THEIR JOURNEY'S END

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 39, 14 August 1940, Page 8

THEIR JOURNEY'S END

Accident, which can be sometimes more severe than war itself, has struck a heavy blow at Australian political and military leadership. On a fighting front, "headquarters" knows what to expect from enemy aeroplanes; and a fugitive King of Norway, when pursued by bombs, has at least some awareness of his danger. But air accident strikes with dire and unsuspected tragedy. It seems that the three Australian Ministers and the two high Army officers who, with others, crashed and

were incinerated in an aeroplane from which there are no survivors, were actually nearing their journey's end when the aeroplane, bound to Canberra from Melbourne, circled over Canberra aerodrome. Then something tragic happened in the air (what happened is not clear) and it was another journey's end, quite different from the usual one, that had to be logged in the varied records of an aerodrome —records of light and shade. Not one war-pilot that takes the air in Britain for active service knows he will return; but the shock of a misadventure is doubled when an air voyage in a peace zone ends in total loss, and when three Ministers engaged in vital war services, their highest soldier, arid one of his staff, are swept into eternity when within reach of their destination. This blow to Australian leadership is deplored by the British Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, who yet must conclude his message of sympathy with the note that marks the end of other war servants of the Empire—"close the ranks and carry on!" They also serve who merely die at Canberra! All the world—even, one would think, the enemy world—will mourn

the untimely end of the leaders who have fallen victim to a tragedy which has struck Australia like a bolt from the blue, and has struck with deadly accuracy at the head and front of her war effort.