NZDF declassified RNZAF UFO files

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

## Even some scientists can't yet make up their minas

## Staff correspondent

# SINOINCINCINCINC

CRCHED on a wooden step in an Auckland garden I manoeuvred a telescope and stared one-eyed at Mars. The red planet glared back. Then, like a Cyclops turning, it glided slowly from right to left, of sight. . . Yes, Mars has had us wondering ever since it was discovered. Centuries of argument we made it the best-known twinkle in the sky.

we made it the best-known twinkle in the sky. It has been a made-to-measure heaven for the science fiction writers, for it seems certain there is life of one sort on Mars. Where scientists leave off with vague talk of rare atmosphere, lichens and mosses, the con- tent of fiction goes daily on.

Now Mars is in vogue with a venience as one mystery is added to their. Mars, say some, may be the one of that Will O' the Wisp of the universe, the flying saucer. That was why I reared at 8.30 on a winter evening to see magnified 200 times—a fiery red ball in black of the night. I have never seen a saucer—but at least I have seen Mars! Vow the first hysteria is over and people paint spots on their spectacles or stars in eyes know them for what they are. It be worth looking at the conclusions shed on flying saucers by reliable inter-

## Can't be wiped off

MAN whose words carry weight is Professor Harry Messel, 32-year-old bearded radian in the chair of physics at Sydney velocity, an acknowledged world authority cosmic ray research. He says:

Evidently they are not sure "I have an open mind, with no great feeling one way or the other. It's possible, of course, that the facts about saucers were long ago tracked down and the results have long been known in top secret defence circles of more countries than one. It may be regarded as advisable to give people at large no clue

After their brief life in space, in conditions which saucer men would have to face, the fruit flies were radically changed. "There have been some peculiar looking offspring," said the professor. "Big heads, little heads, two heads, one head with two noses, extra legs. And the peculiarities seem to increase and carry on through the descendants."

through the development He said it was possible that the grandchildren of present day jet pilots would develop physical peculiarities, such as big heads on little bodies, and some might even have two

"The whole subject of flying saucers just t be airily wiped off or scoffed at. Anially-sponsored research group in Canada, example, is making a very active and rough study of saucer reports in that coun- Put it this way. If saucer reports were result of hallucination, strange atmospheric optical effects, or even of unscheduled sight-

## Mars. . a fiery red ball in the black of the

## night.

There is a belief that the first nation to design and build a successful flying saucer will have immediate air supremacy. "Give us three years," say the Americans, "and we will have a saucer that can do 2000 m.p.h. with power to take off vertically, hover, fly sideways and backwards."

same time as fantastic have been made Claims almost as fantastic have seen them come in the past—and sceptics have seen them come true. What are we to think at the moment? Do flying saucers exist? Are they man-made, or flying saucers exist? Hoax or hallucination? From another world? Hoax or hallucination? Until the last five per cent of saucer sightings are successfully written off, the case cannot be closed. And meantime, perhaps we'd better keep one eye on Mars—one never knows!