WARNING TO BRITONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 37, 14 February 1938, Page 5

WARNING TO BRITONS

WORK IN BUENOS AIRES .

Although Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, with its tube railways, thriving industrial areas, huge meat work, and its undoubted prosperity was a delightful place in which to live, it was no place for British work* men without some special aptitudes, said Mr.~F. R. Baker, Argentine manager for the New Zealand InsuranceCompany, Limited, in the course of an interview, states the "New Zealand Herald."

Mr. Baker said that unskilled jobs in factories in-the city were for the greater part filled by Argentine labourers whose standard of living was lower than that acceptable to the British workman. Consequently Argentine labourers accepted much lower v wages than would the Briton. In as much as in his opinion/ the wages being paid to New Zealand workmen at the present time seemed too high, wages in Buenos Aires and other • cities in Argentina were too low for the average Briton. '■

"Argentina ,is' such a remarkable country, and it has made such strides in the last few years, that people in other countries are apt to get the impression that \Here is an abundance of work there,'' Mr Baker continued. "Unfortunately, i some Englisti people have believed glamorous tales, and the British Benevolent Society in Buenos Aires has been obliged to assist to England and various parts of the Empire a number of >men; who went to Argentina .to find work. They had no' special qualifications, ..and in most cases became destitute."