Arlberg to Conway

Most famed ski teacher in the world is Austrian Hannes Schneider, 48, who, more than any other person, is responsible for skiing's world-wide boom. Born at Stuben, a whistle stop in the Alps near the Tirolean border, Hannes as a boy watched people trying to ski down the long, steep, irregular Alpine slopes standing up straight in the ancient and honorable Norwegian fashion. To him it seemed foolish. He tried skiing in a crouch, taught his neighbors, then the guests at the village hotel. By 1920 Hannes Schneider had developed the

Arlberg technique, was recognized as the best ski teacher in Central Europe.

To Schneider's school in St. Anton am Arlberg came 3,000 pupils a year, including the late King Albert of the Belgians and his son Leopold, Rumania's Prince Nicolas, Italy's Crown Prince Umberto, Spain's former King Alfonso. In his spare time Skimeisler Schneider made movies (The Ski Chase, The Wonders of Skiing, Ski Rhythm) which went a long way toward popularizing the sport the world over. The Japanese Government sent for him to teach its Army officers to ski over frozen Asiatic wastes, gave him the Sword of Honor besides $10,000 and a fine silk kimono. U. S. ski resorts imported all the Schneider-trained teachers they could get.

The Arlberg technique became the ac cepted skiing technique of the world.

Last March, when Germany annexed Austria, the Nazis appropriated the Arlberg School, deposed Skimeister Schneider (a Catholic), held him in custody for an undisclosed reason. Eager to get him out were the ski enthusiasts of every other country. Last week, after ten months of negotiations on the part of Manhattan Banker Harvey D. Gibson (Manufacturers Trust Co.), big, handsome Hannes Schneider arrived in the U. S. to establish his school at North Conway, N. H. No less pleased than Banker Gibson, who hopes to make North Conway (his birthplace) the Arlberg of the U. S., were thousands of ski enthusiasts who yearn for the day when their compatriots will make as creditable a showing in international skiing as they do in tennis, golf, swimming, polo.

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