VARIED ADVENTURES

Hokitika Guardian, 1 March 1930, Page 2

VARIED ADVENTURES

. RADIO OPERATOR AND SOLDIER, NEW ZEALANDER’S 7 VARIED. EXPE.R lENCES. DURING WAR AND PEACE. WE I,LING TON, February 27. Anions those who arrived from Australia yesterday was .Mr A. J. Sawyer, formerly of Gisborne, who lias the spirit of adventure very strongly developed, and has ■managed to cram enough vivid experiences into the last twenty years to satisfy half a-dozen ordinary men looking'lor troubfo.'' Aft- Sawyer got his : first taste of unusual life on the outer edges of civilisation when lie joined ..the first Afawson Antarctic expedition in 1912, and was appointed wireless operator with the Atacquarie Island section and thus could claim to be the director o r the furthest south station in the world lie was there when the Rachel Cohen fa schooner from Hobart") overran her mark in stormy weather and fetched up at Stewart Island loaded with provisions for the men 400 miles to the .south. Tt was Sawyer’s message to the effect that provision were running low which induced:.the 1 Tasmanian Government to arrangewith- the- ;New Zealand Govorniuent-ftosend; .help. .So the Tutanekni steamed: into Paterson’s Inlet fat Stewart Island,V tr an shinned the provisions from TheLßuchel Cohen, and took them down*to:theidrpawest snot on earth—A *?*<s vte $ -dfii a ritf tlmv found VpHVvtßhft:jncii it;! inf. science living we 1 ! loiTr-fraeilL: sea. dle,i' -if t '■‘U.t'f : . ' pliants tongues’ ancj|'Rn4sian,jstjvijt,.,, in the ci|||3Bi:|! ! A![i; ' Next year was Hateful IH4 Seeking a patriotic outlook for his talent, .Mr Sawyer went- to. Sydney, and from there was appointed wireless •In-, cor at Nauru ''then recently captured from the Germans). Whilst •in this lonely outpost the old Union Steam Shpi Company’s steamer Pukaki was appointed to make ;i cruise in the Caroline group to make investigations in that direction. Air Sawyer was ordered, to join her as wireless op erator. That mission faithfully ful-

filled. the steamer was returning south

when her tail shaft broke. Such a mishap is had enough in the ocean traihc ways, but in the deserted waters south of the Carolines the situation was grave. She drifted for six weeks; then by loading the foreward tanks and lightening her aft, the difficult operation of installing the spare tailshaft was successfully performed and the Pukaki made Rabaul fin German New Guinea). Before they made port the Pukaki had been given up for lost by 'most people, and Air Sawyer believes she was posted as “missing” at Lloyds. At all events, when he returned to Nauru lie found that his belongings had been disposed of, and him self regarded as having “gone west” He resumed duty cheerfully, but an affection of the eyes took hmi hack to Sydney for treatment. WITH THE “A FA'S TER A" CORPS.” Rack in Sydney, and with his eyes right again. Air Sawyer enlisted in the “Aussie” Engineers. and with the “First Australian AA'iroless.” was soon adrift again hound for Afesopotamia, where thing had not been going very well with the British troops. Afnn.v of those who served overseas will remember certain officers, N.C.O.s and men of the mounted corps being withdrawn to join what, was called the ‘Afystery’ or ‘Hush, Hush’ expedition. “I was appointed to this corns,” said A!;- Sawyer, “and no one knew the objective uidij we were well under way It ..appears that our mission was to .make our way to a point ROD miles ; nnrth of, Bagdad, into north-west Persia, to t>’v to save a post, of Armenians ’whd; had bepn driven o”t of their country by the murdering Turks. ARMENIANS lAIPOSSIBLE. '(•“l.think the underlying idea was t-o 'got hold of the men and train them as sJdierk for use against the Turks; but there: is no' chance of making a soldier pi.t- of aii ' Armenian. It simply f-a.i t i.v done! : ; “Then they were Christians, and had to lie saved. AAV have always been trying to save the Armenians. Not even the Armenian can understand this, for one of them asked me why the British were always .so interested in them, and' when I said it was simply because they were Christians, he said cunningly, ‘T think we must he better Cl iris inns than you, for you to take so much trouble over us!’ From my observations I would say thhtl the only claim to

Christianity possessed by the Armen-

lans is that they are not Alohammed ans.” FORTY THOUSAND DEAD. “We made our way to a place called Anzeli, in north-west Persia, where w<. came upon a huge camp of starving Armenian refuges. There, too we encountered a big force ol Russian Boi shie” troops ,who told us to get out o! the country as soon as possible. A decision was made to take 100,000 wo men and children to a place called Baquba, and when 1 tell you that forty thousand died on the journey wil realise the horrors of the trek, then were not nearly enough lood supplier to go round, so the weak had simply to be allowed to fall and die by tin wayside. We bad not the force to se< that proper sanitary arrangements were made at each stopping place, s( that horrible diseases broke out, with a hideous torment of flies to spread it Then there were the dead and dying—the sick and the maimed! AVas then ever such a pitiable sight presented t< human eyes? Then the long caravar of starved people would be raided m the Kurds and Arabs, who would nisi down on the lines, fire a few shots and grab what they could in the way of arms and ammunition. The hue was too extended and our force too few to attempt to resist the raiders. Besides when they did shoot, the uppermost thought was that the victims were being put out of their misery.” STILL AArONG FIGHTING FORCE? When the war ended Air Sawyer saw further service under the flag. He wastransferred to the Indian Army, and a. 1 a wireless officer served in the Afghan outbreak of 1919, the Alarsud rising in 1920 and the Warizistan war of 1921. for -each of which campaigns he lias medals. His three years in North West India gave him a good insight into life in that part of the world and the ways of its many peoples. In a country so rich in big game as India .shooting was the most popular form o f snort. Always when an officer went shooting h-c took wjtli him 100 “Shikaris”. as guides, heaters and helpers That was because one novel' knew what would turn up. and usually what a Mohammedan would not touch, a Hindu would and vice versa, but with one of each the way was made easy.

Afi' Snvwcr was at Futegnrb, a hundred ■miles, from C'awnpore ('made famous in the Indian Afutiny) when the

Hindu rising took place, and General Dyer gave the order to the troops to fire, for which he was reprimanded—a reproof, which with its lmmilitating disgrace. Air Sawyer believes killed a man who was only doing his duty in a crisis. * OFF TO THE ANTARCTIC. Subsequently Air Sawyer returned to London (in 1921), and there finding Commander Cope organising the British Imperial Antarctic Expedition, he applied for the post of wireless officer. He found himself a shipmate of Sir j Hubert AVilkins, who has just return- 1 ed to Ahonte A 7 idoe from an expedition lie beaded. They got as far as South Georgia, when it was discovered that the vessel was not -suitable to stand the ice pressure, so back they went to England. SICK ALAN’S WARNING. Seeking further adventures. Air Sawyer anplied to the Demolished Officers’ Club, and after retailing hi« exoeriences, the officer in charge said he had the verv job for him—a post at Lake Tanganyika (Central Africa) as a sort of district engineer and ranger. Air Sawver accepted and was in Durban a few weeks later. On the shaded veranda of the hotel .where lie stayed the New Zealander encountered an invalid in a deck cludr, looking-v'*ry oale and wasted. Commiserating with him, struck up an acquaintance with the invalid, only to find that lie was th? remains of the officer he was to succeed. The sick 'man warned Sawyer not to go tip to the, lake. “If the fever doesn’t get you the lions will” said he wreck. Sawver took the adviw, at micp sent a cablegram to London declining the job, and came to Austral.a.

SAILING WITH A CHINESE

MILLIONAIRE

With an almost uncanny facility for picking up strange work, Air Sawyer had not been in Sydney long when he was offered the position of wireless operator on a private yacht owned by a Chinese millionaire, which was to cruise among the Gilbert and Ellice Groups. “This suited me fine,” said Mr Sawyer, “ft was a well-appointed yacht St. George, officered and engineered by Englishmen, lire owner was a Alanchu, very high caste Chinese, rt splendid fellow, and for a year we spent a wonderful time among these little-known islands of the Pacific.’ Later Air Sawyer has been in the employ of the Amalgamated A\ ireless Company of Australia and the New South AY aI ex Telegraph Department. Things were so bad in Australia owing to the strikes and financial stringency that he thought he would take the opportunity of seeing his own country again and thus has landed oil these shores once more.