NEVER ANXIOUS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 124, 28 May 1929, Page 7

NEVER ANXIOUS.

FOR SOUTHERN CROSS. Flying Circles Regard Smith As Exceptional Pilot. ANDERSON ENGAGED FOR £500. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) MELBOURNE, May 27. The Committee of Inquiry set up to investigate the forced landings of the Southern Cross and the Kookaburra, also the loss of the search aeroplane D.H.9A. commenced its Melbourne sittings to-day. The tribunal comprises BrigadierGeneral L. C. Wilson, solicitor, of Brisbane; Captain G. Hughes, president of the New South Wales Aero Club; and Mr. C. N. McKay, president of the Victorian Aero Club; Mr. J. H. Hammond. KG, assisted the committee. John Hart, editor of the magazine •'Aircraft,''' said he unreservedly withdrew all statements he had published suggesting that the forced landing of the Southern Cross had been prearranged. Lieutenant-Colonel Horace C. Brinsmead. Controller of Civil Aviation, said Squadron-Leadcr Kingsford Smith and Flight-Lieutenant C. T, P. Ulm had little to learn about long-distance flying and aviation. The authorities at no time were anxious about their safety. He regarded Kingsford Smith as quite; an exceptional pilot. Witness said he had no statutory power to stop the flights of the Southern Cross and Kookaburra. He was convinced, however, that the safety of machines carrying passengers and mail should be protected by every means in the Department's power. The responsibility for purely spectacular, experimental flights, and for rescue operations should rest upon those who undertook or encouraged them. Proceeding, Colonel Brinsincad said that when the Tasman flight was announced he sought statutory power to stop it in the belief that it would be suicidal. However that power was notgranted. It was believed that the flight could be stopped by indirect means. Witness expressed the 'opinion that when aviators embark on flights to North and Western Australia they should carry not only axes, but other implements. Yet they should not. load themselves with all manner of things. The Southern Cross flyers, also, should have carried more emergency rations. Witness admitted that the preparations for the flight of the Southern Cros-? showed the greatest care and competence in organisation. Flight-Lieutenant Charles Eaton told I the story of the finding of the late Lieutenant Keith Anderson ? s body and miscellaneous papers around the Kookaburra. He also referred to Auderson's rough diary written on the fuselage. Witness said one document found on Anderson's body was a contract between Anderson and John Canter, hotelkeeper, Sydney, who had agreed to pay the airman £">OO to search for the Southern Cross. Progress reports were to be sent to Mr. Canter in the utmost privacy. Scraps of Anderson's diary were produced by witness. These referred to the forced landing and the airman's inability to prepare to take-off again owing to increasing debility due to thirst. There were, other iinintelligible entries. Anderson's machine seemed to be all right, but the compass was completely wrecked. There was plenty of petrol. The inquiry was adjourned.