"Them Eunuchs"

AN old friend who is now a member of the New Guinea Patrolmen writes bitterly to a wholly sympathetic editor: — “Something should be done to restrain the philologic ingenuity of these Aus tralians. They have respect for neither man, nor officer, nor woolly-headed Papuan—some of the names they have coined are clever, and funny, but quite unprintable—and I am afraid that Papua, after they have done with the language, will never be the same again.

“Take our local organisation of fight ers, for example They have done pretty well —I and my friends here are proud to be members of the New Guinea Patrol So naturally we were a bit upset to find ourselves referred to by the Aussie soldiers as ‘Them Eunuchs’. We knew of no reason for so unfortunate a term, and we demanded enlightenment.

But it was only the Aussie way of twist ing the name of the ‘New Guinea Unit,’

The Australian soldiers just naturally called us ‘New Guinea Eunuchs’ —and, finally, just ‘Them Eunuchs’.

“Can’t you do something about it?”

EDITORIAL NOTE: Sorry. We know those Australians. There is nothing that one can do. Better accept the term, and glorify it—after the style of the “Rats of Tobruk.”