BACK FROM AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2682, 31 January 1916, Page 6

BACK FROM AMERICA

NO CHANGE OF EMPLOYMENT. By the Maitai, which arrived here' {torn San Francisco yesterday, there returned about a'dozen of the men who left New Zealand and Australia for the United States on the first whisper of compulsory service being adopted in the Overseas Dominions. From passengers who. came into contact with them it was ascertained that most, of those who left for the "land of the free" did not fiud the conditions there quite so desirable as their imaginations pictured, and they return homo sadder and poorer men. It is said that some of them became so hard up that they approached the British Consul at San Francisco with the request that ho would advance them their fares. The Consul said he would be pleased to advance them their fares to Canada, provisional on their taking up arms for King and country, which offer found few accepters. Even those who returned by the Maitai, it is stated, could not refrain from enunciating their anti-ser-vice views, and the result was some lively arguments, which at times threatened to develop into something more serious. On the other hand there were among the passengers some New Zealanders who had been absent in Ameriica for some years, and are prepared to enter the service of their country forthwith It is stated that things are very slack in San Francisco at present, unskilled labourers, clcrks, salesmen, etc.,, finding it hard to obtain emplqyment. Tho closing of the Exposition had meant the release of an army of men, cafes o.nd boardingliouses were closing down, and shops 'were putting up their shutters all over the place, making the.outiook distinctly unfavourable for many thousands of pcoplo who depend oil casual employment. These conditions could be said to exist all over the Pacific slope. One young man approached a. New Zealander in Sail Francisco a

month ago, asking for assistance. He stated that he was ''right up,.against it," and begged for help. The New Zealander asked him why he did _ not join the army, and with that pointed out a poster in which the authorities were soliciting recruits for the army, which the United States is building up. The young man had never even troubled to read the poster, and went away to give the idea consideration. "It amazed me," said the Now Zealander, "to think that hale young fellows should be almost starving, with their country offering them honourable and manly employment in the army I"