Byrd Critic Denounced

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 838, 5 December 1929, Page 9

Byrd Critic Denounced

GRAN IN HORNETS’ NEST

Ponting Enters Verbal Fray

POLAR RANGES NOT A PHANTASY

l nitcd r.A.- — By Telegraph — Copyright LONDON. Weilnesdav MU. H. G. i’ONTLNG. who was photographer with the late Captain Scott’s last South Pole Expedition, in a letter published in the “Daily Mail,” refers to the remarks made by Major Tryggve Gran regarding Commander Byrd. Mr. Pouting, who says he speaks for till Scott's comrades, denounces the whole tone and spirit of Gran’s remarks, lie says they only recoil on himself.

Byrd, he says, spent two years preparing for his expedition. He established a base at the Great Ice Barrier in December. His staff includes geologists, meteorologists, and other scientists.

His main geological party is now proceeding with dog teams to examine the mountains, 500 miles from the base, which Gran dismisses as a phantasy. Every Polar explorer knows that this vast range was first discovered by Shackleton.

“I highly admire the achievements of Byrd and his comrades. Theirs is •a colossal task,” he says. “Byrd’s fine wireless tributes to Scott and other pioneers and his words before Scott's statue in Christchurch, were a most beautiful and touching tribute paid by one man to the memory of another.”

Mr. Ponting speaks of Byrd’s eloquent tribute to Captain Scott, as he placed a wreath at the base of the statue of the British Antarctic hero, which stands on the banks of the Avon at Christchurch. What Byrd then said was this:

"I come here to salute a hero of my boyhood. I cannot do justice to his memory, for I have no gift for words. But my simple expression is’ sincere, for I have benefited from the courage and the character of the man. “It was the manner in which he met his end that caught my imagination. In failure, he gained an immortal fame. In dying he left to youth a heritage that success could not have given. “And so he showed that things of the mind and heart, the intangible spirit of a man, can have a more enduring effect than the material results of his struggles. “He showed that \9 • way a man plays the game can be more important than the winning of the game. “He showed that in death a man could leave behind to those nearest and dearest to him. however devoted to them he may be, a memory more beneficial than his prolonged existence. “He showed, therefore, that some things can be more important than life.

BYRD AND THE PIONEERS

“Was fate in her cruelty unkind to him? For when he lost his superhuman struggle, when his body was gone, he calmly and simply wrote the words that will make his memory helpful for all times.

“That is why we have come here as a pilgrimage to show our reverence by placing a wreath on this monument which you have erected to the memory of this gallant gentleman — Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Royal Navy.”

BYRD CONGRATULATED SCOTT’S GEOLOGIST ISSUES OPINION GRAN WRONG IN HIS FACTS Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. Mr. H. T. Ferrar, who was geologist in Scott's first Antarctic expedition in 1901 to 1904, when asked to comment on Major, Gran’s utterance at Copenhagen, said, with reference to the criticisms of Commander Byrd's

flight over the South Pole, that Major Gran was rather severe.

Commander Byrd's story showed that he and his pilots were to be heartily congratulated on their successful 24 hours’ flight to the South Pole and back. The air surveys and air reconnaissances that were being made would facilitate the work of Dr. Gould and liis geographical party and now that Byrd had achieved one of the objects of his expedition, he would no doubt, carry his explorations eastward -and discover territory to which a legitimate claim might be laid. “Major Gran’s remarks about the mountain ranges near the Pole are hard to follow. For instance, he talks of some of these ranges being south of the South Pole, which, of course, is absurd. It is difficult to understand what he means by saying, ‘the land on the whole is a plain.’ It is well known that the polar plateau is 9,00 ft above the great ice barrier. Moreover, it is buttressed by mountains from 12,000 to 15,00 ft high, between which Byrd has to pass on his flight.”

DEEP ADMIRATION FELT FOR HEROES MESSAGE FROM COMMANDER

NEW YORK, Tuesday. In the course of his report of the flight over the South Pole Commander Byrd refers to the death of Captain Scott and his comrades in the following passage:

“We were now so close to the Pole that within easy visibility lay Scott's trail, who with his companions had perished on his way back. That great hero, who had shown that there are things more important than life, who in failure won immortal success. In his memory, and in that of his gallant comrades, and in honour of our cousins and friends of the British Empire, we carried with us a British flag. “For a moment there flashed through my mind the fact that some persons had attempted to start a mild controversy covering the territorial rights of the British Empire and the United States, as a result of our discoveries. What a pity that there could be such a controversy! This is a peaceful and scientific mission, trying to extend the boundaries of the land, and of the knowledge made by those heroes who gave their lives here. “If the spirit of this expedition toward those gallant men and the nation that .they represented could be known and felt, it would add its mite toward furthering the good fellowship so vitally important, now that our country has joined with other nations in a sincere effort to secure peace and harmony for the world.”