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I came to Australia on the maiden voyage of a ship named the 'Patris' where 75% of the passengers were single girls coming to Australia to get married. I was the only person on board beside the person from Immigration who could speak English, therefore was asked if I would like to give English lessons to passengers willing to learn. Although I was very sick , I jumped on the occasion to keep myself occupied and never missed a class. After celebrating Christmas on board, we finally arrived in Fremantle. There I was asked by Immigration and Custom Dept. to be an interpreter. I accepted and did my best but the hardest and saddest task was to explain to some of the girls that their fiance's got ‘cold feet' and no longer wanted to be married. Still the Immigration Dept. offered them lodgings and food until they made up their minds whether to stay in Australia or not and even promised to find them jobs if they chose to stay. I finally arrived in Melbourne in January 1960, received a cheque for 10 pounds for the English classes and the second week in January started work for a firm called Australian Guarantee Corporation.

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