BOY BATTLER

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 316, 1 September 1932, Page 7

BOY BATTLER

ADVENTU RES ON TOUR TRAVELS SEVENTEEN THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED MILES SOME ROUGH EXPERIENCES. George William Kenneth Savage, a 20-year-old Manchester high school boy, who nine months ago left home in search of adventure with only £2 in his poclcet, returned to England recently after covering 17,500 miles over seven countries. He had peddled kitchen utensils in England, scrubbed floors in the Canary Islands, sold "stunt" picture postcards of himself in France, Malta, and Egypt, done transport riding for the R.A.F. at Aden, and acted as chief steward in a 380ton coaster.

During his travels he has kept diaries which give intimate narratives of his experienees. They reveal that he has stowed away in two ships; been smuggled aboard one hy the crew and helped on his way; spent seyen days in a prison at Port Said, after heing arrested as a "globe trotter"; heen stabbed twice by "rock rats" at Marseilles and Aden, and bitten in the face during a cabin flght with a Somali native. "My intention was to work my way right along," Savage said to a Daily Express representative. "I earned money mainly by selling post-cards of myself. I have 500 of these printed, and after travelling to London with only £2 in my pocket went to Margate. That was in September of last year. From there I crossed to Calais by boat. I then visited Boulogne, Paris, Lyons, Dijon and Marseilles.

"I spent nights in the old Channel tunnel workings, in ravines outside the French capital, and in the shelter of trees. At Lyons the sale of my cards earned me about £2. 'While snooping around' one night for a boat I was approached by a beggar who aslced for money. I walked away. A moment later the 1 beggar struck me with a lcnife in the 8 leg. Although severely wounded I I closed with him and thrashed him until he ran off.

"I got aboard a boat bouncl lor Tunis and bid in a lifeboat. I spent three days and nights in the boat, fighting sea sickness all the time. "I made a little money at Tunis, and at the end of ten days was given a free passage to Malta in a cattfe ship. "Here I earned more than £5- selling my cards. In fact, I sold out and ordered another 500. Smuggled on Board "It was from here tliat I was smuggled aboard a tanker hy the crew. 1 The captain was the only man who did not know I was in the ship. "Soon Port Said was reached. I spent three days trying to get off. "Then I wandered into a police station and was arrested for heing a 'globe trotter,' and was 'put inside' for being an alien in Egypt. I was in ' gaol for seven days. "The authorities told me that I j would he returned to England, hut I ) managed to get clear by buying my- , self a passage down the Red Sea._ I took a berth in an Italian boat sailing 1 for Aden. It cost £8. I got work • in an hotel there, and later joined up with the transport riders who took nrovisions to the outposts.

"I was still in Aden at Christmas, | and six weeks later obtained a job as j chief steward in a pilgrim ship to Durban. It was in this ship, the | Halal, that I had a terrihle flght with a Somali in a cabin. "He was impudent to me over orders I had given him. I hit him, and he flew at me like a wild animal, and 1 he hit me in the face pretty severely. IThe Halal crew mutinied, and I was the principal witness at the inquiry. "I spent two months on the Zululand sugar plantations, and thenilre-l | turned to Durban, where I got a job as II | a solicitor's clerk. I had only been at 1 the office two days when I contracted ; malaria. It was some time hefore I I fully recovered, and then I decided to I return home."