TOURING CYCLIST

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 291, 7 November 1929, Page 14

TOURING CYCLIST

DR. DE VILNITS’S EXPERIENCES. TRIP DRAWING TO CLOSE. Travelling round the world on a motor-cycle, Dr. Julius P. De Vilnits, who is at present visiting Palmerston North, has had some experiences that have {seldom fallen to the lot of a white man. Among the places that he dias so far visited are Lithuania, Poland, Czecho-Slovakig, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, JugoSlovakia, Greece. Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Abyssinia, Belgian Congo, Burma, French Indo-China, China, Manchuria, Korea, Japan, Formosa, Hone Kong, Canton, Philippine Islands, British North Borneo, Straits Settlement, Sumatra, Batavia, Timor, New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. The doctor will traverse America and then will return to Australia. The tour has been financed by Dr. de Vilnits himself, who has paid his way by giving lectures and corresponding for several papers. His outfit is all British.

Dr. de Vilnits, who is only 28 years of age, has been on his tour for over four years and the object of it, apart from the natural human desire “to see th© world,” literally so in his case, is to gather material for a book. He has several scrapbooks and has taken upwards of 8000 photographs. Some of these are most interesting, one being of a Chinese execution, showing in grisly detail the horrors of wholesale butchery. He has also two autograph books and gets those who wish to do so to sign both, one being intended for the Returned Soldiers Museum in England. The signatures include those of Mussolini and Chang-tso-lin. He has also taken several hundred feet of cinematograph film. IMPRESSED WITH DOMINION. Dr. de Vilnits is much impressed with New Zealand. “1 like New Zealand very much,” he told a “Standard” reporter, “it’s a nice country and. the people are most hospitable. Considering that your country is still young, it has made wonderful progress. Great work has been done.” MECCA VISITED.

Few are the Christians who can claim to have visited Mecca, the holy city of the Moslem world, yet Dr. de Vilnits casually mentioned that he had been there. Pressed tor details, he briefly stated that he had met a band of pilgrims making the trip which is, the ambition of a Mahommedan’s life, and travelled with them disguised as an Arab.

Another exploit was traversing the thick jungle between Mulmein, in Durma, and Bangkok, the capital of Siam, sometimes known as the Venice of the Orient. The distance was 150 miles and occupied seven weeks, no white men being encountered. Dr. de Vilnits believes he is the first white man to perform this feat. Even in Australia the much travelled cyclist found adventure for he was implicated in a Darlinghurst shooting affray. It was in the Commonwealth that he met his wife, Miss Dagmar I. Buchardt, marrying her after a short courtship. Mrs de Vilnits is still in Australia, waiting for her husband to complete his trip. ACCOMPLISHED LINGUIST.

The doctor is an accomplished linguist, speaking Latvian, French, English, German, Russian, Italian, Serbian, Roumanian, Portuguese, Hungarian and Esperanto. On his travels he has found English the most used language, though French ana Esperanto have also proved very useful and he had the privilege of broadcasting in the international tongue from several Japanese radio stations. After he has finished his trip Dr. de Vilnits will return to his wife in Australia and prastise as a surgeon. His knowledge of his profession is as yet largely theoretical, but he lias taken advantage of his trip to visit hospitals in all countries and has managed to pick up all the ideas practised in other lands. There is a possibility that he may settle in New Zealand.