FIVE YEARS ABROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 120, 17 November 1931, Page 11

FIVE YEARS ABROAD

MR. 1. M'KENZIE RETURNS

IMPRESSIONS, OF TOUR

After five years spent abroad, Mr. Leu M'Kenzie, a well-known" Wellington citizen, and a former city councillor, returned by the Maunganui from Sydney to-day. Mr. M'Kcnzic spent n great deal of time in tho British Isles, France, and Spain. He was in Spain prior to the revolution.

"Much of tho unrest in Spain was directed to tho Church," said Mr. M'Kenzie, to a "Post" reporter, "for tho reason that the wl'ole of the primary education in Spain was in the hands of the. Church, and' the .populace claimed they were not getting the rcbiilts they were paying for. Undoubtedly, thore will bo a very big change in the scholastic position. Many people were perturbed because their sons were growing up and they considered they would not be able to take their 'place alongside the other youth of the world from an educational standpoint. Generally speaking, we found the Spanish most likeable people, and there was nothing that they could do that they would not do to please British visitors." Prance, said1 Mr. M'Kenzie, was intensely cultivated. Comparing his last visit to Prance with the previous one, he said that .latterly there had been more concern in Franco in connection with unemployment. However, he considered that unemployment would never hit France in the same way it had hit, England, because the Frenchman was more reliant; there was not a foot of ground in his backyard that he did not cultivate, and as they were not big meat eaters," that supplied a national want in a "way that other peoples neglected. Then, again, it seemed to bo tho ambition of every Frenchman, no matter how humble, to occupy his own house/ Doles or pensions were not encouraged.' "Unless the casual visitor to England f.elvcs into matters of moment ho does not soc the distress in "the country," said Mr. M'Kenzie. Speaking about tariffs, he said that the change in mind was apparent, and everybody seemed keen to find out what the overseas visitor thought of tho matter.

"While we were there, 'dumping' was at its highest," he said. "The people of the. Dominion-here have no idea <5f what 'dumping' really means. Tt was not as we understood it; it came in shiploads. Butter from Russia; wheat, boots; and shoes from Germany; in fact, practically everything." The general feding in England was that the nation <}iad been hit by a financial crisis,, and that everybody would do as much as possible to rcstoro the 'posi-