Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-08
WILKINS FORGETS SELF IN AIM
TO PROBE SECRETS OF NORTH
Daring Explorer Has Faced
Many Dangers in Dashes
Through Arctic.
Plans New Exploits After
Life Spent in Adven-
turouS Work.
suecia, Dispatch to The star.

NEW YORK, July THE scorchinI
heat of long days OF drought settling
like a pail over an Australian station
or ranch. inland from Brisbane. Pond
and springs dried up. rivers dwindlee
to tiny tvickies Of yellow, dirty water
PASTURES burned to a crisp, the stocf
diving on its feet from hunger ane
thirst.
such was the common experience
even before he was II, OF George HUI
bert wilkins thirteenth child OF ar
Australian rancher, at the close OF thf
last century. More than once the boy
had TO ride out across the 40-mile-
| square station to where groups Of sheer
or cattle had fallen dead III the heat
/ Working desperately he had helped III
skinning hundreds of the dead animals
/ to salvage what little might be saved
/ from the accursed drought. More than
once he saw his family's fortune, repre-
/ sented in their herds, wiped out IN
| few days.
Made Baronet.
| During the so years that followed an
uninterrupted series of strange adVen-
! lures and high honorS have come to
I the raneher'S son. A few weeks ago ne
! stood before his King in Buckingham
Palace and was made baronet. Ine
greatest cities of the Old World vleo
in having tribute to him. Only THIS
last week New York has had oppor :
tunity to do homage 10 the splendid
courage which drove him and his great
American pilot, Lieut.. Carl Ben Eel
son. 10 speed across the top OF the
world in plane from this continent TO
Europe April last.
Through all the honors and acclaim
that have come to nm, Capt. Su
George Hubert wilkins has neio un-
sweryincly to a single goal. His efforts
are utterly remote from personal self
ACKNOWLEDGMENT. His epochal flight
along the Polar Circle he considers a
mere incident in his work. He mas
shaped his experience as tool with
which to accomplish an end which. IN
his own words. may not be achleVed
until after my death,
The memory of these early boyhood
experiences with the drought, before
he ran away from home to become one
of the worlds greatest Adventures, has
fused his life of varied work and ex-
perience into a single purpose. 1t has
led him into the charting OF a science
always on the fringe of the unknown
and unaccountable.
Seasonal forecasting is looked upon
by the average man with amusement
TODAY" he said on his arrival here
Twenty years from now 1t may Dc
that it viii affect every individual
vitality.
Terrors Of Drought.
you in America do not realize the
full terrors of a drought" he continued,
sweeping down Unexpectedly on a
great tract of farmland or pasture. In
Australia and in the hinterland OF
Africa 1t is a constant menace, holding
the threat of immediate ruin over the
head of every farmer and rancher.
Your people in Northern New Eng
land and the Mississippi Valley know,
however. what the weather can DO 10
mans efforts in the other extreme. 1t
affects a man in all his primary rela-
tions to life, his food. his shelter and
his personal safety. In that manner
each and every person is indirectly de-
pendent on the weather's yagaries
Strangely enough, this pioneer IN the
new science of seasonal forecasting mas
moved from the scorching heat of the
equator to the frozen reaches OF the
poles to carry on his research. The
past three years he has spent in the
Arctic. The coming Winter viii see
him carving on his work In the Ant
arctic.
of the former results he speaks only
lacouicaily. His is only the first stage
In the building up of scientific weather
forecasting, he says. In the frozen
fastness of the far north and far south
close to the poles, he Is exploring I'M
known territory. establishing points for
the erection of meteorological stations.
Later. he adds, trained scientists from
these vantage points will tell the whole
world what weather to expect over long
periods Of time.
1t is in these wastes Of ice and snow
around the poles that weather origi-
mates. he explains. There great WINDS
develop, there only can great drougnts
and floods be forecast months before
their occurrence and the people OF me
world prepare themselves TO meet the
phenomena.
Scientific Research.
1t is scientific research which few
| laymen can comprehend IN its more
/ technical aspects Suffice it 70 say
| that the American Geographic Society,
sponsors of the wilkins Eielson fight
| from Point Barrow. Alaska, TO Spitz-
| bergen or Svalbard, as 1t now is known
| officially. awarded the Samuel Finley
q
| of geographical research TO Capt. Sir
/ George Hubert wilkins, last Wednesday
| The award and medal we're founded In
| 1902, when few people dreamed that
/ the airplane and motion picture camera
| would be the two principal tools in
| opening up the last remaining mysteries
| OF geography about the extremities OF
| the world From then until last We'd
| nesday no research had buiked i'm
portant enough to claim the award
Australian of an old French family
/ which had emjgrated in the sixteenth
! century. Capt. wilkins was born on
| Halloween. 1863. Born for adventure
/ he slowed away on cteamer from
Brisbane TO Sydney before he was Is.
/ Caught In. the act. he turned his hand
| TO electrical work, as an assistant cleo
! trician In his wanderings about the
! Australian ports he became acquainted
| with the new srt of motion picture
| photography, and before long ne had
acquired one of the big, bulky cameras
/ Of early finn days
1 In due course he met GaumOnt and
with this director cranked the camera
as cameran1an and even incidentally
| did some acting He was a tall. lanky
youth al that time, with curly black
hair parted In the middle and the
sensitive features and eyes which con-
tinued hardships nave not made dis
appear.
Photography and travel became com.
bined when he was given a lucrative
job by a London movie magnate Il
tour Egypt. italy and Algeria and make
some Of the first motion picture trav.
Cheques In 1912. he happened 10 b,
In the Balkans. when war famed across
that tToublous sector Of the world Ia
became war cOrrespondent for the Lon.
don Daily Chronicle. Two years before
he had learned 10 fly under the tute.
lage Of Graham White
So in an airpiane with his camera
he took the first moving picture OF al
actual battle In the Balkans War HI
Was 10 DO this work on a much large
scale when war swept Europe as (