POLAR CONQUEST

Evening Star, Issue 19263, 31 May 1926, Page 5

POLAR CONQUEST

COMMANDER BYRD'S FLIGHT SHEER LCCK RESPONSIBLE. Pnsss Association —By Telegraph—L-opynghl LONDON, Alay 29. Discussing his projected flight to tho South Pole, Commander Byrd says tho lesson learned during his night to the North Pole is that bigger skis must he fitted to the aeroplane, and the machine must have capacity for a. longer flight, because the South Pole is I.ODO miles beyond the great ice barrier, from which he must take off, as against, 450 miles to the North Pole. Another difficulty is that the area is land, and not sea, and is 10,000 ft high. He explains that he could not understand England’s silence when he returned after the North Pole flight when all the world was cabling congratulations. He was not aware that a general strike precluded England from hearing of the flight. He declares that sheer luck was responsible for his success. Had a blizzard obscured the sun, he would have lost his way, and the game would have been up. He admitted that there was always a difficulty in determining whether one was exactly over the Pole. He was convinced, however, that owing to the use of a sextant of his own invention he passed exactly over the Pole. “While travelling steadily north they found themselves travelling steadily smith without turning.—-A. and N.Z. ('aid®. SIDELIGHTS. OIL LEAK IN ENGINE; LONDON, May 29. New phases of the Polar flight were given hv Commander Byrd, who was the truest, at, a luncheon given by the Royal Aero Club. Ho opened a racy speech by saying: “In starting off for the North PoleVe were damned fools, with more ambition than brains.” He related how ilia shipmates, unknown to him, had loaded up tho machine with such things ns ukuleles, Jews’ harps, American flags, extra boots, even a. pack of cards—“ God knows_ how we got off.” Dealing with an oil leak jn the engine, lie said: “When I pointed tin's out to Bennett he wrote on a slip of paper, ‘She will stop.’ 1 was seared to death, as I knew it she came down there was no chance on earth of surviving. 1 asked Bennett what we should do, and he wrote: ‘Go to the Pole first, and we will discuss what to do afterward.-'.’ ”--A. and N.Z. Cable,

THE WILKINS EXPEDITION. NO OFFICIAL NEWS. NEW YORK, Alay 39. (Received May 31, at 9.10 a.m.) A telegram from Fairbanks says that official news is lacking from Captain Wilkins, but it is understood that the expedition may bo abandoned until tho winter for two reasons—firslly, that the prevailing fogs make it. almost impossible to carry on now, and, secondly, that Major Lanphier, after repeated trials, is dissatisfied with _ the _ Detroiter's performance. It is believed that no extended tone over the ice pack is practicable.—Sydney ‘Sun ’ Cable.