Evening star., 1924-05-25
FOUND. .WORLD FLIGHT
IS CONTINUAL BATTLE
Continued from First Pago.)

consider ourselves MaSeiidnS oi Inc
air. AS 1 remember it. Magellan met
his death just after crossing the Pa
cffic. Certainly we do not hope for
that comparison. The news that our
flight has been acclaimed with such
enthusiasm at home is cause OF
great pride to US. We are proud to
be the representatives of the Army of
our country in this. undertaking
proud to have carried the American
flying emblems across the Pacific.
"Of the splendid courage and forti-
tude of my companions L cannot say
too much. Every man has given
everything he had. We are only
sorry that our leader. Mai. Frederick
l.. Martin, is not here sharing the
adventure and receiving this welcome
from Japan. We wanted vail four
planes to arrive here.
our Douglas cruisers are III Spien-
did condition. although we had to
fight the elements all the way TO
keep them So
Praises Liberty Motor.
I'VE are changing motors 81 ka-
sumigarura," said Lieut.. SmitE, "hnt
those with which We left AmertG&.
carried us through splendidly. We are
more certain than ever that the Lib
erty motor Is the best in the world.
THE worst leg of the flight was
between Sitka and Seward, even
worse than the hop from Attu Island
to Parama shiru, with it's forced land
ing on Bering Island. From Sitka to
Seward we fought wind and snow all
the way. seeing hardly anything of
the water below. We were guided
breakers along the shore, which were
visible through the snow.
THE bIeakeSt stopping place was
Attu Island, barren and snow-covered
even In May The island was
then inhabited by only one man and
thirty-seven women, the rest of the
men being away on other islands for
the fox hunting season.
For nearly n month we lived In
desolated surroundings, in isolated
trading posts, on board revenue cut
ters, coast guard boats and American
destroyers, out of touch with civiliza-
tion, without newspapers since we
left Seattle, and only bits of world
| news by radio.
From the air those northern is
lands and seas are a strange and
weird picture. all white and blue. We
saw no icebergs, but passed over
many glaciers. The Aleutian Islands
weather stormier with more snow
Ship Is Welcome Sight.
"Paramushiru on the morning of
May Il was one of the most welcome
sights any of US had ever seen. es-
! pncially the American destroyer John
d. Ford, flying the Stars and Stripes.
Without that sight, our first
oil i'm Of ha
been very bleak.
II do not believe that the north
Pacific route will be practicable for
commercial or regular flying as long
our best. Our struggles have shown
that. 1t must be remembered that
| the direction we are taking, from
east to the west, Is more difficult than
the other: Storms move from the
storms Of the north Pacific, we have
in fact. been bucking the rotation OF
the earth. We had to fight the
storms. Maj. Stuart MacI.aren will
| find most of them at his back. None
| transpacif1c experiences ahead of him
I'VE have found that the move
ment OF the storms across the Pacific
| against our route amounted to 900
miles daily. We had that handicap
| to overcome.
I
"The leg Of the flight down the
| Japanese coast on Thursday revealed
| scenes of great beauty. can no,
! compare it with the inland passage
| along the coast of Canada, because
| the fogs and storms did not allow us
| to see much of the coast, Along the
| coast of Honshu the main island OF
| Japan, on Thursday, however, the
| weather was mostly fine, permitting
| us to see for forty or fifty miles a
panorama of impressive beauty. We
| were able to appreciate the pine clad
| shores and beautiful islands.
Thursdays flight brough us q
cold Kuriles in the morning, clad In
| heavily lined flying suits. by evening
when entering the warm sunshine OF
Japan we felt the heat. We were sur
prised in this flight by the crowds
| along the route. There were dark
clusters Of people along the shores
and on the hiutopS at nearly every
| town we passed over.
Our reception in Japan was tre-
| mendously gratifying. The co-opera-
| tion of the Japanese navy and army
was a great contributing factor II
our success Their congratulation.
| have been hearty and ungrudging
without a tinge Of envy: At no time
| since entering Japan has any one
m entioned the exclusion difficulty tc
US We have had no indication from
/ Japanese that such trouble existed
At Kasumigaura the whole f1yine
| base was placed at our disposal
| Everything else was sidetracked fol
US. AS 1 told the Japanese officers
| lieve and are glad that our flight ha.
done something to bring the two
countries closer in spirit, as well a.
physically"