DEATH OF MR. G. L SCANSIE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 284, 1 December 1925, Page 9

DEATH OF MR. G. L SCANSIE.

CONSUL FOR YUGOSLAVIA. FIRM FRIEND OF HIS PEOPLE. Much regret will be felt by the many Yugoslavs in New Zealand at the news of the death of Mr. George Leon Scansie, consul.for Yugoslavia, and they will have the sympathy of the large business clientele to which he was known. He recently went over to Sydney, apparently in the best of health, but last Sunday week he caught a chill, and this morning a cablegram was received stating that he had died yesterday. No further particulars were given. It is surmised, however, that the chill turned to pneumonia. Born at St. Martin, in the Island of Brae, Dalmatia, forty-nine years ago, he emigrated first to America, and just over twenty years ago he came to New Zealand. Ever since he has been in the country he has taken the greatest interest in his fellow countrymen, and his demise will rob them of their staunehest friend, and their best interpreter to the rest of the publicMiscalled Austrians, their position during the war was much misunderstood, especially when feeling was running high, and no one did more than Mr. Scansie to put matters before the public in their true light. Although ruled by Austria, the Yugoslavs were by no means Austrians.

Before the war, Mr. Scansie edited the paper, "Zora," which circulated among the Yugoslavs, and in 1919 he published in English a book called "The Fight for Freedom of the Yugoslavs." War had not broken out long before Mr. Scansie started the first war relief fund in New Zealand. That was the Serbian War Relief Fund, which afterwards came under the control of the Mayor of Auckland. Mr. Scansie not onlyraised money for the Serbian Red Cross but also worked for the good of the British Red Cross, and it is estimated that he was responsible for the collection of no less a sum than £10,000 fon these purposes.

When, iii 1923, after the war, the State of Yugoslavia was formed, Mr. Scansie was appointed consul in Auckland, and no better appointment could have been made. The State includes Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia, and the interests of the people of that country now living in New Zealand were carefully served by him. In addition to his consular duties he was well known in business connected with his former country, and was president in New Zealand of the Czecho-Slovakia Chamber of Commerce of Australia.

Mr. Scansie leaves a widow and two children, and a brother, Mr. John Scansie, of Auckland.