U.S. EXPEDITION TO FIND HIGHEST PEAK IS ABANDONED

Grey River Argus, 6 April 1948, Page 5

U.S. EXPEDITION TO FIND HIGHEST PEAK IS ABANDONED

(Rec. 8.0). TOKIO, April 5. The aviator, Milton Reynolds, has arrived in Tokio on an unauthorised flight from China, after abandoning his felan to find in West. China a mountain higher than Mt. Everest. Reynolds on his arrival said he had fled to China to escape a ' financial “shakedown” after his expedition had cost him 250,000 dollars. The United Press reports that Reynolds arrived last night with a plane under an American fighter escort. Reynolds said that he and his three-man crew were fleeing from an armed Chinese police restraint at Shanghai. He explained that his decision to leave China resulted from the seizure of his passport by the Shanghai immigration officers. His plane had been under guard for two days after a body of Chinese scientists at Nanking complained that Reynolds had broken an agreement to explore, by air, a previously uncharted mountain range. After several mishaps to. the plane, Reynolds announced that he was--abandoning the expedition, which angered the scientists and the party was detained until differences could be ironed out. The scientists claimed that an accident, which led to the abandonment of the expedition, was caused deliberately. Reynolds said he had apologised, to the scientists for his discourtesies, and that they had promised to remove the guard, but it remained. Thereupon, at a suitable opportunity, the crew boarded the plane and took off for Tokio. A State Department official at Washington, said that thev had asked the United States Embassy in Nanking to report on the happenings alleged by Reynolds.