“THIS OUTRAGEOUS TRAGEDY”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 409, 18 July 1928, Page 1

“THIS OUTRAGEOUS TRAGEDY”

MALMGREN LEFT IN ICE TO DIE ANGRY DEMANDS FOR INVESTIGATION KEEN RESENTMENT EXPRESSED IN ROME

rESE is bitter talk in Europe about the Italia tragedy. Nobile has been savagely assailed, and the question has been asked whether hXariano and Zappi acted as officers and as gentlemen in leaving Malmgren to die in the ice. The Swedish Foreign Minister describes it as “this outrageous tragedy.”

(United P.A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (United Service)

Reed. 9.5 a.m. ROME, Tuesday. The newspapers bitterly resent the criticism of certain Scandinavian and other Continental newspapers, urging an inquiry into Professor Malmgren’s death, and practically accusing Commandant Zappi and Commander Mariano for leaving Malmgren to die in the ice.

The “Tribuna” points out all three were soldiers under military discipline. They received a precise order from General Nobile to establish contact with the outside world. The lives of the rest of the party depended on carrying this out. When Malmgren’s death was certain, the

duty of Zappi and Mariano was to go on while their strength lasted. Zappi, in like fashion, would have had to abandon Mariano in his turn if they had not been imprisoned on the icefloe. The “Giornale d’ltalia” denounces this “inhuman campaign of vilification.” It goes on: “We understand and respect the grief of the Swedish nation at the loss of Malmgren, but it should respect Italy’s grief at the loss of the Italia, and her pride in the smiling heroism of Biagi, the legendary audacity of Sora, and the sacrifice of Zappi and Mariano. Their version of the tragic farewell of the comrades must be accepted as the world accepts the story of Scott.” The protests arise from the fact that in Germany and in Scandinavia the question is beginning to be asked whether General Nobile’s conduct in leaving his companions on the ice-floe in the Arctic and in ensuring his own rescue was that of an officer and a gentleman —such for instance as Captain Oates, of Antarctic fame, or of Professor Malmgren, the Swedish scientist, whose lonely death in the Arctic was recently recorded. INVESTIGATION DEMANDED The Danish explorer, Captain Peter Freuchen, in an article in the newspaper “Politiken,” demands an investigation by a Court of Honour.

This, he says, should say whether German experts are correct in asserting that the airship Italia was unfit for the expedition, whether General Nobile’s behaviour after the wreck was pardonable in leaving his comrades and accepting relief, and whether his misleading and contradictory de elarations had brought new danger and more expense to the relief expeditions.

The Prime 31 inis ter of Sweden, M. Carl G. Ekman, confirms the statement that he proposes officially to investigate Professor Malmgren’s death. The Foreign Minister, M. E. Loefgren, demands that full light shall be thrown on “this outrageous tragedy.” Although the Italian Government has officially denied that General No-

bile was ordered to try to reach the North Pole on the anniversary of Italy’s entry into the Great War, the Berlin correspondent of “The Times says the Italia tragedy has produced a series of attacks in the German Press on General Nobile and Fascism. These reached a climax after General Nobile was reported to have blamed himself for attempting the. achievement on the anniversary indicated. It is repeatedly suggested in Berlin that General Nobile and Professor Malmgren’s two Italian companions, Commandants Mariano and Zappi, snatched at their own chance of rescue and abandoned their comrades. The “Tageblatt” says: “The outcome of this heroic venture is universally regarded as a defeat for Fascism. It is the logical result of a system which tries to bluff the gallery by gestures. “What did the Italian general seek in these inhospitable regions? It is difficult to achieve ‘imperium Ro•.manum ’ on the fully-occupied earth, but why the North Pole? The enterprise was prepared with more pomp than skill.

“After trying to force his reluctant companions to decorate the North Pole with flags on May 24, this theatrical braggart failed to defile the white solitude with his bloody emblems. Brave men of many nations had to risk their lives to rescue this discredited individual and his unfortunate companions. RUSSIA’S FINE WORK “Malicious destiny must have directed the course of the Russian icebreaker Krassin. Excellently equipped and efficiently navigated, this vessel with the Bolshevik name quietly rescued the castaways.” Referring incidentally to the Donetz victims, the “Tageblatt” continues: “The non-Bolshevik world has little sympathy with the Soviet star shining over those five fresh graves, but it cannot refuse its admiration for the Krassin’s feat. Fascism is obliged to thank the enemy from which it wishe to save mankind for a deed of salva tion. What irony! Fascism wished to paste its own placard on the North Pole. Instead it has presented Bolshevism with this wonderful propaganda material.”