A TRAVELLER

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1930, Page 7

A TRAVELLER

RETURNS FROM TOUR

MR BELL’S IMPRESSIONS

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Jan. 13. A year’s tour abroad has been concluded by Mr Robert Bell, of Christchurch, Chairman of the World Press Congress, who returned from Eurdpe by the- “Aorangi.” Mr Bell, who has travelled very widely in recent years, did not on this occasion go off the beaten track, hut he saw much of interest. After spending two months in the United States and Canada, lie crossed to England and later he made a comprehensive tour of the Somme battlefields. He said that he was much impressed by the completeness with which the cultivation had been rostered. Thu .Avar cemeteries wore lovingly cured for, and were gay with flowers. They were like islands in a sea of corn, among which poppies grow. A contrast was the battlefield of Vi my Ridge, preserved in its old desolation, as a memorial io the Canadians who captured it. Mr Bell spoke in very high praise of the work don by Mr H. T. B. Drew, New Zealand Publicity Office, in keeping the Dominion and its products ever before the eye of the British public. Regarding Lord Beaverhrook’s campaign for ‘Empire Tree trade, Mr Bell said that quite apart from the problems which the scheme raised in the Dominions, it was evident that there would lie much opposition in Britain to anything which tended to increase tho prine of food. Mr Bell was not occnnied with Press Congress business in the course of his trip. Tie was appointed President in 1926. and will hold until afteir the next Congress. which is expected to take place in 1931.