VEDRINES AND THE DUEL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13299, 7 February 1914, Page 11

VEDRINES AND THE DUEL.

A cable despatch* m -the New York Sun throws a little light on tlie Vedrines mystery, regarding ■'which' we had cables this week :— *' - CAILIO, December 29. Jules Wdrihes 'finished His aeroplane flight from Paris ...to,* Cairo .successfully to-day. The distance coVere<l by the French aviator . is about 255Q miles. •; Vedrines, -who left Paris with tho intention of making an. aerial post flight to Peking, was urged by tho Aero Club "for the honor of \_Yance'*' to go out of his way io Cairo when the news of the mishap* to Pierre Daucourt, who met with disaster m- Asia-.. Minor'. "while ou the Pans-Cairo flight; reached Paris. The. .anxiety felt for .Vedrines' -safety on account of his failure tora-rfive at Heliopolis yesterday afternoon -was based on a false 'report that he -had '■left ."Jaffa m the morning. • He did not leave the place until nine o'clock ; this morning, and arrived here at one o'clock m -the afternoon. The last leg of the journey ■was a flight of 250 miles.' Vedrines circled' over Cairo and- then flew to '■■ Heliopolis, where he, alighted. Ho intends to sta-v here for two weeks. , WHERE DAUCOURT FAILED. , The French aviator Daucourt left Paris on his Paris-Cairo - flight . on October 22 with a passenger, M.Roux. He was forced to descend a short distance from Paris, but 1 resumed his -trip t^ie following day, -and reached 'Schafhausen, near Stuttgart, on October 24th. He reached yiennaV on November Ist," Budapest 'two days later, Arad, Himgpy, on November 4th, .'Craiova;, Bucharest," and -Varna at intervals ' of "one day and Constantinople on ; November ,19. I After spendihg X several days> m ■ the Turkish capital he .-.resumed ; his flight ahd arrived at Ada Bazar m .Asia Minor, oh November 17. Here*, his;t«otjbles be : gan. He was-, fb-ced to make descents several times m .the course' of-' a week owing to bad weather and motor, trouble. He arrived at Eskishehr- on' November 21st, and started for r the sfafcefof the Mediterrai'iea-i, intending, to mibko, am oversea flight . to! Egypt, but waslagftin forced to descend, and his aer"pplane was wrecked on touching>the groiuid, having been capsized by-a gust of wind at the moment of alightjing. When the news of this mishap reached Paris,.; Vedrines, ; who left" Paris on November 20th, was flying over Servia on his way to the Orient: Tlie Aero Club telegraphed to him.,- asking him -to change his route and cdntinue.on to Egypt, so that France might --have the *honor of liavdng a , French aviator mak,e the first Paris-Cairo flight. The message reached Vedrines at Belgrade on December 2nd, and he-' acceded to the wishes of the club. ; MAY COME. TO AMERICA,, . The first intention of Vedrines was to fly to Peking but later it' was announced that he might' try to make a flight over Africa to Australia. The latest announcement: regarding his plan, however, is that -he will leave Cairo for Jerusalem, Bagdad, Bombay, and Calcutta, where he intends to take a steamer for the Pacific coast of America, fly from Panama^ to-New- -Orleans, there embark for Lisbon and return from that, city to Paris by the aerial route v _. : . , ; „v , Vedrines had several 'texciting experiences m his flight over Europe. He laid himself open- to arrest if he ever sets foot on German soil by flying over fortified places, disobeying the injunction of the" Minister.'' of War, and was fired at by the big guns of a Servian fortress on the Danube.* He was greeted by the patriarch m Beirut, and the population of that Ottoman town turned out m force tp see their first aeroplane.. LONDON, Dec. 31. Tlie Cairo correspoiitlent of the Daily News telegraphs -this utorning that when Jules Vedrines, • the French aviator, reached Cairo yesterday' after his flight pf nearly 3000 miles from.. Paris, .the fuvst person who greeted him. was M. Ttoux, Pierre Dauconrt's passenger. - Vedrines replied to* the greeting by punching lloux m the! face. Roux sent his seconds to the aviator, and a duel has been arranged. The cause of the quarrel is said to be the discovery, of the fact >thatßoux, while crossing Turkey m Daucourt's aeroplane, requested the officials there not to assist Vedrines, who,was ; to cross that, country on his flight to the Orient, and to make things as difficuilt as possible for him. Roux came to Cairo ; after the. mishap to. Daiicourt's aeroplane m Asia Minor, which forceel him" to abaiV*bn the attempt to fly from Paris, to ygypt.