GERMAN-AUSTRALIANS

Otago Witness, Issue 3443, 9 March 1920, Page 40

GERMAN-AUSTRALIANS

RETURNED SOLDIERS AGGRESSIVE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY," January 21.. Feeling is running very high in the southern part of this State, and all the elements of a regrettable outbrak are there. The trouble has to do w;th the elections of members of the Culcairn Shire Council. There is a large German population in this district, and it was a centre of strong antiBritish sentiment during the war. The anti-British, feeling, indeed, became so strong that at' one time —a couple of years before the end of the war—the military went through the district with a fine-tooth comb, and a number of prominent Germans, including two members of the Shire Council were interned. these two Germans were released since the armistice, and thy returned to their farms and their families. The other day nominations were called for a new Shire Council for the district of Culcairn, and the two ex-internees, among others, nominated. Of course, the British section of the population, led by the returned soldiers, was immediatey in an uproar. There wa s true Prussian insolence in the action of the Germans in accepting nomination just after their release from captivity as enemies of this country. A deputation of returned soldiers interviewed the State Premier, Mr Holman, about the' matter. They said that feeling ran so high that it wag difficult to restrain the soldiers from direct action. The Premier expressed the utmost indignation with the action of the Germans, and promised to make immediate representations to the Federal Government. He did so; but the Federal Government replied that it was

! helpless in the matter, now that the War ; Regulations were no longer in operation. j The Germans seem determined l to go ,to election-, and if they do they will be ! elected, for the German vote in the shire I is overwhelming. The soldiers are displayi ing an ugly temper, and declare that if the ' two Germans take their seats, they will prevent the carrying out of any shire work. ! The sons of these two Germans fought with the Australian troops in France, but the ' returned soldiers say this amounts to ! nothing—that the thing that matters is that the two men wore interned as Germans and ■ enemies of Britain.