ASKED FOR DEATH

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 943, 9 April 1930, Page 9

ASKED FOR DEATH

NOBILE PARTY CLEARED OF GRAVE CHARGE MALMGREN DIES ALONE ROME, April 2. The report of the Commission of Inquiry into the disaster that befell General Nobile’s Polar expedition in June, 1925, has been published in full by the Ministry of Marine. New facts emerge concerning the rescue march across the ice of the two Italian naval men, Commanders Mariano and Zappi. and the young Swedish scientist, Malmgren, and the insinuations of cannibalism directed against the Italian officers after Malmgren’s disappearance. These insinuations are positively refuted. Mariano and Zappi, in response to close questioning, said that on the second day of the march Malmgren found that his right foot was frostbitten. He became hysterical and had to be soothed with warm drink and massage. Later he begged his companions to kill him with a blow on the head. On the 12th day he threw himself on the ground, saying: “I cannot walk any more; I will stay here,” and once more he implored them to kill him. On their refusal he asked them to dig a trench and lay him in it, which they did. They then went some dozen yards away, hoping that Malmgren would summon up enough strength to rejoin them. They turned and saw him standing up, leaning against a block of ice, and heard him shout to them to go on. Then he suddenly disappeared, and Zappi said he believed that he must have committed suicide. Mariano and Zappi were later rescued by the Soviet ice-breaker Krassiu.