128 



phone, press and friends seeking information. At 8 a.m. Guy 

 Drummond Sutton came to fetch me, and we were again wel- 

 comed to their lovely house by Dr. Shearer and his good lady. 

 Guy Sutton went off with a cheque for ;£200 to cash and tai^e the 

 money to the ship, where I had arranged with the Purser to change 

 it for East African currency, since that was the nearest I could 

 get to Comoran money, of which there was apparently not a franc 

 available in Durban. I judged that Hunt would use East African 

 currency in his work, and that exchange could be contrived that 

 way. 



They brought me the morning paper, and to my amazement 

 and dismay I read there that Professor Smith had last night asked 

 the Prime Minister for help. I was greatly shocked, as the previous 

 night I had particularly asked everyone not to say a word since I 

 had not sought Dr. Malan's permission to do so. I asked for 

 Shearer and showed him the article. He nodded, he had already 

 seen it, but was not at all perturbed. I told him of my dismay as 

 it might upset Dr. Malan if it had leaked out at this end, for I felt 

 that if anything was to be given out it must come from his own 

 office. Shearer said I need not worry about upsetting Dr. Malan. 

 *He is a tough citizen, believe me, and can take more than most. 

 Besides, this message is marked 'Cape Town' not Durban. It 

 would not surprise me if that was issued by the staff of the Prime 

 Minister's office' ; and as it turned out he was probably correct. 



I wanted formalin, and what a picnic ! It was Saturday morning, 

 27th December 1952, and the shops were open, but no factories. 

 No chemist had 2 gallons, 2 lb. perhaps. What on earth was I to 

 do? While I was racking my brains, my wife telephoned; George 

 Prior had called and was with her, and I told her my difficulty, 

 which they briefly discussed and suggested Dr. George Campbell. 

 After some time he was located, and undertook to get a friend to 

 go to his factory and have the stuff sent to his own house that day. 

 He would see I got it. Meanwhile, on the Duntiottar Castle Prior 

 stood by, for he had undertaken to go and get the formalin by 

 some means himself if all else failed. 



Each telephone call saw me jump, but they were all local. 

 How long would it take to get it all arranged } I thought of my 

 Brigadier in Pretoria. Later I learnt that all that enormous amount 

 of organisation for the flight had been completed in less than ten 



