1959-02-14 — Page 17

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THE CHINA-MAIL, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1959. 7

MARCH 27, 1911... WHEN HONGKONG SAW.

The first flight!

IN an article dated November 3rd, 1910, the South China Morning Post heralded the modern flying age. When one recalls that flying the English Channel was quite a feat fifty years ago, the S.C.M.P. showed considerable acumen in fore- casting the important role aviation would play in the Colony's future.

The article addressed itself to the advantages the Colony would gain in forming an aviation school, and even offered to act as a go-between for businessmen and a certain Marquis de Villeneuve. Nothing came of the proposal at that moment but the next year the Colony saw the first flight of 'a heavier than air machine.'

January 27, 1911, and three aviators arrive in Hongkong en route to Manila, where a flying carnival is to be held. While staying over, they book rooms at the old Hongkong Hotel. A China Mail reporter in on them.

The lender of the party was Captain Thomas S. Baldwin, and to reporter claims that Baldwin of the Inventor parachute and the owner of the 'first dirigible.

WAA the

(I find however, that Bald-

wia was trying to get away with something here; and that although there exist numerous legends of ancient parachutes, A. J. Garnerin was the first to make a parachute descent as long ago as 1797 at Ferts), reference: Everyman's Encyclopaedia.

Captain 9. Baldwin gave the reporter a drink, and in

to Answer

■ question Kald; "The days of ballooning are over and consequently, I have taken up the much more selentiße art of the aeroplane, although, I prefer to leave the risks of high fring and long fying to younger men.

"You see," said Captain Bald- win, "I am no light-weight (201 pounds) and it takes a bit more fuel to

than these carry me younger fellows." He pointed his empaslens, Captain Prite and, Aviator James C. Mars. The reporter then turned to James C. Mars.

+

looks

meant la fact that he flown over and under the of a bridge.

had span

The

claimed for reporter Captain Baldwin the invention of a light-weight fabric for covering the wings of a plane.

"Would you tell Mars what aviation Vou hold?" Mars was rather wary of the saki that his question, but

feel highest alltude was 7,000 which stood for a time as A

Two of the planes were world record, and his longest night lasted 1 hour covering Baldwin's design and make; the a distance of over a hundred third of a type called the Todd- miles at a speed of close mile a minile.

Next day, the 28 January, 1011, the three planea were me, Mr taken off the S.S. Asta with a records view to giving curlous Hongkong aviation fans a glimpse at modern flying.

021

"These records," James C. at Mars said, "were made Helena, Mentina and Topeka and Kansas respectively." Captain Baldwin admitted that he had never been higher than 750 feet, but he had one kind of record to its credit. He called it, "threading the needle." This

Shriver.

of

The reporter seems to have been keen on flying himself, and reported the dimensions of Bold- win's plane: "The wing's of the Baldwin Acroplane are 38 feet long, and the propeller, 7 fort, made of spruce and bamboo.

are

"Ten gallons of gasoline the usual amount of fuel carried, and this suffices for a hundred

by

JOHN LUFF

miles. The machine itself weighs

050 lbs, and develops 60 m.p.h." mying This is not Baldwin's first visit to the For

The Brucle Anishes by Captain

East. Possibly there are some

his parachute descent berɑ sane 20 years ago.

Hanging who will remember

"No arrangements have yet

CX-

been made regarding su eald, "You may take it from me

hibition here," Captain Prico

that nothing will be attempted without the fullest sanction of

the authorities and no arrange- ment of any kind has so far been mado."

BJ

The reporter asized one more question, "How much will # cost to put on the exhibition?"

James C. Mars replied that a guarantee of $8,000 was required, and that all three machines would take part for this figure,

The airmen slayed over in the Colony, but bureaucracy killed

time, the show, and this untamed South China Morning Fast reporter takes over:-

"The public will be intensely disappointed to learn that the projected aeriai flights while were to have taken place in the Now Territories this weekend, are off, but they are not more disappolated than the aviators themselves who, It appears, have rone

to A good deal of trouble and ex- pense in the mailer, and havo left Hongkong Wednesday with fecils that can be better Imagined than des- Bcribed.

A SORE SUBJECT

IN Lancashire they play

ericket and spin cotton. Both are sore subjects at the pment... England's cricketing fortunes have taken a nose-dive. But this is small stuff alongside the problems of the cotton in- dustry.

-Peter Burgoyne's-

NEWS FROM BRITAIN

"In the full hope that every- thing would be satisfactorily arranged with the powers- that-be, Messrs Baldwin, Price, Mark, and Shriver, stayed over in Hongkong, had their biplanes · transported to Talpo, and commenced the erection of a forty-foot' long shed for their accommodation pending an exhibition.

Ho

“As we learned from aviator Mars yesterday, there being other way of recouping themselves in view of the fact that no guarantee was forth-

W26 coming, It

practically decided that the railway should make such a charge

for transportation to Talpo as would cover the charge for admission to the Aviation ground, and that the airmen receive Ally per cent of the takings.

*

"Somehow or other, the Arrangement has at the last moment fallen through. The Government It seems up- willing to sanolion such an arrangement and naturally mough the airmen are no1 flying for love,

"It seems a great pity that official red tape

should

where the aviators stayed. The old Hongkong · Hotel,

deprive Hongkong of its only and complete the details. The accident In Hongkong. On crowd of school children, prin- opportunity of witnessing the date of the exhibition will be Thursday 23 March, 1911, Mr elpally from Queen's College. conquest of the air by proved announced later and, meantime, Van den Born gave mother fly rushed to the landing ground to experia,

preparations are under way. ing exhibition out at Shatin. see tho aeroplane totch down,

With migricont anticipation, "The

Ordinances of

"Mr Van den Born is accom- Quite a crowd gathered and this the Colony forbid

Mr Van den Born pulled his aviation at panied by his wife and mechanic, time everything started well. Happy

Van den Born was soon in the machine round, and swerved Valley, the only and is staying at the Hongkong

to o away from the

children, suitable site on the Island, Hotel. He inloes high rank among air and rose "beautifully and when the aviators were European aviatore, having been height of 200 to 300 feet, and Fortunately, willing to venture KO far a tutor in Farman's school, he performed several evolutions." seriously hurt, although afleld as Talpo and take their passed through his hands most (Ble) chance at the 'gate' the law of the prominent French Alors Lalor enquiries reveal it was might have been streiched a whose names are household Van den Born's intention to rise point to meet their wishes and words today.

met with enable the public to enjoy an "He is fresh from a series of contrary winds and attempted to

in exhibition that people all over triumphs

Bangkok and Jand in front of the hanger, the world are clamouring to Satgon. At the former place, he Anticipating his intention, a

zeo."

enlightened government is going to recruit them specially to deal:

For with coloured commulties.

enjoyed the patronage of the onco you neerull police for a

King and Members of the Royal particular community, you im- I-have left the ariels as the Household including several of mediatly stignotise that com-young MDD wrote It. No the Princes and a Princess, who munity as something apart from doubt many of the clauses he ventured into the air with him,” the rest of the nation. And, leaves hunging in the air were It is at this stage that wẹ first just as insidious, you foster the due to his understandable dis- hear of the Far East belief that those policemen have appointment. He is less than Company.

own fair to Government however. I Do authority outside their

should imagine the villain of the racial group.

ploce WIS Intelligence.

Young Love

ЗЛОВЕ and more!

Royal Navy

Aviation

present day conditions of expected to take the form of

anancial aid for the reorganisa Once the very heartbeat world trade.

Hlan and re-equipment of the to industry and The dimculty has been

compensation for of this great county, the

It was this Company which cotton industry in recent make the cotton men-t all workers who become redundant.

War was only three years off, took a foremost place in the levels-acknowledge this and But the government will have

of local aviation, years has been having to cut back the industry to an to move fast and effectively to

British and high prices were being paid development

Bying for photographs of cur new who arranged the Arst But what the be able to demonstrate that they teenagers are getting marships. In fact, flying over the exhibition, size. face up to increasing hard- economie

exhortations of the economists have the situation under control

Youngsters who, a few ships.

harbour was strictly forbidden. have largely failed to do, hard by the time a general election

years ago, would have been

I do not know if that was the circumstances have begun to

comes along. Failure to do, to

considered litio more than could be politically devastating achieve.

schoolchildren, are now stepping on, and that one of the air- men was suspect. But it could at the hustings.

up the alale or the registry

have been. office stope in droves. "Broad- minded" parents, higher wakes

Mills have closed in the face of cut-rate competition from overseas cotton manu- facturers and delegations of

Recently an unlooked for cir- cumstance accelerated the move

ried,

cotton men have come south towards reorientating the cotton Why Can't The and welfare alato benefis are

to London to demand gov- Industry. The Restrictive Prac-

protection

the

ernment

for tices Court ruled that a minimum

scheme agreed by price their industry. They have cotton spinners (to rule out cul- found sympathy but it crotomie stress for the In: comfort. For despite sym- pathy for the plight of the dustry) was

interest In effect, this sounded

теп,

English ... ¿”

.7"

against the public

cotton

for the less management the death knell

unable to and workers, the conviction economie operators has been growing that bring their prices low enough his answer in a letter written to to compete in the open market. Lancashire's bid to project

If this situation is allowed to ita nineteenth century develop unchecked the "law of the greatness

the mid- the jungle" will reshape twentieth century is cost-. cotton industry in the form the

economists have been urging. ly, unrealistic and, in

But a human problem as well long run likely to be fatal. as an economic one is involved In other words, that Lan- And the government is reported- cashire's cotton industry is

into

the

This is

largely responsible for this boom In toango weddings.

But recently from the stalls- tical review of the nation's Re-

mar-

the

enore

On

1911, March 18, Belgian, Mr Van den Born, made the first' flight by air plane in the Colony of Hong- kong.

A large crowd assembled at Skatin on Saturday, March 18, 1911.

It was an ideat day for flying, wann and sunny, but things went wrong right from the start. In the first place, the Governor was late, and while the crowd wind waited impatiently, the rose to thirty miles an hour, and It was decided that it would be sulakai to set out in the face of the strong wind

The Governor arrived, and the crowd. The

to Kowloon, and most of the dis- appointed crowd left for home.

WIX", demands My Fair gistrar Ceneral da now that the

Lady's' Professor Hir- note. His records show

February 28, 1011, and the glue," can't the English learn marriage of a teenage bride i to speak..

twice as likly to end in divorce South China Morning Post an- waited with ns that at a girl aged between pouneed: "An exhibition of Band of the Rajputs played sema This week Henry Higgins got 20 and 24.

****aviation is to take place in Hong-lively airs, but the crowd wanted

The

Just as sobering in its way kong after all. Not on the island flight, not music.

It came to 6.10 p.m., time for itself because Goverment for- Times by an Impressive

WO another statistical revela-bids that, but at Taipo in the the train from Shatin, to return array of top brains, including Sir John Cockcroft and Sir Ed-on: That the ratio of

New Territory. ward Appicion.

riageable men to marriageable

"Mr Van den Bottr, the man who is to be the first fer in

Soon after the crowd left, Simply, the answer was that girls (for many years in

favour) has reversed. man'o

the wind died down, and Mr Hongkong arrived yesterday on Britain just doesn't have enough There competent teachers of

are now 730,000

the French Mall from Salgon,

Van den Born brought aut his English

single men than single women in and his tree Farman biplanes

machine and climbed aboard. for the job. "Nowhere in our

He rose to a short height, are expected to be unloaded to- system," said the the age group 15-28.

encircled the field, and to the MOITOW,

the wonder "The business end of

of the spectators, returned to almost the same arrangement is in the hands of Arndt & Co., who inom us that spot that he had left.

has Thus the first airplane flight | obtained ΤΣΟΠΕ the in Hongkong

was a bit But the punch to send Pro- winter? Let these facts speak |authorifies and that the flights anti-elmax. fessor Higgins reeling came for themselves,

will come off when Me Van den

educational

ly on the point of stopp letter, "Is there adequate provt- with a plan to soften the blow ston fur

research and training too huge and unwieldy for as much as possible.

In the methods of teaching modern English either to foreigners от La our children."

ROUND-UP

ROUND THE WORLD ON £20

THREE Young Londoners are planning a

five-year round-the

world hitch-hiking tour-all for £20. They are Jerry Swain, 22, son of a Battersea newsagent, and his friends Colin Mayger, of Albany Park, near Erith, and Alon Silverman, of Clapton. Jerry and Colin are clerks and Alan is a furniture maker. The trio will try to buy a Land Rover for the first part of their journey. across Europe, down the West Coast of Africa and overland to Zanzibar, where they would sell it before working their passage by ship to Bombay. But they are quite prepared to hitch-hike all the way, From Bombay their route will le across India, through Burma, the East Indies, 'Australia and New Zealand. Then by alip to South America, up the coast to Mexico, the United States (and Canada and back again to Rio. The final lup will tako in

South Africa, then through the Suez Canal and back home, £20 they are taking is for emergencies. They expect to enough as they go. Jdrry said that the only other time he had been out of England was as a National Serviceman in Germany. MAIL FOR TROOPS

The earn

Fog

own How departatus are the tea the necessary permission.

that descend on Britain in 'been

of an

I should imagine the following

higher, but that he

no ond

was the

front of the machine was "considerably crumpled."

Monday March 27, 1911 wRS an ideal firing day, and Mr Van den Bern made Righis, Aviation had come to Hongkoor..........tu stay.

A BRAEMAR IS SOMETHING

TO BE PROUD OF!

BRA-MAR

SCOTLAND'S

FINEST

KNITWEAR

AT ALL

LEADING STORES

later in the letter "In tho Recently fog hit the Forth- Bom has had the time to discuss must have been the Arst airplane Sole Agents: Fielding, Brown & Finch (Far East)”, Ltd.

| opinion of experts who have re- Clyde valley in Scotland. In

cently visited the U.S.S.R. for Glasgow, patients with chest the express purpose of seeing complaints had to be evacuated this aspect of Soviet education, from the fog one. In Edin the Russians can probably put burgh, over 10,000 children, a into the foreign field a greater quarter of those attending focal number of well-trained teachers authority schools, fell sick with of English than we can our nose and throat Infections. selves."*

to

I can't wait for the Russians claim that they invented Englia and that Wut Shake- speare was a mujik from Omak.

A Bad Idea

Consternation

SURPRISE and in some quar-

ters, consternation when Prime Minister Mecaniilan re- turned. sofi answer.to an M.F. who suggested televising pro- REBH currency is being river seedings in the House of Com-

to the suggestion that Brie mona. Wish polios foroos should recrută

He was not, said Mr Macenil- suitable coloured immigrants 10-lan, aware of any general desire ́aperaja in predominantly among 34124 for televising the "coloured areas of the nation's Cossmons at work, ikia did not big cities

think it, wai a matter for the

}

The idea Isn't new, but it has government es auch, but for the boon." revived-puas of the 'Hostat me a rbcle, and suggested publicity. given, to a poung it might be difcured through Jamaican who has applied to the proper and ordinary' chah», jola the Leeda police." Hisap pela plication,neidontally,"" is st "That Masalacrillah-did [being. "cozzalderød.”.

THE Army's Home Postal Depot at Actx, West London, hope to got electrio trucks to reduce the handing of malibage antong other now equipment. The depot, once a factory, has a staff of about 450 who handle about 76,000 fetters and parcele a week. Among them working chiefly on sorting dation, hin 180 W.R.A.C billeted in Richmond Park. "Next year we Hope to move to now mechanised quarines at Mill -H11)," says Lampament Osjonal A. H. Attractive as the wohand may hand Rosan, The depot's fleet of fortian aburities comil from the penes at det glamow of tiles wým már London gallwer termini to Acton where it in sorted and cierpsichedă | Ičkotly, to his act by pm or all within a few hours. Nearly all kim mai jom by nothiner So air.Errad capot miso seein the road whà mervo, lai põelnudila mon BUTO

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