ON THE CONTINENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 305, 24 November 1937, Page 8

ON THE CONTINENT

PALMERSTON lANS TOUR. INCIDENT IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA. To be taken prisoner while touring in Czechosolvakia was the unenviable experience of Mr and Mrs E. J. Anstis, of Palmerston North, who have returned from a tour of Great Britain, the Continent and the United States. “Certainly we were only under armed guard for a few hours," Mr Austis told a “Standard” reporter to-day, “but it was long enough to give one an idea of the care that is exercised and the suspicions which are aroused in European countries.” The two Palmerston North residents were members of a tourist party mostly Britons—and were travelling on a German bus service when the incident happened. They were held up at a railway level crossing to allow a train to pass, and one young man in the party took a motion picture of the train. Nothing more was thought of the incident until a little further along the road tho bus was stopped by a soldier, at the point of a rifle. The party's German guide and the soldier had difficulty in exchanging languages, but it became very apparent that the party was under arrest. They were taken to the nearest town, where the vehicle was immediately surrounded by a dozen' officers with rifles, and after considerable delay it was disclosed that they wanted the man who had taken photographs. The young man, said Mr Anstis, immediately stepped forward. He had though! no more of what he had done, but it was very evident that the authorities regarded him, and the whole party for that matter, with a great deal of suspicion. The man was marched off and the party was held up and had the experience of having lunch under guard. Explanations seemed to lie of no avail, and it was necessary to get in touch with the Britsh authorities in another town. Eventually the “prisoners” were released, but not before the young man’s film had been confiscated. # THE NAZI REGIME.

Mr and Mrs Anstis visited Germany, Austria, Hungary, France and Switzerland. “We were agreeably surprised to find the German people very contented under the Nazi regime,” said Mr Anstis. _ “There is certainly too much militarism to appeal, to the average Briton, but the people seen! industrious and happy and the intensive cropping of tlie farm lands was a revelation.” In all Continental countries it was common to see women working in the fields and, in most cases, working harder than the men. The roads were wonderful and the scenery on every hand beautiful. Budapest, Mr Anstis thought, was the finest city from the beauty point of view visited on the whole tour.

Referring to Italy, Mr Anstis said that they found it even more militarised than Germany, and on the frontiers the guards seemed to be particularly suspicious of Britons. Everybody and everything, including bus and baggage, was thoroughly examined. Neither in Italy nor in France did they find the same intensive cultivation as in Germany, and in France the people did not seem so happy as the Germans. Mr and Mrs Anstis were in London just a few days after the Coronation, and they were in time to see the great city in festive mood. There could be no doubting the loyalty to the Throne of the Briton, they said. Every section of the community seemed to have. entered into the spirit of the great occasion. IN LONDON.

‘I must pay a tribute, said Mr Anstis, “to New Zealand House. 1 have heard it criticised so often that I feel it my duty to say that such criticism is unjustified. The officials there cannot do enough for New Zealanders, and through their good offices we were privileged to attend the Royal garden party—almost to rub shoulders with the King and Queen — and to visit other places of outstanding interest.” The ltoyal Family seemed homely people and the little Princesses were even more lovely than their photographs portrayed. Conditions in England were prosperous and Britons seemed a very happy people, Mr Anstis continued. The standard of living of the masses, of course, was much ahead of that on the Continent.

The New Zealanders visited Scotland —they were at Loch Ness, but did not see the “monster”—and a short time was spent in Ireland. They then crossed the Atlantic in the liner Queen Mary to America, where they found another different type of people. The United States had its big unemployment problem, but that was not evident to the tourist. Everybody seemed to have plenty of money. In the whole tour Mr and Mrs An-sti-s visited evei-y place of interest and importance and have returned with very vivid impressions of the Old World.