THE OLD GERMAN BANDS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 10 February 1923, Page 5

THE OLD GERMAN BANDS.

"Hori" writes: The article in! last week's musical notes with I reference to musical spies recalls > to mind what an old gentleman from Scotland, some fifteen or sixteen years ago, told the writer regarding the German bands that used to tour the Dominion in those days, giving performances daily in the principal cities. This old gentleman was for close on forty years in the Customs, a great part of that time holding the position of I general manager of the Customs in Leith, "the seaport of Edinburgh. On the day mentioned, the writer and his old friend passed a Germstoi band playing in one of the side streets of the city of Dunedin, whereupon the latter, in very forceful language, scathingly denounced , the Hun musicians. He informed me ! that it was a well-known fact that ■ these players were held to be military spies. "Never," he said, "give these individuals any monetary assistance, because they are enemies of your country." This was many years before the Great War, and very few people in those days gave serious thought to the probability of a war with Germany. The warning that the old gentleman, who <lied before the war took place, gave me regarding the Germans often recurred to my mind when eventually the British nation was engaged in hostilities with the Huns. No doubt the old Scotsman's contention was quite correct regarding the German bands, and were the truth revealed these same visitors to this Dominion in years gone by had most of the strategical positions in New Zealand mapped out and safely stored away in their possession.