SOUTHERN CROSS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1929, Page 12

SOUTHERN CROSS

NO FUTURE PLANS YET

WIRELESS OPERATOR INTERVIEWED

Mr. L. M'Williams, wireless operator on the famous world-circumnavigating aeroplane the Southern Cross, was among the passengars who arrived in Wellington by the Marama from Sydney this morning.

I cannot tell you anything about our future plans," said Mr. M'Williams to a "Post" reporter, "because when I arrived in Sydney I found that Captain Kingsford Smith and Lieutenant Ulm had left Sydney the same day for Melbourne. I did not know they were going to Melbourne, otherwise I would have waited there for them. I got straight aboard the Marama and came away; so we haven't had a chance of discussing any plans for the future. However, they can always get in touch with me here, whenever they want to do so."

Asked for his impressions of the flight from Australia to the Old Country, Mr. M'Williams said it was a very hard trip. "It was very strenuous going practically all the time; and we got very little sleep in consequence. We had a lot of wet weather in " the Straits Settlements, Burma, and India. It was the monsoon season, of course when we flew through there; and some of the grounds were pretty wet and not too good for taking off from. Actually we never got any clear weather until after we had crossed the desert from Bagdad to Athens. In the Persian Gulf we had some very hot weather and any amount of dust. It was very, very hot. Even flying at a height of 4000 feet it was still very hot in the air. We aid not get very excited until we left Home, when we knew we were ou the last lap Home, and felt that our big flight was about to be crowned by success. We had a great reception at the Croydon Aerodrome when we landed on 10th July last—though the crowd was not so great as those which welcomed us so enthusiastically in New Zealand; and we were met by all the aero heads, including Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Branckner (Director of Civil Aviation), representatives of the Koyal Aero Club, and representatives of the Australian High Commissioner's Office, London. But what we wanted then was to get to bed and sleep for about six weeks. That was about the idea. We had hardly slept at all on the journey. I came back to Australia from Antwerp on the Norwegian motor-ship Templar, on her maiden voyage to Australia; and Mr. Litehfield (navigator on the Southern Cross) and his wife also came back by the same boat. She was a very nice ship, with accommodation for seventeen passengers only, and we had a very good trip out."