Everest Conquered
On January 16, 1953, prior to the start of the expedition, Sir Edwin Herbert, chairman of the Joint Himalayan Committee of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club, and John Hunt, the Leader of the Mount Everest Expedition, signed an agreement with The Times Publishing Company Ltd., to provide The Times with regular reports on the progress of the expedition as well as colour and black and white photographs to illustrate such reports. Under the terms of the agreement The Times was also allocated the rights to syndicate such articles, dispatches and photographs relating to the reporting of the progress of the expedition.
Such was the uncertainty of success that the agreement also had a clause which gave The Times similar rights in the event of another attempt on the mountain being organised within three years of the January 1953 agreement.
The Times appointed James Morris (now the writer Jan Morris) as its correspondent with the Expedition. Morris had only joined the paper in 1950 as a temporary sub-editor but had rapidly risen to become deputy foreign editor, a position he held at the time of the Everest Expedition.
The immediate problem confronting Morris from the outset was that of communication. Wireless transmitters were discouraged by the Nepalese and Indian governments in the increasingly suspicious atmosphere that had resulted from the Chinese invasion only 4 years previously. Various ingenious suggestions had been made when the problem was discussed in London prior to the embarkation of the expedition. These ranged from the use of carrier pigeons to beacon fires. It was eventually decide that the only practicable way of sending messages from Everest to the cable office in Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, was by runner. These were recruited from the Sherpas who lived in the Everest area. There then was the question of security. With such a high-profile expedition there was the constant risk of runners being waylaid or bribed to hand over any messages to rival news agencies so a code was decided to ensure against such an eventuality. The Times moved its Delhi correspondent, Arthur Hutchinson, to Katmandu and gave him the responsibility of ensuring that any messages received by runner from Morris on Mount Everest would be cabled back to London.
Morris arrived in Katmandu on March 25, 1953 and set out for the expedition’s base camp. A fortnight later he reached Thyangboche, where some of the climbers, including Tensing, were encamped with the intention of going up to Everest the next day.
Runners could be exposed to bribery or even attacked for their messages. The Times had secured exclusive rights to report and photograph the expedition and was concerned that it would loose the opportunity to make an exclusive announcement to the world if a successful ascent was made. Thus, a series of code words was devised to maintain the paper’s edge over its rivals.
The first code was thought to have been compromised so James Morris and Arthur Hutchinson devised a second which is detailed in the letter from Hutchinson to Norman exhibited here. Meanwhile, Morris had discovered the existence of a wireless transmitter nearer the mountain at Namache.
The main assault on the mountain by Hillary and Tensing was made on May 29 and Morris determined to leave the base camp and ascend as far as he could up the mountain. He climbed the icefall to Camp III and the next morning climbed on to Camp IV, at the head of the Western Cwm, nearly 22,000 feet up the mountain.
Morris learned of the successful ascent at about 2.30pm on May 30. He realised that he must descend to Base Camp immediately if he was to get the news back to London with the minimum of delay so he descended from Camp IV to Base Camp in one go, arriving as night fell. That evening he composed the brief coded message “Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned May 29 stop awaiting improvement all well” which translated means “Everest climbed. Hilary May 29. Tensing all well.”.
At first light the next morning (May 31) he sent a runner to Namache. From there the message was sent by wireless to Hutchinson in Kathmandu. The Foreign Office had agreed to transmission by their diplomatic wire of the news of a successful ascent and so Hutchinson took the message round to the British Embassy. Morris’ message reached the Foreign Department of The Times on June 1. At 4.14 p.m. that afternoon William Ridsdale, head of the Foreign Office News Department telephoned Iverach McDonald, The Times’ foreign editor, to pass on the text of Morris’ cable just in time for the afternoon editorial conference.
There remained the question of how to inform the world. Ridsdale had already rung back to enquire whether he might pass the news to the Queen and The Times had happily agreed.
It was certain that other newspapers would lift the story if it was published in the first edition which would hit the streets at about 10.00 p.m. that night. However, there was no question of holding the news out of this edition as The Times felt they had a duty to announce the news to their readers whatever edition they received.
James Morris learned that his message had safely reached London through hearing the announcement on the BBC World Service that the news had been first announced in a copyright dispatch in The Times.
The first detailed dispatch by Morris describing the successful ascent was written on May 31 and published in The Times on June 8.
There is no evidence to support the theory that the publication of the news of the successful ascent was delayed so that it could be reported on the Coronation Day of Queen Elizabeth II.
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