N.Z. Girl Weds Refugee

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32352, 18 July 1970, Page 2

N.Z. Girl Weds Refugee

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) BRISBANE, July 16. One of two Czechoslovak refugees who were granted entry permits into Australia last month was married in Brisbane today to a New Zealand girl. Mr Karel Cerny, aged 24, married Miss Alison Susanna Brand, a New Zealand girl, whom he met on board the liner Oronsay, at a registry office in Brisbane. “It was a shipboard romance,” Mr Cerny said after the wedding. “We met at the breakfast table somewhere between Rotterdam and Lisbon. “We were separated at every port,” said her husband. Because Mr Cerny and Mr Miroslav Hanus had fled from Czechoslovakia without papers or passports, and had stowed away aboard a ship, they were regarded as stateless by immigration officials around the world, and were refused entry. However, the Australian Government considered their application and granted them a temporary entry permit, which could be renewed after 12 months. “I don’t know exactly what my status is now,” he said. “Alison is a New Zealand citizen and we did not need any special papers or permission to get married. We hope to stay in Australia for 12 months while I try to obtain

either Australian or New Zealand citizenship.” Mrs Cerny had been working as a dress designer in Canada. She went to Australia to visit her sister and brother-in-law. 1

“We have been living with! them at Kenmore (a Brisbane! suburb). After that I planned to go to New Zealand to see; my father, but now everything j has changed,” she said.