Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 381
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[Page 381]
4.
some way or other under conscription, & when you boys come back for a few days from the Front you ought to be given all the enjoyment & relaxation that can be got for you. But here it is so very different. People who come back here from Europe are amazed at the flippancy of everyone in the streets, and at the crowds of young men of military age who go to the races and the picture shows & the beaches as if there was no such thing as a war where all our best & dearest are giving everything in the world for the rotters who stay behind. At the Randwick Races at Eastertime there were crowds of from forty five to sixty five thousand on the principal days, while in Melbourne Dr Mannix & his friends are preaching the doctrine that Irishmen are as loyal as they can be expected to be! Did I tell you that the Commonwealth Government has passed new regulations under the War Precuations Act prohibiting the wearing of Sinn Fein badges or the carrying of Sinn Fein banners in processions, or generally the saying or doing of anything that is prejudiced to the cause of the Allies in the present war? Late as usual, but perhaps better late than never!
Sir Walter Davidson, our new Governor, is still hunting for popularity, & Joynton Smith, the Lord Mayor, has arranged a party of Labourites, Union Secretaries, et hoc genus omne, [and all that sort of thing] to meet Davidson at the Town Hall so that he may get into touch with the democracy of the State!! The other day Davidson visited the Mater Misericordiae Hospital at North Sydney & declared that it would be quite a pleasure to break one's leg in order that one might get treated in so beautiful a hospital. Of course this was a joke, but