London, Nov. 21.
To be received by one King is overwhelming enough for most people. To be received "by two at once, as Miss Jean Batten, the young New Zeeland air women recently, must be almost a record. King Leopold of Belgium was very anxious to meet her, so she was sent for to: Buckingham Palace. In an interview afterwards with the "Daily Telegraph" Miss Batten said:
.,"The Queen met me. Her wonderful graciousness put me at ease imdiately.
"She led me to her private apartments, where she presented me to King George and King Leopold.
"King George amazed me with his profound technical knowledge of. aviation. I was very flattered to find that he was familiar with the mechanical details of my plane.
"Both the King and Queen were particularly interested in my experiences during my, flight to New Zealand last year. This was the first through füght to that country from England.
"King George said that it interested them not only because it was their farthest Dominion, but because they had been there as Duke and Duchess Of York ten years ago. His Majesty said he would never forget the enthusiastic reception which they received.
"I was there myself. Although only in my "teens at the time, I well remember their arrival "King Leopold seemed t9 know everything about my flights, He even knew the times of the records I have set up."
The New Zealand Society of London gave a reception for Miss Batten. The crowd was so great that few people could see her till she stood up to speak, She gave a vivid account of her battle with wind and rain over the Mediterranean. When she reached Rome she could not see the ground although she knew, she was within 50ft. of it, and remembering the many wireless masts about the city, she flew off to Naples, The Ostend Air Disaster The reference to wireless masts leads one to an obvious question in connection with the tragedy at Ostend in which the Prince of Hesse and his family were wiped out. That is, why have an aerodrome where there are factory chimneys which a pilot may hit in a fog?
The question also of the Ostend station's freedom, or otherwise, to take independent action in warning a pilot not to attempt to land, may also well arise.
But the principal lesson is, after all, what we all knew before, namely that mo practice in blind flying or elaborate instruments to guide the pilot can make flying in a fog safe. The fog over most of the south of England was so thick that all the services to the Continent were can-boats running a three-flights-a-day service," he said, "would offer the same total passenger capacity a year as a super-liner at a production cost Of about £3,600,000, against 10.000,-
One may recall that, in "When the Sleeper Wakes," Mr. H. G. Wells imagined air liners carrying each 200 troops. Much that Mr. Wells foreshadowed in his early romances has since been realized (including by the way, his "babble machines" now politely called "news broadcasts"). At no distant future we may regard 50-seater aeroplanes as only a little less primitive than de Blériot's trans-Channel machine.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.