YES FOR NO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1940, Page 6

YES FOR NO

BALKAN COUNTRIES REVERSE GESTURES COUNTRIES OF CONTRAST. CENTRE OF MANY WARS. More wars have been fought in the Balkans than anywhere else in Europe (writes "1.5.” in the "Melbourne Age"). Yet it is wrong to picture these nations as a medley • of continuously quarrelling peoples. We hear and read of the peninsula as the "power magazine.’’ In addition, it is a picturesque countryside, where away from the centres of intrigue, there is peace and charm, and where simple inhabitants are steeped in folk loro and tradition. The Balkans belong to Europe only geographically. Balkan people going abroad say. “We go to visit. Europe;” they do not consider themselves Europeans. Their several languages are extremely difficult to understand, and the educated classes usually speak French or German (mostly French), in order to 'bridge the gap. Yet. when you have to do with the man in the street, even the almost universal device of communicating by gestures does not work in the Balkans. On the contrary, when you nod “yes,” it means "no,” and when you shake your head, pointing out that you do not agree, they take it for “yes.” . Can you imagine what a lot of misunderstandings arise from that confusion? Once I travelled through Bulgaria. In the capital, Sofia. I was so enchanted by the marvellous, colourful embroideries which the country women make and sell on the markets that I bought a lot. of them and trudged along through the streets carrying many parcels. Behind me one or two fairly dirty boys argued with one another and endeavoured to pull the parcels from my hands to get a tip for carrying them. I refused, shaking my head energetically to express “no.” Yet they took it for an invitation to help me; more and more urchins came along scenting business, and only the intervention of a policeman whom I addressed in French rescued me. Afterwards; I learnt I had to raise my head and to utter a smacking sound like “tiar” when I wanted to say “no.” A friend, asked by the landlord of a small country guest house whether he wanted his shoes repaired, shook his head in the ordinary negative way. Happy to have procured a job for his neighbour, the bootmaker, and io share the profit with him, the man look the shoes away, and my friend, who had brought only that one pair of shoes with him for the country trip, had to wait, barefooted a whole day till he got his shoes hack.

When I hear how difficult it is to come to an agreement with the Balkans Governments I remember these misunderstandings. TROUBLESOME CORFU. The island of Corfu, which holds a key position, in the Mediterranean, may pride itself on having been the most troublesome throughout its history. Situated in the Straits of Otranto, the gateway from the lonian Sea to the Adriatic, it is separated from the Albanian (now Italian coast by a narrow water-way. With six other small islands, it constitutes the group of the lonian Islands. • Corfu has always allured conquerors. Originally a colony of ancient Corinth, later on under the sovereignty of the Byzantine Empire, it. was successively invaded by Vandals. Eastern Gothic and Slavonic gangs. In the Middle Ages it belonged first to Naples, then to Venice, which bought it from Naples, and remained nearly 490 years (till 1797) under Venetian rule. Then trouble started again. It was conquered by France two years later by the Allied Turks and Russians; in 1815 it came under British protectorate, and, finally (in 1863) it was united with its mother country, Greece. What will happen to Corfu in the present war nobody can prophesy, but at any rate it reflects the story of a weak and powerless country alluring to powerful conquerors.

Influenced by the long Venetian rule, the buildings on that wonderful island are mostly erected in Venetian style, except the world-famous "Achilleion,” which was built to the plans of the former Austrian Empress Elizabeth, in ancient. Greek style. There the romantic empress lived lor several year,? till the wonderful palace was sold to the Kaiser, William 11. of Germany, wno did his utmost to spoil the charming place by genuine Prussian tastelessness.

Now the castle is owned by the Greek Government, and is one of the most, attractive spots for art-loving tourists. It is like a preface to the real Greek history written in stones. These stones, forming the proud remnants of the ancient Greek temples, tell in a language which cannot possibly be misunderstood how transitory the uiimoil of unimportant everyday life is! Talkative people become mute, pretentious ones modest, when facing these enormous edifices in the "holy town of Athens, the Acropolis, which have outlasted thousands of years. A plaything of the Great Powers m past centuries. Greece was repeatedly shaken by wars, and more than once hostile guns were aimed at the holy upper towns of Athens. Devastation was wrought and later on toilsomely repaired. But those wore poor guns compared with bombers’ raids ol' today. Will the most imposing witnesses of a glorious past be victims of the madness of the present?