ANGRY WITH TURKS

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 281, 26 November 1931, Page 1

ANGRY WITH TURKS

Smithy Replies to Official Denial. ADELAIDE, November 16. “ The Turks held *me under armed guard, and I flatly deny anything the Turkish Legation says, to the contrary. I was a prisoner for two days.” Kingsford Smith was blazing on the Orford this morning when he first heard of the Legation’s denial of his detention in Turkey during the Australia-England flight. “ It looks as if I saw I had lost my chance of breaking the record, and sat down for a couple of days to invent a good story,” he said bitterly. “As it was I was a day ahead. That imprisonment probably saved my life, though. I was all out thdh. I don’t know what would have happened had I pushed on It was the local authorities who held me. I arrived before 12 that day, and no permission to leave had arrived. They got in touch with Constantinople, but permission did not arrive for another two days.” Kingsford Smith said he felt fit. “ I am going to try again for the record in April next year. “ The doctor says I must not fly for another four months, or I would be off .sooner. Not a word to the wife, though. She has put her foot down already, and I will have to do some pretty tall talking to get her consent. “ There seems to be no longer any glamour in record-breaking,” said Kingsford Smith. “It is just a job to be done.” '