Los Banos Rotary Club History
Gives Highlights Of World Tour

Dr. L. R. Hillyer, a member of the local Rotary Club, Tuesday noon gave fellow members a very brief but sparkling resume of a world wide tour from which he and Mrs. Hillyer recently returned. The trip, entirely by air, covered 31,000 miles and embraced visits to the Scandanavian countries, Germany, Vienna, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, India, Malayan peninsula and Siam, Japan, Philipines, Hawaii and back to California.

The doctor brought his talk to a dramatic conclusion with the demonstration of a mystery trick of magic, the secret of which he admitted having paid for dearly. Using a pail of water, a small bowl of dry Monterey sand and a bowl of dry brick dust, the graceful man of magic silently envoked the aid of the ancient mysterious Magi as he calmly poured dry sand and dry brick dust into the water, then removed same separately, as dry and as separate as in their original state. "I found," he said, "that the old Indian rope trick is a fake—but this sand and brick dust phenomena is the real thing. Try it sometime, after you learn the magic words."

The Hillyers left on the tour by Scandanavian Air Lines from Los Angeles, flying over the polar cap and Greenland—all in a total of 22 hours. From Denmark they went to Berlin, where they found the west sector thriving, with happy people, well filled shops and markets and general prosperity. By direct contrast the east sector, under Russian control, was dismal, the people obviously unhappy and ill-fed, the stores and shops run down with little merchandise to offer.

They enjoyed a brief stay in Vienna; and then to Greece, arriving just at the time of the floods, but still managing several trips to points of architectural and historical interest. At Istambul, Turkey, they were in the midst of a Turkish-Greek riot in which many persons were killed and some 400 stores completely torn up. Dr. Hillyer reported the Turkish people as very friendly, hospitable and well educated, and among the most enjoyable experiences of the trip.

They toured the Biblical area of Jerusalem and River Jordan, visited the ruins of Lebannon and other high points of interest, and were very conscious throughout of the very tense feelings that exist throughout that part of the world, and were there long enough to get a personal understanding of the "whyfore" of the eternal struggle and strife between the Jewish and Arab peoples.
Swinging on down through Egypt and the Nile River, the pyramids and unforgettable visit to Luxor and Valley of the Kings, they moved eastward to Baghdad (which they would pass by next time) they continued on by India, with a narrow airplane escape when one of the planes two engines quit and threatened to burn out. They managed a forced landing in a cow pasture, badly shaken up but with no fatalities to crew or passengers. The accident was one of three experienced by Dr. and Mrs. Hillyer on the tour.
Dr. Hillyer related the sights along the Ganges river, the ghastly sight of the lepers at Benares, the thousands of religious bathers along the Ganges river, mass cremations, riches and destitution, and the sight of Mount Everest, at sunrise.

From there they continued to Singapore and Malayan jungles, within hearing of warfare and rioting, and the unfriendly Indonesia where they were mistaken as Dutch and treated very coldly. Hong Kong, Tokyo, Manila and the Philippines, and on to Hawaii, and the world record homeward flight of 6 hours and 30 minutes.

While on the tour he visited a number of Rotary Clubs, among them being Beirut, Cairo, New Delhi, Rangoon, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
The most beautiful country, he said, was Ceylon; the most romantic, Vienna; the most beautiful, Hong Kong; the greatest seaport, also Hong Kong; Indonesia the most unfriendly; and most friendly the Philippines, Thailand, Germany, Austria and Japan. Japan is also the most expensive one in which to travel; India the cheapest. And, the speaker concluded, the best place to live is still California.

March 21, 1956

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