TROUBLED EUROPE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 112, 15 May 1939, Page 10

TROUBLED EUROPE

FOREIGNERS ARRIVE

TWENTY-ONE BY AWATEA

The Awatea, which arrived today from Sydney, brought twenty-one foreigners — mostly from Central Europe. There were six Germans, eight Austrians, two Czechs, two Hungarians, an Italian, a Greek, and a Yugoslav. Most of them were disinclined to talk about affairs in their homelands, but a Czech couple and a Hungarian couple were not so reticent. They said they had heard that New Zealand was such a beautiful country that it had attracted them, and they intended to settle here. One Czech is a dental mechanic, the Hungarian is a joiner, and his wife is a dress designer, and all hope to find employment in New Zealand, and make it their permanent home.

Another passenger, returning to Wellington from a visit to Europe, said quite bluntly that the people of Europe were only waiting for war to revolt. He said that there were 9,000,000 Communists in Germany, and only about one person in four in German territory favoured the present regime. Had not the Yugoslav border been closed, millions of Germans would have left their homeland. Germany was not the strong military Power some people thought. If she dominated the Balkan States she would be powerful, but without those areas from which to draw raw materials, she would not be able to withstand a war.