Knows Russia, Prefers Life Sn Democracy

Northern Advocate, 1 December 1948, Page 7

Knows Russia, Prefers Life Sn Democracy

CHIEF Officer on the Northern Steamship Company’s new Goldfinder which arrived in Whangarei with a cargo of phosphate yesterday is Johannes Kalpus, an Estonian who holds an extra foreign-going master’s certificate, and has become a naturalised Britisher.

He was serving as master of an Estonian ship when the war broke out, and was lucky to escape from Bergen, Norway, as his ship left the port at midnight and the Germans took control at 8 a.m. the next day.

His wife and family lived through the German occupation, and lately the Russian occupation, until they escaped. The story of that escape from Russian power is an epic that ranks with Dunkirk. Thousands of Estonians, having tried Communism, decided that they would escape and crossed to Sweden in anything that would float—motor boats, launches, yachts—anything, Mr Kalpus said today. AFTER SEVEN YEARS It is estimated that 3000 Estonians were drowned in the escape. Mr Kalpus saw his wife for the. first

time in seven years when she arrived in England with their daughter. They have two girls, one aged 14, and the other two years.

Throughout the war Mr Kalpus served as master in Estonian ships under British colours.

He holds a foreign-going master’s certificate from his own country, but, at the end of the war, he was told that he would have to sit a master’s examination before he could 1 take command of a British ship. The opportunity of coming to New Zealand was his chance to see a new country-and lie is waiting for shipping accommodation for his family to settle in the Dominion.

Knowing what conditions are in Russia, he has decided that a democracy, such as he knew in Estonia before the war, is the kind of community that suits him.

TURNED KEY ON POSSESSIONS During the war Mr Kalpus made the mistake of sending all his savings home, and these were seized by the Russians, leaving his wife nothing. The Communists said he was a capitalist and deserved to lose his illgotten gains. When Mrs Kalpus left the family home she “just turned the key on all our possessions, and walked away, leaving the lot to Stalin.” In spite of what might be considered misfortune Mr Kalpus considers he is a lucky man. The ship on which he was serving when the war broke out was lost with all hands a few days after he left it to take charge of another ship. It is believed that the ship struck a magnetic mine. During the later stages of the war, when he was serving with the British Merchant Navy, Mr Kalpus was bombed several times in the English Channel but, that, he says, was the experience of most seamen who ran the "gauntlet of the Western Approaches.

WANT TO REMAIN HERE Of the voyage out Mr Kalpus said that there were times, particularly when the ship was in the Austi'alian Bight, when she might have been overwhelmed as the water was constantly flooding the well deck. One of the things that impressed him about Australia was the amount oi’ steak, that could be purchased for 2/6 compared with the microscopic quantity that could be obtained in England for double the money. After the trip across the Indian Ocean, when the ship’s company was reduced to very little food and water, that was particularly welcome. Of the crew’s intentions on paying off, Mr Kalpus said that at least half were contemplating settling down in New Zealand.