NEW ZEALAND VISIT.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 412, 20 April 1937, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND VISIT.

ACE AIRMAN. Fought In Abyssinia. Auckland, April IS. Known to fellow newspapermen as “the Flying Reporter,” and to Italian people as one of their country’s bravest airmen, a man who served with distinction in the Abyssinian war, Professor Beonio Brocchieri, of Milan, came to New Zealand' on the Monterey to enjoy quietly the attractions of the Dominion. From here he will travel in a leisurely way through Australia to Europe. It it is a virtue of the eminent Io speak little of themselves, one might have guessed early that Signor Brocchieri was one of them.. “Newspaper executive and writer of Milan, Italy, on a trip around the world,” said the Monterey’s Press list. “Professor Brocchieri is also a prominent aviator who took part in the Ethiopian war.” Landing In Addis Ababa. “That’s all,” he said, and his dark eyes were quite serious. When he did talk, it was his country’s achievements and endeavours that he put first. But on the same ship was Dr. E. Arrigihi. newly-appointed Italian Consul at Melbourne, who said: “Yes, he was one of the bravest aviators in the Abyssinian war, in which be enlisted at the beginning with his own aeroplane. He was mentioned several times in dispatches from, the front, and he was the first Italian pilot to land in Addis Ababa after the occupation. , “Apart from that, he had been around the world by plane, sending correspondence to his paper,” added Dr. Arrigihi. “Newspapermen call ijim, in fact, ‘the Flying Reporter.’ fie has flown up into the Arctic Circle, and I recall a recent flight of his from South America to Alaska, up the the Pacific Coast.” "I was in Ethiopia about three years ago, as a'writer,” said Signor Brocchieri, “and it was mostly a wild place, savage, with little organisation, and hardly a road. There was great danger, because the people were infected with several tropical diseases. “I was there again in the war, seven months as a captain of Italian aircraft under special charge from the High Command of Aviation. I did ail branches of flying work, scouting and fighting, and I landed first in Addis Ababa almost the moment it was occupied. “That is over, and now the Italian Government is carrying out great programmes of work.”