1930-08-02 — Page 8

PAGE TWO

THE STORY OF AMY JOHNSON. GIRL WHO LEFT TYPEWRITER FOR AEROPLANE.

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, AUGUST 2nd, 1930.

Here is Amy Johnson, the little London stenographer who recently amazed the world by her solo flight from England to Australia. Centre picture shows the latest picture of the girl flyer; upper right, as her father kissed her good-bye before the flight began: lower pic- ture, Amy Johnson, in working clothes, on the plane in which she made her flight. Because she "bucked up" the,raising a shilling fund among its she sold a signed article to a big spirit of the British people, even readers with which to buy her a London paper and got £5 for it.

In this she said: more than because she made a new, fast aeroplane,

"A half hour in the pure air Her father is a wholesale fish wonderful solo light from Eng- land to Australia in 19 days in a dealer in Hull. He sent her to amply compensates for the hours little Gypsy Moth plane, Miss Amy Sheffield University, where she spent in an artifcially lit, ill-ven- de-tilated city office, earning means Johnson, upon her return to Lon-got. her Bachelor of Arts don, became assured of the greatest gree. She thought she would like to enjoy 30 minutes of freedom reception ever accorded a woman to be a teacher, but, instead, went and delight." in modern times.

to Landon and became stenog- Then came to Amy the plan for On the completion of her flight, rapher in the office of a Londona sein fight to Australia. Her dad would buy an old aeroplane, but the King wired her his congratula solicitor. tions and made her a

Com Made Sacrifices to Learn Flying. the incidental costs of a long trip mander of the Order of the British

Then suddenly the air craze. hit to Australia would be much more

She went Empire.

her. She made all kinds of sacri-than that sum. fices to learn the air game. She Lord Wakefield, the millionaire oil backed many air found that for £1 she could have man, who has

to

For Amy performed her daring trip at the right psychological moment. The British have been a half hour's instruction in flying ventures, He talked to her in a saved 10/- out of her paternal, way. Apparently the low in their minds. It is not only So she because of troubles in India and wages each week and every fort-young girl, who had been in the air a total of 80 hours and had Egypt; unemployment to the tune night indulged in a lesson. a half! of over a million and

She went up in the air for the never flown more than 200 miles people; iron and coal and textile first time in her life on Sept. 15, at one strench, had never thought as the effect of industries shot to pieces; the 1928, as a pupil. After having of such things highest taxation in the world. been up with teachers for a total tropical heat on aeroplanes, the The leaders of Britain also have of 15 hours and 45 minutes, she treacherous monsoons of the Far been worried about this after-the-made her first solo fight on June East, the lonely ship-deserted, war generation. Their youngsters 9, 1929. Less than a year later shark-infested Timor Sea. He told were consistently beaten in cham-she started on her Australian ven-her it was a hopeless task for a

girl. plonship golf by the American ture.

"Go by Steamer." Bobby Jones. Their young men But in the meantime, Amy had were beaten in tennis by French-been very busy. She wanted to Mr. H. M. Fenton, Australian men and their young women by the know something more than mere Minister for Trade and Customs, She American, Helen Wils Moody.ly dying a machine. every was in London on a visit. The polo honours had gone to morning at 6 o'clock she appeared tackled him, only to be patted on America. British leaders began at the Stag Lane Aerodrome, There the back and advised:

So

to wonder whether the new she worked as a mechanic until 9; "Go to Australia by steamer, generation had gone soft, as they Then she washed her hands, pow my girl! You would be foolish to were depicted in modern plays and dered her nose and went down to try to fly there." novels more intent on idleness her office in the city, where she

She went to Sir Granville Ryrie,

than work, more interested in pounded her typewriter. Then Australian High Commissioner. cocktails and lip-stick than in she went back to the aerodrome at The very idea of her attempt worth-while achievements.

handed him a big chuckle.

Then she seat on the doorstep of General Sir Sefton Brancker, Di- rector of Civil Aviation in the Air Ministry, until he consented to sec

old

and worked until 10 at night. The mechanics called her "Johnnic They liked her and taught the eager girl' all they knew.

She now knew all about

Needed Money for Trip.

trip.

She flew away from Croydon on May 5, and the rest is history. So

great London given her £10,000 and is going to pay her expenses for a trip around All this cost money and it was much so that dozens of girl babies Britain. Another newspaper is u red letter day in her life when are being christened Amy.

"THE MOTHER OF RADIUM.”

Mme. Curie's Gift to Humanity.

Had wealth seemed half so Im portant as science, the unissum- ing, detached Mmc. Marie Curie, greatest of all women scientists, would be a millionaire to-day.

Had she and her husband want- ed to make money or gain pres- tige, they would have patented the processes they discovered for ex- tracting radium, as their friends urged them to, instead of turning over all their discoveries freely to science.

Modern history has no more in- spiring example of the triumph of service over materialism than the conduct of the Curies.

At the time they made the dis- covery of radium and polonium, an allied substance. they were Bo poor that the work had to be car ried on in a wooden shed, that was too dilapidated even to be used for a store room. The porous. roof leaked rain" into a room which contained only some old pine tables, a cast iron stove and In a blackboard for equipment. fair weather they worked out in the courtyard, because there was no ventilator to carry of the poisonous gases given off in chemical analyses.

Here Mme. Curie worked with large quantities of ore, isolating the tiny particles of radium and polonlum that she might deter- mine the nature of their proper- ties.

3-

These Curies were abjectly peor, paying for their materials from their inadequate incomes, which combined were about one- fifth of what a good husky brick- layer could command-not to-day but back in 1898 when the dis- covery was made.

They went cheerfully without luxury, often without food, entire-

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SOCIALISTS.

TYPHOON

BURGLARY

SIR OSWALD AND LADY CYNTHIA MOSLEY.

London, June 21.

Great Britain's highly vulner able Labour Party has just received one of its most serious blows from the most unexpected own ranks. quarter within its And Sir Oswald Mosley, 33-year-old M. P., has taken the most sen sational step adopted by any ambitious politician in many a decade he resigned his position in the MacDonald Cabinet because, in his opinion, it was not doing enough for the workers and un- employed who form such a large part of the Labour party's vote.

The young M. P. thinks Mr. Thomas and the MacDonald Cabinet have been too slow and too cautious in dealing with the labour situation. He has been for a movement that was startling in its extent and implications. He was Bums to willing to spend huge put great public works under con- atruction. He wanted to raise the school age so that more children would be shut out of the factories, and to pension working people over 60. in that way, by cutting cut the young and pro- viding for the old, jobs could be found for the younger men and women who now are out of employment."

Sir Oswald and Lady Cynthia Mosley, pictured above, were Tories until he rebelled and joined, the Socialist party. Both now are in Parliament, where he again has turned against his party because it turned down his drastic plan för the relief of England's unemployment.

22-Year-Old Stenographer. And then this little 22-year-old stenographer from "The City" casually hopped off in an machine, broke the world's record plane construction and engine re-her. There was something about as far as India, doing it in six days, pairs. The Air Ministry gave her the dogged determination of this

She

little, blue-eyed, golden-hairedly happy in the excitement of their and overcoming tropical heat, ground engineer's licence.

convinced him youngster that

labour, completely pre-occupied monsoons and accidents, arrived was the first girl to receive it. She

aiready held a private flying against his will. He converted

with the wonders they were slow- safely in Australia.

licence and continued her naviga: Lord Wakefield and the latter re-

ly revealing. Their health, even.

But his proposals were turned Amy Johnson already has betion lessons at the school of the fuctantly consented to finance ali their lives, was endangered by

down by the very Cabinet to which come a rich girl. She will bring Royal Aeronautical Society. She

their proximity to the powerful,

he belonged. The ordinary politi hack a regular cargo of gifts from became a qualified pilot on June the oil and gasoline costs of the

mysterious new substance.

clan would have held on to his job the enthusiastic Australians. A 26, 1929.

They were told they should

and to the judgment of his elders. has newspaper

patent their processes, that this

"He would have followed his ambito a baronetcy, his oratorical to Parliament, and so was his wife. would make them rich and power-

tion rather than his convictions. powers, plus the help of his lovely The Socialists did not make the ful, but both refused to harbour

For It is a dangerous thing for a young wife, Sir Oswald Mosley's young convert sit on the mourner's such a thought. Here, they said,

man to resign an important Go-path seemed all marked out for bench. He was made Chancellor Was something for humanity, something to fight the dread di-vernment post because he disagrees him. All he had to do was to be a of the Duchy of

with his

party leaders. Pre- good party man and he would Once more the path seemed all sease that is prevalent in all-coun-

cedent says that a man who takes climb to the top. But the smug smooth for him. But once more tries-cancer. Here was

such a step seldom gets a chance complacency of the Tories Irritated has Sir Oswald asserted his in- dependence and risked his political thing for mankind, something that

and then angered him." should be turned over to the people.

As a Lahour back-bencher. First from his position as a future. Patenting the processes would

decision for him to make, for Sir young back-bencher he boldly he will be free to speak and vote inevitably, result in high prices,

Oswald Mosley has been one of the criticized them. Then he went a as he pleases. and the use of radium would be

very few Intimates of that step farther, ran as an indepen- Since his resignation, Sir Oswald kept from those who needed it.

eminently lonely man, Mr. Mac-dent and was elected. Finally he Mosley has had one hard knock. Steadfastly they refused to com- mercialize their discovery. But Donald, Lady Cynthia Mosley, rejected them and all their works, The Parliamentary Labour Party, also an M. P., with her wealth, her joined the Sociallat party and ran by 210 to 29, defeated his motion others did not despise the profits

beauty, her social connexions, has as such. Many society people cut criticizing the party leaders for available. And to-day radium is

been the only member of the him because he had "betrayed his their unemployment policy. Even 80 expensive that it is, after all,

Labour party to hold veritable class," as the jargon goes.. The the 29 votes that he mustered, out of reach of those who need it

salons for the government.

opposition papers at first ignored however," show startling evidence most.

Bat one of the biggest things him. Finding he could not be of growing revolt within the al- about the young Mosleys is cour-ignored, they then devoted space ready weak Labour ranks,

Meanwhile his quodam society age. They are unafraid.

to pounding him

A PRETTY JAPANESE

SCENE.

A glimpse of Enoshima, one of the favoured resorts of Japan, with its rugged, sinister const-line. It figures in that popular satire of a few years ago, "The Honourable Picnic."

some

A tiny speck of it is worth a fortune. In all the countries of the globe, there are in active use only 506 grams, just a little over one pound. It sells for £16,000 a gram. Scientific men, who want to cure cancer, are up against the cruel fact that there is practical- ly a monopoly in radium at the present time, and that this mono- poly prevents the wider use of the often miraculousy curative substance.

Mme. Curie 'does not regret the millions she never saw. She has known poverty and does not fear it. Her tastes are simple and her health still enables her, at 70, to wor in her beloved laboratory.

The greatest thing in life," she once said, is the accomplish ment of any task for the love of

it."

to come back,

Aside from that, it was no easy

Lancaster.

"The politician who is making

a career is like another little anl

Sir Oswald, for instance. Like Even his father, then still friends, now his enemies, get a many young Englishmen of his living, was brought into the fray great kick out of his present post- standing, he was educated at a with a sneering interview in which tion. The tone of it is best fllus great private school and then at he asked why his Socialist son and trated by an editorial from the the military academy of Sand-daughter-in-law did not give up Morning Post, organ of the upper. hurst. He served well as. an some of their wealth. It was the classes"R officer during the World War. half-American Lady Cynthia who Returned home, he entered politics gave the most effective answer: and was elected to Parliament as a "I am one of the lucky ones. Imal which shall be nameless, he. Tory Then he made one of the have had all the good things of must know when to jump. Sir greatest matches of the year. He life because I am my father's Oswald Mosley's whole progress. married Lady Cynthia Curzon, daughter. My husband is one of has been a series of leaps at care daughter of the Marquess of the lucky ones because he is his fully chosen moments. He jump- Curzon, one of the very pillars of father's son, Our children willed out of the Conservative party: British aristocracy and Toryism. have a fair chance in life. My he jumped into the Labour party And his wife, through her late husband and I are in the Labour and now he has jumped out of his mother, had a big part of the many movement because we want other office. He tried to jump out of his millions left by Lovi Z. Letter, people's children to have as fair a own class and family, and would Chicago department store magnate. chance as ourselves."

jump out of his own skin. I ho

With his good looks, his heirdom Sir Oswald Mosley was elected found it inconvenient."