The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated “THE EGMONT SETTLER” (Established 1890) MONDAY, MAY 25, 1936. A RECORD OF COURAGE AND DISASTER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 139, 25 May 1936, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated “THE EGMONT SETTLER” (Established 1890) MONDAY, MAY 25, 1936. A RECORD OF COURAGE AND DISASTER.

Odysseus, whose heroism blind Horner sang, was a very human person and spent his old age in boasting about the exploits of his youth. Menelaus, after he had won his Helen back, no doubt often told her in moments of domestic irritation that he wished he had never wasted his time in the long siege of Troy. And probably the Greeks of those far-off days regarded the warriors not as the high legendary heroes they have become, but simply as men a little greater, a little more daring than themselves. And no doubt in Elizabethan England, when the people saw Drake’s little ships going out to dare the might of Spain, and the sails of Raleigh’s ship dwindling on the horizon as she headed for the new world, they thought these things were important enough, but nothing so very much out of the ordinary. It takes the passage of time for the romance of great deeds to be fully realised. We live in an age of heroes ourselves, but it is impossible for us to see the men as romantically and colourfully as will the generations to come. The pioneers of the air will become figures as inspiring to the people of the futureas the first heroes of the sea are to the people of to-day. In Australia and New Zealand, the countries of the South, we shall have our own heroes. Hood and MoncriefF, Ulm and Kingsford Smith, will Ire names equally as golden as those of Drake or Raleigh. Their story is tragic, but magnificent O’Hara is the latest name for the roll of honour. He had not been flying long enough to have equalled the great record of Kings, ford Smith, hut he flew the Tasman solo, and that has not yet become a feat so common or so easy that his name can be forgotten. When the saga of courage and disaster that is the history of aviation comes to be written, it is these names that the Homer of the future YV4 41 4 til 14*1