FLYING ADVENTURES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1930, Page 10 (Supplement)

FLYING ADVENTURES.

TEN MONTHS ROUND.THE world, p- :' v JOINING A PUNITIVE EXPEDITION. THE EAST BROUGHT NEAR; (By the VICOMTESSE JACQUES DE SIBOUR.) ]Viy husband' and I have toured tlie world for ten months in a Moth, aeroplane. r From the moment we set sail, or, more correctly, spread our wings, we have been in and out of the most hazardous situations. Providence has more than once come to our rescue and helped us. out where no human being could have been of use. We set off first of all to France, and then by way of Spain to Algeria. Our first, and one of the most perilous adventures, took place while we were over the Atlas mountains. .We had engine trouble' which, though slight, necessitated coming down. We had to make a forced landing on the rofky surface of a mountain. Mjr. husband, however, who flew during the war, and has had to land in all sorts of inconceivable places, negotiated the plane successfully, and we managed a fairly good landing. We then proceeded along the north coast of Africa to Cairo. The women I saw in Cairo are the most picturesque of any in the world. Their long yasmaks and black attire strike a strong contrast to the white walls and purple shadows of the street?. Their eyes —the only part of the face which is open to the world to gaze upon —are extraordinarily beautiful. They .make up as if it were for their otherwise sombre appearance. From Cairo "we flew to Bagdad, and from there to Basrah. Here we became involved in an unforeseen complication. It happened that a few days previous to our arrival an Englishman, Mr. Charles Crane, had gone out in the Ivowiet country by motor car, in spite of warnings sent him by English officials. He was shot by the hostile Arabs in the district, and the Government consequently sent out a punitive expedition by Air Force. Although my husband was not actually allowed to join in with the expedition he flew along with a squadron officer, and armed his machine with smoke bomb?. During his flight two of the cylinders gave out, and the machine had to be brought down. Fortunately for my husband and the officer, their plight was noticed by some of the other aeroplanes, and motor cars were wirelessed to meet us. In the meantime, however, they had to taxi along the ground, which they did for 35 miles, establishing incidentally a record. When their petrol ran. out they got out of the plane and walked. Luckily the motor cars picked them up, or they would have had a fifty mile walk without food or drink. Where Air Travel Is Ifeeded. As our machine was out of order owing to this escapade we had no alternative but to take a boat to India and to ship our 'plane on board. W 6 should have landed at Karachi with our baggage, consisting of two small handbags and an aeroplane,but for. the fact that my husband had a sudden attack of appendicitis, and we were held up for five weeks in Teheran., In this little town we met with the most extraordinary hospitality. We stayed at the Embassy, although it had been our intention to put up at the hotel Teheran can boast. Our enthusiasm for the hotel died a sudden death, however, when we found that we could get no baths other, than by lighting a species of stove under the tub to heat the water. We left Teheran as soon as my husband's health, would allow, and went overland to Karachi and picked up our aeroplane. We then flew to all the big cities of India —Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta. We fully realised the" value of our aeroplane at this. time. We were able to reach with the greatest ease these different towns. By'train " such journeys would have taken days and nights of hot, dusty travelling. By air we experienced none of the horror of the usual crosscountry journey in India —no flies or mosquitoes, and no interminable waits between stations. If air travelling is necessary in any part of the world, India is that place. I am told the organisation of the railways is such that often the train is held up for half an hour or so, in order that some individual may have time to catch it. Indeed; I met a planter who asserted that he used to arrange that the train which served his district should stop on the line opposite his house so that he would hot have to drive to the station to catch it. I have in fact a photo of a number of people collected on a railway track waiting for the train to slow up for them. From Calcutta, the most dangerous part of our journey began. We were making for China, over Burma and Malay. We had to fly over dense tropical forests, where the trees grew over 70 feet high. Sometimes we would see what seemed like a lovely little plateau, covered all over with bright flowers. These were the world-famed hanging gardens, which have stirred the imagination of the western world for centuries. The leaves of the trees had grown so thickly together at the top that they had made a kind of platform, and on this platform flowers and shrubs, had grown. Had our engine given trouble while flying over such forests we could not possibly have landed, and would never have lived to see England again. We would have been either suffocated to death in those dark regions where the sun never shines or bitten by the snakes which hang from the trees. Besides, no one could have ever found us again— these equatorial forests are uninhabited, indeed impenetrable. But. our little Moth did not let us down, and we flew over the danger spots'safely.

Later on we were caught in a fierce storm, and were forced to land at Moulmein on a'disused slope of a race-, course. Again we were saved by a stroke of good fortune. We had to make as good a landing as we could on the incline, where there was an old.ruin of. a grandstand. We missed crashing into it only by a hairsbreadth. When we landed, naturally the whole countryside came together to pee the "great bird," as they termed our machine. I believe we were responsible for breaking up a demonstration for "swaraj" (Indian self-rule) held by the great Ghandi himself. The natives left him to come and see us. Evidently we afforded a more novel form of excitement. Fuselage Coffins. From Moulmein to Rahing.we went on a route which, no one. .before us had taken. It proved to be so satisfactory that we have sent the plans to the French authorities for use on their, air service to Saigon. Ia Bangkok, in Siam, we landed pnd made au inspection of an aeroplane-factory. It was rather,gruesome to find that from the wood of the fuselage coffins were also being made— for the pilots.

At Saigon, in Cochin-China, we stayed for two month?, in order to get some shooting. We made Saigon our headquarters, and from there went on expeditions into the forests. One of our. trips; ended in our living for some days with a tribe of forest dwellers who practised complete communism. They had evidently never known of any form of government. We were so populaf with them that both my husband'and I were made " blood brothers." Our first misfortune came in the news to -my husband that his father had died. So at once we shipped our 'plane to Seattle in the United States and began the homeward voyage. From Japan we set sail for America, and thence to France.' ; '~ Although I-have given at best a very vague summary of the adventures which came our way during the ten months, I have been able to indicate to some extent, I think, what can be done by aeroplane. lam convinced that the same journey undertaken by any other method of travel would have proved doubly as expensive and far les? interesting and enjoyable. Once the initial cost of the aeroplane is overcome, the running expenses of,the Moth 'plane are far lower than those of the type of car neeessary for such a journey, besides which, one can go twice as fast as in the average car, and use very little petrol. That air travel ( is considered much safer than travel by any other method is shown by the fact that the insurance charged for goods sent by air is about half that of sea or rail transport. And the time is not far distant now; I am sure, when great numbers Of us. will make the trip to Asia and back for our Easter, summer, or winter holidays.— (" Star" and Anglo-American N.S., Copvright.) "