"SOUVENIR" PHOTOS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 272, 16 November 1936, Page 5

"SOUVENIR" PHOTOS

WAR DAYS RECALLED.

BEAUTIFUL HUNGARIAN GIRL. , i RESTORATION CONTEMPLATED 1 Eighteen years ago saw the final break through of the Allied armies on - the Western Front. So swift was the advance in many places that even villages behind the lines which were considered to be out of the danger area had to be precipitately abandoned by the Germane. So rapid was the retreat that an unusual amount of personal property had to be left behind in billets which had almost become homes to their alien occupants. In more than one instance treasures closest to the heart of a German soldier were left to fall into the hands of the enemy, and that is how the photograph of a beautiful little Hungarian girl came to find its way to Xew Zealand. In the irresistable advance of a New Zealand unit a luxuriously furnished German officers' mess was captured. In it were many valuable "souvenirs" for the Maorilanders to choose from. However, an Aucklander, reminded no doubt of some little child in his own far off land, scorned more utilitarian trophies and annexed the photograph of the child appearing on this page. Why a Hungarian Child? How the photograph, being obviously that of a Hungarian child, as it was taken in Satoraljaujhely, a village of that country, came to be in a German officers' dugout is rather a mystery, as no Hungarians fought on the Western Front. That is, not as unit®. Some officers may, of course, have served there for purposes of instruction, and that is perhaps how this little Hungarian girl's photograph found itself in a German dugout. However, the fact remains that the British had no animosity towards the Hungarians and endeavoured to

avoid being forced to fight them. That friendship had been traditional, the Hungarians never having forgotten how Britain helped their country more than once in times of sorrow and trouble. An instance of a young British officer bearing a Hungarian name shows how strong Britain's friendship for Hungary was. This young man was granted a commission abroad and on arrival in London, en route to France, was ordered to report at a special branch of the War Office. Here he was brought before a kindly 'old "dug-out" general, who remarked, "I wanted to see you about your foreign name. You need not worryabout it, we have no fight with the Hungarians. As a matter of fact we have hundreds of officers with German names serving in the Army. Here is a list of them. We have to fight and defeat Germany, but we have no fight with Hungary. 11l your case you will serve on the Western Front. You can rest assured you will not be sent to fight against Hungarians." And now an attempt is to be made to further cement this friendship, if only in a seemingly unimportant way through an endeavour to find the owner of a child's photograph and its consequent return. The past few years, however, have proved how, in many instances, the movement for the return of war souvenirs by ex-enemies has served to lical the scars of war and eliminate that war-created hatred which is unnatural in man. Tragedy of Defeated Nation. The photograph of the child, now grown, no doubt, into a young woman of 23 or 24 years of age, is to be forwarded to Hungary in the hope that the owner will receive it. However, in the attempt lies tragedy, the tragedv of a defeated nation, shorn of lands which had been its through the centuries. As the result of the Treaty of Trianon Satoraljaujhely passed to alien lands, the newly created State of Czechoslovakia. Sooner than live under alien rule, many of the people torn so ruthlessly from the Motherland gave up their ancestral houses and left the district of their birth. Perhaps the family of this child, now a young woman, is amoii# these self-made exiles, a possibility which may make the finding of the owner of the photograph more difficult.