TROUBLE AT CULCAIRN

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 29

TROUBLE AT CULCAIRN

SOLDIERS AND GERMAN EX- ■ INTERNEES. (From Our Ciyn Correspondent.) SYDNEY, January-28. Matters aro now moving rapidly to a crisis in the Riverine district of New South Wales. If Hermann Paech and Joht<vnn Wenke, both of whom have been released from the German concentration camp since the termination of the war, aro elected to the Culcairn Shire Council, tbo returned soldiers in tho district/backed up by the British residents, will probably do Fomething to precipitate a struggle wth the big German population of that region. This matter has been simmering for some time—ever since the ex-interncea accepted nomination. The soldiers are sore because they, who fought for tho country, cannot get good land to settle on, while the Germans, many of whom ■ were interned for disloyalty, and few of whom even assisted in recruiting, hold the pick of the countryside. It ia a difficult proposition, and it has the authorities puzzled. Tho State Government says it is a matter for the commonwealth, who interned the Germans in the first oiace; the Federal Ministers argue that they have nothing to do with elections of local bodies, and the State Government must act. Both say, in effect: ""Why are these wretched Germans persisting in standing for the shire election? Why can't they stand down, and then nothing more would bo heard of it?" Two deputations went to Melbourne this week to interview Mr Hughes. One represents the soldiers, and tho other, led by the Labour member of Parliament for the district, one Parker Maloney, wishes to put the case for the Germans. The two Germans, it appears, are Australian-born, having been born in Australia of German parents. One, Wenke, has a son who fought in the A.I.P. Werike was released just before the armistice in consideration of his son being a Digger, Paech was not released until after the armistice. The returned soldiers say, however, that nothing ca*i alter the tact that these two men were interned beoaus of ■ their disloyal activities. If we cannot' secure redress by strictly constitutional means, we shall coneider other-methods," said the soldier tionists. . . . There is every possibility

of a pitched battle between the returned soldiers and residents of German extraction and Germans themselves. It has been stated that the German element in the shiro is prepared to provide Wenke and Paech with a picked bodyguard of 200 if they are elected, and there is no doubt the returned soldiers will be equal to the occasion. The position to-day is understood to be that telegrams of an urgent character are passing between M.r Hughes and Mr Hoi man.