NZDF declassified RNZAF UFO files

# Flying Saucer Fever is Contagious in A Bewildered Europe TARANAKI HERALD by several witnesses graphed by a student, Turl Matterella, flying 1,300ft. above Monte mario observatory.

THE flood of reports about flying saucers which came out of Europe last week has no precedent. Every country has seen them—from Asia Minor around through the Mediterranean as far up as Scandinavia, writes a correspondent from London.

The reports vary from the circumstantial with thousands of observers seeing exactly the same thing, to the ludicrous-with reputable scientists analysing mysterious substances left floating in the air.

The saucers car. 'n enough different shapes, sizes and 1 lets to rival recent London motor show

Europeans, norma. tired of this recurring subject, hav. vung to a fresh demand for some cl and acceptable scientific explanation. nch newspapers are already offering large prizes for acceptable "evidence."

In every colour of the rainbow, ranging from 4ft to 50ft diameter, speeds from nearly stationary to more than 1,000 miles an hour, these mystery ojbects have been puzzling or frightening some 200 million people.

## CIGARS AND CYLINDERS

There have been "flying cigars" seen in Belgium, a 3ft. high "cylinder" in Italy, the "flying cauldron" in France, another slenderer "clgar" in London flying "alarm clocks" in Greece and "shining discs" in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Turkey and just

about anywhere else near to Europe you would like to pinpoint on the map.

No reputable scientific body seriously believes in the popular theory that these objects contain inquisitive little men from Mars or Venus who have been dropped over Europe from their homelands some millions of light years away just to have a look around.

Nine other explanations have been given by organisations and individuals in the past fortnight—liver, indigestion, sexual frustration, mass hysteria, the work of practical jokers, a new secret weapon being tested by a major Power (either the U.S.A., Russia or Britain), meteors, mirages caused by lenses of air (familiar to people who know the optics of earth's atmosphere) or ice crystals acting as distorting mirrors.

It could be a combination of several of these.

The saucer reports have been more frequent in Italy over the last week, where there have been something like 15 sightings. Significantly they followed a film on flying saucers shown on the nation's television service.

Rome newspapers printed a picture of a flying saucer seen over the city

In Florence a football game was held up for half an hour while 15,000 spectators watched a flight of "flying saucers."

Other were seen over Pescara, Aquila Lanciano on the Adriatic, throughout Bologna and in Venice and Florence.

Mrs. Rosa Lotti, 40-year-old Italian peasant of Poggia Ambria, told police that two Martians three feet high (Martians come in as many different models as their saucers) met. her in a lonely field, snatched a bunch of carnations from her and made off in a cylindrical machine.

## "SPOKE" TO ONE

A Czech woman in France claimed to have seen a Martian which spoke to her in Russian.

Two Norwegian sisters spoke to one who was "tall, dark and longhaired" in Mosjoen, central Norway. They could not understand what he said, though.

France, never to be outdone, when it comes to autumn tourist attractions, has also had its crop of saucer-seers in the last week or so.

First reports from over the Iron Curtain occurred when people saw a flying disc with a "flaming tail" but a local observatory dismissed it as a meteor.

In Dulsberg, Germany, much excitement was caused by flying saucers until one crashed.

Investigation proved it to be twelve feet in diameter, made of red and blue glazed paper filled with gas, and fitted with electric torches. In Lille, northern France, a miner confessed to police that he had build a thousand "flying saxcers" as a joke.

LONDON, November 11 (Dec. 9 p.m.) Italian police have formally charged a newspaper reporter and a group of youths, with "spreading false and alarming news" about a lauding of "Martians" in a "flying saucer" at Tradate, south of Varese.

# Flying Plates In 16th Century

KLAGENFURT (Austria), Nov. 17 (Rec. 10am).—A book by the medieval natural scientist Paracelsus, found under a pile of rubbish in a. local vicarage, reveals that moon-shaped "flying plates" were seen in the sky during the 16th century.

# Canada Stops Building Of A Flying Saucer

OTTAWA, Dec. 3 (Rec. 11.45am).The Canadian Defence Production Department confirmed today that Canada attempted to build a flying saucer, but said the project was dropped after it was found that the eventual cost was more than it would be worth.

The Minister of Trade, Mr. C. D. Howe, spoke of the abandonment of the project yesterday when he arrived in England.

A departmental spokesman said the estimated ultimate cost if the project was carried to completion and the production stage was 100,000,000 dollars. "But it was dropped a year or so ago after about 18 months' work, and just a minute fraction of the estimated cost was actually spent by the Government," he said. "It's ultimate cost was considered today too much for what Canada would get out of it at this time."

The spokesman added that the oval-shaped aircraft was never airborne and there was no present intention to resume the project.

A. V. Roe Canada, Ltd., did the development work on the saucer at its Toronto plant.