ANONYMOUS LETTERS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 35, 28 September 1914, Page 3

ANONYMOUS LETTERS.

A CHRISTCHURCH RESIDENT THREATENED. Mr R. C. Zimmerman, of Christchurch, who is an Austrian by birth and a naturalised British citizen of twenty years’ standing, is being deluged with anonymous letters. In one case bo was threatened with death. On Thursday Mr Zimmerman handed a reporter a sample letter. It is written on newspaper “copy-paper,” and no apparent attempt has been made to disguise the hand-writing. The letter is as follows : Christchurch, September 23. 1914. Mr Zimmerman, —“How about clearing out and getting back to your, own country?” I’m sure your Raiser would be pleased to receive you. Whilst you are allowed to remain in New Zealand try and bo‘a man. You are here on sufferance; and are an alien-hare undesirable. Pull yourself together. AN ENGLISHMAN. Mr Zimmerman, in conversation with a member of the staff of the “Lyttelton Times” a few days after the war broke nut, said that ho would be glad to see the military autocracies of Austria and Germany put down. “I have served,” he said, “in the Army of Austria, and know a good deal of the inside life of the garrison towns of that country. In that Army T rose to the rank of lieutenant, and the scenes which I have witnessed make me glad to think that I have loft a country . ; o callous regarding the feelings of its inhabitants. Although I was born on the Continent, I am proud, like many another man, to recognise the freedom and protection afforded by the British flag.”