DOCTORS PUZZLED

Southland Times, Issue 24682, 2 March 1942, Page 5

DOCTORS PUZZLED

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE OF N.Z. AIRMAN (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, February 28. A New Zealand Fleet Air Arm pilot, Sub-Lieutenant E. A. Pope, is providing a puzzle for medical men, who contend that, instead of cheerfully lying in a hospital bed, he should have died when his plane crashed into the sea at 180 miles an hour. Although strapped into the machine Sub-Lieutenant Pope somehow was thrown clear, and naval craft found him swimming around dressed in full kit. Sub-Lieutenant Pope showed Mr W. J. Jordan a badly dented tobacco tin when the High Commissioner visited him in hospital during a tour of Scotland. Sub-Lieutenant Pope, smilingly, remarked that the tin probably saved his life. WANT CRACK AT JAPS Mr Jordan during the tour met many New Zealand pilots and naval officers at their stations. At one Fleet Air Arm base Mr Jordan saw 17 New Zealanders. Some asked if there was any chance of transferring to the Far East “to have a crack at the Japs.” They were assured that every consideration was being given to such requests. Mr Jordan said: “I like their spirit. If the people of Britain facing the Germans, 21 miles away at one part, can take it, we in New Zealand 2000 miles away from the Japanese are not going to run into the bush at the first sign of danger.” Mr Jordan also visited East Scotland flaxmills where he saw New Zealand flax being converted into canvas.