The Sun 1942年1月18日 A Glass Eye For A White Feather
Lieut. Jack Leslie Perry, Military Cross, minus an eye blown out in Syria, wounded in four places at Tobruk, fought in
Greece and Crete and now being treated at Concord Military Hospital, was given a white feather yesterday!
To the unknown woman who handed it to him, he said nothing. He just dropped a glass eye from its socket into his hand,
and the woman reeled. She recovered sufficiently to make a hurried exit from the lounge of a city hotel where the
incident took place. And with her went the feather. She declined his invitation to accept his left eye as a gift.
This decorated hero of Tobruk was waiting for his wife. He had a glass of beer to his lips when the woman suddenly
appeared and said, "Here," handing him the symbol of cowardice from her handbag.
Deed That Won M.C.
"You could have knocked me down with that feather, but I was sitting at the time," said the young Military Cross
recipient. This is the official citation which earned the Military Cross for Lieut. Perry:―― "For conspicuous
gallantry and devotion to duty. This officer was detailed with his platoon of pioneers to assist in blowing up the
enemy wire in an attack on Tobruk on January 21, 1941. While waiting near the enemy wire the party came under heavy
shell-fire and sustained numerous casualties. Lt. Perry led the rest of the party forward under fire and personally
supervised the placing of the explosives under the enemy wire, thus enabling the entry of the waiting infantry.
He displayed in this action leadership above the ordinary and outstanding courage and devotion to duty which was a
conspicuous example to his men." What Lt. Perry cannot make out is why this woman should pick on a khaki-clad man
for her white feather act. "There were plenty of men in civilian clothes around," he said. Lieut. Perry is still
in the Army training other men.
The Newcastle Sun 1942年1月19日 WHITE FEATHER HABIT IS DENOUNCED
SYDNEY. ――"Thiis iis[原文ママ] one of the most reprehensible cases that has come under our notice in this war."
said army authorities today, referring to a woman who, on Saturday, handed a white feather to Lieut. Jack Leslie Perry,
Military Cross winner, who lost his eye in Syria. Lieut. Perry said nothing to the woman who handed him the feather.
He Just dropped his glass eye from its socket into her hand. "This officer would have been perfectly justified in
giving the woman in charge for offensive behavior." said authorities.
"The Government of Australia has always adopted the principle that every man is the keeper of his own conscience."
"It is the Army's job to administer that policy." An officer said that people who handed out white feathers could put
their time to better use in working for the war effort.
Daily Mercury 1941年9月15日 SHAMELESS WOMEN GAVE WHITE FEATHERS TO HEROES
SYDNEY, Sunday. — A young man walking across Martin Place on Friday felt something thrust into his hand by an elderly
woman, who smiled and hurried away.
It was a white feather, and the young man, who tossed it into the gutter, was Lieutenant Stanley Bently, 28, invalided
back to Australia after action in Tobruk.
Two days previously, at Palm Beach, three girls asked a young man in "civvies" why he was not in khaki.
He was Captain Bjelke-Petersen, also invalided back after action in Tobruk.
"Sending white feathers to any Australian is despicable," said an Army officer. "
Many men working in specialised munition tasks which they are not allowed to leave to join the fighting forces have
been receiving white feathers through the post."
The Telegraph 1942年10月9日 BOMBED IN MANY PLACES;GIVEN WHITE FEATHER
MELBOURNE: Bombed off Scotland, bombed off Java, bombed off Singapore――given white feather in Melbourne.
This was the experience of an English merchant naval officer who for the past three mouths has been ill in hospital
with a tropical disease. He was in Bourke Street yesterday wearing slacks and a sports coat with his MN badge.
A woman brushed past him, pressed something in his hand, and said:"With Hitler's compliments."
There was a white feather in his hand.
The Northern Producer and Morawa and District Advertiser 1942年12月4日 SAILOR GETS WHITE FEATHER.
A WOMAN SLIPPED A WHITE FEATHER INTO THE LAPEL OF FIREMAN L. J. SEYMOUR AS HE WAS PASSING THE CENOTAPH, SYDNEY.
Relating this, Seymour appealed for "protection for men of the Merchant Navy from such insults."
"I have wounds to show for sticking to my job in the war," he said, "and I have lost some good and game mates in
blitzes at sea. "We have been dive-bombed by planes, stalked and shelled by submarines, and, when we get to port,
we don't skite about our narrow escapes or seek any favours.
"All we ask is some protection from insults. We sailors bitterly resent white feathers being handed out to us."
The Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette 1940年8月14日 WHO WAS THE COWARD? SOLDIER GIVEN WHITE FEATHER
Driver William Charles Cross, aged 24 of Swansea, was last home on leave from France in April, before the German push
began, says the London "Daily Herald." In exercise of his right as a B.E.F. man, he wore civilian clothes. While he
was riding on a bus a young woman presented him with a white feather. Recently news was received that Cross had been
killed in action. He leaves a widow and baby daughter.
Daily Mercury 1943年6月11日 WHITE FEATHER Caused Youth's Suicide
LONDON, June 9.――The fact that he twice received a white feather by post was probably the underlying cause of
Cyril Wray, aged 18, of Oxford, gassing himself, said the Coroner at the inquest. He added that the sending of white
feathers was always done under the cloak of anonymity by persons of a cowardly disposition. Wray's mother said he had
been in the Home Guard and previously was in the ATC. He was not called-up for the army because he was an apprentice.
The Evening Advocate 1942年1月20日 WHITE FEATHER VICTIM'S SUICIDE
There is a family in Britain called "The Fighting Sills." The father is a last war veteran, the mother a member of
the Women's Volunteer Services; the eldest son is serving in the Middle East; the second son is an R.A.F.
flight-sergeant who has won the D.F.M.; and the third son is an R.A.F. gunner. The youngest son, Bernard, aged 17,
wanted to fight, too. He joined the army at 16, but was sent home when his age was discovered, and joined the cadets.
Bernard was to have been promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, but he shot himself because he had received
a card with two white feathers from an anonymous person.
The Newcastle Sun 1942年10月10日 SUICIDE AFTER FRIEND'S DEATH
LONDON.―― The "white feather mystery." which bewildered Wood Green, London, has found another victim, says the
"Daily Express." Wilfred John Bateman, 22-year-old lorry driver, ex-soldier, hanged himsell in his father's kitchen
in Cookley (Worcester). In his pocket, it was said at the Kidderminster inquest, was a news cutting, which told the
story of the suicide of his friend Bernard Sills. Bernard Sills, 17-year-old Wood Green cadet, shot himself after
telling how he had been sent white feathers anonymously. Bateman, who had served in France in this war, was invalided
out with neurasthenia 18 months ago, said his father at the inquest. The verdict was "Suicide while the balance of
his mind was disturbed." Bernard Sllls's father said subsequently: "I heard my son talk of a John Bateman, but
I never knew him."
Barrier Miner 1940年1月11日 WARNING TO "WHITE FEATHER" WOMAN
SYDNEY, Thursday.――The police are seeking a woman who has been distributing white feathers to young men in
Martin Place. They threaten to, arrest her for offensive conduct. A seventeen-year-old youth, Don Welsh, was given
one feather. The stem was painted yellow, apparently to represent a yellow streak. Welsh, who has been a militia
man since he was 15, is the main support of his widowed mother. One youth who was given a feather has a twisted spine.
The Daily News 1942年8月8日 Woman Gets A White Feather
Women now are not safe from the senders of white feathers.
A Perth girl, assistant in a big store, received one this week through the mail.
The featner was stuck through a "Join Now" advertisement. The sender was, of course, anonymous.
The recipient in this case is a trained first-aider, attached to the first-aid squad of the store, a blood donor and
a camouflage net maker. Six members of her family are in uniform, five in the A.I.F., one overseas with the R.A.A.F.
Sunday Times 1942年7月19日 Woman Given White Feather
Probably the first case in South Africa of a white feather being handed to a woman occurred recently when another woman
handed her a white feather, saying: "If you can drive a car like that you should be in uniform, like my daughters."
The victim has one son in a military hospital, and another up North, who has lost the use of his arm. She is a widow
who offered her services to the Red Cross at the beginning of the war, but she was turned down on account of her age.
Guinea Gold 1944年7月2日 Reward Offered For White Feather Crank
The Buckinghamshire town of Slough has a woman who is so persistent in distributing white feathers that £20 reward
has been offered to anyone detaining her. Middle-aged, and usually wearing black, she rushes up to men in the crowded
High street, sticks a feather in their hand or coat, and then disappears. Two men invalided after Dunkirk, and one
who was wounded at Dieppe, have been among recipients of her white feathers.
