DR. FUCHS’S JOURNEY

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28478, 7 January 1958, Page 8

DR. FUCHS’S JOURNEY

“Determined To Go On”

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 6. Sir Edmund Hillary reported to Wellington today that he had suggested to Dr. Vivian Fuchs, leader of the British section of the Commonwealth Transantarctic Expedition, that Dr. Fuchs and his party should postpone their journey from the Pole to Scott Base till the end of the year. Dr. Fuchs received the suggestion “more in sorrow than anger,” and said he was “determined to go on despite all.” In a message to the chairman of the Ross Sea Committee (Mr C. M. Bowden) Sir Edmund Hillary said he had proposed to Dr. Fuchs that he should postpone his journey from the Pole to Scott Base and leave his vehicles at the the Pole during the winter. •Ha also suggested that Dr. Fuchs’s party should be evacuated by air and that in November the members fly back to the Pole again. This should be done in ample time for them to recondition their vehicles and complete their journey, carrying out a full scientific programme. Sir Edmund Hillary gave as his reason for the suggestion that he felt the 1250 miles Dr. Fuchs had to travel to Scott Base could be covered only at considerable risk to the men and at the sacrifice of any effective seismic programme. Sir Edmund Hillary told Mr Bowden: “Though Dr. Fuchs was anxious for me to travel with him from the Pole, I have advised him that rather than wait several weeks inactive at the Pole, I would return to Scott Base and get on with my job and then join him at one of the depots.” Sir Edmund Hillary said he thought enough prestige would have been gained by the arrival of Dr. Fuchs and the New Zealand party at the Pole for the plan to be modified, so that the task could be reasonably and safely completed in two years.