AFTER TWO YEARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 25, 31 January 1928, Page 8

AFTER TWO YEARS.

N.Z. JOURNALIST RETURNS.

VISITED MANY COUNTRIES,

POVERTY RAMPANT DC SPAIN

Mr. Robert Bell, chairman of directors of the ''Lyttelton Times" and other southern newspapers, returned to New Zealand to-day on the Mararaa, after two years abroad.

At the World's Press Congress in Geneva, eighteen months ago, Mr. Bell represented the Dominion, and was elected president of that organisation. An extended tour of Central and Eastcm Europe, Spain, Norway and French Northern Africa was made by Mr. Bell,, and on his return journey he visited the I nitcd States, Canada, Japan, Chini, Singapore and Java.

"I have nothing fresh to say concerning the Press Congress," said Mr. Bell, when interviewed this morning. "One of the outstanding memories of my long tour is that of the poverty in Southern Spain. T spent two or three months in Spain, and could not help being impressed with the beauty of the country and the cultivation of the land, but the poverty of the people was appalling.

"In no other country which I visited was the poverty so pronounced. People were open and unashamedly begging— men, women and children. That a country like Spain, which, not so long ago, was one of the proudest and most powerful of the world's countries, should come to this pass is a matter for regret. I was given to understand by British residents in Spain that begging has become a profession It is quite a common thing for a begger to compare notes with

a labourer at the end of a day. 'How muqji did you earn ?' the begger Will ask, and the labourer will probably name some small sum. "But I have made more than that," the beggar will reply, displaying the day's collection. Spaniards are supposed to be a proud people, and they are proud, as a nation, but no visitor could fail to remark on the great number of beggars met with on every hand. "Germany Throbbing With Industry." "In Germany one finds a sharp contrast," continued Mr. Bell. "Everyone is working eyes out. The whole country is throbbing with industry. The Germans are out to recapture the markets which they lost to America and other countries during the war. Berlin is a gay city at night The eight countries in northern and central Europe which I visited were all active. On all sides one saw evidences of hard work and thrift. Vienna I liked best of all the Continental cities. Not so gay as of former years, it is still a wonderful city. Budapest is another city which impressed me. "The Treaty of Trianon, under the terms of which great slices of Austria and Hungary were cut out and given to Italy, Rumania and Yugoslavia, has caused great discontent and unrest. The people who have lost their land are imbued with a deep and burning sense of injustice. Their feelings are akin to those of the people of Alsace Lorraine, after the Franco-Prussian war. It certainly appears that the Treaty of Trianon should be revised. Discontent is rife among the Austrians and Hungarians, and when nations allow outraged feelings to smoulder in their hearts there is "bound to be a disturbance of a serious nature before very long."