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Handsomely arrayed in the uniform of a Royal Hussar, the tallest of the King's tall sons received a warm greeting from Governor General Sir Isaac Isaacs, a tumultuous welcome from half a million cheering Australians. That Prince Henry, 34, is being groomed for the Governor Generalship was last week no State secret. Grand climax of the Melbourne Centennial—the one thing which last week was of interest to all the world—was the MacRobertson Trophy Race from Mildenhall to Melbourne.
The course covered 16 countries and three continents, required night & day flying over country perilous with jagged mountains, snake-infested jungles, deserts, hurricanes and typhoons. Toughest stretch was across the Syrian Desert where blinding sandstorms sometimes rise 20,000 ft. and huge kitebirds menace aerial navigation. Not much easier was the 2,210-mi. jump from Allahabad to Singapore, with its Bay of Bengal water hop nearly as long as the North Atlantic. To the participants in the race Lloyd's of London gave a 1-in-12 chance of being killed. Purely a long-distance speed race, the MacRobertson Derby was a free-for-all with virtually no restrictions. Chief requirement was that contestants land at five specified control points: Bagdad, Irak; Allahabad, India; Singapore, Malay Straits; Darwin and Charleville, Australia. The finish was at Melbourne's great Flemington Racecourse, where more than 100,000 persons awaited the winner. Prizes will be awarded by the Duke of Gloucester Nov. 10.
First prize is $50,000 and a $2,500 gold cup; second prize, $7,500; third, $2,500. Donor of the prize money is Sir MacPherson Robertson, Australian candy tycoon. His sole stipulation was that the speed race must be completed within 16 days. British bookmakers found plenty of money to wager the race would be won in 86 hours. Record for the run was 6 days 17 hr. 56 min., made last year by Charles J. P. ("Unlucky") Ulm.
First Day. First to drop out of the race were Wesley Smith and Jacqueline Cochran, sole U. S. woman entry. They quit at Bucharest. First plane into Athens was the Douglas D. C.2 flown by Pilots J. J. Moll and Koene D. Parmentier of Royal Dutch Airlines. Their longtime service on the Amsterdam-Batavia airway (three-fourths of the MacRobertson route) gave them a decided edge over other contestants.
On board their plane were three paying passengers — two bankers and famed German Aviatrix Thea Rasche. Turner reached Athens an hour after the Dutch entry, complained of a splitting headache. Speeding non-stop from England, the Mollisons leaped sensationally into first place when they swooped into Bagdad, first control point, hours ahead of the field. There Amy kept Irak officials waiting while she took a hot bath, her husband waiting while she made a little speech. Hardly had the dust of the departing Mollisons settled on the Bagdad field when in dropped a second British plane, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Charles William Anderson Scott and Captain T. Campbell Black, famed for his spectacular rescue of Ernst Udet, German War ace, in the desert wastes of the treacherous Nile country three years ago.