“Nobile is Noble Man!"

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 684, 8 June 1929, Page 18

“Nobile is Noble Man!"

Lundborg, Gallant Rescuer, Defends Italian Explorer HAT one of the most dra--4 11. matic and keenly disKirrCyl cussed news features since the World War X&J should find expression in what is already a large and ever-growing library need occasion no surprise. It is natural that a public which devoured every word about the Italia during the thrilling months of suspense, and which talked heatedly, if without authority, on what should have been done, should be eager to hear the story retold by those who took part in its events. Of the three books recently published, Captain Lundborg's is said to be the one most worthy of careful perusal and belief. That the Swedish rescuer is not a trained writer is an asset, not a liability, in this case. He tells a simple forthright tale of what he actually saw and did, and far from being recriminatory, he goes out of his way to praise. Amid all the bitterness and exaggeration which Nobile's illfated trip brought about, it is refreshing to feel emerging from the pages of this book the picture of a thorough sportsman and gentleman—Captain Einar Lundborg. What one naturally looks for above all in the rescuer’s book is, what about the saving of Nobile? And what light does Captain Lundborg’s experience throw upon the accusations which have filled the air for many months? The first question was answered long before the book was written. From the very beginning Captain Lundborg has explained the reasons why he rescued Nobile first—the general’s ill health, his light weight, the orders he had received to save the commander first, and the fact that it was thought Nobile could be of most value to direct the rescue of the other stranded men. There is nothing new about it in this book. Captain Lundborg’s last word is the following:

Whether or not General Nobile carried out his Italia expedition scientificallv is a. matter that I cannot decide. But I know that he is a line and noble man, and I am convinced that all the severe judgments passed on him and certain details of his Polar expedition would never have been uttered if catastrophe had not befallen it. And to criticise the general because I took him off the floe first, I consider inhuman and cruel.

Coming from such a man as Captain -Lundborg, it is an opinion which is not to he lightly cast aside. The question of justification for other criticised events is another and more serious matter. With all Captain Lundborg's chivalric attempts to overlook certain aspects of the rescue work, one cannot help getting an Impression that is fhr from pleasant. His habit of understatement emphasises. rather than softens, the feeling that the Italian part in those events, with all its elements of individual heroism and fine accomplishment, yet fell short of what it should have been. It is only fair to say, however, that Captain Lundborg disposes of more than one slander and false report of an anti-Italian nature. It was not true, for instance, that Nobile deprived one of the shipwrecked men of his hat; it was not true that the Clttd di

Milano had made contracts with the party on the ice floe and then kept its knowledge secret. And Maddalena, Biagi and Viglieri are shown to be the gallant, heroic men that they must have been.

Putting aside the purely controversial questions with which the book deals in spots, it can be said that as a story of heroism, hardship and drama of a most thrilling character, Captain Lundborg's book would be hard to better. The two weeks he spent on the floe, after the heartbreaking accident of a faulty engine brought about the wreck of his plane, are graphically described. The privations, the humour, the terrible strain on the nerves come vividly before the eyes of the reader, for Captain Lundborg has no false modesty about people. His own courage was tested and found true, and therefore he need have had no qualms of telling of his own terrors and weaknesses, his complete breakdown after rescue, and the mutual recriminations which passed between men sick in heart and body, with nerves frayed and strained to the breaking point by the agony of alternating hope and despair, as they awaited rescue. Nothing that the imagination of a Conrad could have conceived would be more thrilling to read.

This was surely one of my worst days (he writes at one point). Often I asked myself how all this would really end. Would we ever be rescued from this dreary suffering, with insanity or death staring us in the face? Bv this time it was only the thought of the Krassin that kept us going, but the awful weather made our hopes verv light.

Toward the end a terrible quarrel broke out, and he wrote in his diary; Hard words are exchanged, especially between Viglieri and Behounek Biagi brazenly sputters somethii.g about me and the field, and altogether It looks like the beginning of the most ghastly thing that could happen—abusiveness and dissension.