MENNONITES MAKE NEW NATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16317, 18 April 1927, Page 2

MENNONITES MAKE NEW NATION

PARAGUAY GIVES WIDE PRIVILEGES. COLONY MAY .NUMBER -MORE TI%\N 100,000 IN\ FEW YEARS. ASUNCION (Paraguay), March 5. Three hundred and nine pilgrims paused here recently aboard the Apipe, Cite ‘'Mennonite Mayflower,” before continuing their way to a destination some 1700 miles above Buenos Aires on the liver Paraguay, there to carve a new home for themselves in the Paraguayan Chaco. The. Apipe paused while President Avoki of Pariiijiwy "put ;tbonid -Jiud welcomed the Meuouiles in Gentian. Eour hundred more Mennonites have arrived in Buenos Aires from North America, and bv the end of April, 1927, there will be 2000 of (hem settled in Paraguay. After thirt they ViU continue to migrate as rapidly as arrangements can be made for them, and within a few vears it is expected that more than 100,000 of these new colonists «wll come to Paraguay. The migration is being watched with interest by 42 other religious sects of non-combatant peoples in all parts of the world, and some of these sects are already making plans to join the, migration.

GET % ALL THEY ASK FUR. The colonisation concession that the Mennonites, through their special agents, liuvo received from the Lkilagun van Government, surpasses, in its breadth of freedom, anything similar that recorded history can show. It is a charter such as no government has ever issued to a foreign people. The Grand Chaco is that vast territory that lies between the rivers Paraguay and the Pilcomayo where Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay meet. Its heart is a great blank area on the best- oi maps, some of which add the \yoid “Unexplored” and other with dotted lines show the conjectured routes of Spanish conquerors in 1b36-3S and 1548, when'thev crossed from the river Plate to Peru/ In the Paraguayan portion of this Oliaoo the Mennonites are seeking a new haven from the- turmoils of the rest of .the world. The charter granted the Mennonites by Paraguay virtually gives them the privilege 'd creating a State within a state. ‘ Everything "demanded by their religions beliefs—the cause of the persecutions they ha\e undergone—is granted them,* such as freedom from militarv service, either as combatants •or non-couibatants, in peace or war, exemptions from .taking path, the privileges of conducting their own schools and churches, and permission to administrate their communities by committees o! trustees, according to Menuopite custom. In addition, it is specified that no immigration law of any character, existing or to be passed in the future, shall-im-pede tiie entrance of Mennonites into the country because of age or physical or mental incapacity. INDIAN'S PEACEAB.LE.

The actual territory tiurt the Mennoniteg will settle belongs to the Carlos Casados family of Paraguay. which owns 7,COO,<XX) acres- Oi this 4,000,080 acres have been set aside, out of which the company that is financing the migration is to purchase 3,0C0,0C0 acres. This vast' region is but sparsely inhabited by Indian tribes, mostly peaceable and amenable to gentle treatment. Paraguay needs good colonists, and this accounts fpr the welcome it ha; given .the Mennonites. Even now, th,erc is la project in the Paraguayan Congress to grant similar charters, and privilege., to other non-comhaiant sects, assuring them and descendants freedom from participation in war for all generations. Four delegates from such. seejs have already inspected the Promised Land o;. the Mennonites. For centuries the Mennonites have been wandering over the face of the globe in search of a place where they could shut themselves in from the rest of the world and live in peace according to the tenets of their religion. .Severs, countries have made them welcome, fo. they are a valuable, thriving and pros perous population element. But soonei or later the outside world has come to them and mixed them in world afiairsand world wars. Large numbers migrated from Ger manyV from their original home in Zurich, and went to Russia upon the invitation of Catherine the Great in f 1783, and these communities later sent manv emigrants to North America. The World War upset these considerably. There are to-day 175,000 Mennonites yi the United States and 25,000 in Canada.

FARSIGHTED POLICY. Paraguay is to-day perhaps the least known of South American republics, and this effort at colonisation is considered here to be a very farsighted one. Both President Alaya and Dr. Bordenave, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the moving spirits of the enterprise and the granting of the charter, are young men ano are working energetic/illy for the future of Paraguay. J Shortly after President ATaya stepped off, the Apipe, after giving' the new colonists a welcome in their oiyu tongue, the little paddle-wheel steamboat slowly left its moorings and, puffing and chugging, disappeared from sight up the Paraguay river. Close on either hand. .the Mennonites proceeded, were the jungle-clad shores of the outlying frontier of the Chaco. Occasionally a jaguar came down to the water's edge to drink- Once or twice a day «ui Indiafrom the bush to watch the little steamer pass. Not since the Pilgrims left Delft Haven in the Mayflower has the world seen anything like the great Mennonite migration of which the Apipe is the vanguard.