Blame the Kiwis!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 349, 1 March 1946, Page 8

Blame the Kiwis!

Why do they come? Blame a little on our "unofficial ambassadors-at-large," the Kiwis. Undoubtedly our servicemen are the most popular of the "occupying" troops in England. A soldier cynic offers the explanation: "Not many of us and we haven’t been here too long." But the Air Force have. Whatever the reasonsand the quiet, courteous conduct of alli our men, as well as the trim smartness and pleasant voices of our girls, are, I think, the main ones — English, Irish, Scots and Welsh all like us. So they develop an interest in our country, And what Kiwi doesn’t enjoy painting a picture of the home-town to a good listener? Often the rose-coloured glasses that are part of the mental kit of every exiled serviceman encourage a picture that glows with goodness, and convinces the audience that we are even too modest when we talk about "God’s Own Country." Blame a bit on Social Security. And on the Merchant Navy and Royal Navy men who,have been well treated in New Zealand during the war. But, baldly, the majority just want to leave England; Demobbed servicemen, unsettled by the war, uncertain of civvy street; married couples who want to "give the kids a better chance"; qualified men doubtful about the prospects in their profession; men with money who distrust investments here in Britain and find our | income-tax more attractive; retired ‘people who want a better climate; tradesmen who say "We've good prospects, but ‘money’s not everything"; bombed-out people who have to start again, anyhow -all dissatisfied with continuing austerity, ‘doubtful if England will ever be the same pleasant place that it was before the war. Escapism’ is not the whole story. The urge to try one’s hand and luck in another country, the courage to "make a break" that sent our forefathers across ‘the width of the world is still alive in these English emigrants.