SPEED HERO'S RETURN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20263, 24 May 1929, Page 15

SPEED HERO'S RETURN.

MAJOR SEGRAVE HONOURED.

LONDON'S GREAT RECEPTION

PROCESSION THROUGH STREETS

[from our own correspondent.] LONDON, April 16. Major H. 0. D. Segrave, who has won for Great Britain the world's speed record for motor-cars and the world's motorboat speed trophy, had a great reception on his arrival in London on Saturday afternoon. The Lord Mayor, Sir Kynaston S?tudd, Sir Charles Wakefield, the Mayor of Westminster, and prominent members of the British motor industry and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders met him. When Major Segrave stepped from the train at Waterloo, accompanied by Mrs. Segrave, Captain Irving, the designer of the car Golden Arrow, Mrs. Irving, Mr. Scott-Paine, the designer of Miss England, with which Major Segrave won the motor-boat trophy, and Mrs. Scott-Paine, he was greeted by the Lord Mayor and sheriffs and congratulated on his success.

A few modest words of thanks from Major Segrave for what ho described as "a wonderful welcome" and tho party entered tho waiting motor-cars, forming part of a procession of some 60 cars, to proceed to the Old Palaco Yard, Westminster. The historic racing car, the Golden Arrow, to tho disappointment of tho cheering enthusiasts who lined the route, was not in tho procession. The late arrival of the Olympic at Southampton had made it impossible to get the car unshipped and reassembled in time. It is now in London, however, for exhibition purposes. Entirely British Productions. Mr. Douglas Hacking, Minister of Overseas Trade, after referring to the records achieved by Major Segrave, said that upon him rested the responsibility for driving the Golden Arrow at the unprecedented speed of over 231 miles per hour, 10 per cent, greater than the previous record speed. They must not, however, forget others who had helped to make tho achievement possible. He had, in fact, been much impressed by the tribute paid, in true sportsmanlike spirit, by Major Segrave in the course of his broadcast speech the previous evening to every member of his team. They must specially mention Captain Irving, to whose genius so much was due. As Minister of Overseas Trade it was most gratifying to him to know that the Golden Arrow and Miss England were entirely British productions. Twenty-nine British manufacturers produced the component parts of the Golden Arrow and all were to be congratulated on tho excellence of British design, British material and British workmanship. Under the terrific strain which the Golden Arrow had to endure one small flaw in tho material, one slight error in design, or one trifling neglect in workmanship might well have resulted in disaster to the enterprise and death to the driver. British goods, as they would expect, and as usual, stood the test, and he hoped that overseas buyers, not only of motorcars but of other commodities, would take careful note of the pre-eminence and durability of British production. An Element of Luck. Major Segrave said ho and his wife had been overwhelmed by the wonderful welcome they had received since their arrival at Southampton. "There is," he added, "little that I can say at the moment to express the depth of feeling in me aroused by this remarkable welcome. I want, however, to thank all concerned for the wonderful assistance I have had on every side—the engineers and designers of the car and the boat and the firms who helped to make them — for without their help I should not "have been able to do the job which we managed to do. It always takes a number of things to contribute to the success of anything. The most important thing is an element of luck and without that element, and the immense amount of cooperation which I have had from Captain Irving and Mr. Scott-Paine, I could not have been successful in regaining these two records for this country. "We had naturally heard in the liner that a welcome had been arranged for us," said Major Segrave, in an interview, "but none of us ever dreamed tl at it was to be on such a scale."..