DRAMATIC REUNION

Hokitika Guardian, 31 October 1933, Page 5

DRAMATIC REUNION

RUSSIAN AND WIFI! STORY TOLD ,IN WELLINGTON. {Per press Association, Copyright). . WELLINGTON,' October 30. A strange and dramatic story yf three .anxious years spent in- tracing his Russian wife to bring her with him back- to New Zealand, wag to:d to a reporta-.' to-day by Andrew Trebukiiii; a former (Russian subject. . in 1930, he left .New Zealand, go that hig wife, 'Maria, wno had. been forced by • circumstances to wait for him in the Ukraine .for; fifteen years, could join him; ' v It was’. -not until early this’ year that; the two were ;.t last .successful,.',in the face of for. dable difficulties—political and otherwise—in. coming together. 'They r'r- • rived in Wellington ," last week from •Manchuria" via ‘Sydney on the Wattganella. \' , ’ \ ’ ' Trebukin was ' born in ’ the Ukraine, whefie he ~and. his. wife- -were what are now called in the Soviet" “kulaks”— a derisive: term for,: an , independent farmer. ' iHe left '. his .wife' 1 ' ; there In 1915, and dame to Wellington, where he worked as,a carpenter, He'was not in’. a position ,returp-for Jus wife until early in. 1930,.? when he went to Harbin, in ,Manchuria, ;,)yith the intention of. getting 'her...across' the Rusf. n border, three hundred miles away.

• He,-was .in Manc.huria(.• , for tl 20 years,, and, .’during that time, bath he and his wife, from the opposite' sid<js of the-border, • /were.: kept ~ continually in .a state of ,anxiety,'andsometimesof despair, apd. they had many discouragirig experiences. Almost inoperable difficulties were placed in the way 'of; any forking piain. or • woman who wished* to leave the Qoumry, and one of the- greatest -of these, was the surveillance that took -place over all correspondence. T - /'’ 1 >. • ; , Duripg. many, of., his first, months of waiting in 'Harbjn, ."Jhet 'did not 1 fi-ow where his ’wif^”,was'. ."-In’,.fact; he did not knojv whether, .she. r .was, still at' je. The lost news that hejiad heard Lom her some before was'that .'she; was in bad health;' land* that she ' could not get sufficient* „ fppjl and clpthipg. It was not until' .be'•‘heard/ 'from' "her mother, who is in Riga/ that she • .vaa alive and. was ", still : in 'the Uk- ine that he was able to do anything. Then there • foHowed>.a," tedioug: business', of makipg. secret arrangeinents . for her to lehve ißussia'jf-i 'd U j •’'fm " • ’ ' Her mother, in Latvia, was' a'-ting a-s the intermediary 'in their acrespondence,. and was ensuring the . safe and unopened arrival of the. letters. Sometimes his wife would have to move to another part of ,the country, and, on'those occasion’s, there'"were enfo-sed silences from- hor, and hep ndjlress' would jmt bo known often for months' ’at ft ■time. • : ■ ' V V" \

In 'February, 1933, the* ; wife , was able to slip secretly across the F ’.saoManchurian borcler; .and husband and wife met,, after Having been separated for eighteen years; but Trebukiu’s natural delight at meeting her a 4 last received % dismal icheck ■on seeing ;her appearance. ; She,, ip a state of semi-starvation-and exhaustion. Her clothing was a. large and-thick rack, with holes cut for hep heck afd arms. Only 'after months of care and;. ttention was she in ...a .fit condition to undertake the journey tq New Zealand, which had beep for . hex the promised land for so many years ; but it was a radiantly happy couple thet, on their secopd honeymoon, arrived .at Wellington onvt'he' Wangapella.