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Press, Volume C, Issue 29699, 18 December 1961, Page 13

Seven years ago two young South Africans from Johannesburg were living in London, like hordes of other youngsters from the Commonwealth, to see the world and get what fun there was in life. They had a flat, which was more than hundreds of other young visitors had, and quite often friends from South Africa or other Commonwealth countries slept on the floor there, uncomfortably in sleeping bags, but thankful for a place to stay.

The young South Africans wanted to see the Continent, too, but they knew little of travel facilities or the dodges which can smooth the path of a European traveller, for, like most young people, their money was limited and they wanted to see as much as they could as cheaply as they could. From their own experiences and difficulties in overcoming the problems of the young traveller, an idea grew . . . and from that idea the Overseas Visitors’ Club was created.

The story of the Overseas Visitors’ Club is one of the fascinating success stories of the period since the war: a club that started out in a modest way to help a few youngsters find their first steps in London and has grown to a millionpound organisation that every year helps thousands upon thousands of Commonwealth people to travel safely and surely without worry. The two South Africans were Max Wilson and Chone Dredzen and now they, and two Londoners, are the joint secretaries of the club that started out in its first year with 600 members. At least 23,000 people are expected to use the club this year. Max is credited with first thinking of a club for visi-

tors, and he got the idea while he and his wife were planning a Continental caravan tour. It developed when they kept meeting acquaintances in London

who seemed always on the verge of being turned out of flats because leases were expiring or because arrangements had gone astrya. They decided to find a place where people could always go, safe in the knowledge that there would always be a bed for them. They found a broken-down old building in Earls Court that had been empty for the previous 18 months. It was filthy and very much in need of repair, but by Christmas, 1954, they had fixed up the basement, and four months later, the club had its official opening. From that humble start

the club has grown and grown until now there is a whole group of buildings scattered at Earl’s Court, catring for Commonwealth visitors and bearing familiar names . . . Kiwi House, Springbok House, Trebovir Court, Kangaroo House, and Beaver House. They are all modestlypriced places, aimed at the tourists’ needs.