HOLM, Frits (Vilhelm), Danish explorer, journalist and lecturer: b. Charlottenlund, Den mark, 23 July 1881. He was educated at private and government Latin schools. He passed a preliminary examination at the Copenhagen University and received, 1895-1900, an officer's education in the Royal Danish navy, visiting many countries on men-o'-war. Having seen the Paris Exposition of 1900, he went to the Far East and worked in Shanghai and Hankow in journalistic and commercial positions 1901 °3, eventually accepting the posts of manager and editorial secretary of The Japan Daily Ad vertirer in Yokohoma. In May 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, he left Japan and returned to Denmark via the United States, where he visited the Saint Louis World's Fair as special correspondent, completing in nearly four years his first circumnavigation. From September 1905 till February 1907, he worked with the Potentia Press Organization in London under the Earl of Kintore and Sir William Ramsey, frequently visiting the Continent; and in July 1906 he represented The Associated Press at the Interparliamentary Peace Conference in the House of Lords. He is a life-member of the Royal Yacht Club (Copenhagen), of the Im perial Red Cross societies of Russia and Japan (war medals) and of the Kihin Kai (Tokio) ; a member of the Royal Asiatic Society (London) and other scientific institutions and an officier of the Venezuelan Order of the Libertador. He
is the author of numerous articles on Far Eastern and other subjects, and he holds a royal license as sworn interpreter, commanding English, French, German and the three Scan dinavian languages, besides knowing something of the romance tongues and Chinese. At the age of 25 he obtained the capital for a scientific expedition into the interior ( 'hina. The re sult of the Holm-Nestorian expedition to Sian-Fu 1907-08, which covered by caravan and water more than 2,500 mile, through little known regions, was the bringing to civilization of a two-ton, 10 feet high monolithic replica of the famous Nestorian Monument of A.D. 781 — since July 1908 as a loan in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. 'The Nestorian Monu ment' (Chicago 1909) tells about the tablet and the expedition, through which he completed his second circumnavigation. He has lectured, in English and French, in 15 universities and learned institutions in the United States, Can ada and Mexico on his exploration work, about which hundreds of illustrated newspaper and magazine articles have appeared.