RESCUED AIRMEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 50, 27 January 1938, Page 14

RESCUED AIRMEN

CONDUCT RESENTED ON LARGS BAY. I SYDNEY, Jan. 14. | The conduct of the two .Italian air- ' men serving with the insurgents in the Spanish civil war who were picked up at sea near Cadiz by the Largs Bay was strongly criticised by several of the passengers by the liner, which reached Sydney yesterday from Loudon.

The feeling was such that the passengers were divided into factions, some of them so resenting what they described as the Italians’ boastful and arrogant attitude that they refused t*o eat with them, speak to them, or attend any social functions at which they were present. The men were found in a seaplane about 4 p.m. on December 4. They were firing distress signals, and a boat’s crew picked them up without difficulty. The seaplane was left to its fate.

Mr George Bignall, an electrical engineer and former trade union secretary, returning to Australia from England, said that a very large number of the ship’s passengers leseutcd the general attitude of the Italians.

“Their whole manner while they were on board, to say the least, was unfortunate.” he said. “Their first act when they climbed the gangway was to give the Fascist salute, and they kept on giving it at frequent intervals. They behaved as though they had done something heroic. Some of us, who considered them little better than pirates, got very tired of the boasting and the salutes, so we refused to have anything to do with them.”

Mr John Fitzcr, a stage and screen actor, returning to Australia, said that some passengers had shown a tendency to lionise the rescued men. This had been keenly resented by others. The airmen had seemed to him good types. “A Russian ship passed the airmen shortly before wo reached them, but made no attempt to pick them up,” said Mr Fitzcr. “Later we heard that the airmen had fired on the ship, so perhaps the Russian’s attitude was excusable.”