Australians who rushed at the chance of
adventure the moment the recruiting lists were opened "the six bob a day
tourists." Well--the "Tourists" made a name for Australia such as no
other Australians can ever have the privilege to make. The next shipment
were the "Dinkums"--the men who came over on principle to fight for
Australia--the real, fair dinkum[3] Australians. After them came the
"Super-dinkums"--and the next the "War Babies," and after them the
"Chocolate Soldiers," then the "Hard Thinkers," who were pictured as
thinking very hard before they came. And then the "Neutrals." "We know
they are not against the Allies," the others said, when came news of the
latest drafts still training steadily under peace conditions, "we know
they are not against us--we suppose they are just neutral."

[3] "Dinkum"--Australian for "true."

There has always been some chaff thrown at the latest arrival--and it
is a mistake to think that there was never any feeling behind the chaff.
I remember long ago at Anzac when a new draft was moving up past some of
the older troops--past men who were thin with disease and overworn with
heavy work--there was a cry of "You have come at last, have you?" flung
in a tone of which the bitterness was unmistakable. There has always
been a feeling, amongst the older troops here, that they have been
holding the fort--hanging on for Australia's name until the others have
time to come along and give them a hand. There is a tendency to feel
that soldiers who are still at home are getting all the limelight--the
parading of streets and praises of the newspapers--and will probably
live to reap most of the glory at the end of it all.

If so, there was never a feeling that melted more quickly the moment
each new draft arrives and is really tested. The moment it goes into the
whirl of a modern battle, and acquits itself through some wild night as
every Australian draft always has done in its first fight and always
will do, every sign of that old feeling melts as if it had never
existed; and the new draft finds itself taken into the heart of the old
force on the same terms as the oldest and proudest regiment there. I
make no apology for talking of them as "old" regiments. There are
regiments in this war, not three years old, which have seen as much
terrible fighting as others whose record goes back over hundreds of
years. Ages ago, prehistoric ages, the "Dinkums" became a title for men
to be intensely proud of