DANES REJOICE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 270, 11 August 1919, Page 3

DANES REJOICE

RELEASE OF SCHLESWIG " GERMANS " WHO RATED GERMANY Danes and people of Danish blood resident in Now Zealand are keenly interested in tho proposal now on foot to celebrate the return of the province of Schleswig to Denmark, and the cabled congratulations to the King of Denmark when the province is actually handed over b.v Germany. When the Prussians seized and annexed tho Danish provinces of Schleswig and Holstein in 18G-1, the Danish inhabitants of tho territory wero given the option of leaving their native soil or accepting Prussian nationality. The King of Denmark issued a proclamation formally releasing them from their allegiance. Some of the Danes now in New Zealand left Schleswig at that time rather'than tako German nationality. The choice was a hard one. The Danish inhabitants hated the Prussians, but to leave the provinces meant in many cases financial ruin. Some people who intended to leave were unable to get away, owing to business ties, within the time allowed by the Prussian Government, and so they becamo technically Germans. Thero are in New Zealand now some "tiermans" who unwillingly changed nationality when- Schleswig changed hands, but who remained Danes at heart and left Germany as soon as they wero able. It happened often that Danish parents could not leave the annexed provinces, since that would have meant abandoning farms or businesses They remained and became Germans by law; but their sons left later in order to escape service in tho armies of Germany, and these sons, though legally of German nationality, regarded themselves a.s Danes. Some cases of this kind wero discovered in the Dominion in connection with the operation of the military service law. One case attracted considerable attention in one of the districts of the North Island. A man who had three sons in the New Zealand Forces was 'accused of being a German, and a demand was made for the withdrawal of his sons. It was stated that the man had actually served in the German Navy. Investigation showed that he had been a lad living, in the Danish provinces when they were taken by Germany. His parent.--perforce accepted German nationality, and in doing so they made their s*on a German also in legal interpretation. The boy was drafted into the German Navy as a conscript, but he refused to 6erve. and most of the time he was aboard a German warship he was in irons. He escaped at the first opportunity, and eventually settled in New Zealand, where lie_ married and raised a family. Ho was able to convince the military authorities here that he need not be regarded as a friend of Germany.