MOUNT EVEREST EXPEDITION.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17401, 11 March 1922, Page 2

MOUNT EVEREST EXPEDITION.

• « A NEW ZEALANDEB TOO LATE. - (FROM OCR OWN, COBBESI'ONDENTO LONDON, January 26. Mr S. Turner, F.R.G.S., arrived from New Zealand too late for inclusion in the Mount Everest expedition. Only a limited number of passports are issued, and the. personnel was complete before he got, here, but lie is very hopeful of having the opportunity of trying his luck j there is an impr*asm ,in'scientific circles' that it wll'tak© from.iive to ten yeiu'9 j to conquer the .highest mountain in th© world. Mr Turner, prepared his way to London by cabling, through.the. High missioner, the suggestion that the Royal Geographical Society should give him the opportunity of going out, as he felt himself fit to stand tfho storms and was very sure that he. could _ arrive at I'the -W* "? should b© allowed to-take th© two best, j men from #is. OGflft,' en using thp W. own equipmght owt theifr- town /instruments, wftK"fH© vifeV 'to accomplishingthe ascent: by tbe ehd of 1923- :*? the tasli should' fail, then he.would give a. sum of ■ money- to' th© Mt. Everest, funti-. v- : 'Thfi':iay after Mr fl&iTier arrived,, he had-an interviews F. Younghusbandi- who 'reCeivied htim-. teously, and allowed trriie for a lengthy •'wtuch had feat-year-in the case of men over fifty. Sir Francis,, at the outset, naturally* rather inclined to the opinion that Mr Turner's ago might be agoimt him. H© recommended Mr Turner ,to. the Alpine Club, and interviews: have'sine# taken placo witji the club bfecials. His reception has I altogether Keen very gratifying, iwhen'. talking to -Sic'. Francis, Mr Turner expressed the view that the eonI quest of Everest had assumed a- national BvSitish Empire wa's involved. f British honour; pluck, and were at stake, and on this account v the best ability in the Empire 6hould be selected. There were men of otiher countries who would readily pluck ,the prize if the ■ British failed to get there, as had hapbefore : in! the case of • Antarctic exploration.. As strengthening his case from the point of vievy of .fitness for his inclusion in 4; future'party, Mr Turner told Bir he had broken the world's skipping record ;.on. boatd ship •on the way to.JSngland. He' had regis-' tered 10,000 skips in exactly aii hour, beating the previous published world's record of 9600. He mentioned, too, that his conquest of ftjt. Cook alone was nB recent as ;191€, and that' he -was in the pink of condition and the prime of life—very .much younger than his ■years.: • • ■. . • f'l pointed out to Sir Francis, saaa Mr Turner to me, "that mountain climbers in' New Zealand are fifteen to twenty years ahead of English climbers,by - reason 1 of tbo unexplored and difficult mountains that we have to tackle. Further, I told'him that,for the physical feat, necessary to climbing the-last 4000ft-.of s&lt. Everest they, required an' extraordinary man. *' Such. physical feats on on unknown mountain are rarely found among men who'.only scale mountainfc that' are well 'kflown. Again, I hazarded" the opinion- tliat no man will get to the top' of Mt; Everest who cannot carry 3010 on. his back." . "That is to sayj" , interjected Sir Francis; f'nobody will ever get to the top of Mt. Everest.'' V To which. Mr Turner replied that in New Zealand mountaineers carried 35 to 401b up the .most dangerous precipices and ice slopes to be found anywhere in the., and that 3ie had' don© climbing with as much as -lOlb and step-cutting' at', the; same. tifi&'e;. that on' one or two occasions lie had carried 601!> —for inßtnjice v :over the Milford Track only last March. The president of the Royal Geographical Society considered Mr Turner was a man 'of exactly the Tight build,, and "a good bit of stuff." • "I_ am so enthusiastic over this conquest, and so thorough in my determV nation, that if it were only a question of money I should be- inclined to pawn •my proverbial shirt to get there; bill!,, unfortunately, the door is locked by the' Indian Government against anybody but this and, as I learned officially'directly after! landed in Lon-don,-the coming expedition party had already been , chosen?.' .