OCTOBER 1, l'»14 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



What I Saw of the War. 



By the Editor of The India Rubber World. 



MORE than a year ago I promised to attend the Rubber 

 Congress to be held in Ja ptember, 1914. [t seei 



in. .re tli.in likely that from thai would come 



an immense amount of good to the whole rubber planting 

 world. It was up to th< holarly Dutch to solve the final 

 problems ami - 1 1 . . \\ llie way to cheaper and better plantation 

 rubber. That was expecting a great deal, but their record in 



inchona and other 

 tropical products 

 justified such lie 

 lief. 



To do my part 1 

 had, first, a hun- 

 dred lantern slides 

 to show the plant- 

 ers just how rub- 

 ber was manipu- 

 lated when it got 

 to the factory; sec- 

 • iii.l. an essay 

 -i.. iwing what man- 

 ufacturers desired 

 in crude rubber, 

 and, having ac- 

 quired the cup 

 habit, I had pre- 

 sented a cup. More- 



iver, although the 

 committee had of- 

 fered to give me a 

 generous sum for 

 expenses I had re- 

 fused it. Hence, 

 optimistic, sure of 

 a welcome, positive 

 that the congress 

 would be great in 

 results, I made 

 ready to go by the shortest route 

 line to Genoa, Italy, and thence by 



The Editor of The India Rubber World 

 "On Watch." 



That was by an Italian 

 a Dutch boat to Batavia. 

 Premonitions of evil I had none. Prophetic hints were of 

 no effect. For example, Edgar Beecher Bronson, the war 

 correspondent, the night before my departure said: "Sure you 

 are not going into *'Closed Terri: I assured him that 



big game hunting or war would not come within my ken. 

 Nor when Dr. Hornaday, sending me his book on the birds 

 of Java, wrote on the fly leaf a happy phrase about my ■ 

 to the "firing line" did it stir me. 



ON THE DUCA D' AOSTA. 



The embarkation was without tremor. Finding the one 

 -toward who w-ould talk a little English and good Spanish 

 we settled down to enjoy the trip. By a bit of good luck we 

 became friendly with one of the wireless operators. He 

 spoke English slowly, but wrote it exceedingly well, and was 

 .good enough to post the news in English for the benefit of 

 the six English-speaking passengers. Five days out we 

 learned that Austria and Servia were at war. There came 

 reports of what Germany, Russia, France and England said 

 they would do, if either of the others did certain things. 

 Then the occupation of Belgium and the big war was on. 



*Mr. Bronson's book "In Dosed Territory'* is a personal narrative of 

 big game hunting in East Africa. 



In spite of the excitement we played <l< rote, ate 



three meals a day and i 



Passing Gibraltar at three in the morning a half dozen 

 British war ships slid by and out to sea. Two days later out 

 of the morning haze came a cruiser head on at full speed as 

 if she meant to cut us in two. We stopped and signal flags 

 bobbed up and down, and the wireless, frantically chattering, 

 told the story of who and what we wire. We satisfied the 

 investigator, and in a curve that rolled up a huge wave she 

 ered off. Then as n i lighter we saw that she was a 

 scout for the French fleet, some fourteen vessels of which 

 we could make out in the distance. 



< >ur first call was at Naples, where the American Consul 

 was discovered up to his eyes in work issuing passports and 

 ting hysterical women travelers. He had little news and 

 no cables The next day we reached Genoa, and gladly paid 

 a bandit five lire (a dollar) to take our luggage off the ship 

 and deliver it to a brigand who for another five lire took it 

 into the custom house, where a freebooter put it on the bag- 

 ;agi wagon for ten lire. We reached the hotel without 

 further depletion of our store of ready money. 



The next day things moved rapidly. First to the Dutch 

 line, where a cable from Java announced that the Congress 

 was postponed: then to the American consulate which was 

 ei.iu.led with other Americans; and all we could learn was 

 that we must report there every day. No bulletins, no news, 

 no newspapers! Then to the bank to find that letters of 

 credit were not 

 honored. 



Mine host at the 

 "Miramara" w a s 

 a Swiss and, luck- 

 ily, a fellow towns- 

 man of the late 

 Dr. Jacques Hu- 

 ber, of the Museu 

 Goeldi at Para. 

 The mention of 

 Dr. Huber's name 

 worked wonders. 

 My American 

 money was taken 

 or exchanged at 

 full value. The 

 assurance was 

 g i v e n that we 

 could have what 

 we wished and pay 

 whenever letters of 

 credit were good 

 again. Neverthe- 

 less I made the 

 daily rounds of the 

 banks, and finally 

 things loosened up 

 a bit; one gave 

 five pounds, an- 

 other four and one twenty. My request was always for fifty. 



But Italy was mobilizing and war seemed imminent ; so we 

 decided to go either to England. Spain or Portugal. To tin 

 British consul we went, and he told us of the "Cretic" sailing 

 the next day. A few quick trips to the American consul for 



Reservists ox Thf.tr Way Home. 



