SEVEN YEARS' CYCLING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1940, Page 12

SEVEN YEARS' CYCLING

INDIAN VISITORS ADDRESS

E.S.U.

During the past seven years, three young Indians from Bombay, Messrs. Schroff, Khandhi, and Kheras, in the course of a cycling tour, have travelled in forty-one countries, and are now visiting New Zealand

They gave an interesting account of their wide experiences at a meeting of the English-speaking Union travel circle last night, and when explaining the object of their tour, said that it was to prove that peace could largely be established by travel. A travelled person's outlook was widened and therefore they should have a greater understanding. In the course of the tour the speakers said they were also studying social relations, and hoped on their return home to be able to help their own people. In 1933 they had left India, and would continue their tour for another three years. Their travelling averaged from 70 to 100 miles a day, but in difficult country they were sometimes forced to carry their bicycles.

Their adventures included encounters with wild beasts in Indian jungles, crocodiles in East Africa, an 80 mile ride across a, desert without water or food, 15 days' imprisonment in Turkey, where' they were arrested, being mistaken for spies, but were eventually permitted to leave the country under an armed escort. They had also visited the British Isles, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany,. Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria, Africa,, Spain before the civil war, and many other countries. ,

The talk was illustrated with lantern slides, the visitors being introduced by Mr. Frank Pears, chairman of the travel" circle. .' Supper was served at the conclusion of the lecture.