Thr Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, APRIL. 8, 1929 THE FATE OF FAMOUS AIRMEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 632, 8 April 1929, Page 8

Thr Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, APRIL. 8, 1929 THE FATE OF FAMOUS AIRMEN

COURAGE, endurance and resourcefulness have been so virile among the famous airmen associated with the missing monoplane, Southern Cross, that pessimism about their fate in the initial stage of its latest enterprise could spring only from definite knowledge of disaster. If there be any human chance of coming through extraordinary difficulties the leaders of the interrupted expeditionary flight will take it and make it another triumph of resolute achievement. And the courageous spirit and splendid faith that have always animated those comrades in air conquest, Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith and Flight-Lieutenant C. T. Ulm will be no less active in the sterling character of their tested companions, Mr. 11. A. Litchfield, navigator, and the New Zealander, Mr. T. 11. McWilliam, wireless operator. Their double flight across the Tasman a few months ago demonstrated the mettle of the gallant men. It cannot be overlooked, unfortunately, that there is every reason now for acute anxiety over their welfare and inevitably gruelling experiences. The Southern Cross has been down and out of action for over a week, and the great flyers who manned it have been marooned in an inhospitable territory, cut off from friendly service and communication with wide sources of sympathy and ready aid, if the way were only open to the granting of quick and generous assistance. The historic plane left Sydney a week ago on the first lap of its projected flight to London. Its immediate objective was Wyndham in NorthWestern Australia. After about sixteen hours’ flying a wireless message from the airmen announced their prospect of landing six hours later at Wyndham. Later still, however, another message, with something of the brevity of desperation, informed alert listeners that, because of petrol exhaustion, a forced landing was essential. No information was given or at least none was heard, as to the approximate locality of the plane at the moment of prospective distress. That proved to be the final message from the flyers. Since then, there has been nothing but conjecture and the usual stupid exercise of hysterical rumour. Several competent airmen and many black trackers have searched the wilds of the territory on which the Southern Cross presumably alighted, hut, so far, not a trace of the plane or its missing crew has been discovered. Indeed, every effort that is practicable is being made to find the lost flyers and succour them before it has become too late. It is in no way surprising that the eager searchers have failed to find Kingsford Smith and his comrades. They are apparently lost in a wild country that is almost as large as Germany, hut a country whose total scattered population is no larger than that of the kind of villages which are not named in maps. And the territory over which questing airmen and trackers are flying and roaming is bad country, holding little that is hospitable to civilised man. This part of Australia was already known to Smith and Ulm, hut their knowledge of it was not agreeable. When they flew over it two years ago in a plane that threatened to break down at any moment in the course of a risky flight, their impressions of the land were such as to make heroic men shudder. “Our chances of getting back to civilisation would have been slender had that old engine chose to peter out there above those dim misty gullies lying at the foot of the long Kimberley Range.” If the Southern Cross made a forced landing at about only 150 miles from Wyndham the country thereabout is less terrible in its inhospitality than that which caused the flyers to think grimly on their first flight over North-West Australia, hut still the better territory near Wyndham is had enough to test the endurance and resources of explorers and men who, without a plentitude of food and water, have become lost in a barren wilderness. Unless the Pacific flyers have found sanctuary either among friendly aborigines or at some far-back squatter’s station, their plight during the past week must have been desperate and marked with serious distress. It is too early yet to fear the worst. Anxious observers must realise that Australia is a continent approximately the same size as the United States, and that the famous airmen who are missing are lost somewhere in a territory in which the whole of New Zealand could he hidden among arid buttes and blistered bush. Hope never deserts gallant men and if a chance has been vouchsafed the crew of the Southern Cross to conquer difficulties, it is reasonable and right still to have faith in their ultimate triumph. GOVERNOR-GENERALS LEAD THE spirit of a practical Christian gentleman shines through the offer made by the Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, to the health authorities on Friday night. It was not only the offer—a fine thing in itself—-of a stately home as an isolation ward for the sick Islanders, that appealed to the public, but also the more selfless expression of an eagerness to serve; the offer of the personal assistance of the GovernorGeneral and Lady Alice Fergusson. To how many private families—rich or poor—in Auckland, would have occurred the alternative suggested to Sir Charles by the Hospital Board’s attitude ? The Governor-General’s response in an emergency bespeaks the man of action. Upon the position of the Auckland Hospital Board, put out of countenance by the admirable motives of Sir Charles and Lady Alice, there is perhaps less occasion to dwell. The hoard was virtually shamed into action, and when the delayed action came it was directed with commendable vigour and enterprise For its graceful act in handing over “Cintra” to the board, and thus helping to remove a reproach upon the city, the Fletcher Construction Company has earned the community’s warm thanks. After this salutary lesson the Hospital Board should no longer need reminding of the acute necessity for a separate infectious diseases block.