CENTENARY AIR RACE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 4 August 1934, Page 7

CENTENARY AIR RACE.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Be the dispute between Mr Oram and the Aero Club as to who shall be the pilot in the great race. The Aero Club invites the public to judge whether Mr Oram has any right to co-operate with them in arranging the most suitable pilot. With your permission, sir, I would like to record my decision. Through all the action taken by each to finalise arrangements, one fact stands out pre-eminently—Mr Oram had an idea to nominate a machine for the race. The Aero Club never thought of such a thing. They admit this, but what they don't tell the public is that had not Mr Oram taken the initiative and cabled the entry, they would (by slow thinking) be two months too late. The Aero Club say Mr Oram had assumed responsibilities in certain matters. Surely some capable person had to do it. I fail to understand why the club should wish to push out a first-rate pilot. Mr Oram wins the case and Major Cowper should be co-pilot. I think Mr Walker should stand down in favour of Major Cowper.—T am, et °'' PAIR PLAY.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I wish to reply finally to the latest communication of the Manawatu Aero Club. Its letter is bristling with flagrant mis-statements —so many indeed that i,t will he impossible to deal with them all in a reasonable , space, and I intend to confine myself to those surrounding the main issues. In the first place it is as well in writing a second letter to remember what one said in the first. In the original reply to me the club admitted the accuracy of my statement of facts, paragraphs 1 to 13, and in the latest letter endeavours to set up an entirely different and inconsistent set of facts. Further, Mr Edmunds makes categorical statements concerning details of the original arrangement—does he speak of his own knowledge? If not, where did he get his information from ? Certainly he does not speak from his own knowledge, because he was not there. However, let us get down to cases. (a) The letter states that when I first approached the club I stated that I had been in touch with the Minister for Defence and the Minister for Internal Affairs. This is absolutely incorrect. I did not approach the Ministers until after the cabled entry had been dispatched; this may be deemed a small matter, but a straw will ehow which way the wind blows. (b) The letter refers to an impromptu meeting of a few convenient members of the committee to discuss with me the preliminary steps. No such meeting was held. The only meeting was held in my office and there were present Major Co/.'per, Mr H. C. Walker and myself; the conference was interrupted to allow Mr Walker to go away and consult Mr Edmunds and any other members of his committee he desired. (I believe he saw Mr Edmunds personally and communicated with another by ’phone). The conference was then resumed between the three of us, and it was then definitely stated that Mr Walker, on behalf of the club, would accept our offer and would come in with us on our entry on terms -which they have since absolutely failed to carry out. I then wrote out the cable myself—the name, “Manawatu Aero Club” was signed at the foot instead of “G. A. C. Cowper” for the sole purpose of facilitating the obtaining of an art union by that body to provide the finance and for no other reason. (c) The club’s letter further states that it was arranged presumably at this mythical meeting that never took place that I should nominate Major Ccwper as pilot and the club should nominate Mr Walker as co-pilot—an-other mis-statement of fact. The cable clearly and definitely nominated Major Cowper as pilot and stated that the name of the second pilot would be advised later. In confirmation of this, the cable itself can be produced. (d) The club’s letter proceeds, still referring to this mythical meeting which did not take place, “in order to facilitate early finalisation of all details in connection with the meeting, Mr Oram undertook on behalf of the club to attend to these details.” This is wholly incorrect. I repeat that Messrs Walker and Cowper and myself were present. I never undertook to do anything on behalf of the Aero Club. Major Cowper and I were the principals, offering the Aero Club something for nothing if they would lend their name and arrange an art union to finance the venture. (e) The club’s letter proceeds: “Major Cowper, apparently Mr Oram’s agent, paid the entry fee in his own name and therefore received the receipt.” This really clinches the matter and proves beyond a shadow of doubt that the writer of the letter knows nothing whatever of what happened, and w r as not present when it did happen. (Incidentally I do not believe that Mr Edmunds wrote that letter to which he signed his name). The entry fee was, of course, forwarded as part of the cable, dispatched by my clerk with money drawn from my firm’s account while we three were sitting in my office. Major Cowper had nothing whatever to do with the payment. The receipt was forwarded by the Centenary Race Council direct to Major Cowper, of course, because the council recognised Major Cowper as substantially and actually the entrant in the race. And so on ad infinitum. If your paper was large enough I could tear almost every sentence in that precious letter to shreds.. I have said enough surely to show that the club has done an unwarrantable thing, and is seeking desperately for excuses to justify itself. Prom the time of forwarding the cabled entry, I repeat, the club never raised a finger to assist in raising the finance for the original venture. The concluding portion of the letter can only mean that so long as I did all the work, the club was content to sit back and collect all the profit (including all the prize money), but reserving to itself the right to put over a scheme of their own if I failed unaided to find the money. Apparently their argument is that if I found the money Major Cowper was to go,'' if they bestirred themselves and found the money Squadron-Leader McGregor was to go—such arrangement was never remotely contemplated. According to their statements they have had no difficulty in raising the finance —why then did they not make these efforts at the outset?

To sum up: (a) The entry really belonged to Major Cowper. (b) When the club demonstrated that it did not want to co-operate with Major Cowper it was in honour bound formally, as it did actually, to abandon the entry to him. (c) ff, however, the club is now prepared to find the necessary public backing we on our side will carry out our part of the original agreement. Apart from the question of the ownership of the entry the club has shown no reason, let alone any good reason, why the pilot originally nominated and accepted should at this late hour be changed. Surely the club

does not hope the public will believe that the art union which they say has been promised was conditional on SquadronLeader McGregor’s name being substituted for that of Major Cowper? Shorn of all words, the fact stands out clearly that the club is now endeavouring to secure the entry in the air race, to which they have neither a legal nor a moral claim. If they still refuse to abide by the original arrangement or refuse to consider the reasonable compromise suggested by me, now that this newspaper controversy is concluded, I propose to take whatever other steps may he necessary to protect Major Cowper’s undoubted rights.—l am, etc., M. H. ORAM.