OVER ARCTIC ICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 4, 6 January 1938, Page 8

OVER ARCTIC ICE.

A VOICE FROM HOME.

KISSES TO GREENLAND. (By JOHN" O r HARA HARTE.) PHILADELPHIA, December 11. Genevieve MacGregor is a most important little girL She's the only little girl in Philadelphia who can speak to Santa Claus' neighbour and have her requests for Christmas presents passed on in person. And who do you think this Santa Claus neighbour is ? He is Genevieve's daddy, Clifford J. MacGregor. head of an Arctic expedition camped at Reindeer Point, Greenland.

It's a long way from Philadelphia to Reindeer Point —about 3000 miles. But Genevieve and her mother, Mrs. Martha MacGregor, don't mind that. They speak to Greenland every few nights—by short wave radio.

The best results are when it is dark, so it was decided that MacGregor, on leave from his job as a Government meteorologist, should try to tune in on Howard Green's short wave amateur station, W3DHM, at Swarthmore, at 6 o clock in the evening. Perfect Reception. At six o'clock, with Genevieve very excited—she is only 4£ years old —and Mrs. MacGregor quite tense, and everybody else on pins and needles, a strong voice came over: "This is OX2QY calling W3DHM. This is OX2QY calling W3DHM. Come right on/' tit might have been any radio station in town, but it was Clifford MacGregor sitting in 40in of snow up in the Arctic Circle!

And then began a most amazing evening. as Genevieve and lier mother, and Macfiregor's sister-in-law, Mrs. Edwin J. deßeer, of Tuckahoe. N.Y., exchanged messages over 3000 miles of snow. ice. forlorn wastes, as casually ar- if they had been e)*?aking oil the 'phone. Hello, Clifford.' said Mrs. MacGregor. "We have a little bit of company here to-night. But first, here is Genevieve to sav hello."

The blonde, blue-eyed little girl said: "Hello, daddy. How are yon? Tell Santa Clans I am a good girl." "Okay, Genevieve! Santa Glaus is getting things ready. Be a good girl, Genevieve!" A Far flung Kiss. Then there were more messages between the explorer and his wife, and between him and Mrs. deßeer. who wa.s speaking to the Arctic for the first time, and was thrilled about it. Finally it wa»s: "Good night, daddy," from Genevieve. And then there was a farewell kis- that floated all the way up to Greenland from Philadelphia, and that comforted a modern expedition's members.

Genevieve isn't any stranger to this sort of life, although she wants her daddy to come home much sooner than next September, which seems to be about the earliest he can get hac-k to Philadelphia, because of being "frozen in" up north. When she was onlv fonr months old she was with her father and mother in Alaska.

Green, who built his radio himself, didn't know MacGregor. He became "introduced" to him when he picked him up one night out of the ether. MacGregor asked Green if he could arrange for Mrs. MacGregor and his daughter to speak once in a while.— (N.A.N.A.)