Little time was spent en route to Swatow and Hongkong because Capt, Sellers was anxious to reach. Canton before noon and return 2s far as Foochow Mat seme day. Sot minutes past ten, after fying over Bias Bay and the lovely blue waters that surround Victoria Island, Capt. Sellers brought the ship down' alongside Kal Tak, the Imperial Airway aerodrome which promises to be one Lost Two and Gained Several Pounds of the busiest commercial! aviation centres in the world within a few months, T had arrived in Hongkong. (it was really Hongkong that I'd wanted to visit two years ago but at that time the ENA. had not received permit from the British Government to land there.) Actually th trip, with tail-winds alt the way had taken only a little more than hours flying ume from Shanghai to Hongkong. And it had been a lovely trip. with only a soupcon of bumpy weather, and that not worth mentioning. We arrived several hours ahead of the s, President Hoover to which two passengers had transferred because of delay in.the plan Blue Sea and Sky shining brightly the rival in Hongkong Green-covered hills, the famous Pea rising high into a bright, blue sky, sun sparkling on blue, blue water, It did the heart of a tired Shanghalseemed impossible could there be people living ona flat mud. swamp. with dark brown water everywhere, Then the sun went under a cloud. Hongkong's famous mists descended over the Peak and the mountains were completely concealed in a cur-fain of white. The next Shanghai lane arrived in all of this, went on to.
anton and returned the following day in extremely "soupy" weather, and remained grounded from Monday until Thursda Inside Information This gave me another opportunity of getting an inside view of aerodrome life, this time at Kal Tak. Supposedly scheduled to leave on Wednesday, March 3. T arose again at 445 am, and in the blackness of Just before the dawn, made darker by fog and mist I crossed the bay, accompanied by a very polite employee of the C.N.A.C.'s Hongkong Office. We hurried from ferry to motor-ear and then to aerodrome where my luggage and I were weighed "(I'd lost two pounds and gained several in baggage) and joined a Mr. Bertram Bar-Fett of Manila and a Mr. Leighton of Tientsin, the other two passengers and who, by the way, had been wailing since Monday to take off.
ina little while the pilot, Mr. Edward Smith, came down from the radio room. "Prospects." he said, "were mone too good." We'd just have to walt. We did. We unpacked our prettily prepared lunches and ale sandwiches at 9 o'clock. We read magazines, we wandered around the air field in the rain. At 10 Mr.
Leighton paced up and down nervously.
"The Asma Maru leaves in an hour." I ventured. In less than that time Mr. Leighton had his luggage off the plane and was on his way to the 'RIK. dock. The other Passenger and I read. The pilot, one of the CN.AC:'s best, spent hi time in the radio room." He was Kind to us and kept us in touch with the weather along the way. The Shanghai plane Just left, he told us, about 10, 30, It was nearly 11 when Mr. Smith, one of the. few transport pilots who trained in the old barnstorming days of flying 13 years ago, come down and ould he was going take off, We Turn Back "Don't hold it against.me if T turn back," he said, "but the weather'is clearing." Of we rushed. It seemed hours that the pilot spent warming the engines. At last we were up. Down below us was the Asama Maru steaming slowly through the narrow gateway of the bay. We dipped low in salute to our Mr. Leighton, It was foggy. The ceiling to me, a complete novice as.far as aviation technicalities are concerned, seemed the famed and fearful zero' of. the film thrillers when the pilot risks all and noses his machine into a mountain Just because the mail must go through, T think I'l tell Mr. Smith to turn back, I thought, after all I have met him at parties and he'd feel pretty bad If he knew I was so worried, But just when I was wondering if pilots were really human after all, or if their eyes were something Special, the plane dipped, turned and we were headed back to Kal Tak, We saluted again as we flew over the Asama, but not so blithely.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.