About two weeks ago, twelve pigeons were released in Tientsin. Eleven of them set off for Shanghai, but the twelfth had ideas of its own.
A bird from the Eastern Loft, it is apparently '"uniform-conscious," for instead of embarking on the long flight to Shanghai it flew around to the cote of M. Daudrumez, Chief of the French Police Force of Tient∈ curiously enough, one of its owners in Shanghai is a Chief Inspector in the Shanghai- Municipal Police.
While homing pigeons have been known to fly right across the United States, and one bird actually flew from western Europe to south-eastern Asia, this bird resolutely set its mind against any long-distance travelling, apparently, and is now being brought down to Shanghai by steamer. The honour of the Eastern Loft, however, was upheld by another bird of the same loft, which came in first, on Tuesday last.
So far, only three birds have returned, although all are hoped to arrive outside their home cotes in the near future; second and third place were won by the Wayside and Red Lofts, respectively. Although the weather near Tientsin was fine, that around Shanghai during the week was extremely poor. In addition to the elements, however, the birds had to contest with another danger; one of them arrived with slight injuries which showed it had been fired at by a shot-gun.
The birds were released by Divisional Inspector Greenslade, of Tientsin, He noticed that one bird broke away from the group after they haa circled round three times before setting out in a southerly direction, and he wondered if it later decided to catch up with the others or if Tientsin had captured its fancy. M. Daudrumez, noticing a strange bird around his cote, examined it and saw that it was marked "S.H.C." (Shanghai Homing Club) and accordingly informed Mr, Greenslade.
All twelve birds-were taken up to Tientsin from Shanghai by aeroplane on June 18. They were later liberated from the~ roof of the B.M.C.
Police Quarters by Mr. Greenslade. Last year four out of twelve birds safely negotiated the trip.
The eighteenth anniversary of the trans-Atlantic fight of the R-34 was celebrated at the weekly tiffin meeting of the Royal Air Force Association, held yesterday in the "Dome" atop the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Building.
Mr. J. D. E. Shotter, who made the historic flight irom East Fortune, Scotland, to America, was present, as were Mr. A. E. Bates, who was amongst those who saw the craft: off ai East Fortune, and Mr. Howard D.
Norris, who welcomed the R-34 in the vir in America.
The outward flight lasted 108 hours, and the retura 75 hours.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.