ADVENTURER AND PUBLICIST

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 548, 28 December 1928, Page 8

ADVENTURER AND PUBLICIST

WNIORMED for his publicist labour by actual experience in * many countries, Sir William Maxwell, whose death is announced to-day, has had a career which seems more like the rambling of a romantic dreamer than a truthful chronicle of the adventures of one man. He has seen actions in every war during the past 30 years; been the travelling companion of kings and emperors ; known the anxiety of peoples locked in besieged cities, and seen the coronation of eastern potentates. Most people are content to be absorbed by the daily happenings in their own household and city; but Maxwell, the journalist and adventurer, was only content when living in the world’s storm centres. The first mission to his taste was that of accompanying Lord Kitchener to Egypt, and he took part in the famous march on Khartoum, later participating in the battle of Omdurman and winning service medals there. With the restoration of peace under the Sirdarship of Kitchener, Egypt ceased to interest him, and as representative of English newspapers he joined Kaiser Wilhelm 11. on his tour of Syria and the Holy Land. He was enabled to glimpse the general situation in that part of the world, and the knowledge acquired under relatively pleasant conditions he turned to good account in his writing. His first association with an international demonstration of amity was at The Hague, where he attended the first peace conference. Whatever his thoughts concerning pacifism might have been then, his faith, if any. in such movements must have been shattered by the ■experience he was yet to acquire. .. On the outbreak of the Boer War he went to South Africa and was besieged with the British garrison at Ladysmith. On the relief of that town he went on to Kimberley, and was with the army of Lord Roberts in every engagement from the capture of Bloemfontein to Lyndenburg. Once again he went on tour after war service, joining the present King and Queen on their tour of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Following that, he wished to learn the truth about Morocco and travelled through that country, interviewing the Sultan during his stay. Once more came a journey to South Africa when he accompanied Mr. Chamberlain on his tour of 1902-3. It seemed as if there was to be no more warring for him; hut within a year or two came the Russo-Japanese conflict. He was present at many of the big battles, and joining up with General Nogi, witnessed the last assaults of Port Arthur. Then came a tour of India and Persia, and he was present at the coronation of the Shah. He saw some of the Chinese revolution and was in Peking during the mutiny. When the Balkan States were plunged in war in 1912, he joined up with the Bulgarian Army. This experience was the merest taste of the momentous things he was to see two years later when he remained in Belgium until the German invaders entered Brussels. He was taken prisoner by a British cavalry patrol near -Mons, was a witness of the carnage at the Marne and the Aisne, and later took charge of the Press censorship at the Gallipoli operations. Since 1918 he has gone down peaceful ways, but there was much he had to reflect upon when his mind’s eye surveyed the peace ana tumult that he knew.