THE WORLD TO-DAY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4811, 20 February 1936, Page 2

THE WORLD TO-DAY

PLACE OF UNREST. A CHANGE EXPECTED. ENGLAND PROSPERS. A predominant note of unrest in nearly every country he visited was observed by Mr. H. Brasch, a Dunedin barrister, who returned by the Maunganui from Sydney on Monday on hi* way home after his third trip round the world. In his year’s absence irom New Zealand, Mr. Brasch visited Honolulu, the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Austria, Hungary, Italy, France, Palestine Egypt, and Australia. ‘‘Nobody seems to regard the present condition of the world as a permanent one,” he told a Wellington Evening Post reporter. “Everybody

reckons that there is going to be some kind of change, in the political situation at any rate. That is particularly true on the Continent.” When Mr. Brasch crossed the border from Austria to Hungary he noticed a flag at half-mast and inquired the reason why. He was told that the flags would always be at half-mast in Hungary so long as she was dismembered. Black flags hanging on Parliament House in Budapest were also signs of mourning, to hang there while the country was cut off from territory which belonged to it and was essential to its welfare. Austrians, too, regretted that their country, which was almost wholly mountainous, should be cut off from Hungary whose flat lands’ products were complementary to those of Austria. War Talk in Europe. , “I didn’t hear much about it in

England,” said Mr. Brasch, questioned about talk of war. “I think England is rejoicing in her new-found prosperity and thinking it will continue, but that can’t be so long as the rest of the world is under a cloud. I think Continental people all consider there is going to be a war sooner or later.” Despite this feeling, said Mr. Brasch, in his experience Englishmen j were always treated with the greatest of cordiality. He had never had any trouble in the countries he had visited. Austrian sympathy with the Nazi regime >was due largely to German money, if information given to him was correct, said Mr. Brasch. “I spoke with several Austrians,” he continued. ‘There were pro-Nazi outbreaks in Austria and I was told by people who should have been in a position to know that these outbreaks were due to agitators fostered by German money and that when the supplies of German money ceased the *

pro-Nazi agitation ceased. I can’t say whether that is true or not, but I was told that. What I gathered was .that Austria, taking it by and large, is opposed to union with Germany. That is one thing she fears." Feeling in Nor tin Italy. In Istria, a part of Italy in the north where there were strong Austrian sympathies, Mussolini was not exceedingly popular, said Mr. Brasch. “People there spoke to me whom I feel sure would not have spoken to Italians, and a lot of them—drivers, boatmen, waiters, and the like —spoke of their feeling against war and their dislike of Mussolini. That part of the country originally belonged to Austria and is not an integral part of the original Italy. “I was at Bolzano in August last, immediately after the tremendous review there,’’ continued Mr. Brasch. “The whole town was plastered with

posters of praise for II Duce, and very rarely there was a reference to the King. The King is a second fiddle and he would not be there if he did not keep quiet. It was particularly evident in Bolzano that stupendous efforts had been expended to work up to guard Mussolini, said Mr. Brasch. Mussolini had stayed at a place separated from a hotel by a road and fifty yards of garden, yet that hotel was closed during his visit. Elaborate precautions were taken public enthusiasm by poster advertising and portraits of Mussolini.”