EUROPEAN PASSPORTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 September 1923, Page 8

EUROPEAN PASSPORTS

COSTS OF TRAVELLING. Although there was a big increase in first-class travel from the United States to Europe in June, and the first half of July, the total number of tourists was considerably below that of the same period last year, declares the “New York Times.” There has been a rush for accommodation on what aTE> called the “one-cabin” class steamships, those which carry cabin and steerage, but the total for secondclass travel, in which the “cabin” is included, is many thousands less than lor the first half of 1922. The chief cause for the decrease is the annoyance and expense of the passport business. The Armistice was signed in November, 1918, and the regulations concerning passports and visas are even more stringent that they were then. It costs an alien 10 dollars for a visa and another 8 dollars to visit, the United States, and therefore every American has to pay 10 dollars for a visa to the various countries abroad when he or she wishes to travel. Great Britain has entered the reciprocity arrangement with several countries on the Continent, so that when Ihe English business man goes to France, Belgium, Spain, Holland, or Switzerland, he does not have to pay for any visas on his passport, nor waste half a day, at. least, in the various consulates in obtaining them. To get from Constantinople Io Vienna an American citizen has to obtain visas from the Turkish police and the Inter-allied Police, the Greek Consul, Bulgarian Consul, Jugo-Slavian Consul. Hungarian Consul, and Austrian Consul, which occupies al least two days and costs about, 55 dollars. The chief reason why the visa system has not been done away with is that it has found jobs for a number

of people. It. costs 5 dollars to go from Palestine into Syria, and 5 dollars to got back. Tourists who go from Cairo to Jerusalem by train have to pay 2.50 dollars to go and the same fee to return, besides being held up on the banks of the Suez Canal and El Kantara each time to have their passports examined and stamped, while the sand flies eat them up. The cost of the visa and the headtax total IS dollars for a German immigrant to come to America now, which is 18,000,000 marks, and if their passages were not prepared by friends on this side, they would never be able to come. For the Russians the sum in roubles is almost uncountable. All through Europe the passports are examined at every frontier and in all cities where the traveller stops for a night.