NORTH POLE CROSSED.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17385, 23 April 1928, Page 5

NORTH POLE CROSSED.

WILKINS SUCCEEDS. A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT. NO LAND DISCERNED. (By Telegraph.-—Press Assn. — Copyright.) (Australian Press Association.) VANItot!VEIL April 21. Despatches from Detroit state Mi at. in a wireless message to the Detroit News from Svalbard ( Spitsbergen), Captain G. 11. Wilkins, the Australian explorer and aviator, announced that he had reached Spitsbergen. The flight, with one slop, occupied five days, and the actual flying time was 20i hours. Bad weather was experienced. A telegram from Seattle says the reported arrival of Captain Wilkins near Svalbard caused surprise in the former cilv, “because, although the plane carried a wireless plant, complete silence had enveloped the activities of the expedition from the time it was expected to leave Point Barrow.”

All the comment in New fork is unanimous ihat Captain Wilkins flight is epochal. Official and aviation circles in the United States have joined in congratulating the aviator and in hailing his persistence and courage as making him one of the outstanding figures in exploration and aviation today. The Secretary of State, Mr K B. Kellogg, cabled to Captain Wilkins and Lieutenant Eielsen his heartiest congratulations on their splendid flight, saying it was a wonderful accomplish ment. ■Explorer’s Work in the War. Commander Richard Byrd, who was the first man to fly across the North Pole, says he has nothing but admiration for Captain t.Vilkins’ pcrislence in ihc face of discouragement. His flight was of great scientific value. His navigation was worthy of the highest praise. Ho congratulated him most heartily. The plane in which the Arctic flight has been made is the smallest craft ever used in Arctic exploration, it. is a Lockliead-Vcga, a new type of plane just put on the market, and compared with ttie Cornier machine, which was used by Captain Amundsen, and with Commander Byrd’s tri-planed l'okkcr, this monoplane appears insignificant. However, it is extremely speedy. It is interesting to note that the American Geographical Society received a message from Captain Wilkins saying no “ftxcs” had been seen. This was a code arrangement by means of which the explorer indicated that he had seen no land in tlie Polar region.