Over the North Pole One need not be a good
Stalinist to applaud the three Russian airmen who have flown from Moscow to Vancouver over the Pole. Of their 5,500 miles route more than a quarter was over ice, and although their plane was equipped with floats, a landing in the Arctic would have meant only a forlorn hope of rescue. To keep flying for sixty-three hours without stopping is a notable achievement in itself, but to do this at the top of the world, where there are no landmarks, and magnetic interference is constant, is a remarkable exploit, well worthy of the world's admiration. It marks only one step, and that not the final one, towards the complete aerial conquest of the Arctic regions by the Russians. Their purpose is twofold : they wish to link Moscow by a regular air service with America, whose friendship they are particularly eager to secure, and they desire to assure themselves air-routes both to the east and west of Moscow, where their scientific knowledge will give them freedom from interference by any hostile Pnwer. It is the less spectacular work of the Russian observers on the ice which will make trans-Arctic flights regular events in the future.
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