TRAVELLING SOLDIER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 828, 23 November 1929, Page 11

TRAVELLING SOLDIER

FORMF.R AMERICAN LEGION HEAD HERE ONE MONTH'S VISIT Tht wand- riu.-t !s apparently strong' n< . . United States Army Reserve. Having! visited most parts of the world he has new tome to New Zealand for Hie first time. He arrived in Auckland from Wellington this morning. Setting out from San Francisco with the primary intention ol spending some time in the South Pacific Islands, he was persuaded m extend his trip to the Dominion. lie owes his visit, here, he says, to Miss Bathie Stuart,: the New Zealand Government publicity agent, who between. San Francisco and Tahi'i painted such u | glowing picture of New Zealand to him that he could not allow the opportunity to slip by. He spent two months in Tahiti and the Pacific Islands enjoying their tropical beauty, but the heat affected ais j health. A prominent figure in the United j States forces at one time, but now on | the retired list. Colonel Dindsley was j the first National Commander of -the American Region, which was organised after the Armistice. He is proud of the honoured post he held as held of an organisation now SOO,OOO strong and which, he claims, to be the largest veterans’ body in the world. During the war. Colonel Lindsley j served for a year in France on Gen- : eral Harbord’s staff on the Western • Front. During the month that Colonel Dindsley intends to stay in New Zealand he hopes to meet American ! Legionaires now living in New Zcu-i land, and also some of the New Zealand ex-servicemen whom he met during the war. He is also keenly interested as a student in the national enterprises in the Dominion, and hopes to be given facilities to examine the methods of administration of the New' Zealand Government in the conduct of the railway and telegraphs system. Government ownership is much more in evidence in this country than America, he says, though lie believes that it would not be possible for the Government to administer public enterprise to the same extent in the \ United States. AVIATION DEVELOPMENT The development of aviation was referred to by Colonel Lindsley, who is a prominent private pilot. The visitor mentioned that ho had flown about 15,000 miles in Europe, between Moscow, Constantinople and Paris, principally in commercial planes. Ho was then investigating commercial aviation on tho Continent, as tho personal representative of Mr. Herbert Hoover, who at that time, was Secretary of Commerce. Progress of aviation in the United States, at present, ho said, was largely due to the impetus given it by President Hoover. During his stay in the Dominion, Colonel Lindsley will remain about three weeks in the North Island, motoring and fishing. He expects to visit Rotorua, Taupo and Western Sounds, and may then go on to Mount ! Cook and other resorts.