STRANDED IN SYDNEY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 180, 25 April 1919, Page 6

STRANDED IN SYDNEY

CALL FOR ASSISTANCE

THE MAYOR'S REJOINDER

"Several women penniless waiting return. Can you inlluence financial assistance, llepiy Government Office. (Sgd.) Kent." The above was the text of a cable message received from Sydney by the Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) yesterday morning. The Mayor assumes that there are people short of means in Sydney owing to the action of tho Government in refusing passengers from Australia permission to land here (which forced the steamship companies to refuse all passengers offering). Who "Kent" may be he does not know. The Government officer in Sydney is Mr. W. Blow (who is in charge of the Tourist Department's bureau in Sydney), but on inquiry from the head office of the Department it was found that the officials knew nothing of anyone named Kent on the Sydney staff. The Mayor certainly does not feel inclined to take action himself, as he thinks it is a Government matter. If there were people hard up in Sydney through the Government embargo .on the passenger traffic they were probably from all parts of-New Zealand (arid not from Wellington alone), and lie would turn the matter over to the Government to deal with. ■ Furthermore Mr. Luke added that when tho epidemic was in full blast here in November and December last, and the boats had stopped running between New Zealand and Australia, soveral Australians who said they were Btranded interested the Mayor in their plight. In some cases the cost of board and residence was paid during tho -period .of detention in Wellington, and a few people were financed back to their homes in Australia. 1

"In fifteen cases we took 1.0.U.'s from those wo were assisting," said the Mayor, "and would you believe it, up to the present timo wo have not had a penny from any one of them? The total amount involved was approximately ,£2OO. If there are New Zealanders in need of financial assistance, it is a fine chance for the Sydney people to show a spirit of reciprocity. In any case, the appeal for help is one that should be forwarded from 6omo official source, and not left to somebody wlio -we cannot identify."