AERONAUTICS: Post-Postponed

Again Captain Roald Amundsen, Norse North Pole habitué, was given pause on his way to the Earth's upper end. This time the impediment was an invoice from his Pisa (Italy) planemakers for £14,000. Until that was paid, said they, he would have to continue waiting at Christiania for his three Dormier planes.

Hearing of his embarrassment, the Italian Government gave Amundsen ten days to find money before it reorganized the Polar flight under Lieut. Locatelli, the Norwegian's chief pilot. Amundsen was to be offered the post of sub-commander under Locatelli.

To that plan Amundsen said: "I refuse. I hope to find the money. I will go next year."

Said U. S. Secretary of the Navy Wilbur to Lieutenant Ralph Davison, American pilot of Amundsen's No. 1 plane: "Come home from Rome."

The first setback Amundsen's polar flight received was early last Winter (TIME, Jan. 28), when his plan for financing himself through the sale of motion pictures was scuttled by announcement of the U. S. S. Shenandoah's now-abandoned trip.

Another expedition is about to start from London for the Arctic regions. Under the auspices of Oxford University, it will aim for North-East Land, an island 90 miles square, northeast of Spitsbergen. North-East Land baffled Norwegian explorers in 1873, Germans in 1912.

The Oxonians will use a specially designed seaplane, having a closed cabin and equipment for ice landings. It will carry a collapsible boat, provisions for five weeks. George Binney, leader of last year's Oxford expedition, will command.