WIVES FROM ITALY

Evening Star, Issue 25745, 19 March 1946, Page 4

WIVES FROM ITALY

ARRIVAL BY TAMAROA SOME SAVED N.Z. SOLDIERS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, March. 19. Excitement mingled with some • apprehension was shown by a number of Italian brides of New Zealand servicemen when they landed from the Tamaroa this morning. Very few of the girls had more than a slight smattering of English.' The husbands among them were unanimous that they should be welcomed and made to feel at home in this country. “ On the whole the boys were given a warm reception in Northern Italy, and there should be no animosity shown to these women on account of tlieir birth,” said one soldier, whose sentiments were echoed by others. “ People don’t realise how good these girls were to us,” said another. We have seen things in the .papers that seem to indicate some people are objecting to our bringing these girls back. People who say that just don’t know what they are talking about, and are displaying the wrong spirit altogether. Some of these girls saved New Zealanders from the enemy in Italy.” There were approximately 40 Italian wives and fiancees aboard the Tamaroa, and many of them before they left Italy were given talks on conditions in New Zealand, particularly as regards home life and cooking, language, and currency. Most of them come from Northern Italy, where conditions approximate more to those in New Zealand, and where the extreme poverty of the south is not encountered. They are going to homes in many parts of New Zealand, including a surprising number to farms. New Zealand means for them more than a new home. It means freedom from fear. The situation in Trieste is difficult, and many of them had an idea there would be further trouble there. They felt they have had enough trouble in the last few years, and to quit Europe had its compensations as well as its sorrows. Padre Leo P. Spring, Roman Catholic chaplain, who sailed with the First Echelon, was stationed at Napier before the war, and whose home is in Timaru, said the majority of the girls would make very good wives. Their whole upbringing taught them domestic life and how to make a home. Others on the Tamaroa included Lance-corporal Josef Glinski, a member of the Polish forces who embarked at Port Said. He lias a permit to stay in New Zealand two years, and has come to rejoin his wife and two children, who are at a camp at Pahiatua. The Tamaroa was to have berthed last night, but ran into thick fog off Terawhiti.