“NO NEED TO STARVE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 676, 30 May 1929, Page 9

“NO NEED TO STARVE”

SOUTHERN CROSS CREW'S ADVENTURE ENGINEER’S DECLARATION ADELAIDE, Wednesday. When the Air Inquiry Committee commenced its Adelaide sittings, a declaration was made by Edward Francis, a mining engineer and geologist, of North-Western Australia, who claimed to have intimate knowledge of the country where the Southern Cross landed. Francis said he was camped about 36 miles east of Port George when the Southern Cross flew over in the early hours of the morning heading in a northerly direction. Francis said he could not understand why the Southern Cross crew experienced difficulty in obtaining food when they were forced down, as there were mud fish 400yds from where they landed, also oysters and crabs. It was only a matter of digging them out by hand. Goannas, wallabies and scrub turkeys were equally plentiful, although perhaps difficult to catch. Dingoes and crocodiles were numerous, but not dangerous. Francis described the precise spot where the airplane landed, and said it was between 18 and 25 miles from the mission station. It was what he called plain, gravelly country. He had travelled over that country without instruments. There was also plenty of dead wood in the vicinity of “Cafe Royal,” with which anyone might reasonably make a good fire. Reports were also read from Col. W. O. Mansbrldge, resident magistrate at Broome, regarding the search for the Southern Cross. He said that erratic solo flights over wild country were not conducive to safety. Smith and Ulm had offered after their rescue, without rest or recuperation, to begin to search for the Kookaburra. The inquiry was adjourned.