Page
HE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1955. –
DID Dr COOK EVER
REACH THE POLE?
T
statements
HE telegram came Hans Egede brought Cook to received in America. It was York. In the meantime, Peary from Lerwick in "Copenhagen. For his tall, fair sent from Indian Harbour, Lab- suddenly announced that be American convinced both the rador, and said: I HAVE THE would accept no public honours, the Shetland experts and the laymen who POLE, APRIL 8, 1909. It was and would not dispute Cook's Islands: REACHED listened
to him. Those who signed PEARY THE NORTH POLE APRIL came to scoff, with one or two This was the start of what It seemed "that Cook had won
was called
at the time "the his claim to be the first man at 21.
1908. DISCOVERED exceptions, remained to cheer.
Polar war between Cook and the North Pole. LAND FAR NORTH. It was
Peary, Two separate questions signed COOK. -
were involved in it. First, had Cook reached the Pole? Second, if he had failed, “ was he honest but mistaken man or the a gigantle hoax? perpetrator of a
Opinion was almost
equally divided between the two
Gook was modest and very calm about his achievement. He answered questions readily. Accompanied by two Eskimos, This news stunned the he said, he had made long world. It was not merely marches nearly 15 miles a day almost that something which was on the northward run, thought impossible had been 10 on the southward done. The astonishing and incredible thing was that
an.
In America there was a
a Peary Artile Club that supported
Embarrassed
BUT 14 time, Bweat
Cook's
the wrong man had done ne route had been covered Peary, and the Arctle Club of fact that he did not produ
it.
In 1807 the American ex- plorer Robert Edwin Peary set
with
oxer,
by
most
the North
ardent suppor S were
enba.- After the first hundred miles
rassed by the or documents had cap America which supported Cook observations "They game.
The Danish explorers Amund man who reaches tured musk
lived on elder ducks and gulis and, of sen and Rasmussen. expressed Pole is expected to bring back
their belief in Cook
positive Information. On the some course, on pemmican. He con- firmed the date on which he had other hand the British Royal Peary had done so, but Cook
dealt in the vague generalities.
He said that he had left all his important notes and instru- ments with a millionaire sports- man named Harry Whitney, at Etah Camp in Greenland Whit- ney conarmed. that Cook had left things with him, but said that he had not looked at
team.
JULIAN SYMONS concludes hir 'series
THE GREAT GAMBLERS
Stories of Six People Who Played With Fire,"
cut on his seventh attempt to reached the Pole as Apr 21, reach the Pole. Nothing had 1908. How did he know he had Не had taken been heard from his party for reached'
and then planted over a year, but Peary had observations, made the conquest of the Pole the American flag. his life's
It purpose.
was generally agreed that if any
Pole, body reached the North Peary would be the man.
Now he had apparently been forestalled by Dr Frederick Albert Cook Like Peary, Cook was on American; a moun taineer famous
for having climbed Alaska's Mount Mc- Kinley, and a man experienced in Arctic exploration. Cook had has been in the Arctic for two years, but he was without any of the for special equipment needed actual Polar exploration. had had no white companions. His story
was received with scepticism.
Не
This scepticism, died away, Łowever, when the blubber ship
Geographical Society showed what they thought by congratula- ing Peary and not Cook.
Peary himself was forthright, "Cook has simply handed the public a gold brick," he said "He has not been at the Pole April 21, 1908, or at any pre- other time."
"I do not claim to have put my finger on the exact spot" Cook said laughingly. But he added that he would be pared to put his observations before any scientific society in the world..
on
any
was
other man's
It was felt that Peary pro- tested too much. He
ambitious passionately
man, A: Copenhagen he had been and at times it seemed that he
regarded greeted by the Crown Prince of attempt to reach the Pole as an Denmark. On the night of his infringement of his private arrival he dined with the King rights. When Cook returned to The Director Copenhagen New
of
York
had sympathy Observatory
questioned him,
swayed towards him. and then expressed belief in story. President Taft sent con- He received a hero's welcome Half the geogra- With his neck wreathed in gratulations.
Europe flowers. he had to be rescued phical societies in wanted to hear Cook speak. from a crowd numbering: thou
sands. A banquet was given for While Cook was junketing in him by the city's aldermen, and telegram was he received the freedom of New Copenhagen
his
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It was extraordinarily care- less, to say the least of it for Cook leave these things with Whitneyy for they contained his only proof of reaching the Pole. When Feary reached Etah he refused to
to take anything be- longing to Cook aboard his ship,
the Roosevelt He explained
afterwards that if he had taken any papers on board he might
have been accused of tampering with them. The things Cook left at Etah were put in boxes and cached in the rocks.. They were never recovered.
slowly It
became clear that Cook's claim to reach the Pole rested wholly on his personal credit
explorer. Now within course of a few weeks came three revelations which utterly destroyed his reputation.
AS
the
$3
First, Peary revealed that he had questioned Cook's Eskimo companions. Their statement to him was that they had left land and ventured out on to the Polar ice.
детет
A telegram-claimed that he
was the first to cross the northern wastes guarding The Fols.
Karly doubts were diapallad: hevoured to the full the honour heaped upon him': then * another: telegrams arrived,
Thh time it was Pary" claim- ing" The Pole. So began the controversy: was Dt. Cook
haszer?
Concluding:
WAR EXPLOITS OF THE CLOAK AND DAGGER SQUADRON
L
By LESLIE MONTGOMERY
(As Told To Gordon Thomas).
a map
OOK at
of one did and pled his Lysander We were to fly a specially
selected team of
officers and Corsica, and you will on the boulders.
technicians over Yugoslavia, be able to count the
Tense silence on the ground where they would parachute flat, open spaces on greeted the approach of the re-into Marshal Tito's country: one hand. The island is a maining aircraft. Down it came, switchback of jagged as dangerously towards mountains and misted stone before stopping.
A muffed cheer came from the shrouded valleys.
watchers. But the drama hadn't.
With enetra yet. Yet the Cloak and Dag- ended ger Squadron staged one of passengers on boord, no lights to depended the formation of the guide the pilot, and mountains its finest coups of the war to be cleared, take-off was going there.
4
to be tricky.
Being leader of the strongest guerilla force, Tito had been selected to receive the arms.
On the success of this mission
Balkan air force.
Late
י
1943, a lonely Halifax left. North Africa with the team
It all started when two The harsh chatter of machine of experts. They reached the
a nearby ridge Adriatic Sea without trouble. Ient speed to, the plot's rese
patriots escaped from the gun fire from Gestapo on the island. Both tions. The Gerrens were, dodged the sporadic flak that
had valuable information- closing int news the Germans were de- termined to keep secret,
Despite injuries, the patrips There reached the mountains.
With unerring sich, the pilot"
charted his approach to Tito's Lair,
The team jumped--and that was the last heard of them for days. Then came the cryptic the signal: "Mission Successful
they played grim hide-and-seeic with the enemy-and waited for is to pick them up.
Because z for the escapees, there would be ground behind it.
Throttle wide open, Lysandez Tumbled down the
Within a few weeks, airstrips
mankant was on Valley, followed by a hail of had been cleared and we were,
no reception committee to guide
139.
bullets that
criss-crossed the
Landing in Yugosin via *Al- ..logether, we brought in 18,469 Take-off was a nightmare of tons of arms, ammunition 'and? The landing field would be a lurching and bumping. Slowly, other applies: rock-infested valley. There the aircraft rose higher and the could be no second attempt.
mountains rushed closer, The Corsican resistance were
Without warning, the engine relying on us. A successful mission would send our stock spluttered. Frantically, the pilot staring with them, encouraging juggled with the controls, and roared * ́smoothly them to nedouble their efforts the engine
again to harry the enemy,
So the nerve-wracking journey The unofficial code for the night was. YOU MUST NOT continued Scuttling through the FAIL
valleys, they were, frequently fred on.
Once
..
Over · 2,000 specially · trained. men were.. flown
They moulded the guerillas Into a slick fighting force.
Meanwhile, I was still caITY-
ing out those tense trips to
a stream of glowing-rearm the: Corsicans."
Inches
in history
Sardinia,
CRAT
tracers slid Jazy between 'I
was getting used to the cockpit and propeller. lower, and the daring escape routine, convincing myself we would have ended in disaster
could pol the Germans every In shimmering moonlight, two PEARY: He Deubled,
"The sea glinted. ahead.
time.. Suddenly, on the tin. At Lysanders took off on the nought, feet, the, aircraft made trip to the island. the ground hazardous mission. Hugging the for home. Another mission had seemed to erupt over Southern. Frederick Albert Cook lived waves, the aircraft droned - been accomplished. Cook's reply to this was that
wards Corsica, he had sworn the Eskimos to until 1940.
But even this escapade paled Secret Cook's sole companion from 1925 to 1930 for using the
Flak peppered, the Halifax He had served a gaol sentence
Soon they were nosing be- against our work in the Balkans. everywhere. We were a sitting tween the narrow sea gap Probably the biggest guerillage By nomia mizacie we on the ascent of Mount Me-mails to promote worthless
dividing: Sicily and Sardínia. army
existed 7. didart batch fire, and we leaped Kinley. in 1906 said they had stock in an all company. Here
German-occupied Yugoslavia inj home never been near the
A red glow over Palerin - World War Two-and the Cloak in over the coast, and floundered "At ground level-we alid Summit again he may have been un- and that Cook had faked the lucky.
flected off the clouds. A heavy and Dagger Squadron bad a big towards diaries which showed that they His oil lands were declared bomber said was being staged part in their success.
base at Maison Blanche. had reached the peak.
almost valueless by the US. over the German air base in From our bare, in North Government, but one parcel order to divert attention from: Africa, we
them with
Heavy pre-dawn mist shrouded 10,000 bought for
dollars, the Lysanders.
end
"the airfield For agonising brought in millions while Cook
The guerillas were split into moments the coast loomed three The Corsican
mentally was still in prison.
separate armies the juggled with the new menace. When Cook came out of pri- ahead Flickering pinpricks of bandits, The Royalists, and the. Then he noted the injured air- son he wrote a book in which light warned the pilots the Ger Communists,
craft towards where he hoped an insurance once again he asserted his mans were still keeping up their While they all fought the the runway would be, agent said that dis
the relentless search for the patriots. Germans, they also bitterly hated claim 10 have reached they
had
fab North Pole. Few people believed Both aircraft soared over the each other, and 'were always ricated for Cook a but in recent years several urged coastline.
fending. Flying over full set of nautical and astro scraps of information have been nomical observations such as he found which seem to show that hump-backed mountains, they lad would have used on a journey he did go a long way out on the the Germans a merry dance. Ground forces would soon get to the Fole.
His book
TAST, a retired navigator and
him,
Polar ice.
pilot
Suddenly I saw earth fur- rows ahead. We were well all the runway!. The pilot also spotted his errori. Too late!
We ploughed - through two ... Arab houses that had spring out of the fog. I felt a violent was to decide
blow on the head Everything Al
went black.
Cook's friends and supporters Two of his depots have been the range. denounced these last two "con- found, one of them 400 miles fessions as an obvious frame from his base at Annoatok and was reached. It was far worse who got the precious arms.
Suddenly, the pick-up point. Our problem up, and hinted that they had half-way to the Pole
Not been organised by Feary,
chance than had been expected. It was three guerilla forces had strong There is an outede one person in a thousand be that he was telling the Buth a narrow valley, with a range claims to our support, Between I came to with the aircraft on lieved them. The University of We shall never know for ctr-
of jagged mountains blocking them, they had effectively are. My leg was broken, and I sabotaged the enemy war effort had severe facial injuries. The Copenhagen had supported Cook
tain where Cook spent the 14
Its surface was littered with in Eastern Europe. throughout the controversy months during which he vanish-
contro column had crushed the All they needed were aferaft top of my scalp. I still carry Now they pronounced a verdict ed somewhere in the Arctic rocks and saub. It was most
to become the most powerful the scars to this day. on the documents he sent them regions. It is barely possible as bad as landing on Macs! Cook, they said, had submitted that in that time he reached the
But the two beckoning figures patriot army in Eastern Europe, -
That was where the Cloak and no admissible evidence & all North Pole
on the ground decided the plots. They would go down. The first. Dagger: Squadron came la
that he reached the North Pole. WORLD COPTRIGHT RESERVED
otar erid.
Special Correspondent KAY MURRAY reports on the "current phone-tapping investigations taking place
in America, investigations which have revealed that the safest way to answer the phone is to say
"HELLO, EVERYBODY!"
business
man
tycoons
is
Slowly I started to crawl from the blazing plane, Again I lost
Later, I learned my engineer had risked his life by hauling me to safety,conds before the aircraft exploded.
My part in the Cloak and Dagger Squadron was finished. But my colleagues kept at it.
One of the greatest tributes to them can be. szen in the village of St Cyr de Valorges, France. On a memorial are carved the words: 20
But most businesy. In Government circles, too, protection against phone-tappers WHEN a. prominent New wire.
and all" Government phone-tapping
practically for, it you can hear in spite of York
employees know that illegal routine. Remarked one Con- rings up a colleague today wiretapping has been in opera-gressional experts "I can't say running bath taps, so can your his first inquiry is likely to tion since 1895.
that every department of the urinvited guest! Government is engaged in, wire- be: "Is your phone OK?"
How do you know if your tapping but offhand I
Not that phone-tapping is an can't
"In memory of the five airinen America, the land of the free, phone has been tapped? The think of one that isn'
inexpensive pastime. It costs found dead under the debris of is so scared by current phone answer is you don't-regard
anywhere from £33 to upwards their aircraft, shot down in (being less tapping revelations
of what writers of Senator McCarthy talks into of 2140 a day although in Bames at this place, April both investigated by
a New thrillers say about ominous his phone with the bath taps price rates of only £17. 108 a parachuting of
•Washington you can get cut-28, 1944, whose work was the York: Grand Jury and a State clicks Ot the line. Phone
CANTILS to our that
it is
or clicks his pencil day! running Cominission)
are today so expert against the receiver during the toppers
secret ammy for the liberation of trusual fora Government that they would blush purple
France and the restoration at official to say: "Let's take
What steps can be taken to our ideals." the block," it he their operations.
if so much as a click betrayed conversation. walk round
provide that a American's That simple memorials & Such wants to discuss something of
precautions may be home is his castle; undisturbed moving symbol at the gratitude top level importance.
Phone tapping, in fact, be proof against "bug?", that is, by uninvited guests on his tele-of the people of Europe, tenyards The Federal Communications came so commonplace that one tiny microphones such as the phone? The depressing an us. We could este for no ga Act of 1934, says a court order. Los Angeles city councillor murdered Serge Rubinstein wer is Note, until someone tribute. is necessary for permission to answers his phone with a installed under the bed of his comes up with further elec
telephone cheerful; "Hello, everybody!" friend Pat Wray. But it's no tronic detection devices,,5. tap an individual's
1022
,
MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN
FIFTEEN OF MY PICTURES STOLEN. FROM THE MUSEUMY YES I KNOW. THEY'RE INSURED FOR TEN MILLIONS
BUT WHAT GOOD
IS THAT
--THOSE ARE PRICELESS MASTER- |PIECES"-TREASURES OF THE AGES!
· WELL GET THEM
| BACK, MR.KEAN.
WE HAVE
SEVERAL LEADS.
WELL--THEY'RE KINDA PRETTY. --BUT TEN MILLION T WELL--Hey, WATCH THEM
ASHES!
"
•
By Lee Falk and Phil Davis
LOUIE THE FENCE
ANOT ONE
CENT!
TALK
IS ON HIS WAY
UR
THERE THEY ARE;
· LOUIE, JEN MILLIONS WORTH. HOW MUCH FORTEME
(The End).
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MAGIC!
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Admiral
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