NEW ZEALANDERS IN AMERICA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18821, 11 July 1923, Page 9

NEW ZEALANDERS IN AMERICA

MAJOR-GENERAL RUSSELL AND DR. THACKER. (From San Francisco Examiner). We are indebted to Mrs M. Cornyns, who recently returned from a visit to friends in California, for the following extracts from a copy of the San Francisco Examiner, just to hand. N.Z. ARMY OFFICER FARTHEST FROM HOME. The visitor in our midst farthest from home to-day is Major-General Sir Andrew Hamilton Russell. His home town, Auckland, New Zealand, is about 6875 miles from the Golden Gate. NEW ZEALAND COMMANDER IN SAN FRANCISCO ON WAY TO EUROPE. The Pacific Ocean is now recognised by the British Empire as the world centre of activity, declared . Major-General Sir Andrew Hamilton Russell, commander of the New Zealand division in the World War, who came to San Francisco on his way to the convention of tin? Empire Service League meeting in London. General Russell, who, as a general in the war, received membership to the Legion of Honour, the Croix de Guerre and other decorations, is now head of the Empire Service League in New Zealand, which corresponds to the American Legion of the United States. PACIFIC IS CENTRE OF ACTIVITIES. “The significance of the fact that Great Britain is establishing a strong naval base at Singapore,’’ said Geuerl Russell yesterday, “is that it reveals that the Pacific Ocean is now the centre of world activity—the centre of world trade, and a possible centre of conflict. Singapore is located so as to protect the entrance to the Pacific from Europe just as the Panama Canal fortifications of the United States protect the Western entrances to the Pacific Ocean.

“The Pacific, bordered on by the lands of the Orient, whose citizens number a large proportion of the inhabitants of the earth, is now demanding the attention of the world. The population of the Oriental countries is rising like a flood behind a dam and an overflow is certain to come. To where shall these surplus yellow people go? We do not wish them to enter New Zealand any more than the Californians wish them to flood their State. It is a serious problem of the future, but fortunately it has not yet reached an apprehensive stage with tile people of New Zealand, although we there sympathise with the Californians in their problem of shutting out races not capable of being assimilated. NEW ZEALAND SYMPATHY’ IS WITH UNITED STATES. “New Zealand has maijy sympathies with California and with the whole United States. After all, we are a brother nation, speaking the same language and of the same stock to a large extent. There never will be a conflict between the United States and the British Empire over an overt act of ours.” Major-General Russell spent the day in San Francisco in visiting the Cliff House and the Presidio. He declared himself much impressed with the beauties of San Francisco and the bay. AMERICA IS UNDER OBSERVATION. “We watch the United States very closely in New Zealand, largely because it is nearer than England,” said Sir Andrew, “and we are at present wondering about the success of the prohibition law of this country. We have a class of ‘drys’ who point to the dry law of the United States as a success, and our wets prove by the United States that prohibition would bring a great calamity upon New Zealand if tried there. As yet we are just observers. I do not know who is backing the propaganda in New Zealand for prohibition, but I do not think it is the churches. I know in my own acquaintance a number of prominent elergj; men who resent prohibition.” General Russell will confer with General Haig in London on the programme for the veterans’ organisation, of which Haig is the Empire commander. NEW ZEALAND CELEBRITY TO TOUR UNITED STATES. When Dr. Henry G. T. Thacker, ex-Mayor of Christchurch N.Z., and eight times member of the New Zealand Parliament, finishes his trip, the first lap of which ended quite recently with his arrival in San

Francisco on board the Maunganui, he will have travelled a distance twice the circumference of the globe. Dr. Thacker, accompanied by Mrs Thacker, plans to tour every principal agricultural State in the Union, alter which he will sail for England i to attend the Royal Sanitary Insti- I tution Conference in London next autumn. Six months will be devoted to travel and study in Europe, and then he will again visit the United States en route to his home at Christchurch. “I am associated with the firm of Thacker Brothers & Co., of Akaroa, New Zealand,” said Dr. Thacker at the Fairmont, “and since our business is the production of meat, cheese, butter and other foodstuffs, I am making a study of the production of these commodities in Jour country. “Judging by the prices on the menu to-day, it seems to me, that California is a potential market for these products, and, from what I know of shipping conditions, with the abolition of your tariffs, or the establishment of some scheme of reciprocity, these necessities could bo placed upon your tables at a far cheaper price than they command at present." Dr. Thacker plans to co-operate with chambers of! commerce in the cities he visits in giving lectures.