“ALL GOOD CHAPS”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1941, Page 6

“ALL GOOD CHAPS”

TRIBUTE OF CZECHOSLOVAK SOLDIER. SERVING WITH NEW ZEALAND FORCES. (NZEF Official News Service.) CAIRO, June 26. A native of Czechoslovakia is now a driver in a New Zealand ambulance unit in the Middle East. This is the story told by a young Czech who found in New Zealand a haven of freedom which he had previously not dreamt possible. He is 29 years of age, and was born in Pi ague, where he received a good education completed by two years at King Charles University. He speaks a soft, gutteral English, but with easiness and aptitude. From the university he took up a position as a clerk, and then he was called up for the Army. In. the army of pre-Munich Czechoslovakia, he attained the rank of ser-geant-cadet, which is equivalent to our own Officers’ Training Unit. Then came the Nazis sweeping through his country like a scourge, and with them came the demobilisation of the splendid Czech Army. There was only one thing to do—to get out. He had heard of New Zealand in a far-off sort oi way, and he determined to make his way there. The army had been demobilised on December 13. 1938. He left his country on the 31st of the same month, and arrived in New Zealand on February 20, 1939. ' In Auckland he obtained a position as a driver. With September came the cutbreak of war. Immediately he enlisted for service with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, but on grounds of alienship he was refused His third attempt at enlistment proved successful, and he arrived in the Middle East in a rifle battalion in the third contingent to leave the country, some time after transferring to his present unit. This young Czech, who speaks with fluency in English, Czech, French, German, and all Slav languages, including Russian, has picked up a fair quota of New Zealand slang. “Too right I like the New Zealand army,” he said. “It is not nearly so strict, and a lot more pleasant than any other army I know of. It’s not so tough to be in. They’re all good chaps. Yes, it’ll do me.”