WANTING TO FIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1930, Page 7

WANTING TO FIGHT

AUSTRALIAN SOLDIERS.

REPORTED OFFER TO CHINA. Sydney, Oct. 2. A statement by the Consul-General for China that he has been approached by two men, claiming to represent a band of 300 Australians with war service records, who are eager to serve with the Chinese Nationalist Party in the civil war in China, recalls the days r- hired mercenaries, "when men sold their swords and services to the highest bidder,” and when the cause was immaterial so long as the pay was good. However, it would seem that China is determined to fight her wars her own way, because the Chinese ConsulGeneral says he docs not know whether the .services of foreign soldiers would be accepted by the Chinese Nationalist Party. The men who approached him said their sympathies were with the Nationalist Party, and that there was not much to do in Australia. They thought they might as well fight for China as spend idle days in their own country. The Consul-General said that the men who interviewed him were of a very good type. Included in thennumber, they claimed, were engineers and cavalry-men. As there were no Englishmen or Australians m the Chinese forces he could do nothing foi them. , The secretary of the Returned Soldiers’ League, Mr. Stagg, said that he had no recollection of any men approaching him seeking help for enlistment with a foreign army "I cannot say,” he went on, “whether there is in the league a militant section who, because of lack of employment in Australia, would be only too eager to go warriim- abroad. The men referred to by the Consul-General have certainly not seen me. Ido not in the least know who they are, and at any rate, the league has its hands full just now in relieving the distress among its members.” It has .been pointed out that in all countries there are men to whom the call of war is irresistible when normal work is hard to find. It is quite possible that Australia has it quota of such, and China at the present time offers plenty of scope for the reckless and the restless. The. Shanghai police contain men of all nationalities, and in the last IS months they have been given ample opportunity to test their fighting qualities.