Byrd’s Flight Was Planned By Wilkins

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 1

Byrd’s Flight Was Planned By Wilkins

10- YEAR-OLD SCHEME FINANCIAL FAILURE Press Associatio7i HAWERA, Today. ‘■To put Commander Byrd’s Polar flight and Major Gran’s opinion thereon in something like correct focus, it seems only fair to point out that in 1840 Wilkes cruised along the Antarctic Circle from 145 degrees east to 100 degrees east, and that no other American work in the Antarctic has been done until now. In 1919 the British Imperial Antarctic Expedition failed to raise sufficient funds. Sir Hubert Wilkins had charge of the contemplated aerial section of its programme, and his proposed Polar flight as published and illustrated in that expedi-

tion’s programme is practically the flight that Byrd has made.” r PHESE remarks were made by Mr. A. H. Larkman, F.R.G.S., of Hawera, when requested to comment upon Major Tryggoe Gran’s criticism of Byrd’s flight to the South Pole. Mr. Larkman was chief engineer to Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition in 1914-16.

“Any who have taken part in Polar work expect and hope that their efforts will serve others who come after,” continued Mr. Larkman, “but America’s contributions have been nil for 90 years, and there are such vast areas of which we know absolutely nothing that it seems i»grettable that Byrd’s work was not devoted to absolutely fresh pioneering instead of more or less operating in areas which have been worked over by Norwegian and British expeditions. Byrd’s actual flight was a magnificent achievement. It seems a pity, however, that the flag dropped over his Polar position was not enclosed in some sort of a cannister of an enduring nature, such as others have used. NEW MOUNTAIN RANGE

The misunderstanding about Byrd’s report of mountains to the south and south-west may be due to the fact that he talks first of the Axel Heiberg Glacier, then of foothills in front and then of towering peaks south of his foothill fuel dump, the towering peaks being, of course, simply those which buttress the plateau. Byrd's report of a new mountain range runningnorth and south on the right after rising to the plateau may refer to a spur of the main backbone of the ranges which limit the plateau on that side.

“Nothing much can be made of the report until the results receive that careful examination which will follow the expedition’s return. Major Gran’s feelings are understandable, but his expression of them was unwise. It does seem that Polar work has become more a matter of money. Byrd’s flight would have been Wilkins’s ten years ago but for financial stringency at home.

"As regards the reports of Byrd’s expedition, they are typically American and exuberant, contrasting sharply with Wilkins’s laconic reports of achievements of fundamental importance—work which can, moreover, rank as brand-new pioneering. However, we can remain tolerant toward such temperamental differences of expression.