AIRMAN WOUNDED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 11

AIRMAN WOUNDED.

A FLORIDA SENSATION.

WELL-KNOWN FLIERS HELD

NEW YORK. April 21

Mrs. Keith Miller, formerly of Melbourne, and Captain Lancaster, who has been associated with her in many longdistance flights, are being held in the county gaol at Miami, Florida, for an investigation of tho wounding of Haden Clark, an aeroplane pilot, this morning. Tn statements made to the police by Mrs. Miller and Captain Lancaster, they ascribed the wound in Clark's head to an attempt to commit suicide. Mrs. Miller said she was awakened shortly before daylight by Captain Lancaster, who told her Clark had shot himself. She said she went with him to where Clark was lying and saw a pislol beneath his body.

Captain Lancaster said he and Clark retired on the porch where they slept about 12.45 a.m. They talked for about an hour on home troubles and several other things. They were in cheerful mood and were laughing. Some time later, said Captain Lancaster, he was awakened by a report and heard Clark making funny noises. He turned on the light and saw that Clark's face was covered with blood and that he was lying on his side. He ran to Mrs. Miller s room and roused her. Later he called in a doctor and a lawyer.

Clark, -whose mother lives at. Miami, was taken to the hospital, where the attendants said he could not live. Mrs. Clark, mother of the injured man, said the police had shown her a type-written note addressed to Mrs. Miller which said: " I cannot stand the economic pressure. Will you please sustain my mother in her deep grief." Mrs. Clark said she could not be sure that the signature to the note was her son's, but she expressed the opinion that he had shot himself. He had been a newspaper and magazine correspondent and recently had been writing the life story of Mrs. Miller. The wounded man's mother is an instructor at the University of Miami and authoress of a number of books, many of them on women's suffrage.