WELLINGTON MAN IN PRAGUE

Southland Times, Issue 23674, 24 November 1938, Page 4

WELLINGTON MAN IN PRAGUE

“Felt A Bit Nervous” VISIT TO GERMANY NOT ENJOYED (United Press Association) ' WELLINGTON, November 23. The exciting days in Central Europe during the recent crisis were lightly dismissed by Mr A. W. Caldwell, a Wellington business man, who returned today by the liner Westralia after a tour abroad. He was in Prague at the height of the tension, but all he had to say about it was: “Well, we were a bit nervous.” Mr Caldwell said he had been through Germany and had seen much of the Nazi regime. Asked what was the feeling of the people towards the Government, he answered that if they, felt as happy as he did while he was in their country they did not feel happy at all. He had been glad to cross the frontier. He had not liked Germany at all. He was in Prague when Lord Runciman was there. There was tremendous tension in the city, with soldiers drilling and machine-guns commanding the principal thoroughfares. They wen, right on the frontier when there was a murder in the neighbourhood, which, it was feared, might precipitate an international outbreak of hostilities. He and his wife and an Australian friend travelling with them were the only visitors to the hotel where they were staying. “We felt a bit nervous,” he said. However, all had. ended well and ■they had come home in peace. There was, he said, a strong feeling in Czechoslovakia that the country was well rid of a constant sore in Sudetenland. The general impression was that the trouble would be patched up and that the Germans and Czechs would come to a satisfactory agreement fo.the future. The Czechs had impressed him as a fine people and Prague as a dream city.