PREPARING FOR THE ROCKFORD FLYERS 



Minister for Iceland the matter of a suitable land- 

 ing place on that island. It was, of course, highly 

 desirable, even if not absolutely necessary, to have 

 weather reports sent by radio from Reykjavik to 

 Mount Evans before the take-off of Hassell at 

 the latter place, and this involved very consider- 

 able difficulty both because of restrictions placed 

 by the Danish authorities upon the use of radio in 

 Greenland and because messages sent through the 

 Government stations there require more time than 

 is desirable or even safe in sending weather fore- 

 casts on such flying projects. In fact, arrange- 

 ments were never thoroughly perfected for this 

 part of the project. 



Before leaving America in the interest of the 

 Hassell flying project and by arrangement with 

 Hassell and his promoter, I had written the Direc- 

 tor for Greenland in the Danish Ministry of the 

 Interior, the Honorable Daugaard-Jensen, out- 

 lining to him the plans and stating that our Ex- 

 pedition was cooperating with Hassell in giving 

 him the use of our station with its radio and 

 weather prediction facilities, as well as the services 

 of our personnel. In the reply Hassell was ad- 

 vised to make his request to enter Danish territory 

 in this fashion through the State Department in 

 Washington. When I arrived, therefore, in Co- 



223 



