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This is a New Zealand Defence Force public release of RNZAF file AIR 39/3/3, "Flying Saucers," which covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010 under the Official Information Act. It collects sighting reports from the public and military personnel, press clippings, and a table of 1952 sightings. It also holds Carter Observatory opinions attributing some reports to meteors. A large part covers the inquiry into lights seen from National Airways Corporation Flight 108 on 31 October 1955, which the RNZAF could not fully explain as Venus.
“Christchurch”32 pages
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# Civilian Saucer Investigation (NEW ZEALAND) President H. H. FULTON Secretary XXXVIIIXX Headquarters I Nissan Place Onehunga S.E.5. P.O. BOX 1914, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND Flt/Lt Golding Ventnor Strret Seatown Wellington May 26th 1955 FILE Dear Flt/Lt Golding, Is some time since I wrote you and so I am not at all certain whether you are still associated with intelligence work or living at the same address in Wellington. I see by a photo graph that you were up here on the Operation Safeguard exercise. (briefing aircrews) so it seems reasonably certain you are still active in this field. Hope you received your copy of our March Mag, you may not have as much confidence in those "Little men" claims as I have, however I ask you to treat them with some respect, really they are far from nonsense. Not that I assume you write them off as of no value. Overseas comments and statements from official investigating agencies have been few and disappointing to date. You may be aware of a recent Sunday Dispatch (England) article quoting a statement by the Air Ministry. "An Air Ministry spokesman said that the results of the R.A.F.'s investigations of the UFOs (five years probe) was recently laid before the Air Marshalls. The Air Marshalls considered the findings unsuitable for publication and ordered they be kept top secret and locked away". The Dispatch article went on to say that the Air Marshalls feared that the report would cause national scapecism and controversy. A little earlier Australian papers quoted a press Assoc cable from South Africa, the cable message said that South African Air Chiefs had ordered the UFO information gathered in that country to be kept top secret and no statement would be made. I do not wish to belittle authority nor do I underestimate their problem, but I feel these staements are a little better than some of the US Pentagon howlers and will cause more suspicious & perhaps misleading fat to be cast on the fise. Sightings are showing signs of increasing again as forecast (no-crystal balls) and as I stated in the mag,al am expecting a minor flurry in the countries of the Southern Hemisphere to occur during the following months. 1955 is the expected showdown. Recently a member of CSI (Wellington Rep) ex Army Major last war) about my age, married with family at Tawa Flat, wrote and asked me if there was a chance of his meeting you and having a chat on this subject, I have given him your address, so please expect a letter in a day or two. (I3 Oxford Street Tawa Flat, Mr Geoff Bonallack.) Have been exceedingly busy all my off duty p eriods recently lost the servicies of our Secretary (of 4 months) and Treas of less because they could not cope with the work, I have located another to assist in secretarial functions but very restricted for a while.
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 445 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.