THE RECENT CRISIS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 21, 4 November 1938, Page 6

THE RECENT CRISIS

FULL SHIP LEAVES ENGLAND. NO SIGNS OF PANIC IN LONDON. CHILDREN SENT INTO COUNTRY. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The steamer Arawa, which arrived from Southampton to-day via Panama, was a full ship, carrying nearly 300 passengers. One factor contributing to this was the war scare of September. The Arawa sailed the day after the fouf-Power agreement was reached at Munich, and among the passengers, it is estimated, were more than 100 bent on getting out from Britain with the utmost expedition. Reporters who boarded the ship found opinions divided on a number of aspects of the crisis—whether, for instance, Mr Chamberlain had done the right; also, whether, had war broken out, Britain would have been adequately prepared. On one point, however, there appeared to he complete unanimity. That is, that a show-down had been inevitable and that it had been merely stalled off. Most of the New Zealanders among the passengers spoke warmly of Mr Chamberlain’s action in making two trips to Europe in the interests of preservation of peace, referring to what he had done as an inspiration. An unusually large number of the passengers are booked for Australia, 89 of them affording further evidence of the desire of many people toivard the end of September to leave for southern latitudes. There was no waiting for a ship via Suez. . Mr F. H. Pickwick, an Englishman living in retirement at Auckland, said there was not a great deal of evidence of war scare. One thing that impressed him was seeing mothers sending their children out of London into the country. Some of the poorer women had just a bundle of clothing wrapped in a newspaper for the children. Arrangements had been made to evacuate three million children in three days at the rate ot 100,000 an hour. The whole of the London transport system Was to be commissioned if need arose. People watched, the digging of trenches quite calmly, and none showed any sign of panic. “You cannot beat the people of the Old Country. They have been through many trials and tribulations, and will always face up to their difficulties, people-may criticise the Old Country, but there is no other country in the world like it,” said Mr Pickwick.