SOLO ATTACK ON EVEREST

Taranaki Daily News, 19 July 1934, Page 5

SOLO ATTACK ON EVEREST

ASTONISHING STORY TOLD EX-ARMY CAPTAIN’S VENTURE PREPARATIONS IN SECRET SUDDEN DEPARTURE MADE By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Calcutta, July 17. An astonishing story of a man’s at- . tempt to climb Mt. Everest alone is reported from Darjeeling. Mr. Maurice Wilson, an ex-army captain and a member-of the London Aero Club, aged 38, gained prominence in June, when he arrived in India with a secondhand Moth plane with the avowed intention of flying to Everest, landing somewhere on the mountainside and placing the Union Jack on the summit. Warned not to fly over Nepal under pain of arrest and a heavy penalty, Mr. Wilson sold his plane, but expressed a grim determination to conquer Everest alone on foot. Mr. Wilson, who weeks later disappeared, was recently discovered at Darjeeling preparing for his venture. It transpires that he secretly recruited porters with whom, himself disguised as\a porter, he suddenly evaded official surveillance and set off along the Rutttedge Expedition’s route to Everest. Arriving at the frontier Wilson sent the porters back and proceeded alone. No further news of him has been received.