70,000 STRIKERS SPREAD DISORDER IN BOMBAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18448, 26 April 1928, Page 10

70,000 STRIKERS SPREAD DISORDER IN BOMBAY.

(United Press Assn. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) DELHI. April 24. Disorder is spreading daily in Bombay. At present fifty cotton mills are closed Nearly 70.000 workmen are striking. Two strikers were killed as a result of police fire. Among the leaders of the strike are Bradley, who came to India to replace Spratt when Spratt was arrested.—United Service.

in the case of metal machines. We carried for directional instruments two

compasses, one fast moving and one slow, two altimeters, turn and bank indicators, an air speed indicator and the usual engine instruments, one large ship’s compass, an English Air Force bubble sextant, a pocket sextant, four special watches, a drift indicator, a course and distance calculator, a nautical almanac and special charts and tables.

Careful Preparations. “The machine and engine were thoroughly tested before leaving Los Angeles for Alaska, for aeroplanes with individual traits differ like human beings. The ’plane received three weeks’ adjustments under Arctic conditions. The business of preparing our other equipment was long and careful. Old Eskimo women carefully examined and repaired our reindeer skin clothing. The young women stretched with their teeth and arms our skin boots and mittens until they fitted perfectly. Old and experienced Eskimo men sharpened seal spears, fashioned ice-picks and whittled apparatus for receiving dead seals from the water. ‘lf the machine fails,' said the Eskimos, ‘you must walk, and the equipment is necessary to maintain you.’

“Our Arctic food supply consisted of chocolate, five pounds of biscuits, twenty pounds of pemmican, twenty of malted milk and twenty-four of raisins. Other things included were medicines, a flask of ether, surgical instruments, stoves for heating over the ’plane’s engine, a tent, and a saw and an axe to cut our way out of the ’plane in the event of emergency. A forced landing might have meant eighteen months’ stay in the Arctic before reaching civilisation. "We carried 370 gallons of petrol and twelve of oil. Our short-wave wireless set was tested and then husbanded for the flight. It ran for many hours during the actual flight, but finally gave out.

Difficulty in Starting. “All these things were done before April 5, but until April 15, w r hen the weather permitted a start being made, our rest was fitful and our work anxious and laborious. We made the first attempt to start on April 7, but broke our metal skis and had to replace them with wooden ones. Four days afterwards we tried again to hop off, but could not lift. On April 13 we tried again, but failed. It was on April 15, with the weather in our favour, that we climbed into the air. The machine acted perfectly.

Watching for Land. “Our estimate of the weather proved correct. A clear horizon greeted us, but soon the ice-pack showed up, rough and jagged. There would have been no salvation if the engine had failed then. There were open water leads at times, then no leads. We saw ice conditions that would indicate that the ice was old, probably land-fast ice, but later we determined that it was unquestionably sea ice. Then we met clouds that appeared to be stationary, and it was exasperating to meet clouds at this point. Land in that vicinity would have best suited our meteorological plans. “What lay beneath that 120-mile belt of clouds, about 200 miles out from Point Barrow, is still a secret, but when the atmosphere cleared it was seen to be old, heavy, ice-pack. Perhaps this heavy old ice rests on terra firma and is stationary, but my decision, judging from the fact that no great pressure ridges were noticed at its edges, is that it is floating. “It was when we were approaching Greenland that we noticed a storm hovering there, and soon, from an altitude of 6000 feet, we could see high storm-clouds 400 miles away, and as we swung away from clouded Grant Land we saw what Peary had named the ‘big lead.’ It stretched from the neighbourhood of Cape Columbia to Greenland. We slipped into still cold at 48 below zero, but only for a few minutes, and a warm air current about the open water near Spitzbergen had us on its lap. We were at our highest latitude, and, as Peary said, were soon slipping down the North Pole hill in fine shape. Useful Observations.

“When our observations of storm drift and ice movement are carefully plotted some useful information should result from our experience. Arctic navigation was, as expected, no more difficult —perhaps easier—than elsewhere. Our bubble sextant acted perfectly. Our charts and maps were well prepared. Our aeroplane in normal air was steady. Our flight compass, while not perfect, was more or less dependable.”—Australian Press Association.