HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1928-03-29, Page 3e
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British Air Ave, Sir Alan Cobham,
Out Travels the Famous Lindeburgh
Knowledge of Plying' Together . With Careful Thought and
Atten'tibh to Details Overcomes the Usual Dangers
STU•PENDUOUS DISTANCE;;;:•
National. Geographic Magazine Carries Wonderful Story.
of Expert Marksmen,
On our homeward journey through
India we were the guests of the Ma-
haraja of Datia, where we stayed a
few days. The 'Prime Minister - told
us that, when he had arrived in Datia
some- years before, he • had found the
place infested with monkeys, which
were .rapidly destroying the roofs of
all the buildings. These cunning
creatures were addicted to the de-
lightful pastime of tearing heavy
tiles off the roofs of the houses and
throwing them down on the passers-
by in the streets, sometimes with fa -
While the; .American press is full of
the exploits of Col. Charles Lind -
burgh it Is •interesting to read in the
current number of the National Geo-'
graphic Magazine. an••article from tile
pen of Sir Alan J'. Cobham, England's
peerless• air pioneer, who at present
is circumnavigating the African con-
tinent to plan air routes for England.
Sir Alan is accompanied by his wife,
Lady Cobham, and four assistants, :in
an all steel sea plane and is blazing
new and progressive air paths which
will forerun the establishment of per-
manent air coommunications with the
vast British possessions' in 'the "Dark" tal results. In the course of time they
continent. His article tells the story had 'developed a breed of monkey
of air: development in part as follows:
In the course of niy work during the
past five or six years. I have seen
many. parts of the world:
My Wanderings' have talcen,time over;
every capital in. Europe and over the
length and breadth of the great Afri-
can continent.
More than once I have traveled
over the great Syrian Desert to India,
Burma and back, and only'recently I
journeyed 'all the way to, .Australia
and return 'via Rangoon, Singapore,
and the Dutch East Indies.
Yet 'with 'all "these wanderings it
was not until a few montlia' ago that
I made my first,. ,steamship voyage,
when I crossed from Southampton to
New 'York.
Hitherto• my journeys had been
Made in the air) and my mode of
transport was an airplane or seaplane
and when 'I reflect on my various ex-
ploits, somehow I feel/ that my men}
pries and' impi•essioits of the conn-.
tries I have visited are far more 'vivid
and realistic than are the memories
of the individual 'who lias• traveled' by
steamship, train, or motor car.
Studying Archeology By Air.
Early in 1923 I made a circular
tour, covering about 12;000. miles,
over Europe, Egypt, Palestine; Al-
,geria, .Morocco, and Spain. 'My pas-
senger was an old friend whose great
est hobbies 'were ' travel ' and the
study of ancient civilizations.. •
We had flown many thousands of
miles together on previous occasions,
but this trip was a little more ambiti-
ousC . From London we flew to Paris,
through France, along the Riviera
then over the' Mediterranean to Afrira
Beast • line, across; Italy to Greece, and
and Egypt. •
" Then, for the first tiute in history,
we flew, across the whole breadth of
Afrrca, 'frcin 'Egypt' tti Morocco, after
.which- we crossed the Strait,of Gib-
raltar and by ,way of Spain and
France returned to London. '
The .filial stage of our journey, from
lldrid to London, was made in . one
day. We breakfasted in Madrid, had
a lunch in Bordeaux, sipped afternoon
r l"c la tea on the airdrome 'of tympuen this
completing with a Wartime machine' a
tour of more than 12,.000 miles, with
out any preliminary . organization or
S''et rouge. .
Flight to India:'
datelining a F
• In the autumn of 1924, • Air Vice -
Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker had to
snake a journey to India -in connection
with the allotting of a port of call and
• lire ' tlilding of a noosing mast for
Cite -future auship se`rvi`ce tha` may'
gverittially ruts theOnglietb Aus i•alile .
As Director of • British Civil Avia-
tion, Sir Sefton Branckner maintau-
ed that he ought to Iiy to 'his death a -f
tion;- but the Treasury urged that
.'el o*rairient officiate should traJvet•' y
• tiiece<ieest route,
h ti) and• as the eeist
of.
of• a . aieL•.ial airplane to fly ,to India
and backWas far in 4excess f ,sidle
cost of a first-class steamship passage
el2and return, the Treasury could not
pli.,,F,,sWiga way clear to grant the $um of
money necessary. HoWefei', on learn-
Wet
0.4.. .,yti4 11at the , aviation industry was•
• Willis/t'ia "'stt'pi io •t 'the flight ,•: the
•c4e.:eee..n ,Treasu'y became more •lenient and a
good portion of the expense of the
xi^ire journey was ,allotted.
teee' • ' i'he Director deciaed`� that, ae •we•
y,
y, ;r. were_ going' to• fly to India, and pos-
a i, ,, dilly beyond to Rangoon, in Burma,
, ' 1 • ;Ire would nt icie it f a' fiig',ht qf' suiydy•
,and would'. eud'eitv�r to ascertain the.
y: bet air route.„.'.
• . Wo', had a depressing and tedious
$Journey tl}rotigli Europe in: the wine/
':tertime, for 've"left London Ain 1Vovent-
her, and it was not until the Persian
Gulf was reached that ,we met the
• sunshine. I was greatly , impressed
;by the many weird and weeiderful
-.rock formations along the hand ,eds
:;. ':of miles of jforbiddting coast line from
Iraq down the Persian Gulf, then over
the Gulf of, Oman to India- i
• It was winter in India and 'the
weather was perfect. As Sir Seton
':> , , •Erancker Wished to visit one r ori .two'
places where it would be impossible
to land an airplane, he went on hy
train from Karachi, which was., oitr
first port of call in India, Here a big
• faooring.niast is being eilected for the
future airship service, and this port is
'also the terminusof the air line that
is now hi operation between' Egypt
.and India.
Oar• flight from Karachi to Delhi
Was: via that Tliar, or Indian, Desert
and Jodhpur. .On the first day,we aue-
cessfully crossed the desert, a journey
of several hundred utiles, and', Having
leveled a big river, 1 began to look
ahead tor the town of.,1`odhprir,
',1onkeys of Datla beve'foped a Breed
marksmen who seldom missed.
Now Datia is a, Hindu state, and
the followers of this religion have a
tenet which forbids the taking of life
of any sort; so the monkeys were left
unmolested. The new Prime Minister
decided that something must be done,
and so he advised the Maharaja to of-
fer 5 rupees as reward for every mon-
key captured and brought alive to the
cages outside /lie. palace.
The news of this drastic action
spread all over the countryside and.
was strongly condemned by the Ma-
haraja or a neighboring state. The
critic even went so far as to say that
he was fond of monkeys, and that
they were allowed to roam about his
domain unmolested. ,
In the meantime at Datia hundreds
monkeys were .being captured daily,
and very soon there was not a simian
left roaming free.. The Prime Minis --
ter was now faced with the problem
of disposing of them. He hit upon
the bright idea of having them packed
in baskets and loaded on board a see-
'dial tiain'Wh1ch Was dispatched to the
neighboring state of the Maharaja
who professed a liking for monkeys.
When the train arrived in the chief
town, several. hundred miles from
Datia, the animals were unloaded and
let loose as a -special gift to the Po-
tentate.
It was, a huge practical joke, and
was talked of all over India. The poor
Maharaja•who had condemned Datia's
action could say nothing, although in-
wardly he must have been furious,
A Longitudinal Survey of Africa
By Alr.
After more than three months away
from home .I• landed :onethe Creydou
airdrome :in the., early • spring, cora:
pieting the first of a series of three
big /-flights of survey of,_ E Aire Air
Routes-' 'h
Our next big flight was from -Lone
don to 'Cape Towu and back...For.this
trip I selectedrthe identical De Havil
land type 50• plane that had taken us
to Rangoon and -back, but instead af.
the old -type engine, we iustalled:•;a;.
Jagktay •,)a.ea ti,ei tq;,nNoti<iite easily
the high-altitude • ' dirclromes in the,
Tropics, where the -atmospliei`e•• is
'fn fclh' -rarefied; it was, necessary to
have the extra horsepower.;
• We had traveled nearly 3,000 miles
up the River Nile from the Mediteil
ranean coast, yet at Mongalla we
were only about 1,000 felt. above sea
level. In the next two or three 'hun-
dred miles, however, the ground rose
suddenly, and at. Jtnja, on file shores
,of -Lake' Victerfa; we found • ourselves
oie• thei high ;plateau, bf centjai Africa,
more than 4,000 feet above sea level.
Owing to the heat, the altitude and
other local conditions, t1 e • detisity
of ;the. atmos herr5e,,., was very. 'different
fev�ial that'`, • o n¢rth' rn Euarope.: At
times the air -fn •• central F.`A:fri ou
olmx� ; 'a,• i , !landing. groµnds was
e 'ufr*ale'i 'ton Chis atmos` h re a 10 -
q p � 10,-
OQO feet in England, and it was:here
that we found the need fore' our extra
r..lterseio*er n••oi!deri'to tale off and
climb away on the rarefied 'Air. 1
Near Jinja We saw the Ripon galls,
the source tit the White Nile ,anld the
only outlet to the great Lake Vidtoria,
Flying Through the. Mists of Viptoria
e. t. enlls 50 Ferrt,.Above the Bri''pk,
' •Err a 'S . 1irou .„ i T n
• Of ourjot t ys t gTi,,, a fanyi-
• ka and Northern Rhodesia Chereps no
$paggee to tell in, till •particle,, Btit we
cannot 1, pass liyti t'le," Victbria1,Falls
without 'descibing,thoyv ,the Zambezi,
which is .a, mile anci a quarter wide at
this, *int, ltllows• gently- h its' way
and,'r herr' :seem from an airplane
seems suddenly to disappear into a
crack in the earth, ,t,:
This great African river fails for sin
360 to '400 feet into)a roar r•ow dhasm, the result , of overwork in preparing
..Irl the center': k` tlijs,;cleft is the only. or .the f1ig1t'e I lhad be n suffering shore, feeling our way emend the
g �, ' 'i • .southern, edge if the lake in a
;outlet, a narrow goxge through which from depraysiou, , both , mental and t
en -
all the mighty waters have to escape, physical, ever abide the start at deavor••taget tlu• of gh drat cittst storm'
a Town I had o 'ester •on the other Band, and•holdag there would be elear kir
0 tl ' flight t C � I Elliott,,.
;, , S - .. , '
grapher, :,Emmott, in addition to my j i We • took off front Baghdad in the — '
and while Ilmmott tools the motion fo 1'bwing tiro course of the Euphrates ore .r'�t.cc4dent Deaf a
1.
On
�::.�:�,>:�>.;:�•<>>:;,:: ria
We had :been zigzagging over the 1
swamp for some time and were near -1
ingthe snore or less definite southern ;
coast when, while flying M a height
of about 20 feet from the water, we
passed over a low strip of land that
Jutted out into the lake, M that mo -
anent there was a violent explosion
1n' the cabin!
Instantly I thought of fire and sur
misetl that, owing to the great heat in
which we were flying, one of the cart-
ridges for our rocket pistol had ex-
ploded. This would be very serious,
for It would most certainly have eat
us on fire.
I yelled through the connecting
window from my cockpit to Elliot and
asked him if we were on fire. He
shouted back:
"No, but a gas pipe has burst and
hit me on the arm."
I could seethat he looked very pale
and it was difficult to shout above the
noise of the engine, which I could not.
shut off to glide, as I was flying only
20 feet from the earth's surface, T
handed him . a pencil • and paper. He
handed me hack a message written in
a shaky hand to say the gas -pipe had
burst and hit him inthe arm and that
he was bleeding a pot of blood.
"What's Best for Elliot.."
tooth Audience and Stage.
To Revolve in Theatre
Ilerli;n---T.he theatre of the fu-
ture will' leave not only a revolving
stage, but a ,revolving .audience as
well, in the opinion .of Walter
Groplus, noted architect of Dessau.
Be Is at work devising a new type
of theatre for Edwin Piseator, of
Berlin, • directer of the only Com-
munist theatre In Germany,
Groplus plaits to build a theatre
in which the parquet, with its audi-
ence, can be turned at an angle of
180 degrees. The spectators will'
thus suddenly :Find themselves
transportedto another part„of the
round theatre, whero they will see
a different stage setting from that
upon which they gazed at the pre-
vious angle.
inside, and when I climbed on board
and inspected the inside 'wall I pulled
out a mail bag and a dispatch case
each of which had been drilled by a
missile.
It suddenly dawned upon me that
we had been shot at and that it was
not a burst gas pipe that had wound -
I had to decide what to do. If I ed Elliot. , A bullet had passed
landed to render him first aid I ran through the dispatch case, right
great risks: first, of getting stuck in through the gas pipe, then had enter
the mud, in which case we should be ed Elliot's Ieft arra, shattering the
unable to get off again; second, of bone, passed on into his left side,
being unable' to start the engine sin- pierced both lobes of the .left lung and
finally buried itself in Iris hack,
We had been shot at by an Arab
and the noise of the explosion that
we had heard had been the firing at
the gun at close range.
" I' received an order from the Air
gle-handed, owing• to the terrific heat
of the district.
I could see that if I landed in this
"eViid and desolate spot, scores of miles
from any sort ,of habitattion, it 'would
be a very serious matter if I were un-
able to start up and get. away from
it again. I could not look around me.
I had to concentrate every second
while I was flying, owing to the den-
sity of the dust storm.
I decided the best thing I could do
would be to race on to , Basra, which
was about X00 miles farther on, where
I knew there would be hospitals,
white people, and proper organization.
Soon after this we got through the
storm and I was able to give the en-
gine full throttle, so that we covered
that 100 miles in about 45 minutes.
When I arrived at Bas,; I searched
for a mud bank where I might beach
the machine without damaging the
floats, but I knew that it was going
to be a one-man job.
I spotted ra place, came down, and
the moment I touched the water I
made straight for this bank and ran
my floats high and dry on the shore.
Elliot, Mortally Hurt, Thinks First
THE MAKER OF SOUTH AFRICA
The new statue of Cecil Rhodes upon which John Tweed has worked for+
months in England. It will be erected in Salisbury, Rhodesia, South Afr,ica.
what had happened: the spray was so
heavy that water had entered the car
buretor.
It was an unpleasant moment, for
beneath us was the deep chasm and which showed up a little more clear -
the turmoil of waters, while on the ly than anything else through the
one side we had the River Zambezi •dust -laden air.
flowing, toward, the, brink, and on the Oust Storm Forces a River Landing.
other a dense forest jungle; and for At last, the air. got so thick that I
miles around no earthly chance of decided to land on the river and wait
finding a cleared space on •which to for a little while with the hope that
land.• the storm might clear, As soon as we
I.,gave the engine full throttle,eand alighted, I turned the machine to
While it banged and spluttered we wart the bank and beached it in the
.climbed away and headed'for our air- soft Mud, I shall always remember
Amine at Livingstone. ^Fortunate�lyv. Elliott's enthusiasm ter the seaplane I
the carburetor cleared' .itself of 'tom 'at that moment, because, as he re
drops et water, and once more our i marked, it was so practical and safe;
we could take refuge at any moment
on'the water beneath tis.
There was a police liut near by and
and finally reached Cape Town with the native sergeant in charge, after
the hest airplane to •make the cross- putting a guard in our machine, took
continent,flight., ,Then after a brief us inside where, sheltered from the
overhaul of,,thp motor, , we turned dust, we. rested on native beds that
allottt;and:,;deiv here,..}caking the re- ,were quickly put up for us.
turn tripein 16,..tiays•; ,; He then sent a Horseman. off, with
It wags ' 1;ely three ,months later the note that I gave him; to the near -
when we ;again set out on another est telegraph .station, so that the
long flight of survey, This time it
was to be Australia and return, but
instead of going with an airplane we
decided to. do the job with a seaplane.
A F.ttgi%t to. Australia With. the•Engine
That Flew to the Cape.
This meant very little alteration in
our outfit, however, for all we did
was, -to take our identical De Hayti -
land type 50, `that ha'd"'already^ 'done
the Rangoon and Cape flights, and fit
within a few feet of the river hank.
We flew for many miles in this fas-
hion, skimming low over the river and.
taking our direction from the bank,
,motor began, Joe. purr smoothly. ,
All .the way through Africa we sui'-
veyed the possibilities for air routes,
authorities would_ know of our where-
abouts -and progress, After 'this we
slept from 9.30 to noon, then enjoyed
a refreshing meal of tea and melon.
At about 2 o'clock the. storm had
cleared somewhat, so we decided to
make another attempt.
Sky and Water Melt Into One.
We took off safely and continued
down" the Euphrates, but after about
50 miles we ran into• another bad
it out with a pair of Shorts; fluralel;, dust storm. As we neared the head of
min <'•tttitnietal.;;fioats; : Using the•, smile the•;gaeat 'Laminar Lake 1 could see
Sidde ,,• J guayi engine that had thatMlt :tvas'.going,,,to be most difficult
done tb.e 'tapb' fligSit;' '4,took off /roti for me to. find, m77 way, esliecially if
the River Medway at 1t cheater 33 �wetit oi.ei• the open water: The air
Miles east of London, it oa,r °2$;006- a'bov'e rtre,' "tiaving�";�to the .sand storm,
w s a dirty maid color, and the water
.beneath` Was' the same. In fact,'all
around there ;ryag scud and one could
not „see more tliasi 100 yards: ahead.
.`An • Explolon,In the Ggbin.
tiVi lr this poor: visibility, it, Was
, t
'mile cruise to Australiia MI drac'k ;„1
It. was• difficult to ':eget ,Pietitr4es• ofn
the, Australian flight, 'because''eye;had
purposely chosen to fly tlnrotigi� lite
dry weather period—that i's,- the ho;r
weather in Iraq and' India, conhbb,i d
with 9,e munsgon in, In`diay urma, most• d1fnault oto ;.fy `,especially. as we
and tlge• Malay Penineltia ;f. Wd warmed were traveliti, . at .about 100 utiles an
to find' out'•,whetlieir it wetild;''be,'pdt-- i iat't11 I went,but over
hour,. i felt ;,t}
sable to fly through the ''torrential the opeW,liike tinight run the, risk of
raids of the„,'13grma coast, thus mak- flying 'alto the` water, owing to they
ing;�;'our surkey report all the more similarity of color in every direction'
sound. .. "i w,: ' and the absence of any visible hori
Tragedy Mars the Australian Flight, eon.'�'Under these conditions,. it was
The Australlan flight was marred necessary -for• me to hug the swampy
by •disaster,•• Arthur Elliott, niy"'care shore line of the fake, so that I might
' able hind ever loyal engineer, lost his : have tr • few. ai, seine tort o land that
would :give' me my equilibrium. :;,o
, And so we found ourselvices zigzagg-
ing r.li t'thnd but along thi8 'swampy
life, dy ig!.in''the hospital at Berea, in
Iraq. '
Ii'or some unknown reason, possibly
us 0 pe rr y� ch b d
with me a professionalcinemato hada beetrmost c .,
engineer of the England to India. trip early morning` with the intention•• of -,
pictures, Elliott used to • try to take to Basra—near the head of the Pet • Car Toll
theetill ictures. Who we had Sian'. 'Gulf, T had not -:felt fit .to. start EXceed Motor
flown beyond the falls the, 'sight wad at the early Hour of 5 a.m. Elliott and More people are killed and in -
so magnificent that we'.'decided to seveilal of the Air Force, buys had •'jured •by falls, burns, suffocation
come `down low and take- a close-up been lookirigipy!er' yt:lhe machine ;while and, P,pisons ,it their homes overs
picture of the brink. I endeavored to pull,iityse>; agetlier.' year thin suffer death or injtiry, in
ii 'accidents according to
:. ut;�iiiob e ,
fgui.es cbbij led by the National
,Sai'ety'' otieteit! This wa, es ecial
ly ph `Uzed last Janhtaary, when.
a. total of 1,760 persons were.'killedi'
by and. yin .attterec Iles in the Un-
ited States arid' ri ,0`�i0 'met., their
deaths in hone) a°ccidents, aeeord
ing the council's figures•'1
This •manoeuvre was interfered with By' 8, e'clocie I was .able; to climb into
by the continual banks . of spray, the ship, but was feeling very Weak. -
'Whirl kept rising and corm letely �tttt We headed southward from
veloped our.machine In 'heavy clouds River Tigris; seeking' the Euphrates,
of mist as we ,skimmed along only 50 It was fair weather when we start,
feet above the brink, ' ed„ but after we had gone about 150•
While we were Plying at this low miles we ran into a cittst shorn, which'
altitude aver this pel'iloas country, became worse and worse as we pro -
our engine faltered and started to deeded. Finally, in order to find niy
spiiitter, +':lliottyafld I both realized way, I wes .forced to, corse down -to
i
•
Force directing me to go out to the
I airdrome, about 20 miles away, so
that on the following morning, at
'dawn, I could lead a squadron of air-
planes to the place where the tragedy
had occurred.
About twelve o'clock that night
there was a telephone call from the
hospital, When I answered it I could
not understand, or, at least, could not
believe what the operator was telling
me, and so handed the receiver over
to the commanding officer, who slow-
ly repeated the words: "Elliot passed
away at 11.45."
The news was a terrible shock to
me, for I had no idea that he would
succumb to the wounds.
The Arab Assassin is Captured.
I waited until 4 a.m., and then, as
dawn came, we took off, and by re-
tracing my route of the previous day
I came to the spot where I felt sure
the gun had been fired.
of the Engine. One of the officers, who was in an -
I climbed out of the cockpit and other machine, on a signal from the
lifted the lid of the cabin. • commanding officer, landed. He as-
certained from a local encampment
that tribes had been there the pre•
vious day. That started the investiga•
Lion which resulted in the ultimate
'capture ;of the culprit, who later con=
fes'sed, his 'only excuse being that he
wouldn't have coniniitted the crime it
he had had any idea that he was go•
ing to he found out.
Elliot was in a terrible condition.
He sat huddled in the corner, so pale
that he was almost_ gr;een.. He. could
hardly speak. He just murmured to
me that he Was ante that he had a
hole hi his side ;frieni which •he was
breathing.
I managed to lift him in my arms
out of the cabin,; then on to the wings
and so down -to the floats.
There is one little episode which I
shall never forget; it goes to. prove
how devoted Elliot was to his job.
It so happened •tiiaf,' with o>ii; air-
cooled engine, the bottom cylinders
were upside down • In order to pre-
vent the oil from draining into the'ni
when the engine wasn't running it
Some of these tribes have been its
the habit of raiding the villages in
that 'part of the world for centuries,
but recently they have had their ac-
tivities curtailed by the Royal Air
Force. Thus many have, no love for
airplanes, and this, I suppose, war
the anitutis back of the action.
After this terrible tragedy, which
was necessary to tern, the oil off int- meant the loss of one 01 the world's
mediately elle engine 'stopped, There- finest aircraft -maintenance engineers,
fore, one of Elliot's jobb on landing I did not want to continue the flight,
was to tura the oil off when the race but cables received from England, es -
tor stopped. , As I lard him in my pecially, those from Sir Samuel Hoare,
arms; staggering' down :on 'the floats, Sir Tharles Wakefield, and from my
he turned to me and said, •`,'Don't for-
get to turn the oil"off.'••
Here was a min:, suffering ,agonies,"
hardly able to ,breathe, 'and, yet he
could remember to tell me tp. perform
the routine: necessary to maintain
that aircraft'. "
I had to lay Elliot dow•ji,ou tire. Mud.
bank and get him sgbie..cott,tort 'wool
from our first-aid •1iai . ; I 'dut wiiAt I
could te-dr.ess bis; wwouud•s.•;' here was
a thole, a his.1ett,= side ifieatli. the
arm; as ,w:ef1, as in the arm jtselfy..
I wanted ,to—eget a stretcher. aria
ran , teen ;.house.:, Where, ' the natives_
closed tile- door in ;lh far e; Vust•.at
that moment a launch came along
and in it ,were some officials, of - the
Anglo -Persian Oil Co. •,
Quickly we went to,„another native
house, and this time T put my foot in
the door and took the first bed that,I
'co 'i'di iiiid” ,•7't T think the natives were frightened
at the sight of blood, as we had dif-
fiqulty in getting them to help, us,
Very soon we had lifted Elliot on to and the Australian Air Force I shad -
the improvtsed'stretcher and had him der to thinll of what might have been
bit board the launch,!. and ten minutes our fate had
enthusiastic crowd
later he 'was inside the manager's
bnngalow, with cool air and all hands
working.
i The doctor arrived and all that
could be done was done. It could not
have been more than an hour and a 'to a seaplane, was beset with diflleui-
talf. after the accident that Elliot was ties, especially when we wore caught
in the 'hospital and all help possible 11 in the monsoon storms in the region
was being rendered, Then I turned l bI Victoria Point. Here the rain fell
to my maehine, /which had been tow- dive inches a day, and at times it was
ed up into a backwater near the Air Ern possible to see more than 20 yards
Force depot in Basra, ahead, Whereas the raintall in Eng -
The Mystery Solved—A 'Bullet. land averages about 30 inches over
The 'commanding odicer asked me the twelve months, the a>anual rain
:to relate tiro :experience and I told fall along the Burma coast, When it
hint ea
" saety i •.•what :had happened, and all comes within a period of about
before" finished .my story two young five months, is anything up to 300
ofllcers left "the,roonr. Soon they re- niches:
Witted •arid' asked me. 10 fano' tkem ! At last we got back to London, and
ended our 28,000 -toile flight of survey
wife,, all expressing sympathy. urged
me to proceed. I• deckled that I would
complete the; ob.
The Air Force sent me a substitute
mechanic, Sergeant Ward, of the
Royal Air Force, " who was serving
With his .squadron near Basra. And
so, a fortnight later, we continued the
journey.
Owing 'to 'the laclt of sunshine be-
yond. Iraq, Mi food it difficult to get
any Oriel pictures on the Australian
fli'gbt, a'int ht - as hot until we arrived
hi
'sli Jue p ':',
sva'that wwith regregularsun-
-have a vivid memory
of- .our . a.rriv 1- in Melbourne, where
more, than 15,000 pedlhle had gather-
ed to meet us. It was with difficulty
that we could find space enough to
get down on the airdrome,•.for •wc had
changed over from a 'seaplane to
wheels on aril 't&li1 d, harwin, in north-
ern Australia,•, 1'+ !u
If it hall not been for the police
got hold of us,
Torrential Rains impede Return
to London.
Tho homeward journey, when our
craft was once more converted back
down to the machine.
"P"first;" they asked, "why should a by landing on t11e. Thames opposite
'gas pipe, with no pressure inait,:witui• !the Houses of Parliament.
ever burst?" • '
I look forward to the day when it
I couldn't imagine, how it' had oe- rvlll be possible for all mankind to
&lu•red. !enjoy the delights of flying such as
Then they pointed to a hole in the have been my„ privilege during the
side of the cabin and told ane to look past seven. years.