APPEAL FOR AID FROM CANTON ISLAND

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 127, 22 February 1939, Page 10

APPEAL FOR AID FROM CANTON ISLAND

Wellington Wireless Operator Helps MAN SERIOUSLY ILL WITH APPENDICITIS As the result of a Wellington amateur wireless operator hearing an appeal for medical aid from Canton Island recently, assistance was sent from Honolulu to the island, which probably 'saved a man’s life. The Wellington operator heard -the wireless operator on Canton Island, which is in the Phoenix Group, endeavouring to communicate with Honolulu to ask for assistance for a man who was seriously ill with appendicitis. As the Canton Island operator was unable to contact Honolulu, the operator in Wellington tried unsuccessfully to forward the appeal. He then com municated with the American ConsulGeneral in Wellington, who sent a cablegram to the Minister of the Interior, Honolulu. Within, two hours a doctor left by ship on the journey of approximately 1500 miles to the island. The sick man was taken to Honolulu, and has since recovered. About two weeks previously one of the men on the island died before medical aid could be obtained. Though practically bare of vegetation, Canton Island has assumed importance recently because Pan-American Airways are at present building a seaplane base on it.