, 1925-01-10

the English commissioner or Slnd
who is tho chief civilian administra-
tor of all the vast desert region in
western India Just north OF the
Arabian sea. Several were the
guests OF the collector who 10 the
chief financial head OF the local gov
eminent. But les" Arnold hap
pened to draw the honor of stop
ping at the home OF Major General
Cook. one of tho highest ranking
officers in tho Indian army. OF
course lies" was still a shavetail
lieutenant and the i~ncongruity of
being waited upon for two days by
a major general was n novel and
gratifying experience.
THAT first afternoon when We ar,
rived in Karachl, l mean tho after.
noon of July Fourth" says Les
Arnold. I'VE were all much roliev.
cd to get down out of the aires.
pecially Erik and Jack whose en-
gine had been dislntegrating and
flying to bits during that last hour
on our way down from Multan. We
stayed out at the field and worked
on the planes until dark. and l was
70 smeared from head TO foot with
oil and grease that when General
Cooks Rolls Royce complete with
chauffeur and footman. took mo to
his big white mansion ! felt like the
ragged urchin in the story books
who dreams that he lie a prince or a
millionaire.
Good British Repair Shops.
"Karachi Is the repair depot for
tho royal air force in India. There
nre big shops for tho overhauling
of motors, tho rebuilding OF wings.
and the setting UP OF planes. In
fact, 1t IL ono of tho finest estab.
lishmcnts of its kind in the world.
The shops are all housed in well
equipped, attractive stucco and con.
crete buildings and there are many
officers and enlisted men of the r.
A. F. in Karachi. They insisted on
placing the entire depot at our dis
| posai. Although We accepted the as
sistance of a number of expert me
| chanics who proved to be unusually
! competent and careful workmen. we
did our w changing OF motors and
Inspection.
Saturday evening, July 8, the
royal air force entertained us at din
ner and Commander Hicks, head OF
the r. A. f. at Karachi. made n
| witty speech in which he said he
had seen all OF the expeditions At.
tempting 20 circle the world and
that all OF them had passed this
way. He went on to mention sew.
erai British, a couple OF French ex-
petitions, an elaborate italian at.
tempt in tho course Of which five
or six planes were smashed. and a
Portuguese expedition. He said they
had all passed through karachi,
flying from west 10 east. Then he
added that Americans had tho repu-
tation OF always doing things differ
emit from anyone else. and here they
were doing II again in trying 10 fly
around the globe from the opposite
direction. But he said they were
delighter 20 see this, II only for the
sake OF variety. Then he added that
we had already flown farther than
any other competitors and that the
others had all crashed before COW
ering tho mileage we had made be
tween Los Angeles and Ksrachi.
Make Early Morning Hop.
Monday morning we left calls
for 3 O'Clock. Gen. Cook even got
up at that unearthly hour to have
breakfast with me and escort me TO
the field. At $50. shortly after sun
rise, we taxied across the airdome
circled around over this rapidly
growing seaport, which, as a result
OF the vast irrigation projects OF
British India. is one OF the principal
grain ports Of the world. and then
We headed west toward Persia and
BaEdad.
on the outskirts OF Karachi we
flew low over a pond in which sa-
cred ~crocodilcs are kept by the Hin
docs. and we also passed n great
lcpor colony. with all that tho Brit.
ish have done to introduce western
civilization. with It's sanitation aud
modern medical methods, the east is
still the cast. There arc stu millions