WORLD’S CRUISE

Southland Times, Issue 19519, 19 May 1922, Page 7

WORLD’S CRUISE

OF THE “BRITISH TRADER.” FLOATING COMMERCIAL EXHIBITION, i PERTH, May 11. According to advices received, the steamer British Trader, which will accommodate the British world trade exhibition, will reach Fremantle on about July 17th. After visiting Adelaide, Melbourne, and Hobart, the steamdr will proceed to New Zealand. A British world trade expedition is to set out from London at the beginning of May for a nine months’ cruise about the world (says the Manchester Guardian of March 21st). Its purpose is to offer British manufacturers an opportunity of finding new markets abroad for their wares. The programme reads like a modernised and more businesslike version of the prospectus which lured Mark Twain and his fellow-innocents abroad in the Quaker City. The expedition will travel in the former Orient liner Orontee, of 9000 tons register, which has been rechristened British Trader. The passengers will be representatives of British business firms, the cargo a selection of their products for exhibition at each port visited. To each exhibitor will be allotted a definite space wherein he may display his goods in the way best calculated to attract the prospective buyers who visit the ship. The ship is to carry a secretariat, with such other aids to the execution of business as shorthand typists, a reference library, writing-rooms, and conference rooms. In every port of call it is intended to show cinema films illustrating exhibitors’ works. Altogether, the British Trader, according to the itinerary already drawn up, will cover 88,370 miles before re-entering the Port of London at about the end of January next. The ship will remain for anything between one day and seven at each port of call, according to its relative commercial importance, and altogether about 120 days, it ia expected, will be spent in port, with the cargo open for inspection by visitors, The other 140 days will be taken up by steaming from one port to another. It is intended to visit the ports in the following order:Rio de Janeiro Yokohama Monte Video Kobe Buenos Ayres Nagasaki Cape Town Hong-Kong Durban Rhanghai Fremantle Singapore Adelaide Penang Melbourne Rangoon Hobart Calcutta Dunedin Madras Lyttelton Colombo Wellington Bombay Auckland Aden Sydney Malta Gibraltar South Sea Islands The British Trader h not to be confused with the more ambitious scheme of a spec ialfy-designed ship of 20,000 tons, which is to make a world-tour in 1933.