LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week " paragraphs. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, end the latter must be accompanied by the name and address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR]
- THE GERMAN FRONTIER HOLD-UP
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—I am somewhat surprised to discover on my return to England this week-end, after attending a conference in Prague, how little is generally known in this country of the incon- venience and in many cases hardship to which many hundreds of British travellers were subjected at German frontier towns on Saturday and Sunday, May 21st and 22nd. On account of what can only be supposed to have been a grossly careless breakdown in the German bureaucratic organisation, it is probable that the great majority of those travellers will for some time to come take pains when arranging their conti- nental visits to avoid the possibility of a repetition of their experience.
For reasons which it is no business of mine to discuss, the German authorities apparently decided once more to require British subjects proceeding to Germany to obtain a visa, or a transit visa if travelling through to another destina- tion. Unfortunately that decision was implemented with almost incredible inefficiency. The German embassies and consulates appear to have been quite incorrectly informed as to the day upon which the new requirement would take effect, and British travellers who had taken the precaution of consulting them before starting upon their journey found themselves subsequently held up and turned back at the frontier towns for lack of visas which the German consulates had declared to be unnecessary and which for lack of instruc- tions they had been unable to furnish.
My own experience may serve as an illustration. With two companions I arranged to leave for Prague on Saturday, May 21st, by the 3 p.m. train from Victoria. At 12.3o p.m. on that day an official of the institution which made my arrangements telephoned to say that they had learned from Paris that German visas might be required, but that they had just ascertained from the German Embassy that none were in fact necessary for British subjects travelling on Saturday or Sunday. Nevertheless notices were. posted on the railway stations at Victoria and Ostend to the effect that British subjects would require visas (fee 13s. 6d.) or transit visas (fee 3s. 6d.), which would be available at the frontier. No British traveller by that train who had tried to obtain a visa from a German consul had succeeded in the attempt.
At about x a.m. on Sunday morning the train arrived at the frontier at Aachen. All British subjects, with the exception of those carrying passports of the self-governing Dominions including Southern Ireland, were there required by plain- clothes officials to dress and remove themselves and their baggage from the train. No explanations and, I regret to add, to the best of my knowledge no expressions of regret or apology were forthcoming ; for lack of visas, Sie maisen zuruckgehen. British passengers were obliged to proceed as best they could, carrying all their own baggage, to another platform to await the 2.3o a.m. train back to Liege. When the train arrived, already fairly crowded, their passports were returned to them and they were seen on board. No exceptions were made ; for instance, an elderly lady hastening to Pilsen to attend the burial of her aged mother on Sunday afternoon was turned back with the rest. At Liege, which we reached at 4.3o a.m., the one waiting-room was already packed with stranded British passengers sent back by an earlier train, and still later another train from the frontier brought back another load. Everyone was of course required to pay the return fare, and I lost my sleeping-berth.
The British Consul at Liege, for whose patience and sym- pathy when telephoned to at 5.30 a.m. I cannot adequately express my appreciation, began his Sunday's work at 2 a.m., on behalf of the hundred, or hundreds of, fellow nationals who began at dawn to assemble outside the German Con- sulate. The German official who arrived at 10.30 a.m. was clearly without definite instructions. Visas were not quickly forthcoming. He announced that he could not issue many : the charge would be specially raised, it being Sunday, from
96 to 1°6 francs, and in the case of transit visas from 24 to 3o • francs. He urged as many as possible of the crowd to disperse and return on Monday. Some of the intending tourists abandoned their plans for a holiday in Germany and returned to Brussels ; others indicated their determination to wait outside his office until he dealt with them. As noon ap- proached, the grant of visas was begun. An exhausted young lady who had the temerity to query the Sunday Zuschlag was mortified to see her visa refused, and departed in tears ; but after Mittag-cssen the official accelerated his pace and lowered his charge to loo francs and 25 francs. By four o'clock on Sunday afternoon my turn came, halfway down the queue, and I departed. What happened to those behind me I do not know. I arrived in Prague only twenty-four hours late ; but minus two nights' sleep, the price of a wagon-lit berth, two fares between Liege and Brussels, and my enthusiasm for German efficiency.
No doubt the German authorities intended none of these things, but what happened at Liege was apparently paralleled by the experience of British travellers arriving at every other frontier town. Everywhere people were held up for lack of visas which German consuls had no instructions to issue. Many hundreds of British travellers have lost the faith they had in the infallibility of German bureaucracy and their taste for German travel : others feel confirmed in their unfriendly disposition. The pity of it is that it was all quite unnecessary.
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