You say that there was not much sense in the way Displaced Persons were employed in Australia when they arrived here as contract workers. You say that they were directed to jobs without any regard to their qualifications. You bring examples. You say that a young man, big and robust like a Schwabian ox, and half illiterate, a professional labourer worked as an office cleaner, and an elderly, physically weak, but highly educated man with valuable qualifications was employed as a grave digger; an architect had to milk cows and a gardener worked as a cement caster; a mason worked as a cook and a cook as a tractor driver; an astronomer laboured as a kitchen man and a teacher as a cheesemaker. You say that the more educated a man was, the less suitable job he had. Well, maybe! I don't wish to contradict you. But I cannot agree that it was bad. No, it was not always bad, sometimes it was good, even very good! If you don't believe me, then listen, please, to the following story. Then you will see that thanks to that mess in the employment of former Displaced Persons a big Australian snake was deprived of a first class dinner in person of one of my friends, and the latter escaped certain death owing to his wrong employment only.

It happened as follows.

My friend, an expert of international law, formerly Professor of Warsaw University, later on a Polish diplomat, came with his large family to Australia as a contract worker. In Bathurst Reception Centre, where they stayed for a short while, he was separated from his family.

The latter was transferred to the Woodside Holding Centre in South Australia, but he himself was directed to a sugar cane plantation in Queensland. There he had to live in a tent, as tens of thousands of Displaced Persons did all over Austalia, and to work as a sugar cane harvester.

Although this work was too hard and unfamiliar for him and the way of life he had to lead amidst sugar cane plantations was very different from the conditions he was used to, he was a gentleman and wished to remain a gentleman inspite of his rough job and primitve conditions. As he was always noted for his elegance in dressing and his gallant manners, he couldn't do otherwise than to continue in the same spirit. He therefore stubbornly stuck to all his former ways and habits as a gentleman and scholar.

So, every evening, after having finished his work and washed and shaved himself thoroughly, he used to put on his best suit, patent shoes, white gloves and a bowler, and go for a walk along the edges of the fields. A person of such an appearance was, no doubt, a rare phenomenon upon the local scenery, so no wonder that his fellow workers and bosses considered him not just queer, but even outright crazy. They knew, however, that he was a professor, and — according to their understanding — a mixed state of mind was an obligatory quality of every true professor. Besides, apart from his gala dress and his bowler-hat he was terribly absent-minded. It was a usual thing for him to say "good morning" in the evening and vice versa. While speaking to a woman he would sometimes address her "Sir", but call a man "Madam". Such absent-mindedness could not fail to contribute a lot to his reputation as a nut. Yet, he was exceedingly polite towards everybody and treated every rough fellow as if he were a true gentleman, so that even the worst ruffians exercised some kind of restraint in his presence.

Those who did respect him very much, were the aborigines. Every evening, by the time the Professor had his usual walk, they gathered on the top of a hill near the edge of a field he always passed. They stood there, a group of black men, women and children, watching his movements in awe. They had never before seen a person dressed like that. They were particularly impressed by his white gloves and bowler which he would politely lift while passing near them. It was not surprising then if they thought that he was a spirit or a great magician and were afraid to approach him, although they respected him very much arid felt an urge to present him, as a sign of their deep esteem, a string of crocodile teeth or a boomerang.

All this is, by the way of introduction only.

One day the Professor was taking his usual walk. He was slowly going along the edge of a sugar cane field in the manner he used to walk, once upon a time, along the Champs Elyssees, Broadway or Unter den Linden, when he was a member of the diplomatic corps. His hands in white gloves were crossed on his back and his professor's head, which was full of thoughts about the deficiencies of international law owing to the lack of compulsion, was adorned by his awe-inspiring bowler. As he was walking so, he was watched, as usual, by the group of black fellows on the top of the hill.

He didn't notice that the black fellows on the hill suddenly began shouting something to him in an excited manner. He was unaware that they saw a gigantic snake creeping along the track in his direction and that they wished to warn him. He neither heard nor saw anything, calmly walking towards the snake, which — believe me was the size of the legendary sea-serpent. It was a giant of a snake, anyway.

The nearer the snake got to the Professor, the more signs of bloodthirsty excitement she showed, her long brown body assuming a remarkable flexibility and swiftness. The few remaining yards she covered in a fragment of a second, emerging all of a sudden in front of the Professor. Then, her tail twisting itself in multiple coils, her repugnant head rose with the speed of lightning at the height of Professor's face and stiffened for a second in this position, her mouth with a protruding and swiftly moving forked tongue , wide open, her dark round eyes deep and hypnotic, and repulsive like the abyss of vice or sadistic crime.

Only then the Professor vaguely noticed that somebody was in front of him. He seized his bowler, lifted it in a hurry and said: "Good morning, Madam!" Under the impact of the movement of his hand the snake instinctively drew her head higher, and the bowler knocked her upon the nose. She stiffened in a state of shock for a second.

"Excuse me, Sir!" said the Professor and moved on, lifting again his bowler and again knocking the serpent upon her nose.

Only then he noticed that this was neither Madam nor Sir, but a giant of a snake.

Before he was able to react in any way, an unexpected thing happened. The snake panicked and her upper body collapsed. She stretched herself on the ground, turned around and shot away with the speed of a bullet, disappearing in the sugar cane like a frightened mouse.

And so, ladies and gentlemen: can you imagine what would have happened if instead of our Professor there were somebody else, more suitable for the work and conditions in question.

Yes, now and then it was really good that they did not take much notice of the education and qualifications of Displaced Persons in this country.