SHANGHAI CONDITIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21578, 24 August 1933, Page 10

SHANGHAI CONDITIONS

EMPLOYMENT DIFFICULTIES NEW ZEALANDERS WARNED [by telegraph—own correspondent} WELLINGTON, Wednesday A further warning to New Zealanders against seeking employment in Shanghai is given by Colonel N. W. R. B. Thoms, officer commanding tho Shanghai Volunteer Corps. Writing to a friend in Wellington, Colonel Thoms, who is a member of the New Zealand Staff Corps, states: — "At present we have three New Zealand boys, aged 18 to 22, who are in receipt of charity, and for whom we shall have to put our hands in our pockets to send home. There is absolutely no chance at all for these youths -to get a job, nor for anybody who comes to a place with as big a crowd of out-of-works as there is in New Zealand. "Besides, a crowded Oriental city . does not afford facilities for such people to live as does a New Zealand town. All the manual labour is done by Chinese. All petty clerical work, shop/ assistant .work and so forth is done either by Chinese, Russians or Portuguese. A New Zealander cannot compete. We had a case six months ugo of a man who brought his wife and child here. They landed without a penny, lived in a Chinese hovel and on Chinese food. Can you imagine tho conditions?" Colonel Thoms states that he will be leaving Shanghai in six months.