CAPTAIN MUSICK

Grey River Argus, 14 March 1938, Page 7

CAPTAIN MUSICK

MEMORIAL PROPOSAL. WELLINGTON, March 12. In an interview to-day, Mr. Harold Gatty outlined the plan agreed upon to commemorate the memory of Captain Edwin Musick and members of the crew of the Samoan clipper which was lost off Pago Pago on January 12. , The plan is to award the Musick Memorial Trophy annually to the individual, group, or organisation in English-speaking countries _ responsible for the most valuable contribution to safety in commercial aviation for the year, with preference to transoceanic flying if other considerations are equal. . . Mr. Gatty referred to the way in which letters had flowed from all quarters of the Dominion at the time of the disaster, and said the memorial plan arose directly from New Zealand’s sympathy and it was something that the people of the United States recognised as indicative of the close friendship which must increasingly exist between these two Pacific countries, and between all Englishspeaking peoples. No competition, as such, was proposed in this connection. The memorial plan was that the Royal Aeronautical Society of Great Britain and the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences of the United States (both technical bodies and quite apart from aero club and other similar movements), should be asked to report each year what group or individual in their respective countries had in the previous twelve months made the most valuable contribution as above. The amount contributed, he said, was sufficient for a very handsome trophy, for which designs would be called from all parts of the world. The announcement of the award would be made on January 12 and each anniversary of the deaths of Captain Musick and his crew.