WILKINS’S PLAN

Hokitika Guardian, 2 April 1930, Page 3

WILKINS’S PLAN

FOR StNttIAAINK IN ARCTIC. [United Press Association—R.v Kl«*«-tnc Telegraph.—Copy right.! ■ NEW V C'R.K, Ala.’-ch 31. Mr Brookes, ' Australian Commissioner. add Mrs Crookes, gave a dinner to 52 guests ill honour of Sir Hubert AVilkins and Ueclv Wilkins. sirl General Armstrong; in lauding the explorer, declared that when the latter made his trans-Arctic flight there were claims by the American newspapers that lie was an American. He (Armstrong) and the .British Ambassador, Fir Esme Howard, were much pleased, therefore, when the King knighted Sir H. AVilkins a month hereafter. President Finley, of the American Geographical Society, wittingly declarer! that, without even waiting a. month, liis Society had awarded the explorer its gold medal. Indeed, it was onlv three d",v 5 after the flight. tSir H. Wilkins, in responding, noted the ■independence of the Australian character He commented on President Finley’s and ■ Consul General Armstrong’s remarks, and said he; eame to the inevitable conclusion that liis work was international in its benefits. He then made various hhn •riant explanations concerning his 1931 submarine expedition to the Arctic. He said: That people thought the trip fantastic, impossible, or too dangerous, hut -Stefansson, back in the year MM 3. had declared that the aeroplane would ultimately be limited to reconnaissance polar work, but that the submarine had the greatest possibility. He (Wilkins) now. lound this botne out. Thirteen years ■of study hail convinced him -(AVilkins' that the- submarine alone could make pra('trail, the study of the currents, •and depths in the. Arctic, winch was p- ssitny tliedeepest ocean in the world; and the submarine would alone enable-pendulum tests to.be made.to determine whether the north is fcn.lv “tlie top of the world.” That knowledge was to he derived first from the sun and from summer ice tests whb-h, to his knowledge, had never been made before. The flying ho had clone over one thousand miles of the Arctic, arid his traversing on foot of ve thousand miles of the Arctic ice packs had shown no ice field in excess oi twenty-five miles inXlength. ’i bus a submarine would always lie able to rise and recharge its batteries for I2p miles subsea laps. There; further more, were devices for breaking \ through the ice, etc. The most import.,iinfc factor was the. ability of the submarine to land parties, on tlie ice for. astudy at convenient intervals. ..■ ■■ Sir ,H. -Wilkins. interviewed, later, Sard tluit his aim and ambition was. o'yen more extensive than .lmcl been apa'ounced. He admitted that '-The Arctic was so well known mat there remained little pioneer work, “but,” ho Said, “we are' going to the Arctic principally to study the summer ice conditions, which are so very important factors in all die polar regions. The sttldy and,, experience that I hope to gaiiurin .the north will enable me immediately after tlm northern summer in 11)31 to proceed to the• Antarctic with vi '■ submarine for even more extensive investigations.”