ROSS SMITH IN SYDNEY.

Western Star, 23 March 1920, Page 3

ROSS SMITH IN SYDNEY.

A recent Sydney message staffed that when Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith left in their Vickers-Ytmy and turned their faces to Melbourne they could be expected to breathe sighs of relief. They wore the heroes of the hour in Sydney, and hero worship proved more than a little embarrassing. Sir Ross Smith is most courteous and approachable—a typical lighthearted young Australian—and be makes no barrier of his honours and his glory. It would bo better for him if he did. Every day whilst in Sydney, from breakfast time till midnight, His room in the Hotel Australia was beset by importunate callers. Some had legitimate business with him; quite two-thirds are mere pests, let he tried to give all of them a moment —while his mail piled up hourly —a distracting mass. It was attacked by a couple: of his friends, voluuteer secretaries, but they could not keep it under. Autograph books, telegrams, more autograph books, scores of invitations and appeals, still more autograph books. The brothers said that if they signed) steadily until the time they flew they could not get through those “ infernal books.” They good-naturedly did their best, but they were beginning to hate the sight of their own signatures. The brothers have received about a hundred odes of welcome; composers want to- dedicate songs to them; and happy parents write to say they propose to name the newborn after them, but don’t know whether to make it Ross Keith or Keith Ross, they think Keith Ross " sounds better, and would Sir Ross mind his name not going first?’”