Seeing the World

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 248, 21 October 1935, Page 11

Seeing the World

BRITISH ARMY OFFICER “CERTAIN DEFEAT FOR ITALY” SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 25 Lieutenant Robert Alexander Greville Baird, of His Majesty's British Army, stationed at Khyber Pass, India, upon arrival in Los Angeles, showed he had very definite ideas concerning 38 nations. Ten years of travelling throughout tho world was climaxed by the British warrior, for arriving in Southern California for tho first time, ho pronounced it “bully.” ,

Lieutenant Baird’s arduous task at the far northern British Army post ia India earns his periodic furlough of several months’ duration. During ten years ho has seen Russia, Tibet, and Abyssinia—but never America.

The son of a former Governor-General of Australia, Baird is a native of Scotland. But his military life has taken him to strango places. “I’ve had an extraordinary crazo for learning things,” the young soldier explained. That is why ho came from New York by motor bus, as he wanted to “see the people and tho country flrst-hand.” Of Russia, which he visited three years ago, Lieutenant Baird said: “I could not see much there. Nobody could. If you ever did see anything, next moment you’d fetch up iu a prison. They supply you with a perpetual bodyguard, who tells you where you will eat, sleep and where you will breathe.” Acquainted with tho Ethiopian-Ital-ian situation from a flrst-hand glimpse of the African nation during a biggamo hunting expedition and a lengthy meeting with Emperor Haile Selassie, Lieutenant Baird predicted trouble for Mussolini’s warriors. “They’ll get to Addis Ababa if they want. But that ’s ■where the difficulties will start. Abyssinia offers nothing to eat,, no lines of communication, and only -one railway. That could easily bo destroyed. Italy will certainly defeat herself.”