EXPERIENCES ON THE CONTINENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13516, 20 October 1914, Page 4

EXPERIENCES ON THE CONTINENT

AX INTERESTING LETTER

had ''Hail Columbia" too. There wa~> one rather agitating moment- when the controller passed word vp the train- nee to' settle' down for the night, as our" train might be wanted. If they want them for the military they must take them. However we go off. At. Moulin we saw a long train of wounded. We got to Parn at 5 p.m. on the 28th, and" were met there by a committee of 'English^ gentlemen, who helped us change trains aii'l carried our luggage for us. They luiit arranged a special buffet on the platform, which we were very pleased to sej as we had forgotten to eat anything that day. Then, with morn national anthem; and much cheering, we left Parrs. We got to Dieppe at 9.30' and had to spend tlio night on the boa-t— IOCO of /us altogether m the worst old tub I have ever ?een : no sitting down hardly. I managed to t;r«t. mother a bunk, and the. rest did nol matter, hut it was an unforgettable part of the journey. Wo got to Folkstone— calm sea. mercifully— at 1 o'clock next afternoon, and to Charing "Cross- , it- o. p.m. Tired isn't the word. The' physi.al part- didn't matter, .but the anxiety .•►f not knowing whether you wpre to get 'through was so tiring. M

By |llio last. English, mail Div Singer received from his" sister.- an account ni her experiences on the Continent after the ■declaration .of war. Miss Singer was touring m Europe -with her mother, a lady 70 years of age. "War between Austria and Scrvia,'" .sho writes, "Was declared the day 'we left home. We therefore decided to register our luggage only as far as Yiirick, and wait events there before going on to Innsbruck. It Innsbruck was Impossible;, the idea was to be near Ray reuth for the Wagner festival, .ajiytraj*. 'KiuTopean. war to vs 1 then atjis unthinkable, and hardly enter- 1 ed into our calculations. ..." Events followed so quickly that we had not time to realise trhat was happening, and the next thing we grasped was that the Ger man frontier coitkl not be crossed any : mor<\ > Wo thought it was time to make tracks for. . home when we. heard that. We decided to go to Lausanne, and see if we', could get through France via Portarller. \V*e left -Yurick on August 2nd,, only just m time, "as Switzerland got orders to mobilise that day, and we were unable to move from- Lausanne till that w,as over. You cannot, imagine what a curious state of affairs it was. everyirian gone except the old,' d'eformetl, and very young, not a driven or porter or waiter, or anyone left, We. had five Italian waiters' to 150 -people^ in the hotel, and the liftboy had to do pretty well" everything' else. ,'Of course, things settled down'.intime. They " got some more Italian' waiters and more women, and things got more normal. -It was a fortnight before we were able to wire our whereabouts horne — then we had to stand for ; an hour m a queue. at. 'the post- office to get attended to. and no guarantee as to tho wire getting through," : Tlio next trouble was money. ":= We had a letter of credit, but for a time could not get anything on it. We went to see the British Consul, and eventually we were allowed' £8 a week on^it. 'Other people were; worse off. One family of Brazilians, 10 of them, could only " get £5 between them, and a" lot of course had nothing. No one could leave- the country, Americans missed their ships and 'all the 1 travellers out. of Germany lost their luggage, and most of them had to walk 6 kilometres across- the frontier/ Two 'people .'we met had got away with 'only what they stood up- m -and had to man?' age like that, as they had no" money to buy more.' The Consul did all he could for everyone^ and" said he would give us ; passes nortie'-if we could not buy tickets. Well, from August 2nd 'to the 26th we lived rjeady to #6 at any time, waiting for instructions from the Berne Ambassador and sicld with impatience to get away. Mother fortunately kept well and

did, not worry much ; I doil't think she , quite realised all tile' difficulties that might Urise, One says Switzerland is a neutral country, but* it is not quite as jsimplef as that; Thero were some nice \ English m the hotel, and xro joined ( forces j with a Miss S^ — , a girl of 22 ' who was out there alone. She. gave us all heij Swiss/money and-I have refunded her here, an arrangement' which waV Oielpful to us both. There is an English ' club, m Lausanne, and we used that "often and did a lot of shirt-making for the ♦Swiss soldiers. The weather was frightfully hot, with occasional thunderstorms'/ so we did nothing most of our time but, toil up daily to the consulate for news. At last' we heard that 20 special trains were arranged to take the British back. We were askfed to let the " absolutely necessitous go first. We reckoned we might; get away about the 30th. However, suddenly a disquieting report got about that they could not guaf an^ee any train after the 26th, and we' were aIJ told to be ready for short" notice. We packed at once arid sat on our boxes; so tq speak. Yesterday, the 26th, someone came to our room at 9 a.m. front the consulate. and told us if possible to b,e at the, station -in half, an hour; only hand luggage could -be taken; tickets provided on the trains and 1.0.U.'s m case w had not. epongh -English money, but go if you can. We did riot want "telling twice.; If you have iwatched jthe Ger■m'an advance on Paris you will knqw what we were afraid of. .We got off all right j • at Geneva had to change trains and line up m- twos to be given instruction for our compartments. There were 800 of ufi, so that took some time; then ■we Jiadto walk to the other train a long way carrying our Haggage f and line up m tyros again. I shall never forget that 1 walk. : Miss 9 and I nearly gave m ; we -.both had more than we could. do m the luggajge line. Mother was carrying tha' provisions, and as they had : been put together very hurriedly, began ' ;*to out m different directions,, and finally •■ we ; discxiTded : them ■ altogethei;. We were. 2i hours m tJiat queue ill tropical Jieat,' and when \iy Came where soldiers were letting p66ple on to the platform they said' .our passes were correct, and'we' had to drop biit> j /The controller: : of 'the " Lansau'ne coritingeht saicl-rtlie only tlung to <ld was for tlic i Jiausauiuk, people 'to ' .spend thfe- night .m Gen^VA'and go and see the consul there at ■'& $ clock that evening. Wc.Av^nt oiJ to a small hotel, as "funds" "were low nnU waitedf till 5 o'clock. The consul said .26'.placea on the train had' been given to G^neva-j but tliev would not guarantee our p)ac«J or getting through. Wtf got our names oil the list by much pushing^ and then. -went, back' to the hotel foi' tlift | night. Xextj . morning whilst sitting outeide . the" ' -;«tation-" waiting our turn, suddenly thii girl next me- informed me she Had had; tea- witlt me -at -tho ttoyal. Oalc, Wellirigtort ;■ it was • Afi«s Pollen. y/ainVab curioua?' Wo got on the traiii all *right and from tho time we crossed th© French frontier ., it •■ wtfg like a.- s toyal -progress.- 'We were cheered' all thft-Svay; "Vive I^a. France!" • "Vive 1' Angleterre?' and national hymns without ceasing. : W©-spe'rit a ! n> hour m Jjyom station," a-gr4ai>ve<jopti<m there, utid' just 'before we'.wnnt otit a vt^ain load ol American*. (800)- came m"; so that we