The following letter was provided the by Cyndi Beck assistant Archivist, Rotary International, 26 February, 2002 as an explanation why there is not a "volume one" of this series.

Your friend who claims to have a Peregrinations Vol. I is most likely mistaken. A letter to James H. Roth, Field Representative of RI from Russell V. Williams, Assistant Secretary dated 27 February, 1936 states:

“In regard to your inquiry about Volume I of “Peregrinations”, -- the real truth of the matter is there isn’t any Volume I. In 1928 Paul Harris made a Rotary Trip to Europe and upon his return published a pamphlet of some twenty pages entitled “My Tour of Europe”.

“In 1932 he made another trip to Europe and brought out a report of it in mimeographed form.”

“Then came the trip to Japan, China, Manila, Australia, and New Zealand and a much larger manuscript. he decided to bring this out as a book. Then he began casting around for a title and his mind went back to the earlier reports and then went forward to the fact he as about to start for South America. He wanted a title which would cover all of his eventual trips and finally he chose “Peregrinations”. Then he was mindful of the several pamphlets which he had already gotten out, the ones I mentioned above, and he decided that some day those could be combined into one and they would make Volume I of “Peregrinations”. For that reason he called the book which was recently sent to you Volume II, and until the situation is straightened out we are hoping that there won’t be too many people wondering where Volume I is. In this respect we are also handicapped by the fact that we don’t have copies of the earlier pamphlets which we could send people to take the place of Volume I.”  James H. Roth, 27 January 1936

Also see "PDG Ron and Cindy Sekkel's "similar" voyage nearly 70 years later.... More...