How N.Z. Should Welcome Displaced Persons

Chronicle (Levin), 16 April 1949, Page 4

How N.Z. Should Welcome Displaced Persons

The hope that if sneeches of welcome were made to displace'd r>ersons arriving in New Zealand. they would not foUow the usual li-ne of welcome with the hope that ^hev would quickly absorb themseTves into the fives and customs of this cauntry. but ra^her that they wdu'd be welcomed for themselves. and their customs and culture, was expressed by Miss H. Tria Crooke, director-general of V.A D.'s- in New Zealand, when speaking to the members of the Levin Red Cross; Society this week. One couM not expect such people to forget their own countrv and overnight become New Z°alanders, she said. They were -proud of their "ountries, just the same as she had been proud of her counW when abroad. It was most difflcuT to. settle down in a strange country and hear a foreign tongtie evervwhere one went. It would not be wise to- rush the'm with assistance at first, but to 7et them sett'e down and gradually help them towards re-pstablishment. Speaking of the displaced- persons camps in Europe, Miss Crooke said that she was most dis'Lurbed about the children whn, after all, ha'd nothine to do with the war. The most frip'htful memory she had was of these children, poorly clad and lackins: n^urishment, sitting round doing nothing. There was no playing like other chfidren and 30 families were hud'dled in one room lined with tiers of bunks, with bunks in the centre of the ftoor. There was an effort to- give them education, she added, but they could not have ""essons for long because the exertion was too" -great and they fainted. She describe'd their skin as like transparent green cheese. Motorists had to sound the horns of- their vehicles a long way off be cause the reactions of the people, through lack of nourishment, were very slow. They just, stood with a dazed look and let ' themselves be almost run down.