REFUGE IN NEW ZEALAND SOUGHT BY WHITE RUS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 11

REFUGE IN NEW ZEALAND SOUGHT BY WHITE RUS

Authority for the entry to New Zealand of White Russian refugees from Communist China will be sought from the Government in Wellington next week by the chief of the Australia and New Zealand liaison mission of the inter - Governmental Committee for European Migration (Mr A. W. Clabon).

“Anything above zero,” said Mr Clabon when asked how many White Russians he wanted the Dominion to take, on his arrival from Australia by air at Christchurch last evening.

Mr Clabon said he wanted to see how the Government felt, since his last visit last January. about the entry of White Russians from Communist China. His committee had already moved 49,000 White Russians cut and estimated there were 10.000 left, 4000 of whom would probably die before they had an opportunity to leave.

The Communist authorities would allow the White Russians to go, because the authorities were determined that no white persons shotlid be left in China, he said.

The difficulty lay in the fact that transit was through Hong Kong and Britain would not allow transit unless the refugees had money or a guaranteed destination. The Chinese would not allow the White Russians to leave with either currency or possessions. and many were left as no more than scavengers because they could not get out. Australia had taken 10,000 White Russians as immigrants. “These people do not want to be a charge on the State. They want to practise God, which they have been denied in China, they want to get away from forced repatriation to the Soviet Union

which is not what they used to know, and they want the right to work,” Mr Clabon said. Mr Clabon said that his committee had for the White Russians a concession rate on the Qantas airline from Hong Kc-ng to Sydney. The normal fare of £153 was cut to £95. Tasman Empire Airways had allowed a 10 per cent, reduction on the tourist fare —“on the football tour basis of the eleventh one free,” he said The infrequent cattle boats to Sydney took the White Russians at the rate of £7O each for 40 persons a time. “But the first and most important thing is the visa,” Mr Clabon said.