CONSUL’S LIFE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19123, 18 September 1936, Page 5

CONSUL’S LIFE

UNOFFICIAL INCIDENTS THE FLEET IX AUCKLAND DESERTERS’ DIFFICULTIES Some of the. .quaint experiences that fail to a consul’s lot were related at a ■ luncheon of the Auckland Creditmen’s I Club by Mr. Walter F. Boyje, who is shortly returning: to his; homeland after 11 years as United States Consul at Auckland. . V > i \ I A consul found himself; more concerned with his fellow-countrymen in their adversities than in. their happier moments, said Mr. Boyle. At his first post in Spanish Honduras, one of his earliest duties was to read the burial service over an American who had died penniless, because no minister of the deceased’s faith was to be found in the republic. Some, time later, when a revolution was brewing, he was ohligcdto summon a cruiser in case it should be necessary to evacuate American citizens. Naturally he felt, a thrill of pride when die saw her come into the harbour at full speed, and even more when lie was piped over the side and received a salute of seven very loud guns. However, he was not quite so happy when the captain said to him, “Well, Mr. Consul, where is tho revolution?” As a matter of fact, everything was as quiet as a Quaker Sabbath, and there was nothing in the rules authorising him to start a revolution. A .ROUNDABOUT JOURNEY Ilis next post was on the frontier of .Mexico, near the Californian border. Ilis house was in the United States, but his office, only a few blocks away, was in Mexico. His most unusual experience there was when two aviators of the American border patrol were lost for some weeks, until their bodies and the wrecked aeroplane were found in a cactus thicket near the coast about 2CO miles away. As the nearest consul, it was his duty to see to the recovery of the bodies, but, there was ICO miles of impassable desert in between. As a result, he had to hoard a destroyer at San Diego and undertake a sea journey of 3000 miles around the desert peninsula of Lower California and back. Leaving Mexico for New Zealand, he j arrived at Auckland two month* before the visit, of the American Fleet in 1955. It. was a great privilege to share the! hospitality and the open-handed and warm-hearted welcome that wasi given to the 11.000 men of the warships, but after the banquet there fell to him the inevitable task of washing up the dishes —in other words, of looking after the deserters and stragglers. These numbered a little less than 30, not a large number out- of so many thousands. Within a- month a dozen applied to be sent back for the not very severe punishment- that- was their due. CUPID MADE THEM DESERT

More did likewise in after years, until tho American Government seemed to lose interest and declined to pay the. cost of repatriating them. The last man with whom he had to deal died in the Auck- ;

land. Hpspital. about two years ago. and the consul way Willed upon to perform for him something like the service of a father confessor/

Nearly a(T the desertions were caused by one ina'u—Dan Cupid. Some of the men cairie back and married the girls of their chojee; qthers sent for them. A few years later one woman returned as a widow with a child. Her husband had died of an old injury received in the navy, and it was good to know that to-day; she was receiving a small pension from Uncle Sam.

In-another case lie received urgent letters from, a naval man ooriiplaining that- his fiancee'refused'to answer Ms letters' anti asking/that. theVonsul should Call at her place, of employment and persuade her to return his ardent love. Unfortunately the full influence of the consular office was not. enough to.bring about an international alliance or even a modus vivendi. ■ . r -