HILLARY CALLED “TACTLESS”

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28480, 9 January 1958, Page 8

HILLARY CALLED “TACTLESS”

Press Comment In London (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, January 8. The “News Chronicle” said in a leading article that history might prove Sir Edmund Hillary right in trying to deter his senior from completing the Antarctic crossing, “but his methods have been somewhat tactless.” “Hillary is a man of action. Fuchs is a man of science. Fuchs and members of his team have had several years’ experience of Antarctic conditions. Their purpose is not to be “Hell bent for the Pole.” but to make a detailed scientific survey which should be of inestimable value in developing the Antarctic Continent.”

So long as Dr. Fuchs was not endangering his party he should be encouraged to continue.

Hillary had been accused of endangering the Commonwealth Antarctic expedition, according to a “Daily Herald” article. Experts in London were asking: “Was he the wrong man for the job?” said the newspaper.

The Antarctic ordeal demanded that its explorers be men who could ignore monotony, yet Sir Edmund Hillary had complained of being bored.

The “Birmingham Post” said today: “When Hillary’s message about his journey to the Pole was

received—hell bent for the Pole, God willing, and crevasses permitting—some people at least felt there to be an element of the vainglorious in it.

“Undue emphasis was not laid on this because of a recognition of the stress and excitement of the moment and a vicarious sharing of the high sense, of adventure of the man.”

But Hillary’s latest message suggesting postponement of Dr. Fuchs' expedition threw “grave doubt” upon his own judgment and made Dr. Fuchs’s task even more difficult.

“It is conceivable that by the time Dr. Fuchs reaches the Pole he may be forced by circumstances to change his plans after all,” the “Birmingham Post” said.

“Such a decision, with the implication to be drawn—illogically —that Sir Edmund Hillary was right after all would be extraordinarily difficult to arrive at. Sir Edmund Hillary has clouded judgment most grievously.”