Evening star., 1933-01-18
BY LORD PEEL,
PRESIDENT Everest Fusht Committee.


r ONDON (N.A.N.A.)-The south
ern face of Mount Everest has
never been climbed and rarely
IL approached. All previous at
tenpts have been made from
Tibet. From the south 1t rises like
an enormous bastion. A ground as
sault from that side would be i'm
possible.
The airplanes chosen for the forth
coming flight over Everest may be ex-
pected to reach the summit in less
than an hour and half. But in that
climb they will pass over what Is
virtually unknown country. No sur
veying party has ever attempted to
map it. No geologists or naturalists
have made expeditions on this terri
tory.
For the first time men will take
in their stride huge piece of this
dangerous country. It will be their
task to reveal to the world in pre-
else terms its nature and character
Exactly what lies ahead OF them they
cannot know.
Veterans Started Plan.
The project arose, not in the minds
of present-dsy airmen, but through
the Imagination and initiative of Col.
P. T. Etherton, well known in the
field of Central Asian and Himalayan
travel and exploration, and Col. L. v.
Stewart Blacker, an airman with SINH
lar experience of the highlands OF
India. and one of the early pilots,
It Is due to their energy and en-
thusiasm, coupled with the patriotic
generosity OF Lady Houston, that this
expedition has come into being. An
influential committee was formed TO
support the scheme the College OF
Aeronautical Engineering placed its
staff and resources at the disposal OF
the promoters, and the plans were
launched
Mount Everest is not only the cul-
mirlating pinnacle of all the mountains
in the world but marks the boundary
between the two most numerous races,
the two great cultures, the two great
PHILOSOPHERS, the two great ways OF
life. and even between the two great
primitive economic systems OF TINS
planet.
Start at Purnea.
To reach the mountain the airmen
leave the ground in the plains OF Bl-
har. at Purnea, on a branch railway
$50 miles north of Calcutta. From here
they fly north 40 miles. Then comes
the frontier of Nepal, a land to Which
few Europeans have had access. IL
is by favor of the Maharajah that the
two planes are permitted to cross this
ZealousIy guarded border and the grant
OF this favor is a testimony to the
value of the scientific work the ex-
pedition has planned. Here Is a great
change in the face of the country The
fields and cultivation of Bihar and its
Indian peasantry make way for a saw
sgc wilderness of almost painless
Jungle, given over to the tiger and the
rhinoceroS.
The flight across. this zone, the Teral,
will occupy perhaps a quarter OF an
hour, though 1t would call for several
days arduous narchi. g on fuot Inc
machines will now have attained
height Of more than $4,000 feet. Far
ther north the aircraft will fiy over the
real Nepal, well-ordered land OF green
mountains, rapidly increasing IN heignt
and grandeur, but separated oy Wloe'
fertile valleys.
Sight Exceedingly Rare.
Hitherto the mountain itself VIII
have been in view as one among many,
but at this point it leaps clear OF its
rivals and stands alone and peerless TO
the eye Of the flyer. No Imagination
may forecast the majesty OF that stu
pendous decliyity of Mount Eyerest's
southern face, for no one but the air
man will have seen it at close quarters
as a whole The world must await the
achievement itself and hope that some
pen will tell q hundredth part OF the
reality.
A point directly over the highest
summit is the airmen's objective, be-
cause there is no need to go beyond
the actual confines of the Kingdom OF
Nepal, nor is there any desire to do SO.
BY now the two great planes viii have
carried their four human controllers to
the upper reaches of the sky. From
about the 1o,000-foot mark on the alti-
meters, while the Bristol Pegasus en-
gines have the ever-thinning air forced
, into them by the impellers OF their
superchargers, the pilots. and observers
take draughts Of pure oxygen on an in
creasing scale
| Two physical dangers threaten. Even
at sea level there are only 81 parts OF
oxygen in every 100 of the air we
breathe. and at the relatively moderate
height of $4,000 feet the lungs take In