AIR INQUIRY

Hokitika Guardian, 8 June 1929, Page 5

AIR INQUIRY

INQUIRY CONCLUDES. (Australian Press Association) SYDNEY, June 7. The Air Inquiry has concluded. Counsel for tho aviators severely attacked the newspapers which were responsible for the suggestion that the forced landing and getting lost hau all been prearranged. Mr Myers, counsel for Anderson’s relatives, submitted that Anderson was actuated by the host of motives when he started out. There was. no evidence that he had sought any reward, but the great mistake the authorities made was delaying tlu* search for him too long. V/ (Received this day at 3 a.m.) SYDNEY, June 8. Mr Hammond, who is assisting the Committee, said he was satisfied that the honour- and honesty of the Southern Cross crew were established. It was lamentable that the public should have been so ready to receive and repeat tho slanderous statements appearing in a section of the press about men, whom so recently it delighted to honour and to cheer for their pluck and skill in the air. It is inconceivable that men of the calibre of Lichfield and McWilliams should he deceived into being lost, much less to think that they became parties to such enterprise by design, either they were in the swim or they were fooled, and evidence showed nothing of the kind existed. McWilliams, however, had taken the view there would have been risk converting his radio set into a transmitter. This was an error of judgment on his part, hut there was no evidence that any of the crew desired to remain hidden from the world.