TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25940, 5 September 1945, Page 4

TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES

NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA MISSIONARY’S EXPERIENCES A letter which has been received in Dunedin from Mr “ Tony ” Turner, well known in Southland, who is engaged in missionary work under the Bolivian Indian Mission, _ conveys an impression of the difficulties which in present circumstances attend travel in the Americas, both North and South. He had proceeded by air from Cochabanda to Lima and thence to Panama, where they secured berths on a clipper bound to Miami (Florida), via Kingston (Jamaica). “When we arrived at Miami," Mr Tinner writes, “we were told that there was a train going out that night and that it was unreserved. If we missed it we might not get away for two weeks. We had heard that hotels in Miami cost round about 15dol a day on the average. So we decided to take that train. We had eight miles, tc go by taxi, and made it in 15 minutes. We found the military police allowing only soldiers or sailors or their relatives to get on first, and then there was a rush to get seats. We were fortunate in getting a double seat to ourselves. So we could stretch out and sleen a little on the 1000 miles to Washington, D.C. (24-hours’ trip). During the night we had our window open a little, and in the morning our faces were quite black from the coal smoke. The modern carriages have air-condi-tioning, but apparently they are using all the old rolling stock on account of so much travelling. Trains are packed as a rule. In the morning we gave up two seats, as people were coming on at every station. We left Miami at 8 p.m. on Friday and got to Washington at 8.30 p.m. on Saturday just as the body of the late President was taken irom there to the burial place. The streets were roped off, and we had to get a taxi to take us via back streets to where a car was parked for us.

“ We notice the high prices and the inferior quality of the goods. I bought a suit the other day for 35d01, and I judge it is poor quality. Shirts are 2dol and 3dol. Nothing is up to prewar quality. When in Peru we heard that all steamers leaving Callao (port to Lima) are booked up for six months ahead, so anyone leaving Bolivia by land would have a long and expensive wait there for a boat to get away. We could have had rail to La Pag (two days), cross the lake, and rail to Arequipa (one day), and three days across country to Lima (six days overland), and then the wait! One family in Peru decided to go to Buenos Aires and get a steamer to England. They went through Bolivia and arrived at Buenos Aires to find everything booked up a long way ahead. Perhaps there will be more boats for Eng. land now that the war is over."