SOUTHERN CROSS

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3949, 30 May 1929, Page 3

SOUTHERN CROSS

TO START IN JUNE.

M‘WILLIAMS’ INTERESTING ' ' STORY. Lieut. T. H. M‘Williams, wireless operator on tie Southern Gross, arrived in Wellington by the Ulimaroa from Sydney on Tuesday. Interviewed by a “Post” reporter, Mr. McWilliams ashed -what was the feeling here now towards the Southern Cross fliers, and expressed great pleasure at learning that it was very favourable. “It was astonishing,” he said, “how strong the feeling was against uis When we got back to Sydney. But I am very happy to say that opinion has quite turned trouud in our favour again. It was extraordinary, after we had had such a rotten time, to find that a lot of the public had been poisoned against us. It was ridiculous. If they cou'ld (have only seen the desperate plight we were in before wo landed, they would not have thought there was iniuch of a stunt about it. it is certainly jolly nice to be back. Wle didn’t think we had much chance at one time. TO FOLLOW ORIGINAL ROUTE. “With, rcgai’d to our future plans,” he added, “I just came over here to spend a few days, and we hope to start again some time next month. We got some news at sea that we were to start in two months’ time; but when I left iwe hoped to get away in June, possibly on the full moon. But, of course, I may have to go back before that, because the Aijr Inquiry Commission may require me to be recalled. 'So actually I don’t know how long I may he here altogether. I will just wait till I get 'the tip. Our route will be irnueh the same as last time —from Sydney fo Wyndham or Derby. Darwin fs no good to us; the ground is too small. It was originally planned to hop off from Deffby straight to Singapore, which is about 1000 miles from Wyndham, and may he a bit less from Derby. From Singapore we will fly as far as we possibly can in one hop, perhaps to Rangoon; and from there our .stopping-places will probably be Allahabad, Kuraehi, Bagdad, Rome, London. I think that will be the route we shall take. It will be the same party of ns. “EATING ALL THE TIME.”

“I am feeling pretty well all right again, thaniks. I am mote or loss on deck, I think, now. I am still eating pretty well, though. We all iseam to have a lot of leeway to make up in that respect. It was extraordinary, when we got out we didn’t seam to be able to get satisfied at all. We kept eating all the time. But I ain not so bad now; have eased off; a bit. We always had to apologise for our appetites everywhere we went.” “You would have a bit of a thii’st on you, too?” he was asked. “No, we wefre always able, fortunately, to find water where we were,” replied Mr M'Wiiliaims, “though we had to go further and further afield for it; and that was a big thing, because we were very weak. It was mostly surface water. There had been a big rain before 'we got there, and we found quite a number of large pools near the bush. But the extraordinary thing was how rapidly the water dried up. We 'would go to a big pool in the morning—a pool, say, 2Oft. long by Bft. or 9ft. wide, and perhaps Bin. or flin. deep —and fill up our two cans, holding about a gallon each; and when we went next day there would not be a drop of water to be seen. So we would have to go further afield to find another pool.” “THOSE SNAILS!” “We were very fortunate in having water at all, very fortunate indeed. We didn’t have much to eiat. Those ‘snails’— we w£re afterwards told they were, but they climbed up the mangrove roots — were horrible tilings. I never tasted anything like them before. They were nauseating. The natives call them ‘dullahs;’ and thev don’t eat them unless they are forced to. So you can imagine what they are like. As a m'atter of fact, the natives never go round that part of the country. We never saw a native all the time we were there. “The Air Inquiry Commission is not over yet. It is going to Melbourne and Adelaide, and then back to Sydney, where it will start on the Kookaburra inquiry, and oh an inquiry into the loss of one of the Defence Department’s machines. The Commission will not go to Wyndham. It will take the evidence of the Wesflralian Airways men at Adelaide.” “.What, about Moor and Owen?” asked Mr. McWilliams. “We heard aboard that they bad been found, but got no details.” When told that they had been found by Captain Brain near Cape Don, and that a wing of their ’plane had been smashed and Owen injured, he said: “I thought they would have a smash landing in that part of the country. Strain seems to have a knack for finding ’planes. He dropped on the Kookaburra, too. That was a tragic affair, wasn’t it? Very sad indeed.”