GERMANS IN AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17335, 5 December 1919, Page 12

GERMANS IN AUSTRALIA.

—,— ■» HOTBED OF DISLOYALTY. WAR INCIDENTS RECALLED. DIFFICULT TASK OF POLICE. [FROM our own correspondent.] SYDNEY, Nov. 27. The large German population of South : Australia has been a serious problem for " the Federal and State authorities during the last live years. Men of other nationalities, settling in Australia, become good • British subjects; but Germans seem to remain Germans, even to the second and third generation. During the war, for every one German among the many . thousands in this country who was loyal to his adopted flag, there were ten who either openly or in secret advocated the German cauwß. The centre of Germanism in South Australia appears to have been a place called Luxtoij, and a Royal Commission is now inquiring iirto the things that occurred there during, the war period. Interesting stones have been told in evidence. | One. night in Loxtun, in 19i4, about 25 I young Ueimans proceeded to celebrate a German victory. Under Kail VViihelm ] Lude they " hpch'd " the Kaiser, and goose ■ stepped up and down the main street, to the accompaniment of ribald jesting at the British arms. Two constables — Lenthall and Smith— broke up the- Teuton ranks and arrested one man. The Germans were bitter and resentful A few nights later, on November 7, 1914, Lude and a German bulkier named Carl Wilhelm Traugott Tschirpig forced their way into the constable's office, and told him that they had come to till him. At that critical moment a puff of wind blew the lamp out. The constable sprang quickly at Lude and disarmed and overpowered him in the dark. Tschirpig bolted. Lude and Tschirpig were soon afterwards placed behind barbed wire. A Teuton named Fritz Walther elected to carry on the feud on Lude's behalf, | and announced one evening that he was I going to kill the constable. Lenthall heard of it, and went to meet him. The Ger- i man was disarmed aDd interned. j A few weeks after that, Lenthall was l driving along a country road in the dusk, ' in a small car, with ballot-boxes. Sud- • denly a schoolmaster named Brown cried ! a warning to him from the roadside,' and he put on his brake sharply. He ■ was just in time. Wires were stretched j across the road in such a way as to , wreak his car had he struck them. These , were the sort of tricks that Constable ! Lenthall fought against for four years. He i gradually weeded out the worst charac- i ter, but whenever there was a German ! successand these Germans always heard of it before it was announced in the newspapersthe constable had trouble on hand. The Germans would then become arrogant and "belligerent, and assure the British people that they would soon be at the mercy of the'. JSLa.ser's men, and then they could "lopg oudt." They celebrated the sinking of-Jhe Lusitania in a joyous and enthusiastic manner. . The district was a hot-bed of anti-British intrigue, and the constable fought it con-, fitantly. Generally, he was successful, bat he failed in one instance. There was a good deal of Morse signalling with lights at : ght in different parts of the district, but although the constable tried for months to catch offenders and set all "kinds 'of traps he did not succeed. Evidence was given before the commission by Sergeant Cyril Kempster, who had had the unenviable post of recruiting officer in this German district. He not only had a very poor response to his appeals for men, but he was insulted and threatened very frequently by enthusiastic Germans. Two or three times they told him they would shoot him. His wife had received particularly disgusting letters. The sergeant said that rotous • gatherings in the shop of Roehr, the blacksmith, a very arrogant German, had celebrated in carousal and song the sinking of the Lusitania and the death of Lord Kitchener. Many of these Germans have now been deported, but thousands remainand remain on some of the best agricultural and pastoral land in the State. There is a strong move on the part of South Australian returned soldiers to deprive these Teutons of their land, and give it to the soldiers who fought for it, and who now cannot get .mi table areas. "Why," they ask, "should these Germans, who would not l : ft a finger to help us, and worked against the British cause, be allowed to retain this wealth-producing country, while the men who fought and suffered to save it for them cannot get land?"