CONSERVATIVE NO LONGER

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21631, 15 November 1935, Page 12

CONSERVATIVE NO LONGER

—;— I Change in English ] Outlook IMPRESSIONS or x.z. TRAVELLER -Seven years ago Em.;nmd fully merited the term 'cons-J/rvi.tive,' but now, I think, no orntty in the world is more progrcs.- vc or more alive to ihe ms of pre . sent-riay trad- ;m n..i-.--ry. At one time Englishmen "'-"e very difficult to approach: mev they are keen to meet visitors ;r-m the Dominions and from foreign '•■■■untries. and to find out the reo.uwc—rrts of those countries. Enah.-hmen certainly seem to be lookmg xor New Zealand's business." In these words Mr s -nn Buchanan, of Gloucester street Christchurch summed up the change in the English outlook v.hicn appears to have taken place m the seven years between his second and third visits to the country. Mr_ Buchanan returned on Wednesday alt.r a tour of exceptional interest, winch had lasted since the beginning of April. To a reporter or "lb'' tress 1 he o-ive illuminating impressions of conditions in Eastern countries and in southern Europe. _ Mr Buchanan's tour tout-; in a voyage up the eastern cows! »f AusIndia inside the Great Earner Reef, lound the Northern Territory to Darwin and then on to Java and Singapore. "He went on i« Penang b" rail and thence to Kanguon. and across India to Karachi. From Bagdad he crossed the Syrian desert bv the new motor bus route to Damascus. From Aleppo he went into Turkey and on to Athens by way of the Dardanelles. This was followed by a tour of northern Italy' and visits to Switzerland, France, and England. He returned to Sydnev. after a motor tour in the south of England, by the new Orient liner, Orion. Cheerful Italy In the north of Italy, said Mr Buchanan, the visitor could not fail to be impressed with the prosperous state of the people. "Everyone seems to be bright and happy. They are veil and fashionably dressed, and are charming and courteous to visitors." Even in the smaller centres there was a great deal of business activity and building works were going ahead at an incredible rate He saw no signs of military activity, and although the Abyssinian trouble was very much in the news, there seemed to be no exceptional excitement in the cities. "Venice was in striking contrast to Paris, which I found to be a dead city," Mr Buchanan said. "I was given to unde: stand that Paris was one of the brightest cities in the world, but it proved a great disappointment. Instead, it was dull and uninteresting." Business appeared to be stagnating, and even the stalls on the boulevards —a practice in which he could see no merit—appeared to be suffering from the general somnolence. Traffic control in Paris he considered, as a motorist of many years' experience, to be shocking. Prosperity Returns London, said Mr Buchanan, could still teach the world something about iratiie control. In spite of difficulties the like of which were experienced nowhere else, traffic was liandted smoothly and efficiently in tlie metropolis. Mr Buchanan drove 1500 miles in the South of England, and everywhere he went lie found the same atmosphere of keen enterprise. The building trade was booming in England as it had never boomed before. All tiie threat arterial loads which' had been constructed to carry crosscountry traffic had acquired a border of building'--. Thousands of houses \, are going up everywhere, a tut in London many enormous , blocks of ilats were m progress of construction. There was. indeed, an air of prosperity in mosi oountrh s ai tiie present time, said Mr Buchanan/ although, of course, it was more pronounced in .seme than in others. Switzerland he ioer:d to lie busy, clean, and eifi.i lent. Travelling from Switzerland into France, and leaving behind electric railways for steam trains provided an unwelcome change. The Swiss railwae stations .were _ beautifully designed and , spicndie.ly kept. Although New ; Zealand was sometimes described as the •'Switzerland of the South." there was no real basis of compari- ; son between the two. The New < Zealand mountains were either bush-covered or gaunt and bare, ; and were much more rugged than ; the peaks m the south of Switzerland. In the latter countrv the land I was cultivated right uo to'lhe snow- | line. Even the lakes could not proj vide a comparison, because the j Swiss lakes, almost invariable bor- ; dercd by towns or villages." were ; quite dtilcrent from the remote and bush-encircled lakes of New Zeai land.