“HONOURED GUESTS”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20108, 30 November 1939, Page 4

“HONOURED GUESTS”

N.Z. TOURISTS INTEREST IN U.S.A. “As New Zealanders we were treated everywhere as honoured guests,” said Mr. John Raine, a Wellington businessman, when discussing his recent experiences on a trip to England, Canada and the United States of America. He said that he had never met with such courtesy and hospitality as that accorded him, particularly in Canada and America. Everyone was closely interested in New Zealand and its people, and even the shop assistants appeared to treat one as a guest. “We were taken on trust because we were New Zealanders,” Mr. Raine added, “and I return proud of the fact that New Zealanders as a people were so highly thought of in those countries. Our financial difficulties are regarded as a temporary phase in the life of a growing country; and as a problem which we ourselves must solve.” On the crossing from England to New York, Mr. Raine travelled on a Holland-Ameriean liner, on which were 1200 passengers of all nationalities, only 300 of whom were Englishspeaking. Many of them were leaving Europe and seeking homes elsewhere, and some were returning to their homes in U.S.A. and other parts. “It was almost like a refugee ship,” Mr. Raine declared, “but everybody was happy—and all were anti-Hitler.” In U.S.A., Mr. Raine found the American people sympathetic with Great Britain’s cause in the war but firmly determined to keep out of the conflict at all costs. The authorities felt that U.S.A. could best help the Allies by the passage of the Neutrality Act, but at present nothing would draw them into the war.