COMPULSORY TRAINING AND SOCIAL LIFE IN ADELAIDE
Adelaide, when we reached it, was like the
rest of the Australian continent, celebrating
the declaration of war by a tremendous outburst
of patriotism; the whole place fluttered with
little flags, Union Jacks were on every bicycle or
cart or motor-car, loyal crowds were assembling
at street corners. We in England have no
conception of the depths of feeling that our
fellow-countrymen in Australia have for "home."
It embraces all those who come out there on a
visit, so that instead of strangers in a strange land
they feel like a dear and welcome friend returning
to his own people. By the evening the occasion
had been felt to be so momentous that the youthful
male population, with whom the streets were
crowded, had celebrated it in some cases to excess,
and this was the sole occasion on which we saw
anything approaching to intemperance while we
were in Australia, or on which the population
forsook its habitual and universal beverage of
