BODYGUARDS: Contracts available for ex-commandos or S.A.S. Personnel to work in security team overseas. Must have exp. and proof. High pay, small weapons exp. nec. Telephone (Sydney) 274800.

"But have you got proof of your commando experience," said the switchgirl, before putting me through to Mr. Frank Monte, private investigator.

The salary is $400 a week, plus food and lodgings, explained Mr. Monte. The client is a Middle East sheikdom with security problems. But exactly which one it is he refused to reveal.

Twenty-four Australians are needed for a six-month contract, which can be extended if they prove adept at the job.

"I've had alot of idiots ringing who've never even seen blood," Mr. Monte complained, cataloguing a list of con-men, free-travellers, and karate-school graduates.

"We want the real gentleman who is a bit case-hardened to the sight of blood, and doesn't fall over at the sight of it." (Real white men who can't be bought off, he added.) "We'd hate to have some poor idiot shot for nothing."

Mr. Monte will weed out about 35 likely men from the stacks of would-be adventurers and present them for final selection to his client's representative, who will arrive in Australia in about three weeks' time. For his troubles, he receives a retainer, plus $200 a head.

The client is selecting Canadians and Australians in preference to the hard-bitten European mercenaries of some of the African armies.

Surprisingly, Mr. Monte states that he has been recruiting for the sheikdom periodically over the past two years. The only attention he has attracted came from the Commonwealth Police, who at one stage suspected that men answering the want ad might be recruits for a Ustashi force.

Does Mr. Monte have any qualms about his recruiting job?

"He wants the bodies - I supply them," is his cool answer.