TRAVELS ABROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 111, 13 May 1935, Page 9

TRAVELS ABROAD

JOURNALIST'S EXPERIENCES

After about thirteen months' absence abroad, during which time he travelled extensively in Great Britain and on the Continent, Mr. Lan D'onnelly associate editpr of the Christchurch Sun," • returned to the Dominion ' today, /arriving at Wellington from England by the Kemuera. Among* countries visited by Mr. Donlielly were Russia, France, Germany, Switzerland, n went to Switzerland," he said jocularly, "to see if the League of Nations was behaving itself—and it was.".- :-"■■■:■ v -i-,. •■.-.. -. ;■ .. ■•. .-. ■ .

While he was away Mr. Donnelly wrote' a; book entitled "The Joyous Pilgrimage," ' which; according to latest advices, is to be on the market this month. The- book, said Mr. Donnelly, dealt with a colonial's reaction to.England. He had had interviews with alii sorts of people, and the book contained studies, among others, of Sir Stafford ;Cripps, Mr. J. H. Thomas, and Mr. James Maxton. • > . .

It had been : stated, said Mr. Donnelly in response; to a question, that he had .spent a week with de. Valera. That was rather wide of the mark, although, he had met, de Valera at Geneva and had talked with him. He had also met Mr. Tom Mann, the old Labour stalwart, in Moscow,1 ■ •'

Mr. Donnelly also saw a good deal of many of the prominent literary people ml England. From his interviews he has written studies of J. B. Priestley and Walter de la Mare. Mr. de la Mare, he. said, was well over surty years of: age, but he did not look it, and was astonishingly vigorous. Among others he saw was G. K. Chesterton. He met also a good many men prominent in journalism, including Mr. J. L. Garvin, editor of the "Observer," and Sir Norman Angell., As far as an outsider^ could sense the temper of Europe, ' said Mr. Donnelly, things were never worse from an international point of'view. He found that the tourist and foreigner received a good deal in Germany. It was the only country in which a visitor was.- treated • decently in the matter of exchange. The tourist received his marks at par. It was vastly different in France.