blue envelope; but because it was thought that the material may have
been mentioned by him to the Association's counsel he was recalled to
give evidence, this time by counsel for the airline.

Before turning to the evidence given by First Officer Rhodes during his
second appearance it is worthwhile making a preliminary comment. No
complaint has ever been made by Mr Chippindale about a missing blue
envelope or papers within it. If Captain Gemmell had been entrusted with
such a mission which he had failed to discharge Mr Chippindale would
seem to be the first person who would want to know why. He himself gave
evidence before the Royal Commission for a period of ten days and during
all that time he was never asked about this matter. Nor was he recalled
to deal with it after it had been raised with Captain Gemmell or after
First Officer Rhodes gave his further evidence. That fact alone might be
thought sufficient to dispose of the matter. And in the end the
Commissioner himself decided that neither this nor other evidence could
justify a finding against Captain Gemmell that he "recovered documents
from Antarctica which were relevant to the fatal flight, and which he
did not account for to the proper authorities".

It is necessary to describe all this because the second appearance of
First Officer Rhodes resulted in a finding in paragraph 348 of the Royal
Commission Report which reflects seriously upon the conduct of another
executive officer of the airline, Captain Eden. The paragraph is another
of those challenged in the present proceedings.

It seems that First Officer Rhodes agreed to give evidence on the second
occasion in order to remove any false impression that he himself doubted
the integrity of Captain Gemmell. The following extract from the
transcript explains the position (a condensed version appears in