BRITONS STARVING

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 243, 14 October 1935, Page 12

BRITONS STARVING

DISTRESS IN GERMANY SIDELIGHT OF HITLERISM. GOOD JOBS LOST. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, August 31. Many British subjects who for a number of years have earned their living in Germany are now in desperate straits. These men, many of them married with children, have eked out an existence by giving English lessons, by doing secretarial work, or by providing the British colony with British goods. Since Hitler came to power, however, the bottom has been falling out of their world. As foreigners they cannot now obtain employment in Nazi Germany, liven British firms have been forced to dismiss a number of British employees. The British colony has dwindled and increased Customs duties make the prices of British goods, such as biscuits, jam and whisky, prohibitive. A bottle of whisky, for instance, now costs more than £2. Nazi currency regulations make it almost impossible to obtain the necessary foreign currency to pay for these imported goods. The flight from Germany of the Jews, who formed the chief clientele of English teachers, has seriously affected many Britons living there. Many of them have had to apply for assistance to German charitable institutions. They are bitter at having to accept charity from foreigners. There is a British relief fund, but it cannot give adequate help in every case. "Repatriation to England has been offered to many, but it will not help," one of them said to a British visitor to Germany. "I am married, with two children. If we are repatriated we will arrive in London with a couple of shillings in our pockets. Our relatives there are too poor to help us. Where arc we going to spend even the first night?" "The Jews in England have rightly banded together to help 1 the Jews who have been forced to flee from Germany. The Germans, poor though they are, help every one of their nationals abroad to return to their Fatherland. On their arrival there is a special organisation to tide them over the first few weeks.

"That is all we want, but so far I have been unable to discover any such British organisation, which helps Britons like myself, who, through causes outside their control, have found themselves stranded abroad. I must stay here in Germany a prisoner of circumstances. But here at least I can pick up just enough by giving lessons to prevent myself and my family from actually starving."