The red & white diamond

Creator
Australia. Army. Battalion, 24th
Call Number
N 940.394098 RED
Created/Published
[France?] : The Battalion, 1918-1919
Issue
No. 2 (October 1918)
Images
14
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Text

THE  

/\  

mgar  

DIAMOND  

No, 2. OCTOBER !, 1918. Price, 25 centimes.  

Gambling in the Army  

(The first of series of articles by the editor  

on army morals).  

At the mention of the subject of gambling  

fancy see puritanical folk prick their ears.  

But contend that only men who are on active  

service are competent to discuss this question  

from the soldier?s point of view. Men who  

stay at home and know nothing of the monotony  

of active service life are hardly justified in  

criticising those who go out to tread the army?s  

thorny path. would like to meet the man  

who, remaining in his home town with its  

entertainments and comforts, has the effron-  

tery to say that men in desert camp or on  

shell-blasted battlefield, with nothing to engage  

their attention but the ail too frequent duty of  

dealing out death and taking their share of  

war?s mortality, should be forbidden to amuse  

themselves with their money so hard earned.  

am not defending gambling. am giving  

soldier?s view of the subject. am not  

gambler, but do not claim to be virtuous on  

that account. My reasons are purely econo-  

mical. If were certain of success at gamb-  

ling am afraid would be an earnest devotee  

of the business. Am alone in my disposition?  

Bo all non-gamblers eschew the habit on  

moral grounds? agree that man who lives  

on gambling is parasite, because he does not  

help to create the wealth which he seeks he  

lives on other people?s labors. But if man is  

prepared to work as well as gamble, and when  

he gambles to do It honestly so far as morals  

in gambling go, why should he not be allowed  

to do so if he injures nobody by his specula-  

tions The fact that many people who gamble  

are robbers at heart barely affects the question.  

There are people equally dishonest who never  

gamble, and thief is no more welcome at  

gambling house than he is in bank.  

Gambling is one of the chief recreations of  

men in the armies engaged in the war. It is  

not officially sanctioned, but it is never rigor-  

ously suppressed, and where men have little  

else to amuse themselves unless they go into  

more harmful mischief, the practice is often  

openly ?winked at.?  

DESERT MONTE CARLO.  

Ask any man who was at Tel-el-Kebir at the  

beginning of 1916 what was the outstanding  

feature of that huge camp, and if he speaks  

the truth he will tell you it was the propor-  

tions to which the element of gambling grew  

in that desert rendezvous. It was Monte  

Carlo on the sands. It was picture an artist  

should have painted.' For several miles along  

the railway there was that city of tents, its  

?streets? busy with its own peculiar traffic,  

its fringe of roughly-built shops where native  

civilians grew rich on their trade, its discip-  

lined and well-governed soldier inhabitants  

working and training, and in their leisure  

hours seeking recreation which was difficult to  

find. So here in the convenient spaces be-  

tween the camp and the railway we find them  

by the thousand every evening squatted in  

groups around the dice, the ?crown and anchor?  

board, the ?wheel,? the ?house? game, and  

every conceivable form of gambling.  

But it was not at any of these games that  

the big money was found. The game of ?two  

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http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-24482172

APA citation

Australia. Army. Battalion, 24th. (1918). The red & white diamond Retrieved May 25, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-24482172

MLA citation

Australia. Army. Battalion, 24th. The red & white diamond [France?]: The Battalion, 1918. Web. 25 May 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-24482172>

Harvard/Australian citation

Australia. Army. Battalion, 24th. 1918, The red & white diamond The Battalion, [France?] viewed 25 May 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-24482172

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=Australia. Army. Battalion, 24th.
  | title=The red & white diamond.
  | year=1918
  | section=v. ; 21 cm.
  | issue=No. 2 (October 1918)
  | location=[France?]
  | publisher=The Battalion
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-24482172
  | id=nla.obj-24482172
  | access-date=25 May 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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