EVEREST TAKES TOLL.

Evening Star, Issue 18668, 24 June 1924, Page 4

EVEREST TAKES TOLL.

Not this year is Mount r,rarest to bo conquered by British climbers. lluec. is, 1 take it, a lucky number,” wrote the commander of the la,test expedition, Lii-gadier-gcncral Brace, in referring to the fact that it was a third visit of Englishmen which his party was paying to the mountain. Third attempt at conquest would bo an. incorrect statement, since the first expedition, in 1921. was hardly expected to be more than ono of reconnaissance. But the number three—if three is the right munber to be ascribed to it —has proved unlucky in this instanc*’. The endeavor seems to have been illstarred from the outset. The illness of the commander, which has prevented bun from taking any active, part in it, was a first misfortune. Then it was reported that bad weather had been experienced, with indications of the breaking of the monsoon, which it bad been hoped to escape by an early start, and that the parties which had reached as Car as the wall of the north col had been forced to fall back on their base camp. Now comes the news that two membore of the company, Messrs -Mallory and Irvine, have given their lives to their ardor for adventure, presumably in a new attempt to advance, and that the ascent has been abandoned for this season. A Gurkha had died previously from illness, induced by exposure and exhaustion on the mountain, in a temperature ?2deg Fahranhc.it below zero.

Even so, this year's casualty list is not so heavy as flint of two years ago, when seven of the native porters were kiffed, facing swept away into a crevasse. The fact that it falls more heavily upon Englishmen makes no cause for complaint against fortune, since the risk which they dared was the attraction of their enterprise; it would ho strange if the native carriers felt any further interest in it than surprise at the white men's ideas of pleasure, ami a faithful willingness to do their best for hire. At the same time, it is not impossible that some portion of the sporting spirit had been communicated to them, since, in spite of the disasters of previous service, great numbers of them displayed eagerness to bo engaged by the present, expedition. There is no need to look fur unlucky numbers as an explanation of this season’s death toll, even though—a fact overlooked or defied by General Bruce in his reference to such omens;—there wore thirteen members in the climbing party. The natural dangers of the adventure are quite sufficient, to account for them. A new version has merely been written of the song 1 Excelsior,’ in which the “spectral glaciers,” the “awful avalanche,” or the rierc,, hlizzarda have, claimed their victims as of old, M.t Mallory had been a member of both tho previous expeditions; Mr Irvine was a recruit this year. The fate which they have suffered will not deter others from tho perilous adventure. It is more likely to make a challenge to them, and some day, when tho monsoon may bo avoided, Mount Everest will bo conquered.! Englishmen will rejoice at that victory, and wondering Hindus and Tibetans probably will be confirmed in the conviction impressed long ago on other aliens in Egypt, that “ Allah created the English mad — the maddest of all mankind.”