ADVENTURE CALLS TO A NEW ZEALANDER

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 34, 3 February 1939, Page 7

ADVENTURE CALLS TO A NEW ZEALANDER

HEN @ mon has wings to his feet you just cannot keep him down to the ground. That observation is called forth by the mews, received in Auckland on Wednesday, that two New Zealond cirmen, E. N. Griffiths and L. A. Willicombe, had arrived in Hong Kong with the idea of joining Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s fighting squadrons. Griffiths, at aay rate, has had so many adventures to date thet he might well be described as New Zealand’s Adventurer No. 1.

et is not so many wecks since Brice Griffiths was in the employ of Union Airways of New Zealand, Ltd., and many New Zealand air travellers knew him as a second officer on the Palmerston North-Dunedin run. He joined that service in June of last year but the thrills of safe commercial flying were apparently not enough for his adventurous soul. The urge to wander, to adventure and to fight had entered into him again-and he resigned. No one knew why he did... and his comrades dismissed it with the remark, "Eric’s got the wan-der-bug again." They thought he was headed for the Philippines and some freight service venture. But now, Griffiths, with an aviator friend, Willicombe, has sailed for China. ) ' go

They are the first from this part of the world to join General Chiang’s war birds since the New Zealander, Lieutenant Ray Whitehead, was shot down by Japanese pursuit planes over Shanghai in the early days of the present war There is one thing about the adventure as far as Griffiths is concerned. He knows something of flying in the East, for he has been there before in the past five years. It is just five years since he first left Wellington seeking adventure and finding it. He ferried aeroplanes for Chinese wanords and acted as mechanic for the Byrd Antarctic Expedition. Then a new adventurous call-plus some financial reward-came to him. The Spanish conflict had begun, so Mr. Griffiths went to England, -and for a time engaged succéssfully in flights between Englaad -and Spain, taking over fighting planes for the Spanish Government, ;

He joined the Spanish Government’s International Brigade as 2 fighting pilot for eight months and saw fighting in plenty. His official tally of insurgent planes brought down ‘was four. ‘ ‘His career in that field was brought to an end when he was hit in a dog-fight while acting as an escort to several Government bombers. He was able to bring his plane back to the base and so escape capture. The "one" he "stopped" was an expanding bullet, and he has still an ugly scar in his right shoulder as a reminder of the incident. Griffith’s return to New Zealand in 1987 was of the same "front page" brand as the rest of his. career. He became engaged to Miss Fay Robinson of New Zealand by cable from Valencia. She met. him at the poat in Auckland.on his return, -and they were married shortly afterwards. And now he is in China once more. Something says it will not be long before he is in the news again.