NAMES AND PLACES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 27, 29 December 1939, Page 2

NAMES AND PLACES

Uruguay Uruguay, which has become _ s0 prominent in the news as a result of the first. important sea battle of the present war, is the smallest of the South American republics, and is bounded by Brazil, the Argentine and Rio de la Plata. Its chief city and port is Montevideo, one of the finest towns in South America, founded by Spain in 1726. Uruguay has a population of 1,941,398, mostly farmers. Sixty per cent. of the country’s industry is devoted to stock-raising, but wheat, maize, oats, tobacco, olives and wine are also produced in large quantities. One of Germany’s pocket battleships, the Admiral Graf Spee, now lies on the bed of the Rio de la Plata, five miles off the shore. The Rio de la Plata runs for 200 miles between the Argentine Republic and Uruguay. It is not, strictly speaking, a river, but rather an estuary, formed by the junction of the Rivers Parana and Uruguay. On one bank is the city of Montevideo, where the Admiral Graf Spee took refuge; on the other is the city of Buenos Aires, capital of the Argentine Republic. Some idea of the size of the Rio de la Plata can be gauged from the fact that Buenos Aires is 150 miles from its junction with the South Atlantic Ocean. Germany’s pocket battleships are (or were) the pride of her Navy. Three of them have been built at an estimated cost of £3,500,000 each. The first has been -destroyed-the other two are thought to be raiding in the high seas. Air Force Casualties So far the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force are the two fighting units in the war news. Last week the 14th casualty list of the Air Force was published and contained the names of two more New Zealanders who have been killed. They were Pilot Officer K. P. Hamilton, of Gisborne, and Pilot Officer B. Graham, of Waipukurau. Since the outbreak of war 464 members of the Royal. Air Force have been either killed or wounded. New Zealanders in Action Among the New Zealanders serving on H.M.S. Achilles, one of the warships involved in the destruction of the Admiral Graf Spee, are Surgeon-Lieut. C. G. Hunter, the ship’s regular doctor, and Surgeon-Lieut. C. A. Pittar, who was appointed after the outbreak of war. Lieutenant R. E. Washbourn, another member of the ship’s commission, comes from Nelson. Mrs. W. E. Parry, wife of the captain of H.M.S. Achilles, is at present in Auckland, where she has lived since her husband’s ship returned to England. Captain Parry has been made a Com.-

panion of the Order of the Bath in recognition of his services during the action against the Graf Spee. He is well-known in Auckland. Lieut.-Com-mander H. B. C. Holmes, member of a well-known family living at Matahiwi, near Masterton, was on H.M.S. Ajax during the recent naval action off Uruguay. German Island Bases At the time of writing, the work of the Royal Air Force over the North Sea is providing the most thrilling news of the war. Air Force squadrons are continually in the air, in an effort to prevent German ships from strewing the sea with mines. Sylt, which has been referred to in the news recently, is a small island in the North Sea, off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein, with an

area of 40 square miles. Before it became an air base for German aircraft it was a sea-bathing centre. Norderney, another of Germany’s fortified islands, is on the coast of East Friesland. It has an area of only five square miles. Prisoner in Germany George Vereker, who has been taken prisoner while en route from Moscow to England, was Acting Counsellor of the British Embassy in Moscow and was on his way to take up another post in Bolivia. He did not enter the Diplo-

_ matic Service until after the Great War, but he is regarded as one of the most promising men in the service, though little is known of him by the outside world. He has been stationed in Cairo, Peking, Budapest, Warsaw and Stockholm. Finland’s Struggle Finland, which is putting up a struggle against the attacks of Russia, to the wonder of the whole world, came of age this year. It is the seventh largest country in Europe and, until the war broke out, was rarely in the news of the day. Yet it is remarkable in every way. Twenty-one years and a few months ago General Mannerheim marched his White Guards into Helsinki, ended the War of Independence and established Finnish freedom on Finnish soil for the first time for seven and a-half centuries. The story of Finland’s history during those centuries has been the story of a dog-fight.

But during the last 21 years Finland has emerged as a miracle of progress and development, shaking off the legacy of oppressors. Her architects are among the first in the world-Elial Saarinen, who has built two noble railway stations at Helsinki and Viipuri; and Arvo Aalto, whose cool and beautiful library at Viipuri is the sort of place about which architects dream, but which few are capable of producing. Finland’s greatest sculptor is Aaltonen; Sibelius and Palmgren are her great musicians, recognised by the world.