Sydney is beginning to think hard about the sesqui-centenary, which by common consent is being referred to as the 150th anniversary. The celebrations will not begin until January 26, 1938, but committees are already busy with preliminary organization and publicity, The most striking propaganda plan yet devised is the projected despatch of two famous airmen, Sir Keith Smith and Captain P. G. Taylor, on round-the-world flights, bearing goodwill messages and spreading glad tidings about Australia, Sir Keith Smith shared with his brother, the late Sir Ross Smith, the honour of making the first flight from England to Australia, a feat for which they were both knighted, and he has since been associated with Empire aviation on the commercial side.
Captain Taylor is one of the most distinguished and able of Australian aviators. Navigator for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith on many great fights, including the second Pacific crossing, he was recently awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire for Gallantry, for his bravery during the "Jubilee Air Mail Flight" across the Tasman to New Zealand.
Captain Taylor climbed out of the cockpit of the plane, and at great risk transferred oil from a damaged engine, while Kingsford Smith just managed to keep the machine above the sea.
These "air eny will travel separately as passengers by established air routes, making a spectacular departure by plane from Sydney to Darwin on the concluding day of the Empire Games—February 12. Their routes will cross in London, and it is hoped that arrangements will be made for them to have interviews with His Majesty the King. the Prime Minister, ihe Lord Mayor. and other important personages.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.