The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1929. SMITH COMES THROUGH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 637, 13 April 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1929. SMITH COMES THROUGH

A WISE man loses nothing, if he but saves himself. ’ Montaigne’s wisdom might well be the complete consolation of Squadron-Leader Kingsford Smith and his comrades whose perilous adventure with their great monoplane Southern Cross has emerged from -mystery into clear safety and the glow of universal gratitude. They saved themselves and have lost nothing. All down- the ages it has ever been a glad cry : “They that | were lost are again found.” And it is a cry that renews the i deep wells of pure emotion and makes people all the better for having experienced the thirst of fear. So the best sentiment of j a thousand communities and more leaps across many continents and seas to dauntless airmen who, unscathed in temporary peril and distress, live to soar again in adventurous achievement. Yet, throughout the silence of their grim experience there was always the hope of good tidings. Almost a week ago, when their fate seemed to he deepening in the shadow of disaster, it was observed in this column that hope never deserts gallant men, 1 and if a. human chance of coming through extraordinary difficulties had been vouchsafed the crew of the Southern Cross it was reasonable and right still to have faith in their ultimate triumph. And, happily, it was so. They conquered the extraordinary difficulties of a forced landing in an inhospitable place and, having landed without grievous hurt, only had to wait in pinched circumstances the coming of essential and willing aid. Though the spirit of their epic adventure would tempt many people into expressions of poetic rapture and ecstatic prose, the ( facts of the flyers’ experience, although thrilling enough even in imaginary detail, bring observers at a distance down to the j common-sense level of the practical skill that first enabled the flying adventurers to save themselves from tragic disaster and later enabled competent searchers in the air to find them in a wilderness. Kingsford Smith saw the chance of escaping a | hurtling death and obviously took it with the same precision | and masterly dexterity as those which on other perilous occasions, made him famous among famed pilots of the air. It is true that the chance of safety was merely a mudfiat in the utmost wilds of north-west Australia, but, beyond doubt, it was chosen by a pilot with the quick eye of military airmen for topography. The mudflat'was the softest place on which to fall if a crash were inevitable, but if a erash were avoidable, there | was a creek of living water near by the flat and a river just beyond the hill. And, in Australia, wherever there are mudflats and water there is some other living thing to eat or at the worst, something to drink in order to maintain life. The story of the airmen’s faring in circumstances suggesting j hardship has not yet been told, but the meagre record of their discoverers reveals the happy certainty that the marooned men at least were able to appear in the vision of the air-liner Canberra’s crew as active proof of soundness of life and limb. { Clearly they were hungry and quickly feasted on the food that fell from a friendly plane like manna in the wilderness, but the effects of their famine had not dulled their wits, for they moved about in the open to demonstrate to anxious searchers in the sky that all were safe and manifestly not broken in body. It may yet be revealed that the missing airmen who have been found were succoured to some extent by friendly natives in the locality of misadventure. While it is natural to look most closely and admiringly at the manner in which the distressed crew of the Southern Cross succeeded in landing their exhausted craft without fatal disaster, and find gladness in the proof of their resolute skill, appreciative attention must also be given with fulTtribute to the pilot of the Canberra and his comrades. The thrill that must have set their hearts racing in excitement when their questing eyes first saw the inactive Southern Cross did not rise to a muddle in their heads. Their brief story demonstrates the poise of their minds j and the quick, clear working of thought in the interest of the stranded crew. First, the rescuing air liner dropped food and then, on discovering that someone was there on the ground to j welcome it, the Canberra sent a wireless message of shrewd advice : “If you can hear us, walk out into the open ground, Mac.” This thrilled listeners in Sydney, but there was no immediate responsive signal from the mudfiat below. Silence did not disconcert the eager helpers above. Their next message into the air proved the wisdom of interpretation. “They must he eating. We have not seen them for a few minutes. We are : j dropping more food.” And then the triumphant cry across space to exulting friends in Sydney : “Can see the whole crew now. All are safe.” A meagre narrative, so far, but still a complete, a moving story of Wveriture, of skill, and of gratitude and happiness. \ Australia’s and New Zealand’s national heroes are again safe and in touch with their friendly lands and homes, and all the | world that loves high adventure and the courage that makes men j and nations and keeps them in the front of enterprise rejoices that famous airmen have come through peril, undaunted, still | able and no doubt determined to look upon their experience, however gruelling, as an incidental hazard, and again fare forth 1 on the highest highways to triumph and great achievement.