Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 14 January 1932, page 2


j The Hard Case.

(By "Khun Yunis," West Subiaco.)

"My _ home in Abbnssiii.

Timi "s where W« jwt HO boor.

Hut-"

The foul obscenity of Ute ringer foll on tho unheeding oars of tho (Timid nt. Korry Post on'1 lie i\vnal. It wna only Hill emiting homo. Drunk-of oourfic!

Hill was tho alcoholic nnomnly of the A.1.1'.: tho nrn'ogonoriite rough of the regiment, «ml ih« sinister scourge of thc squadron sergoniit.

Tho hardest-bitten veteran in the A.I.F., he wus the man who hung thc nose-bag on the stn tue of Omar in Opera Square; the leader of the Battle of the Wazzir, and the last man to leave the Peninsula. Incidentally, he was the man who 6toie the case of whisky from the Prince of Wales! tent. He had. also beaten np booze in the Sinai .Desert, and rumour said he had- got drunk in Kasv-el-Nil Bar-

racks. .

The despair pf countless Sarn-Majorg, one long suffering man had once roared

at him:

"In heaven's name, my man, why did you enlist?"

Without winking a bleary eye Bill had solemnly made answer, "To dodge a bit

of trouble/'

Trouble! Hell! He came to the right place for trouble; even a long succession of military clinks had not cured him of that propensity of looking for it.

He had even come out of the dread Cita-del with a more firmly-rooted conviction of the injustice of army life in general and "Jacks" in particular.

The Turk might be thc common enemy, but to Bill they were gentlemen compared with the "Jacks." No man could nurse 6uch a bitter hatred or hold such a loathing contempt as had Bill for this much-maligned body of men.

I last saw Bill in Damascus.

In a temporary hospital, luis troublescarred veteran was ministering to his malaria-stricken cobbers as tenderly os a

motherl

_ .