FROM “GEDDES AXE” GREW CONVOY TOURS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 11

FROM “GEDDES AXE” GREW CONVOY TOURS

NAVAL OFFICERS’ SCHEME

When the “Geddes axe” fell on the Navy after the war many of the officers found themselves without work.

It was typical of the Navy that these men should immediately look round for something to do—something in which there was a touch or adventure.

From the “Geddes axe” grew Convoy Tours, a tourist agency which has the personal good wishes of Eord Jellicoe. Convoy Tours was started in London just after the war by Commander Stuart Peile and Commander G. R. Bradley. The organisation now has agencies all over the world. A representative of Convoy Tours, Lieutenant B. H. Alexander, R.N.V.R., called at THE SUN office to-oday. He came to New Zealand on a holiday trip, and met Captain Middleton, of the Royal Naval Reserve, at whose suggestion ho Joined Convoy Tours.

Lieutenant Alexander is on the eve of his departure for England again to co-operate with the Government publicity office there. He explained the birth of the Convoy Tours movement and said that it was started with the object of getting people to travel abroad under in the service of #x-naval officers. Convoy Tours arranges trips abroad or it will arrange personallyconducted tours if they are wanted. The New Zealand Government Tourist Office has given Lieutenant Alexander its support. When he arrives in London he will meet Lord Jellicoe and Sir James Parr, High Commissioner, and on his way Home, via California, he will meet Lieutenant-Colonel J. Bailey, who is representative of several clubs which are allied with the Legion of Frontiersmen. Lieutenant Alexander will deliver lectures in California and try to remedy American lack of knowledge regarding New Zealand and its possibilities as a tourist resort. In England Lieutenant Alexander will lecture in the colleges and industrial centres and will also pay a visit to Beardmore's, the shipping people, to whom he is related. He will also interest himself in sending out the right kind of immigrant—the schoolbay and the small farmer. Lieutenant Alexander has a fine selection of pictures of New Zealand and a very thorough knowledge of the Dominion. His object is to give a true picture of the country—its beauty, its sporting possibilities and its charm. He will tell the trutli about the accommodation, which has been rather badly described by some people. “I am satisfied that if you get the right kind of tourist your trade will increase and a considerable amount of unemployment will be done away with.” said Lieutenant Alexander. An office for Convoy Tours is to be opened in Auckland and Lieutenant Alexander will settle here when he returns from England.