One hundred years ago this week the paper thundered about "SOLDIERS' ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN."

"The Press is pouring forth its wrath against German soldiers for violating Belgian women, saying that there are hundreds of unmarried girls now about to become mothers.

"But the German soldiers are no worse than English soldiers or Australian soldiers - a certain proportion of all of them is responsible for outrages on young girls, and for failing to protect girls against themselves, who, victims of the general epidemic of khakimania, have willingly offered themselves to soldiers.

"The medical correspondent of The Times of London reports that 'In Britain there are large numbers of unmarried girls in a state of expectant motherhood'."

"It is precisely the same here. It was bad enough after the visit of the American Fleet, but the numbers of American sailors willing to leave expectant mothers behind them were small in comparison with the number of Australian soldiers who, light-heartedly, place girls on the broad highway of shame.

"The notion of 'The girl he left, behind him' raises a smile on the faces of those who see nothing but the false glamour that surrounds the soldier; but the thought of 'The girls he left behind him' makes others weep at the degradation of girlhood that militarism leaves in its train."