St. Andrew's Anglican Cathedral. Everything was done on Western lines. The gorgeous wedding feast was conducted after the method of a public banquet, as a chairman, Alderman Barlow, presided. * * * * The bride wore an orthodox wedding gown of ivory satin with the fashionable touch of pink on the silk court train. Seed pearls embroidered this costly garment. The Chinese are as a race profusely generous at such a time. The presents that came along, not only from other States, but from China, fiUed every table in a long room. There were so many exqusite designs in clocks amongst the gifts that Mrs. Mabel Liu (these names take some writing) will be able to know the' time o' day for the rest of her life. Yours discursively, Ron a.