COCKPIT OF EUROPE

Hokitika Guardian, 18 January 1933, Page 2

COCKPIT OF EUROPE

RACIAL PROBLEMS. SERBIA, ARMING HEAVILY. WELLINGTON, January 16. Some aspects of the problems at present facing the Balkan States, with special references to racial differences, were given by Captain Vladimir \ ■ Verbi, 0.8. E., on liis arrival at Wellington in the new motor-ship Wanganella from Sydney. Captain Verbi was quite positive that there was no prospect of tho Balkan peoples amalgamating into one united state. Racial differences were too strong, lie said. The Bulgars claimed that they wore the oldest race, going 800 or 900 years back for their proof, while the Serbs ,who since the Great War were the most numerous, were beginning to assert their authority.

The partitioning of territory in the Balkans, according to the terms of the Versailles Treaty, was far from satisfactory, Captain Verbi continued. The Treaty had obstensibly been framed to protect minorities, but it seemed that it had been partitioned, ana tracts of territory had been allotted to Serbia on the one hand and to Rumania on the other. Those Bulgarian people who had come under Serbian rule would gradually be assimilated into the Serbs, thus losing their nationality, while* this would not be the case of those who were under the sovereignty of Rumania, The Rumanians were a Latin race, and the Bulgars were Slavs, consequently they would hardly mix, and many of the Rumanians who were inhabiting the territory ceded to Rumania, were returning to their native country to poverty rather than remain under the dominance of the Rumanians.

COMPARISON WITH IRELAND. Captain Verbi compared the situation in the Balkans, with that of Ireland at the present time. Both the Serbs and the Bulgars were Slavonic people, just as the Irish came from a like stock; but there were differences between the two Balkan people which made them irreconcilable. One aspect which was not. making for harmonious relational between the Balkan races was that Serbia, through being a victorious Ally in the war, was permitted to arm, and arming she was to the teeth. Serbia’s air force, Captain Verbi believed, was as strong as that of Britain. Bulgaria,, on the other hand, was in a similar position to Germany, and could arm only within very restricted limits. All these differences did not make for peace, and things at present were becoming a little tense in the “cockpit of Europe.!’ Captain Verbi has lmd an interesting life, and one that , most .people would envy. Born in England in. 1873 he was at school in England from the age of 14 to 16, nticl having returned to the Balkans was at the Robert College, Constantinople, when he met Dr Gascoigne Wright, a Uganda ipissionary who* was going to practise medicine in Palestine. He became interested, and offered himself for missionary work in Africa. He was first stationed at Taveta, which Karl Peters «vas then claiming for the Germans, but, after ten years and three attacks of blackwater fever there lie was moved to the Tnijta hills. SERVICE IN EAST AFRICA. Immediately on the outbreak of the war in 1914, Captain Verbi was asked for his .services by the Kenya Government, and until 1921 he was a special service officer attached to the East African General Headquarters. He saw active service throughout the war in East Africa, and for his work in recruiting natives to construct an important railway for the conveyance of troops and munitions, without which German East Africa could not have been captured, he received the 0.8. E. from the hands of the King. After the Armistice Captain Verbi was sent to Russia with the British Military Mi&sion, and in 1920 lie was placed in charge of Russian refugees at Lemnos. He retired from the mission four years ago, to settle on his estate at Ngferoni, in the Taita hills.

NATIVES BEING SPOILT. Captain Verbi has been travelling extensively recently, and lias paid numerous visits to his relatives in Bulgaria. He (Jonfessed .that ijn his view the East African native is being spoilt, European settlers, missionaries and officials vicing without serious consideration of the Ulness of future native development. The natives, he said, wera being given Christianity suited to England only, and such controversial questions as women’s rights and the like were introduced. Before the war the natives saw very few white men, and these behaved themselves well; but now, with the growth of transport, they were being brought more and more into touc.'i with civilisation. They saw tlie hatred's, and aoiim’osit-ies of the civilised world, and not unnaturally began to imitate them. Captain Verbi, who speaks Bulgarian, Russian, French. English, and some African tongues, is in New Zealand on a short holiday visit.