AIR FORCE SEARCH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 28, 14 November 1935, Page 5

AIR FORCE SEARCH.

MAY CONTINUE THREE DAYS. ’PLANE ENGAGED INDEFINITELY, (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) CANBERRA, This Day, The Minister-for. Defence ('Mr Parkhill) announced that the Royal Air Force machines engaged in the search will not immediately ‘give up. ~ ‘ The Quantas ’plane, piloted by Mr Gr. U. Allen, will continue to Search the jungle for four days, when“it will leave with the mails. It will be replaced by another Quantas machine which will continue the search indefinitely. . .The. Federal Government - has re—quested Air Commodore Sidney Smith to continue the search with the Royal Air Force ’planes for three days, and it is anticipated that he will agree to do this; . HIGH PRAISE FROM AMERICA. DEBT TO GREAT ,PILOT. NEW: YORK, November 12. The “New York Times,” in aleading article, reviews with .praise some of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith’s greatest aerial exploits. “Probablyhis greatest feat was the real circumnavigation of the globe—— real in the sense that he is the first and only man ever touhave started from a base and returned to it after describing a. great circle.”~ The article continues: “His crossings of the Tasman Sea, his leaps from England to Australia, his Atlantic flight, and his double crossing of the gPacific were more than expeditions of :hardihood. No doubt his primary puripose was the breaking of records, yet lit was no accident that his course lay usually over some lonely seas or some uninhabited waste. never before viewed from the air. f‘From his record-breaking flights has come practical trans-Pacific navi—gation, and England, in particular, has reason to thank ,him for demonstrating how the scattered members of the Empire may be knit together.” The article concludes by saying: “We need: such performances as Kingsford Smith’s, _,ne-t only to advance the technique of transliort, but also to enlarge our conception of our sacial destiny. A man who thinks nothing of skimming thr‘ough the air for a. distance of 3000 miles between sunrise and sunset sets us dreaming of a Wellsian future, when the whole atmosphere will: have become a, playground, and barriers to the free intercourse ..of nations will seem ridiculous.” l ' MELROSE’S FORCED LANDING. ENGINE TROUBLE IN STORM. ‘ SINGAPORE, November 13. News of the safety of Mr C. J. Melrose came from the British Minis: 'ter at Bangkok, who telegraphed to

Singapore that he had‘. been forced down on a beach» at Pakato, Siam, with engine trouble, at the height of the violent storm which forced the QantasEmpire- Airways machind to' turn back to Alor Star yesterday. The ’plane was not wrecked, and Mm-.Melrose was not injured.