Tennis in the Empire

THE PRESIDENT: Gentlemen, the Empire Club of Canada is delighted today to welcome to its meeting those who take a prominent part in the game of tennis. We have also the pleasure of welcoming delegates or attendants at the Conference of the Adult Education Association which is meeting in Toronto, and I would be indeed remiss if I did not take this opportunity of bidding welcome to Captain E. A. Baker, the Manager of the Canadian Institute for the Blind who is with us today. (Applause.) Our chief welcome, however, is extended to the guest-speaker, sitting on my right from whom you will hear later.

The type of sport engaged in by a nation and the manner in which the people of that nation participate in that sport is now regarded as a great indication of the future of that nation. British tradition in the matter of "playing the game," as we call it, has permeated the sports of the British people themselves and has spread its influence throughout not only the whole of the British Empire, according to its political boundaries, but the whole of the British Empire according to its influential boundaries, which is the whole of the civilized world'. Our speaker today is an outstanding example of that sportsmanship which demands and gets fairness in the strenuous play of that most strenuous game of tennis, a game which a generation .ago might not be so regarded but which today is one of the most exacting in demanding the greatest amount of nerve, temper control, and physical stamina. The prowess of Fred Perry in the realm of tennis is well known to all. He has been an amateur champion;of the world three times at Wimbledon and three times in the United States. He has won championships in Australia, in France and in many other countries. He is conceded to be the chief strength which brought the Davis Cup back to England. Incidentally, he is no mean golfer and he is a champion at table tennis. In this connection I had thought today of dispensing with our goodlooking head table guests and setting up a table for table tennis and taking on Mr. Perry myself. (Applause.) I found an obstruction in that regard. My manager wouldn't permit me to play in public, so I will have to content myself with watching him tomorrow night at the Maple Leaf Gardens and deciding whether I would have beaten him or whether I would have been beaten in the match of, table tennis which is not to be. I have great pleasure in calling on Mr. Perry to address us today. (Applause.)

MR. FRED PERRY: Mr. President and Members of the Empire Club of Canada: I am on the spot. As a tennis player I am a very fine speaker. As a speaker, an exceptionally good tennis player. When speaking I really am all fingers and thumbs and should be on the court. As a matter of fact, they tell me that I do most of my talking on the court spa you won't have to expect too much from me now. They tell me you have a distinguished list of speakers and I think you are in for a new low. (Laughter.) Actually, Gentlemen, there must be something in this Empire Club business. Your President said, "We have a very nice crowd today," and I can assure you, after the last three and a half months, I am very good at counting crowds. However, be that as is may, Gentlemen, all I can say is this, that you must have served an exceptionally good lunch today because you certainly couldn't be coming to listen to the speaker. I read on this card that has been around to every member that you are to have a speech by Fred Perry. Well, I take it they left off the 'Mr.' because I am professional. (Applause.) However, Gentlemen, I am happy to tell you that the management of the hotel did put Mr. Perry on my place ticket so, at 'least when I go out of the hotel and pay the bill, I am still Mr. Perry.

A few days ago when a Torontonian (I think that is what you call them) asked me if I would mind coming to a luncheon and making a nice little speech, I told him I would be delighted to come to the luncheon and make a nice little speech. We have been doing that at Oshkosh, and many other towns on the route. I have spoken in everything from hotel lobbies to girls' schools but never yet had to face anything like this. As for talking over the air, I am not any too good, except on sponsored broadcasts. (Laughter.) But, Gentlemen, I have been fooled. Mr. Purkis said, "Would you mind talking on your tennis throughout the world?" I said, "That is very easy. I have two speeches, one on arriving in a town, and the second for use when leaving. One good, and one bad, depending on what kind of reception we had." I thought talking about tennis around the would might be quite easy here. All I had to do was write in the word 'Toronto' instead of Syracuse, or Schenectady, or whatever it was. But I find I am talking on "Tennis in the Empire," and that stumps me, but I will try to give you some impressions.

Tennis players, or should I say the amateur tennis players are players who have a good time. We professional tennis players should be really called business men and we have a good time. While you work maybe from nine until five,--my hours in the office used to be from ten to eleven, from eleven to eleven-thirty, coffee; from eleven-thirty to twelve-thirty, then from twelve-thirty to two-thirty for lunch; then from two-thirty to three-thirty; from three-thirty to flour for tea, and from four to a quarter of five. Now, I have much longer hours. I work from maybe nine until nine-thirty, depending on how long it takes. I then have a drink-of water, of course--then I proceed to play a gentle boys' doubles until a quarter to twelve. If the management is particularly lenient we get an hour of rest in the hotel. Otherwise, we get on a train about midnight or five minutes after midnight and sleep the sleep of the just (I like that expression) until maybe 7.30 when we are awakened by the Customs Officer-it was five-thirty this morning--and we arrive at the town about eight where we meet the gentlemen of the press and as professionals we always find it much easier to be nicer to the press. I know my friends right underneath won't mind that. After all, five and let live. Then, we have a little time for breakfast when we meet the Lord Mayor and tell him how wonderful his town is. Them a little lunch, maybe a sleep or a movie and on we go again. Such is the fife of a professional tennis player. It is not easy. You have to work hard and you have to produce the goods. Otherwise, we have great difficulty in getting back into that town again.

As an amateur you go round and round the world. Instead of taking over night to get from New York to Los Angeles by air, you take a boat and have a jolly good time for three weeks. It is really the same thing only much easier. In my amateur days I had a good time. I also had some bad moments, many of them. I have probably seen more countries in the world than I have hairs on my head. I say that because my hair is fast receding since getting up here to make this speech.

However, I should like to give some impressions of my career as an amateur. I used to start out, possibly being in England in April, in the rain. In May we would go to Paris for the French Championships, in about a hundred degrees. If we won we were great fellows. If we didn't it was just too bad--we weren't any good anyway. Then, we shipped off to London and started to play Wimbledon, just a little place outside of London, with a small tennis court surrounded by a very great stand. The idea of the stand is, as you know, solely for the purpose of anyone wishing to watch being able to walk in and do so at no cost. However, Wimbledon, goes on until the third or fourth day of July when we were allowed a couple of days rest during which time we could go to the office anal catch up with our mail--if any. Then, we would be shipped to Eastbourne, oar we could drive if we were lucky enough to possess a car, or knew anyone who had a girl friend who had a car. Anyway, we got to Eastbourne and trained for the Davis Cup. We played the Davis Cup, possibly the last week in July and then there was always a boat going to America about the third of August and for the last seven; years I have never missed that boat, and have arrived in New York and started the round of tournaments there. After the National Singles, there was a quick trip across to Los Angeles which is, as you know, famous for its tennis. Hollywood is a place quite different from any other in the world. Usually in London, at the tennis tournaments you play a lot of tennis and if you are very lucky you have a good time on a couple of nights or so. In Hollywood, you are very unlucky if you play tennis on two days; that is the difference between tennis in Hollywood and tennis anywhere else. After that we usually discovered that there was a ship going to Australia and we would stop at Pango Pango, Tahiti, or any of the South Sea Islands, and arrive in New Zealand to play a series of exhibitions there before going to Australia. The fact is when we played in New Zealand we always annoyed the Australians very much because we were always the guests of the Australian Association and they never used to like us to play in New Zealand, because you know this sort of inter-Empire friendliness can be carried too far.

After about three months in Australia it meant getting back to Europe and to England. After all, I had a lot of work to do in England. We would go through India or back around South Africa. So, you gentlemen can see it is altogether a very nice life indeed, and during those six or seven years I have seen a great deal of the world. I have discovered they do have rain in parts of the world other than England. I have also discovered that Manchester is not the wettest place in the world and I have discovered that the earth is round. So in my five years I have learned something.

But I am to talk on Empire Tennis, and the only parts of the Empire I know are not very many. I have been to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Raratonga, which is also a part of the British Empire, though it is about the size of a twenty-five cent piece in comparison to Canada, and India, and any others you can think of. I am not very good at guessing. However, should like to say first we have been sent out as sort of standard bearers. We have hand a dot of bad work to undo. We have done some bad things, I must admit. After all, you cannot expect kids, more or less, of the age of twenty and twenty-one to go around and do exactly the right thing in the right place. I found I could fool some of the people some of the time and could never fool them all the time and the only things they caught up on were the things you did wrong. However, if you are going round the world trying to help your country in lawn tennis, or if you like to take it from, a personal point of view, to make your own law tennis good, you do strike some situations where you don't know quite what to do. For instance, being from the Empire we went to Australia, via Tahiti. I didn't know where Tahiti was, but I knew there were a lot of people out there who used to lie on the beach in the morning, possibly had a glass of whiskey for lunch, lie on the beach all afternoon and have a glass of whiskey for tea. That is all we knew about Tahiti, outside of the fact that it was French. When the boat got in the Governor sent a special messenger, decked out in what-have-yous. He looked like a General, twice removed. You know what I mean. I think it's a Major, isn't it? He had all, these decorations and things and he met us at the ship and saluted us roundly He asked us if we would be pleased to play at the Governor's house that afternoon. We said we would be delighted. We were all eager to play tennis. I can think of nothing nicer than playing tennis on your one day on an island like Tahiti. We did play tennis. Cars arrived together with a brass band, and the soldiers with their rifles and things formed a guard of honour. We arrived at the big house and we found that the tennis court was made of concrete. As most of you know, they have white lines on tennis courts and the idea is to hit the ball inside the white line. Where the white line finished so finished the concrete. After that it was sand and if you volleyed a ball you were on the concrete. If you were on the base line you stepped off in the sand. It was very amusing. Well, we played this game. I played with young Frank Wilde. I think the Canadian tennis players know him. Walter Martin there knows him. (They went on parties together in New York City.) I enquired of the Governor why the balls were bouncing so high alt the time. He said, "As a matter of fact, the last man who played here was Jean Borotra. He left some tennis ball's here." I said, "When was he here?" He said, "Oh, he was here in 1928." That was six years before. You see, by that time the balls were practically the size of golf balls. So, you understand that altogether we had a very amusing day, especially when I had to play with the Governor against the Governor's wife and some one else. But we had a lot oaf fun. He suggested as we were Englishmen we might like tea. We jumped at the chance and went in to have tea and found nothing but thousands of bottles of champagne. You know tennis players never drink and it was very unfortunate-aft that nice champagne there. We couldn't drink at all. None -of us ever did -much. (Laughter.) We decided that the officers might like it. The whole of the ship's company were there, or most of them and you can imagine that the next night at sea, was not all that it might have been. That is by the way. Nothing ever happens like that in the Empire. O, no.

I came to Canada two years ago for the first time and they asked me if I would come up and play some exhibitions with American players. I asked them why they wanted me to play American players in Canada. I could play them in New York and there was no point in my playing in Canada to teach Canadian tennis players how to play tennis. Why couldn't I come up and play against Canadian players. After all, that is the essence of the game-to send the Canadian players abroad to the Dominions and let them play against Dominion players in their own country and attempt to teach then something. Our trouble was we were usually the ones who got taught. I came along and I must assure you I had one of the greatest two weeks I have ever had in my fife. I think the Association made a little money out of the exhibitions. Of course there was nothing further from their thought than to make any money out of the tours. They are just to help the players along. I don't know what they do with the money but they have definitely started something now. I came back again last year and went as far as Vancouver and Victoria. This year I haven't been able to play Canadian players. I hope they can continue to look on me as a friend. I have known them for a long bane but as a professional I can't play in exhibitions to help along and make money for the Association but I can always play with men and make money for myself. After all, charity does begin at home.

I hear also from Mr. Kennedy, the Secretary of the Association that the English Association has decided to send out the English lady players next summer, so, all you boys of Toronto, there is a chance for you to learn some tennis. (We will skip that.)

Now, let me tell you how somehow or other tennis has been used to cement friendship between the different parts of the Empire. I don't suppose there is anyone who is British at all who knows anything about cricket. Cricket, after all, is quite a game in England. They do play a little and it has become of some importance between England and Australia. I hear also of cricket sometimes in South Africa and I understand there is even a cricket team in Canada. Of course, you know cricket is a very, very sporty garden-party sort of game. You wear nice white trousers and you have a nice lunch and you chase the ball around and bat and bowl and say polite things to each other-sometimes. There are other times when the game gets, as you might say, a little difficult, to say the least. I suppose there are few of you who have forgotten there was such a cricketer as Larwood. He is possibly the best bowler the world has ever seen or possibly ever will see. We have also in Australia a man called Bradman, possibly the finest batsman the world has ever seen or ever will: see. The only thing was that Bradman could not play Larwood. I don't know why. I don't read the newspapers. Why, I don't know. He just couldn't play him. There was something about Mr. Larwood's bowling that didn't suit Mr. Bradman's batting, and the Australians found that Mr. Larwood was bowling quite fast, and really it was quite a disgusting state of affairs. The first time it was all right. The second time it was really not quite so funny and the third time it was not funny at all and it was decided that his bowling was not exactly cricket. Them there was trouble. You can remember reading about it. It even got into the English papers. It was even in The Times. They don't put everything in The Times and when they do put it in The Times it means something. There was a lot of trouble. We were playing tennis in England at the time and the Australians were there also. Things began to happen. Just at that time we had beaten them in the Davis Cup and things did happen. It is very difficult, this cricket game. I must take it up and see what I can do about it. I can assure you at that time there was a great deal of trouble between the English and the Australians because one man was bowling 'in a way which did not conform, according to Australian cricket, with the best methods. I hold no brief for either of them. I am friendly with both of them. The whole idea in cricket, after all, is to get him out if you can, or kill him. In baseball if they can't get him out they 'bean' him. After all, the game was getting quite raucous, it was disgusting and there was definitely trouble. It was suggested to the Association that they might send a team of tennis players to Australia. It was like walking into the lions' den. We weren't keen on going. The following year was the Centenary out there and we wanted to go then. We thought there would be a lot of fun at the Centenary. We knew there would be a lot of important people there and where important people are you always get a lot of feminine beauty. That of course didn't worry us much! We thought we would like to go to the Centenary and we knew if we went the year before we couldn't go back for the Centenary. It was decided that the team was not to go and a Committee was formed of very important men. I think that even the Board of Trade aroused themselves from their slumbers and sent a man along. They had a representative 'for tennis, for tiddly winks, and for cricket. They were all there. They said, "My God, Gentlemen, something has got to be done." And something was done. We were done. We were sent out into the lions' den.

So these four tennis players, Hughes, Lee, Wilde and myself-set sail one fine afternoon from San Francisco on a boat called the Maunganui for Australia, to settle international or, rather, political' difficulties. We were the finest delegation that ever went to Australia. I don't mean maybe! We did more in three months than anyone could have done in twenty years. I am speaking quite seriously when I say that things were very difficult. We arrived in Australia. They raised the dickens with us because we played in New Zealand en route for Australia--blah, blah, blah! You can't possibly understand what the feeling was like out there. I wouldn't have believed it for anything in the world until I, saw it.

We arrived in Australia late one night, about 11.30. The boat docked and the press men said, "What do you think of the harbour?" I said, "I am sorry, it is night and I haven't seen it." "Don't you think it is a good place?" We were in the harbour and it was dark and I hadn't seen the place. They said, "What do you think of the bridge?"

I, like a fool, said, "What bridge?" That's what comes of not being tipped off by the Board of Trade! So the fat was in the fire. I war, the goat and the other boys were lucky enough to realize, after I had walked into it the way I did, what it was all about and they were given wonderful write-ups, and I was away down here.

You know, you, get it even in the Toronto press sometimes. Skip that, too, I guess. I have been talking to these fellows all morning. We are great friends--I hope.

Well, we got out there and they said, "Well, you don't think so much of the bridge, do you?" I said, "I am terribly sorry. Maybe I can't see at night but I didn't see the bridge. I am sure it is the finest bridge in the world." And that was that.

We went to the hotel and the next morning at nine o'clock we were interviewed by the press. At nine thirty, we attended the women's meeting, at ten o'clock, the needle work class, at ten-thirty, we met the Mayor, at a quarter to eleven we met Mrs. Mayor, at eleven-thirty we met with some other associations, and so it went on for two days. By this time we didn't know what it was all about. We had to make a lot of speeches, and say how wonderful the place was, even though we didn't see it. They said, "Last year we had the cricketers here. They brought something we knew something about. What have you got with you?" So, Hughes walked into it and said, "We have got Perry with us." So I walked into it again. And he thought it was very funny. Well, I didn't, because I got the backwash and the feeling in sport was against any Englishman at the time, and I didn't blame them after what they went through. I have heard their side and I have heard the English side and I think the only thing was possibly an unfortunate choice of certain officials at the time. After all, Australia didn't like the colours of the Harlequin cap, and since they discovered that the cricketers played with a hard ball they didn't like Larwood's bowling either. I don't like a tennis ball when it hits in the right place. Altogether things were very difficult. From there we went to Melbourne, and there the first thing we had to do was to go out to a cricket match and. be shown the exact spot where Larwood bowled from and where so-and-so stood, and where so-and-so stood, and where so-and-so stood. We knew nothing about cricket, we were tennis players. But we were told the story and what did we think? We didn't know. We said, "Well, after all, maybe Larwood was right," and that finished it. Gradually, over a period of time we managed to make them understand that it wasn't our fault. After all, it was a game, and if they are going to let the whole thing go up like that, the Lord knows what will happen. After all, if a certain two gentlemen in Europe would go out and play a game of tennis we might solve a lot of difficulties right now. I think we solved a lot out there. The Lord knows what I could do in ten minutes in Europe. So, it happened that the whole country was very anti-British at the time, as far as sports were concerned and they were definitely considering trade negotiations and all sorts of terrible things. They had to have the Duke of Gloucester come out the following year. They wanted to get the King out--everything to smooth the thing over. Meanwhile, we were walking right imp, not knowing what was coming. And I can tell you quite honestly when you go to most countries in the worldyou have some idea of what is liable to happen. When watching a football game in South America I have seen them collect 40,000 revolvers before the game commenced. Not .bad going for an afternoon. I shave been in Australia many times since and I have found them quite frankly, to be some of the finest sports the world has ever seen. My job later on took me out there and they were extremely nice and there was no ill feeling at all. The whole thing is now a thing of the past but for a few months it was very serious. Usually, when you go to a country you are welcomed or given a hearing until you prove yourself either a bad sportsman or a terrible tennis player. I used to usually prove myself to be a terrible tennis player and got so mad about it that I got it both ways. But at that time these Australians were so fed up with Englishmen that anything that came out of England with a tennis racquet, a polo stick, or a cricket bat, wouldn't be given a hearing at all. Unfortunately, one afternoon I .happened to play well out there, That was the worst thing I ever did. From that time on they were gunning for me. Quist was playing a doubles with me one day and he hit me amidship and laid me flat. They loved it. About two points later, I hit Mr. Quist. It was not very funny. They didn't think it was. I laughed. I thought it was terribly funny, but when you are the only one in 15,000 laughing, you don't get much of a hearing. I can assure you that the feeling of sportsmanship out there was very tense and they were prepared to cut our throats. That is going a bit far but they really did not like English sports or sportsmen. Well we were sent out with rifles at our backs-either you take it, or-. We had the option of walking into that or going out next year. I think we really did something to avert trouble out there and I know now when I go to Australia I have a great number of friends and they really are some of the finest fellows in the world. I can assure you, after we had been out about eight weeks they realized that it wasn't our fault, that we were tennis players, and that they had been a bit hasty and, well--so much with cricket, you are lawn tennis players. And they treated us like kings and everybody had a good time.

One thing is certain, I haven't done very much but that is one thing I can take a coronation medal for--I don't think I will get one because I am a pro--but that will be, I think, my one claim to fame--I did do something the Board of Trade couldn't do.

Then, too, we went to New Zealand and to South Africa. There have been many teams go to South Africa, mostly mixed. You know what happens to mixed teams. The girls play tennis and the boys ply tennis. That is all. We had three or four teams out there before. Each time something extraordinary had happened. The last time out there, Godfrey, the Captain of the team, married Miss MacRane, also on the team, at a place called Kimberley. Perhaps he thought he might get diamonds cheap there. They were married. You know when there are married couples on the team it means half the team is here and half is there. You never get any place. (Laughter.) We went out there. We had a mixed team. We had Pat Hughes, Harold Lee and myself--the three musketters who got into more trouble than anybody ever did in their lives before. There was Betty Nuthall, Eileen Wittingstall and Mary Heeley. They, in their turn had some very fine players and we shot around from the coast up to 3,000 feet, back to the coast, then up to 3,000 feet and back to the coast again. We never knew where we were. On the coast the balls bounced low; up at 3,000 feet the balls bounced all over your head. They had one team that played in the high spots and one that played in the low spots. You know, with ladies sometimes it is terribly difficult. Owing to unforseen circumstances they are not always at their best. Our girls were never .at their best. Mary Heeley as a 'player is a sort of "get-'em back" artist, and likes to stay away from the base line, about a couple of yards behind. These balls in South Africa were bouncing about fifteen feet in the air and Mary ought to have had a hook on her dress to hang on to. The stopnetting Betty Nuthall was large and husky and could hit the ball a very good wallop--mostly out, during the South African trip. Eileen Wittingstall is possibly one of the finest stylists in the game ,and we had a little team trouble, as usual. But I was not the cause, luckily. Apparently we were more or less two teams while we were out there and one team never knew what the other team was doing. Every time we got to a dinner there was half a team here and half a team there and it was very difficult. We had to get down to business because I am sure it didn't do England any good in South Africa at all. I know that the other teams didn't do much good and I am sure we didn't help that. You see if a team doesn't get on together it doesn't get on with people in the country, they don't have much of a chance to judge you and they judge Englishmen by what they see out of England. If we go around to places behaving very badly, not producing good tennis, or if we stay in night clubs until five or six in the morning, you understand they think the Englishman is not any too good. If, on the other hand, when we got out there we needn't be prim and proper, we can have our fun--we behave very well, (it doesn't cost anything,) if we don't stay out too late and if we are pleasant to everyone we have to be pleasant to, though we may say what we think of them when we get alone in our own suite, we can really do a lot for the Empire.

When I was an amateur, we used to leave on tours--Hughes, Lee and myself--we travelled the world three times and used to try to map out what we were going to do. Each one tried to figure out or find out somehow the most important people that we had to be nice to, and those who didn't matter quite so much, and the others who didn't matter at all. We tried to figure out a schedule or series of signs. This is a fact, though we didn't do it openly at all. We had to do it because what we did they judged England by, and over the three years I don't think we had a lot of trouble because we did manage to keep in well with all' the people who mattered and they wrote glowing reports to England about what wonderful fellows we were so everyone was happy.

However, sometimes you do make mistakes and there are some paces where they naturally do not think so much of the English tennis players because they saw me there. I think Toronto is one of them. I can assure you we do have a pretty hard time in going around. I think you sent two players frown Canada to Uruguay. I met one this morning--Ross Wilson. He said, "My lad, what did you get up to in Uruguay?" I haven't been there for seven years, but it is easy to remember, I suppose, and very hard to forget. They say, 'Once seen, never forgotten.' He said, "In the Argentine, you are very popular." Which is a help. We were only in Uruguary one day, but we 'do have a pretty tough time. I do thank you gentlemen for listening to me and I hope if I come up here again I may have a chance to talk to you privately instead of in this way. If I have made a lot of faux-pas, I hope you will excuse me. I have enjoyed it. I am just a tennis player and I thank you very much.

(Loud applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Perry, may I thank you, on behalf of all who have heard you for this most interesting address. May I say also that the Empire Club, believing in brevity for introductions and votes of thanks and also for names of speakers, waits until a man is knighted or is a Viscount, and the we put that on the announcement card. We trust that on your next visit we shall have that opportunity. (Applause.)

You have given us a very interesting and may I say also, an amusing account of some of your experiences throughout the world. You have also shown us a bit of your philosophy and I think you have convinced us to such an extent that when we see you tomorrow night in the Maple Leaf Gardens we shall all be with you in spirit, believing as we do that you are an ambassador of goodwill for the British Empire throughout the world. Thank you very much, Mr. Perry. (Applause.)