| Summary: | Wilkins Radios To Australia: Leader Of Arctic Flight Sends Message To Prime Minister Through U. S. Army./Is 7900 Miles Away./Will Fly Again To Point Barrow. WILKINS RADIOS TO AUSTRALIA Leader of Arctic Flight Sends Message to Prime Minister Through U. S. Army. Will Fly Again to Point Barrow With More Supplies for Hop Over Pole. By Frederic Lewis Earp. Special Correspondent of The Spokesman-Review and the North American Newspaper Alliance with the Detroit Arctic Expedition. (Copyright, 1926.) FAIRBANKS, Alaska, April 14.-The Hon. S. M. Bruce, prime minister of the commonwealth of Australia, received radio greetings late last night from Captain George H. Wilkins, commander of the Detroit arctic expedition, now based at Fairbanks, the messages were broadcast from the local government wireless station by Lieutenant H. G. Messer, signal corps. Encouraged by his success the previous night in communicating with Auckland, New Zealand, 7900 miles away, over a 35-meter wave length, Lieutenant Messer determined to reach the Antipodes again and invited Captain Wilkins, an Australian, to send a message. The flight commander sent the following greeting to the Australian premier: Reports Certain Progress. "Through the kindness of Lieutenant G. Messer, United States army, and his Australian radio friends, I am pleased to report a certain measure of progress. We have established a northerly record between Point Barrow and the north pole and have demonstrated the possibility of wireless communication with the most northerly point of Alaska. This work, we feel sure, will be some encouragement to those who are working for the development of wireless and aerial transport. It will also tend to establish a greater bond of sympathy between the United States and our country." Captain Wilkins also sent greetings to his mother in Parkside, South Australia, and to friends in Melbourne. The commander is suffering considerable pain from his Injured right forearm, but despite the injury, received in taking off from Barrow last Sunday morning, hopes to take the air again tomorrow for his third ferry trip to the arctic coast. No radio message was received last night from the expedition's overland party, following the Anatuvuk river to the Colville and down to the arctic, on its way to Barrow, but it is presumed the mushers did not set up the aerials. No direct word may be had from them until they reach the coast, probably a week hence. Fogs Make It Difficult. FAIRBANKS, Alaska, April 14. (/P)Captain Wilkins reported that fogs over the Arctic ocean and over the central plain adjoining the sea and extending southward from Barrow up toward the Brooks mountain range, made lighting difficult. With fog closing in over the ice of the ocean and with young ice beginning to recede from the shore, they suggested an early dash may become imperative for the main flight, in which they are expected, if they do not sight land, to pass near the north pole and over to the Spitzenbergen islands, north of the Norwegian mainland. In that case, they added, the Alaskan might make no further flights until after the Detroiter, the other plane brought north by the expedition, has been repaired and flown to Barrow. Completion of these repairs, necessitated by the landing accident on the field of the Fairbanks Airplane corporation here awaits receipt of parts from the states. The Alaskan has left 400 gallons of gasoline at Barrow and other supplies have been stored there. The plan has been for Eielson and Wilkins to fly out over the ocean in one plane, leaving the other in reserve at Barrow, and for this machine to return to Fairbanks in a week thereafter if no word comes from the explorers Major Thomas G. Lanphier, U. S. A., is with the expedition as an unofficial observer.
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