REFUGEES ARRIVE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28169, 7 January 1957, Page 6

REFUGEES ARRIVE

Poignant Scenes At Auckland

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 6.

Hungarian refugees wept when they arrived at Auckland from Europe at the week-end. Sobbing relatives hurled themselves at the newcomers, some of whom were survivors of the Maygarouar massacre.

The 250 refugees arrived in three planes of the Flying Tiger line. Some had only the clothes they were wearing.

The scenes at the airport were so poignant that case-hardened policemen and customs officials were deeply moved. Some of the refugees asked newspapermen not to take their photographs or to publish their names for fear the Russians might exact reprisals against their families.

The planes arrived at 10 p.m. and 11.15 p.m. yesterday, and 6.15 p.m. today. The reunion was marred for some when an immigration official ordered a Hungarian woman welcomer from the Customs lounge. The woman, who had been greeting relatives, departed in tears. Immigration men said afterwards that she had three times disobeyed orders by entering the lounge. Countrymen’s Welcome

“Isten hozott uj Zealandbra” ("Welcome to New Zealand”) Auckland-domiciled Hungarians shouted to the refugees as they filed from the planes. “Orulunk bogy itt vagyunk” (“We rejoice to be here”) the new arrivals cried.

Mr H. Parsonage, Assistant-Sec-retary of Labour, welcomed the draft on behalf of the Government.

Because few of the refugees spoke any. English, a team of interpreters worked overtime at the airport and at the transit camps to which the draft was taken.

Customs and alien-registration formalities were cut to a minimum at the airport, and the necessary “documentation” for the first two planeloads was carried out at the camps today. There was near-chaos when the first of the new arrivals was admitted to the terminal lounge. People swarmed about, laughing, crying, kissing and embracing.

Massacre Survivors Unashamed tears were shed when Mr and Mrs Stephen Magen, two survivors of the Magyarouar massacre, were greeted by relatives. One of the welcomers was Mr Stephen Vida, of Auckland, Mrs Magen’s brother, who had not seen his sister for 18 years. Mrs Magen broke down when she was hugged by her mother and her sister, who have been in New Zealand for 10 years. There were more tears when Mrs Hugo Grossman, of Auckland, presented a bouquet of flowers to her niece, Mrs Bela Foldiak, who left Budapest with her husband and her two and a half year old son, Janos. Janos was covered with mosquito bites —a legacy of his trip through the East. But soon he was charging about the lounge, playing happily with a ball a by-stander gave him. Exploits In Budapest Mr and Mrs Istvan Lestach stepped off one of the planes carrying their twin babies, Aniko and Veronika, aged seven months. Aniko and Veronika, the youngest of the refugees, supped contentedly from their baby-bottles as Mrs Lestach, who spoke English, told of her husband’s exploits in blazing Budapest. A university man, Mr Lestach, aged 30, was forced to take a job as a chauffeur because he was not a Communist. He retaliated by running ammunition into the front line and evacuating wounded. Finally, he and his wife gathered up the twins and escaped in a stolen bus.

There were 38 children and 43 married couples among the refugees. Fifty of the Hungarians will stay in Auckland and the remainder will travel south.. About 150 will go to Wellington by train tomorrow night. Tuition Of English

The Red Cross announced at the airport that it. will begin giving the Hungarians English lessons tomorrow. One of the tutors will be Mrs R. H. Wood, of Auckland, who speaks eight languages. Exhausted, penniless and fearful for their kinfolk in the homeland, the refugees were pathetically grateful for the asylum granted them. At the airport, one young “freedom fighter,” overcome with emotion, grabbed a microphone and in halting English, said: “I promise you in the names of my comrades that we will be good citizens of this country.”

He added, quaintly: "We know that New Zealand will bring the coming true of our dreams.”