THE EMPIRE MEETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 144, 19 June 1940, Page 6

THE EMPIRE MEETS.

WAR BIRD SOCIETY. AN AIR FORCE FELLOWSHIP. LONDON, May 15. Among the personnel of an R.A.F. station there are a number of adventurous young airmen from many parts of the Empire. A dozen of these young men have formed a society which meets one night each week.

Each takes a turn as host, and to be a guest is a refreshing experience. All the members have roamed the world and have a story to tell.

One is a Scots-Canadian, educated at Manitoba University. His father's city business did not appeal to him. So he went to work in the canning factories and gold mines of Alaska. One day on impulse he jumped a tramp steamer. After a 63-day journey down the Pacific coast, through the Panama and across the Atlantic he arrived in Britain to join the R.A.F.

His close pal is "Mac," the grandson of a Governor of the Yukon in the days of the Klondyke gold rush. "Mac" managed a winning "rose bowl" team in the premier inter-collegiate football match in Canada. While etill at college he bought an old freighter. With some fellow students and one experienced seaman, he sailed it on a nightmare journey to Japan, where he sold it for scrap. Two days after war broke out he left Montreal. He was in Air Force blue a month later.

A regular visitor is a tall, lithe Australian who looks every inch the athlete he is. Friend of Don Bradman, he was running professionally in Britain last summer, and he "just stayed on to see this thing through."

Other members of the society include a heavy-weight boxer and an oil company manager from India.