FIGHT FOE LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 110, 5 November 1935, Page 9

FIGHT FOE LIFE

A DRAMA IN MID-AIR

Wild struggles between two airmen and a madman in the darkness, thouands of fet up in the air . . . the killing of the demented man by the pilot to save a crash into the city below.

That, briefly, is the dramatic story that was told by two aviators when they landed near Toronto with their passenger, Leonard Koenecke, one of America's highest-paid baseball stars, lying dead in the cabin of the machine, says the "News-Chronicle.""

Koenecke, after, being suspended from his team, arrived by night at Detroit. He was drunk, and chartered an aeroplane, operated by Joseph Mulqueency, with whom was Irwin Davis, a professional parachute jumper.

Soon after they took off, Koenecke tried to grab the controls. The pilot pushed him away, and he became quiet. A few minutes afterwards Mulqueeney felt the aeroplane bumping and quivering. He turned round, and saw Davis and Koenecke fighting desperately in the frail cabin of the machine.

Mulqueeney shouted to them to stop, but Koenecke, a big, powerful man, went on. All the time the pilot was looking anxiously for a place to land. Then he looked round again.

■ "Koenecke was coming towards me with devil in his eyes," Mulqueeney declares. "Davis was trying io hold on to him, but Koenecke seemed to have super-human strength. Leaving the controls, I grabbed the first thing I could think of—it was a fire extinguisher—and while the machine bobbed about in all directions I lunged at Koenecke.

"I hit him several times, but I do not know where. He fell down, and Davis fell on top of him. I regained control of the aeroplane, which was in a bad spin, and righted her as well as I could."

When the machine landed, a few minutes later, it was found that Koenecke was dead with a fractured skull. The police were called, and Mulqueeney and Davis were accused of technical manslaughter.

"I had to make a decision," Mulqueney told the police. "It meant either the three of us crashing or doing something to Koenecke."

and, if necessary, at a sacrifice of Ethiopian sovereignty. Mr. Eden, British Secretary for League Affairs, visited Rome and discussed matters with Premier Mussolini.

The Ethiopian attitude towards these negotiations was summed up in a

phrase of her spokesman at Geneva. "You offer us," he said, "a choice between suicide and assassination."

Mr. Eden suggested that Ethiopia make territorial concessions to Italy in exchange for an access to the sea, and he included British territory in his offer—which, however, was refused —and it was after this conversation that there began to be suggestions of Italian aims which go beyond Ethiopia. Mr. Eden was obviously discouraged.

A conference of France, Italy, and Britain—Ethiopia still excluded —was held at Paris and further oilers were made to Italy—again at the expense of Ethiopia—on the lines of the abortive treaty of 1928. The country was to be divided into spheres of influence.

An abrupt message from Mussolini brought this conference to an end, and on Atigust 22 Britain held an emergency Cabinet meeting. Ramsay MacDonald compared the situation with August, 1914. An clement in the situation was slated to be British naval weakness in the Mediterranean.

The climax came at the meeting of the League early in September. Italy declared that "sanctions mean war," but she attended the Council with the avowed desire that Ethiopia be expelled from membership.

The case against Ethiopia, based on a humanitarian appeal, was presented in an immense scriesl of documents.

The British Foreign Secretary attended the League and declared that Britain would fulfil to the utmost her obligations under the Covenant. His pronouncement was wclco.med by the small Powers and by Russia.

In due course Premier Laval of France spoke on similar lines.

Then the League, through its special committee of five, prepared a proposal for assisting Ethiopia by advisers who would contribute to the progress of the country. Italy rejected this and began an invasion.