HUNGARIANS FIND A NEW HOME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 911, 25 January 1957, Page 7

HUNGARIANS FIND A NEW HOME

SPECIAL programme, "Distant Refuge," about the arrival of Hungarian refugees in New Zealand, will be broadcast in the Main National Programme on Sunday, February 3, at 9.30 a.m. William R. Roff, of the NZBS Talks Section, who compiled it, desctibes here some of his experiences while preparing the programme. {Tt was a bright, sunny day. In the bus on the way from Wellington to the immigration hostel at Trentham, I spoke to the young couple across the aisle from me. Ivon had beem a schoolteacher in Budapest, and he holds two diplomas from the agricultural university there. His pupils had taken a major part in the rising. He thought, and was pleased to think, that his superiors might suspect his teaching. So they left. Ivon’s wife, Edith, looked young and tired, her gentle

eyes resting gratefully on the hills around the harbour. She spoke less English than her husband, and presently, when there was a break in our conversation, she turned from the window and spoke to him in Hungarian. He smiled and translated for me: "She says, how much cost to hire a piano in New Zealand?" Experiences like this have been common among those who have had anything to do with the Hungarian refugees arriving in this country since the middle of December. So far we’ve become host to about 470, and another 60 reach Auckland by air on January 23. After that it’s hoped to receive 500 more by sea. Most of them, unlike Ivon and Edith, can speak no English, many are without personal possessions apart from the clothes they wear, and they’re all tired and over-strained after their experiences —

in Hungary and the journey to the South Pacific. When I asked one woman how long they had been travelling, she said, "Five years in the aeroplane, one year in the train from Auckland." It seemed quite possible. What sort of people are they? From what one can gather, this was a young person’s revolution, and that is reflected in the composition of the groups we’ve so far received. The average age of the first draft was well below 30, and the later arrivals are very little older. The majority are single men and women, from almost every walk of life-there are bricklayers, needlewomen, precision engineers, a surgeon, labourers, and even a film actress. In time, when they’ve learnt English, this country will be enriched by the addition of many valuable skilled workers, But their skill is only

part of the story. In the course of preparing this programme I spoke to many of these people, and among the questions I asked was what they wanted to do first. Without exception they answered, "Get a job." For them a job, any kind of job to start with, is the symbol of all they hope for-money, companionship, a home, a settled place in the community, no longer to be refue gees, prisoners, or something other than themselves. The two-way process has started. At the immigration hostel I watched an official sit hour after hour, with endless patience, kindness and cheerfulness, interviewing the Hungafians through an interpreter, finding out exactly what job would suit them best. Alongside him was another official with a list of the homes that had been offered, from end to end of the country. He told me of the people in a southern city who had made available a newly-furnished house, and who were waiting with a hot meal to greet the family who would occupy it. I myself met a man and his wife who had offered both home and schooling to a 15-year-old girl. And the appeals conducted throughout the country have ene abled the welfare organisations to provide much in the way of clothing and comfort. The task of settling down will not always be easy, for the experience and way of life of these people has been very different from our own. But the reply of Judith, a secretary, when I asked her whether she thought she would ever return to Hungary, will stand for them all. She said: "I expect I may be sometimes homesick for my country, but the goodness I have experience of New Zealanders will help me through this illness. I shall not go back." (Replacing the usual UN programme from YAs and YZs on Friday, February 1, will be a special ‘UN feature, "What Do They Want?" made in the Hungarian refugee camps in Austria.)