?
Pago B
WOMEN of the
AIRS
PART TWO
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1980.
Dramas from the trail-blazing
era
of aviation
Amy and Jim...to them
flying was
a drug.
Amy Johnson bocamo Amy Mollison.
The
partnership brought now fame and now records but little happiness to the girl from Hull. Thore woro quarrols followed by divorco, When the war came, an embittered Amy Johnson (she had reverted to that namo) said:
"Give me a dangerous job
I' was August 3, 1930. A bedroom window of a semi-detached house in Park Avenue, Hull, swung open and out poked a pole with a huge Union Jack hanging from it. The portly man with the of pencils sticking out of his waistcoat pocket struggled for a moment to fix it in place, and then stood back satisfied.
Mr Johnson was preparing to welcome back to Briato MIS daughter Amy after her preord- breaking Right to Australia.
towni
The rest of the
yaring too.
row
By ROBERT GLENTON
was from the stronge
lamp-posts. hung
swaying
heights of
out
more one
Taking their lead from Mininting than Hull had seen
since the last royal visit, Johnson, the citizens, dangerously
London was on kitchen chairs
preparing Amy Johnson was due at
100.
and viewing their neighbours Croydon in an Imperial Airways
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BULMER'S
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Huge welcome
By that time
there were
There were spreches, but no heard them through the cheers Margaret Bondfield, the Socialist Minister pr Labour, had that day made ter fert spoke unheeded, fight to get to Croydon. She
The countryside' was wild and Icnely, and there was no one in sight. Barbed wire fencing barred her way up the cliff,
Sick with shock, she struggled through, Up the winding track ske stumbled, and there in front of her was Spun Head Lighthouse.
She banged on the door with her wire-torn hands until there
shuffing and Jerseyed keeper appeared.
was a
Д
bluck
From the lighthouse she got a tt home. And that wes the ced of what was supposed to be ber triumphant entry into Hull.
Unhappy
Back at home In Park Avenue there was some unhappiness.
Ever since she had landed in Austrails her parents had wait- ed patiently for Amy to come honie and talk of her adven- Lures,
She did nothing of the sort,
The last thing ahe wanted to flying.
talk about
Patiently they waited Now
and again they would drop a kine. But Amy Johnson
frowned and shrugged away
the subject.
She stayed In Hull for a weelt. Never again in all her life was she home as long as that.
When she returned to London there was more trouble.
Referring to Amy's aircraft Jusoni and the mythological The Lord Mayor of Ilull
prototype which sailed in search dressed in his chain and reć
there robes moved his lips in a speech of the Golden Fleece.
were certain sections of welcome but he was corn-
Australian public who were they pletely insaible.
complaining that it was
of
the
200,000 people waiting for her. Amy Johnson read a litte who were fleeted by Amy John- And all along the miles to speech buf herily her hotel in Park Lane the crowds were estimated at four and five deep.
There were more than 1,000,000
people out.
They all knew the way she would travel. It had been pub-
caught a word of that.
Instead they cheered.
Dnyone son.
They
cheered all the way from Croy-
don to Park Lane.
In tears
One newspaper headed an article "How Amy Johnson ex-
Ay begged that she should stopped.
be Berlin. On the way she hod saw Airport to announce that had to land in a tield to net she had force-innded 10 miles where ahe WOL Strenuous away. efforts were made to stop from flying on,
Much of her route lay over snow and lee and the wastes of The Russians were Mongolla. particularly perturbed.
"If he itslate," a Govern meni pokesman said, "we will help her all we can. But with her lack of experience of such conditions it is madness."
Off again
But Amy never got as for as Russia.
her
Not only were the authorities perturbed about the senseless hers of the 8,000-mile flight, but they were worried about the continued deterioration in her flying. She listened, looked at her advisers with a face R smudged by tears of stress, and said, "I'm going on. I have gol to get away from England
In the morning she took off
despite Warsaw
tog warning.
for
A
Her Brat stop was Liege. The airport was deserted, and she and to walk for an hour in the bitter winter rain, carrying hug until she Fultcase and maps,
take found a ramear to
Hours after she won frst over- into the town.
The next day she arrived at due the telephone rang at War-
And she disappeared, Every pollee station from the frontier to Warsaw was told to her look out for her.
had
broken
The aircraft propeller and damaged under carriage, but she was cafe, and to overyone's rellet, the wild flight was over.
New records
off
*G3 U
In the summer she was again. This time with pilot to Japan. She set up re cords both ways.
While she was in Jupani she read that a young nirman called Mollison had broken the record from Australia to England.
She remembered that Mollison was the name of a young man she had met in Australia. He was the pilot of an airliner in which the travelled on tour.
Sho
was uncertain whether this was the same man. But she will sent off a cable of cons gratulations, "Hope you will be in England when I get back"... she nilded.
He was, but they did not meet ilson.
They didn't meet until March 1932, when Amy Johnson was on holiday in South Africa, Site had planned to slay in the Canaries, but it was raining when she arrived there, so "the had stayed aboard the liner and salled to Cape Town, to find it was gala day.
Jim Mollison was expected there at the end of his record
light from England.
Any Johnson was one of the waiting crowd who peered into the sky that day and when he fonded she fought her way into the airport building to meet him.
They arranged to mail back to Britain together sa Amy Johns zon cancelled her booking in an earlier ship.
(Continued on Page 7)
A STRETCH OF LAWN IS THE SYMBOL OF HYPOCRISY
Why not end this
humbug
on
The next day it was the same, cuses her big rake-off," and it
*** divorce?
ished with the detall of a royal. And the day after,
procession.
The hawkers of Bags and favours couldn't harvest.
recall sel
1
Among those who walled there were many who wondered why she hadn't flown back to Britain In her own aircraft.
They were not to know that
Amy Johnson had been ban- ned from flying. As she had made her triumpliant tour of Australia the experts had
been perturbed at the dc- terioration in her flying skill,
Then at Brisbane she turned her aircraft over. They eat her out of the cockpit, looked with horror at the crowds she could
Banquets
There were luncheons and banquets and no one got tired of the ritual.
liated £2,037 of benefits
had received.
she
It added that every time she
Was guest of honour at a theatre
a dance she insisted on a gift
of £100.
I had got to the stage, said MAY 6 is to be the great day. On
the complaints, that unless the money was forthcoming Amy
this day Princess Margaret and
Johnson would not appear. Antony Armstrong-Jones are to be
this of
The
A fund was organised for her. The Australian Test team was over here, and those great men Bradman, Grimmell, Kippax, Told
she shouted married in Westminster Abbey. Woodfull, Oldfield and Ponsford, angrily: "I hate and despise Archbishop of Canterbury is to con- the idola of every cigarette card them." Sill the feling and collecting schoolboy, promptly adulation went on in Britain. [duct the service.
subscribed.
Out of the fund she eventual ly got a new aeroplane. She got a cheque for £10,000 from a newspaper.
After a lot of discussion she got the C.B.E.
And there were many mony
sa casily have ploughed into, speeches. and begged her to rust.
They said she was too ured. Amy
Johnson, shaken
| apologetic, agreed,
Nervous
Between the speeches she and found danger. She Sew herself home from London to Hull and on the way became lost in fog.
Low over the North Sea, she took off her chora and waited for her engine to die as
the
At 8.20, very late Indeed, und Inst of the fuel drained away.
under a stormy sky, the airliner
touched down at Croydon. Its
As the searched for a break
arrival at last ended the eternal in the fog she cursed at the mechanical dirge of that popu- stupidity or dying in such lar song hit,
Wonder-
way after she had taken
"Amy.
over
tho
ful Amy," which had been many riiks before. repeatedly played loudspeakers.
Then suddenly, hatlers and dressed in grey, she
nervously apprared before demented crowd.
POP
A
HANG ON, SONTM
I THINK FLL COME
WITH YOU?
so
But the for curled and thinned, and there in the grey evening was a beach, Flying below the level of the cilts the force-landed.
By Gog
Then one day Amy Johnson was found lying on a couch in ter room crying her eyes out The strain of the fight and the crrdless Junketing since had broken her.
For weeks she was confined in a Country house. Bui on New Year's Dav 1931 her air-
Dut craft was pushed
of hangar at Croydon.
It will be a day of ecremony and rejoicing. The Queen will be there. Prince Philip will be there. The Queen Mother will be there."
As the ushers inquire: "Bride or bridegroom?” one stalwart figure will reply: "Bridegroom. I am hia Lather." Mr Armstrong-Jones senior will also be present.
Afterwards there will be a weckling reception. the Armstrong-Jones senior will be presented to the Queen. He may even exchange a few words over aglans of champagne with the Archbishop of Canterbury.
WED
caution she infinito had planned a new record- breaking figh! to Peking. Secretly her friendm had visited half a dozen shops to buy her maps.
What could be more humon, more natural, more inevitable? No one could wish. it otherwise for expect it could be otherwise,
But now suppose that on
A dawn on January I she the was rende.
She was also bliter. To those watching she said, "I'm tired of being a secretary to myself. I dida'l take up flying to answer letters. If I don't get away I'll suffocate:"
next morning
Armstrong-Jones semlor deelded
AM
Cummings
by A. J. P. TAYLOR
&bout the
the loaves
to follow the state ceremony knowledge not only the son, but For with an act of personal worship, the father.
Suppose that ho attentted the Abbey again to receive Communion
the allar where his son, had been at the
ot
centre of the nation's attention.
the social
Ироп On
convention Christian the Church's
ban upon
Yu based doctrine impove Д Arinstrong-Jones
the It was a miserably unsuccess-
Almost certainly he would moment ful night.
northern be turned away. Every
ever. And Head country over which she was to
Those whoi know drink
arlsberg
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It does
It is easier for a camel to go, through the eye of a needle, than for a divorced person to enter into the Queen's Lawn
at Ascot...
Establishment Abbey.
ot Westminster
But Iet ETIC humblo Individual who has been tho divereo innocent party in a ease and married again seek
11 remain
commumloating
troubles to
bishop indissolublły marriage
and promotion
could ecclesiastical divorce
In question.
Mr the suijor ceremony
is
the Queen.
must of the Church, not matter that he follow the convention, Oven will now be in the immediate though I may forbid her to family circle of the Queen, peak at Ascot to the father
Governor
of in-low of her own gister.
Church
the
The Stuto Church. As
Supreme
who has married
опе
ngain after
The
of
fishes
No protests
of member whon England.
of the Church of Then the ban is
of revived in full severity. come
There
upon him, remain
is a black mark and one that will for ever. Pubile
-- opinion now necepts divorce,
The
low
recognises it,
ond
has done so for more than a
Not lung age we had in Sir century.
Anthony Eden a Prime Minister The bishops remain
201
who had divorced his first wife
Long and married
the placable, again. At
in applied same time we had in Mr Gait- dogma England skeli a Leader of the Opposition expense of others divorce he will find that the has elevated iLa disapproval whose wife had been married their own, bishops' rules are turned against of divorce Into a dogma. In before she married him. him.
doing so, it has landed scl
Precedent
EV
✡
the
and not at
An example?
People often wonder why. the church-going has declines and Frey
in contradictions anxi
Here then
Wire a Prime which culties,
and deeper Minister
potential Minister both of than merely to create a social Prime problem at a race-meeting. whom Came beneath
Church's ban. Yet "Christian held in their hands all the why Britain is not the Christian
nation that it used to be, Indissoluble. promotion 10 the bench wedding day to Royal Ascot. Logically, therefore, it dis- bishops.
Can It perhaps be partly Will Mr Armstrong-Jones mismos as
the Church scems to altach mogt importance .to legal ccremczies undi outer
But that is not all. Now go forward a few weeks from the
It insists that marriage"
is
un-Christian other
ol
senior then be allowed to join Christian Churches which Did any bishop prolest at because
divorce. including this
hia pon and daughter-in-law on recommise the Queen's Lawn of the Royal the Presbyterian Enclosure? No official ruling is Scotland. ever given.
Yet one thing is certain. If
the precedent of many other
men who have been through
No sliuntion? terrible
Church of sound was heard from them. dieploy? Bishops Dr sup
Did the Archbishop
Harshness
the divorce courts is followed It may be left to the leaders
Canterbury Urgo Church
other
of posed, among
thing that the to sat a high example. What should be
the det alvestab sort of example do ished so as to maintain it when they condemn divorce yel spiritual purity? He did not, accept promotion from Prime Ministers who have been through Okl Briy thhop
refuse the divorce courls? Anthono
We heard Af
nono.
the Queen's Lawn will be an of the Church of England to de- firmly aloned to him ne the elde how they reconcile this promotion from Sir
The Queen's Lawn at Ascot-Is- Garden of Eden' was closed to dogma with the older, desper Eden? Adam and Eve after the fall. doctrine of Christians charity. It Does any leading churchman by no means the highest prize in
ho
There will hot to,
must be THIRTY Though no ange
that. those whero, announce that with they believe flaming word, bors ibe way, norringer ATO Irretrievably necept
from people who do not break their appointment the unwriter
should -dujes groem to shitted
remain Mr,
listen, renta at the thought that they Gaitskel Wo
will never walk on it, yoked together they are free and we listen in vain..
hard
All the 'came; it is a symbol of to do so. It comes latan atasciitiation when they try to imposs
distant prosport
fpecial approval, this The
Or should H. hidhed. The sun harsh dogma on others.
à bishop's thecto mon stille The: At present It is a ovibol of Armstrong-Jones is, though!
Voice ot. conscience The Rypourley-the bypocrisy noi Achbishop
Canterbury only of high society but of this no objrosion when he Church of England. appear in all the glory of
andon Saxprase Eervice).
be just es implacale,
fit to marry Princess Mat I carnes particularly hard
odigybeft they feast. If Kehity vo Taires higwelt WH Copperbury
thethesives. ay- tar' sa ii 'oonbornM
1435
of