GETTING DESPERATE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 13 June 1928, Page 7

GETTING DESPERATE

PLIGHT OF ITALIA’S CREW. FOOD RUNNING SHORT. URGENT APPEALS FOR HELP. «i IUNITED TRESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHTS (AUSTRALIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION > KING’S BAY, June 11. The latest wireless message from the Italia states that the position is becoming desperate. Food is running short, and the men have frozen hands and feet. An amplified report from King’s Bay states that General Nobile and .seven companions are. attempting to reach the steamer Bragandza on foot •over 124 miles through the ice. harriers which are in the way. The crew are split into three groups, and out of touch with General Nobile. The wireless operator urgently appeals for food and medical supplies for the injured. An Oslo newspaper declares that there is a big risk of them being carried to sea, and urges the necessity for speedy help. # Larsen and Holm will do their utmost to attempt to drop food from the air. In the meantime a fresh Swedish relief expedition ) is under way. The Soviet icebreaker Maligin is also departing from Archangel to establish an aeroplane base from which to take off to drop food. Help for any of the party is impossible for several days.

ONE OF ITALIA’S CREW DEAD. PLIGHT OF UNFORTUNATE CASTAAVAYS. AIRSHIP CRASHED IN A BLIZZARD. (AUSTRALIAN PRESS ASSOCIATIONUNITED SERVICE.) LONDON, June 12. One of the crew is dead, two others have’ broken legs and are dying, and three more are (struggling, ill-clad and foodless. towards North-East Land over melting icefloes, knee-deep in slush, and are doomed, while the remainder of the expedition, in two groups, roughly 16 miles apart, are in the direst straits.

Tliis is the purport of fragmentary wireless messages from various sources to-day. 111-luck in the shape of crashes and the lack of suitable equipment are hampering the efforts of daring airmen to reach the castaways, whose unstable sanctuary is liable to engulf them at any moment. Commander Maddalelan’s seaplane crashed into a motor boat after refuelling at Ouohy and suffered damage to the' wings which will take 10 days to repair. Holm’s ’plane, based at least ~125 miles from the castaways, has a maximum range of 340 miles, and is capable of carrying a heavy load of foodstuffs. It is now established that General Nobile at the critical moment, when he found the Italia weighted down by a coating of ice and the sides torn by fragments flung by the propellers, and that it was impossible to make King’s Bay against the blizzard, decided to anchor, but the Italia became unmanageable. The forward control car, carrying General Nobile and six of the crew, came into violent impact with the ice. the pneumatic buffers alone saving the occupants from instant death.

General Nobile refused to disclose the names of the injured or of the man who (subsequently died. The result of the first crash was that, relieved of the weight of the gondola, the airship rose, drifted away, and touched the ice' again 30 kilos distant, when seven men jumped' clear. Further on still three more dropped on the ice. Then, according to'one message, the airship, thus lightened, drifted westward into the unknown.

• ormady announced Pennsylvania support. STwCK EXCHANGE AFFECTED. Received 10.25 a.m. to-day. NEW YORK, June 12. Wall Street reacted piomptly to the apparent elimination ox Mr. CooJiuge as a candidate. When word readied the Stock Exchange that the Republican leaders had decided on Air. Hoover, prices of the leaning stomas, which liaci previously been regaining ground irom yesterday's, drop, once more broke sharply, commission houses reporteci that liquidation orders were pouring in from all parts of the country. MR HOOVER’S VICTORY. NOT YET ADMITTED' BY OPPONENTS. PRAISE! FOR PRESIDENT COOLIDGE. Received 10.35 a.m. to-day. NEIW YORK, June 12. The victory of the Hoover forces, however, is not yet admitted by theii opponents. M.r Battler, as delegate from Massachusetts, announced that his vote would be east for Air Hoover, but issued u. warning that Air Ooolidge does not wish this to be interpreted a$ the- President expressing preference for any candidate, though he himself does not desire nomination. The certain quietus, however, that this will put on the “draft Coolidge” movement is definitely in aid of Air Hoover, who is now as nearly assured of nomination as a nyone can be before .balloting actually begins. The Pennsylvania, delegation, meeting in caucus, decided to cast their seventy votes unanimously. The temporary chairman of the convention, in Ms keynote address, was flamboyant in lii.s praise of Republican accomplishments while in office, in the tacit defence of President CoolidgoV action respecting agricultural relief. He said : “None should doubt that the purpose' of this party as to give this great e.st of .industries every consideration short of unsound proposals, for Govern ment stimulation of artificial remedies which, in the end, may only add to out problems.’’ He concluded with an amazingly adulatory commendation of President Ooolidge, stating: “He leaves office by his own fiat, which appears to be final, and is SO' interpreted by many 0 f bis friends, despite the fad that his nomination and election would be a, foregone conclusion di.d he not forbid.”