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[page 25]
47
(8).
This is not confined to the Australian papers, the same sloppy nonsense being served up to readers of the British journals. This morning we received a batch of Sydney Morning Heralds published just at the time the Australians went into the line in France and we spent an hour or two laughing over the utter rot about the doings of the Anzacs in the eyes of the World. One cable said that a farmer behind the line employed a white horse to plow with and it was suspected that he somehow used this white horse as a medium for signalling information to the enemy, so the Anzacs went out one night and painted the horse a reddish brown! Other cables told of notices put up by the Germans which were purely imaginary and of fights which never took place. It is a wonder they did not repeat the old Gallipoli tale of pitching Germans out of trenches on the end of bayonets. The Australian forces in France are a mere flea bite compared to the British and Canadians. This can be better understood when it is realized that the whole Australian army only holds a bit of the line equal to the distance from the Central Station to Petersham. The Canadians, who are fine soldiers, must feel very hurt at all this undue attention paid to the Australians. The Canadians are in one of the toughest portions of the line near Ypres, they bore the brunt of the first gas attack ever delivered, and have since been in every important engagement in that district and yet you seldom see their name mentioned - except in the casuality lists where they are big subscribers. The cables told you that the Australians were allotted to one of the most important sections of the line and that "they were proud and pleased to be paid the compliment as it was their one desire to be where the fighting is thickest." As a matter of fact our section had