The MAGIC CARPET
W
E thought it was an- other mirage, but the desort traveller does
not see these phan- tom cities at night. Here we were, in the middle of a barren desert, 300 miles from the nearest civilised place.
In the darkness we could see tall bulidings, electric lights, and could..... hear English Volces and the strains of a dance band that was playing in London.
That was perhaps the strangest adventure of all-to And a elty. with all home comforis, in the midst of the 'Byrina desert.
We had thought to spend the night in a tent, maybe in the ear at a tiny pumping station on the Iraq Petroleum Company's pipe- linc. But "H-4 is no tiny out- post in the desert, with a lonely exiled Britisher in charge of a score of Arab workmen. Quite the reverse.
E
NTRY to "-4" is mado through the barbed-wire tence that guards the build- ings. Our host met us at the door of his house, a manor housc In the desert. Cheery Commander Brown, R.N. Retired, Engineer-in-
Reaches Its GOAL
Charge, asked us in. Introduced us to his wife and daughter.
A cocktail was ready and iced beer was on tap. Commander Brown apologined; he had just had three teeth stopped and was not feeling too fit,
Another surprise-dentistry to the desert! Oh, yes, Commander Brown explained, the company had its own dentist with X-ray equipment and all. He flew up and down the line, attending to the teeth of all who required treat- ment.
Food supplies are delivered by lorry or the company's own plano If necessary. Ice is made on the premises. Bo is ginger-ale and soda-water.
Every one of the many solid stone-bullt houses was inade from stohe quarried in the desert. There are, 110 people living in luxury in the middle of this deso- inte region of sand arid atones. We slept that night, after we had eaten a meal that would have done
Ramedi the last lap
Finest Club
The House of Commons has often been called the finest club in Lon- don, and the output of its kitchens has helped to maintain its reputa- · tion. When the kitchen equipment was modernised recently, two 6-unit gas ranges were installed.
by T H. Wisdom
justice to à Parisian chef, in rooms that had their own private bath room and "every modern conveni- ence,"
If we had time we could have had a game of tennis, a round of golf in the desert, or some "not. bad "shooting, as Commander Brown modently put it.
After looking at the giant pumps that push the naturni fuel from the wells at Kirkuk on its way to the waiting tankers at Haifa, we left, amazement still written on our
faces, at dawn.
WE motored
for three
hours the 100 miles to "H-3," where breakfast, ordered. by phone, was awaiting us. And what a breakfast! Grapefruit, a succulent kipper, eggs and bacon
and coffee. Though BC thought we could be sur- pilsed no more, the Engineer- In-Charge st
had another
surprise in store. Three thousand
five hundred feet above sea-level they have snow here in the winter time! Snow
in the desert!
It was here that
W C learned that the German Minister at Cairo had been- found after five days in the worst Band- storm in living experience alive and well.
we
-
Reluctantly.
left the pipe-line, and over a faint track, past the
Cooks by Gas.
Large and small scale Cooking Appliances supplied and installed by
HONG KONG & CHINA GAS CO., LTD.
Showrooms Gloucester Building. and 246, Nathan Road, Kowloon. Telephone 28181.
3 Silver Cups,... A "Filmo" Straight-8 Movie Camera, $250 in Cash Prizes
to be won in the Hongkong Telegraph's 6th ANNUAL AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION
SALESMAN SAM
SO FLYWEIGHT, FLYNN'S GOT INDIGESTION, EH? WELL, THEN, YOU GOTTA RIDE, GUS IN "TH'
HANDICAP!
'OT DAWGS
104
Rand-hills where the famous "Fly- ing Ilate" crashed. made
our way towards: Rutbal Wells, It Was a lonely. thirsty drive. In 100 inlies all we saw, besides sand and Band -
-ins. was the whitened skeleton of a camel, and grace- ful hovering. eagles that made you shiver,
a
At Rutbah, collection of mud huts and a fort, where the Imperial Airway's liner on the Empire route comes down to refuct, we took on petrol at £1 a tin. Then began another 220 miles to the next civilised point. The only landmark on that journey was the burnt-out chassis of a lorry. We were thankful to see even that, for it meant that we were on the right track.
T was dusk when we made Ramédl, to be told by the local police chief that on no account could he allow us to proceed. The river Euphrates had burst its banks, the track between Ramédi and Bagdad was under ten feet of water.
The little town was in an uproar ~~.000 familles were homeless; crops had been ruined; the rush- ing water had washed tents and herds of animals away into the desert.
At the local hotel the three of us had to share one room; the place was full up. We were awakened at four in the morning to find outside tremendous eight-wheeled motor-coach, as big as a Pullman carriage.
1
It was the famous Nairn trans- port, just in from Damascus on its weekly crossing of the desert. "Jock," the. driver, can tell some
FOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH
Lord Horder Suggests Biological Control for Humans
One person out of every ten in. England is too dull or too un- healthy to be absorbed in in- dustry; one out of every 120 is mentally unsound; and one' out of every 300 is certified as insane,
This, according to Lord Hor- der, the noted physician, is the position in England to-day as the result of years of social effort and reformers" projects.
Tho Arrival at Bagdad.
adventures of being stuck in the. desert mud for days, of losing the way. But Nairn always gets there
a wonderful bus service.
"Jock" knew a detour to miss the flooded area, and we followed, until we were waved on and across anal 60 miles of desert we came. at long last, to a metalled road that led us to our goal.
In the distance we could see the aun gleaming on the gold (genuine O carat) domes, and minarets of the Mosque of Kadımain,
Across the bridges of boats on the Tigris and we were in the City of the Caliphs, to find in the main streets (shades of Haroun al Rag- chid!)
2 couple ol Belisha crossings!
WELL, Wo hnd got there.
Never were three people more pleased to enter tie hospit- able portals of the General Maude Hotel and quaff a celebratory flagon of beer overlooking the swiftly flowing Tigris,
And, bellove me, there is no placer in which a man can enjoy his beer more than in Bagdad after a desert run!
It had been a great journey. In
Children's Skin Complaints.
Hend and Face Sores are not infrequent complaints with little Lord Horder, who was lecturing therefore advisable to keep She-ko children, especially in the East. It is on eugenics before the Academy of handy. Many stubborn cases of Ecze- Medicine at New York, described ma. Ringworm, Dry and Wet Sores, eugenics as the soundest and most Itch, have been successfully treated profitable form of preventive medi- with this delightfully fragrant, non- eine (says Central News.). Biforts irritating, higlily antiseptic, soothing! at attaining biological control of ointment. human development were long over- | due, he said,
"The gist of the matter seems to me," he said, "to be summet up in the| questions we going to continue to brzed and support a race of sub-men,
SHE-KO
FOR
or are we going to encourage the cle is likewise helpful in cases of injuries vation of the race and thus reduce our Bruises and similar hurts which heal to the skin, Cuts, Burns, Scalda, commitments in the field of what we cell social service?"
COMPLEX HUMAN PROBLEM
rapidly when She-ko la applied.
For the treatment of all manner of j skin troubles there is nothing to No one, Lord Herder pointed out, direct from the Dr. Williams Medicine surpass Sho-ko, Sold by chemists, or questioned the wisdom or morality of Company, 451, Klangse Road, Shang- biological control in the animal and hai, at 70 cents per package; post plant worlds. A principle which was free.
accepted in the case of Your horaus.
our cattle, our dogs, our corn, and our
cabbages he held, should have ceased
long age to cause shock when con far from complex, but scientists were, templated in relation to human certain that basic laws remained the beings.
same, and sought only the opportuni-
ty to study a mass of unascertained
It was recoguised generally, he con-facts that would prove' of enormous Inued, that the human problem was value if we had them?"
WHO? ME? (I'M GONNA HAVE]
TH LEG UP ON
HIM?
AFTER THE RACES, CRY IN YER BEER,
HERE
FREE TIP
{ PLAY"PLANK" 'ACROSS THE
·GUARO
RACINST
Sittin' Pretty
(YES,YOU!AJ' HURRY}\\SWELL, PIN- GIT ÍNTA YER JOCKEY TO I LOVE SUIT! WE'VE BEEN GIVEN ) PARADES! THE HONOR OF LEADIN' 'JES' WATCH TH PARADE TO TH ME STRUT
POST!
UPSIDE
DOWNS
TRACK
BAR
THE
BOOGLE, BLOWS! THE NAGS PARADE TO THE POST /
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAP11, MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1986.
4,000 miles we had not seen 1,000 miles of what the average motorist would regard as real rond. We had etossed three deserts, and had spent days in sandstorms and terrific heat, yet the little “Magle Carpet" hnd "stood up" amaz- ingly.
COVERED in sand, quite
unlike that spotless ma-
ching that 18 days before had left London, all three of us were very proud of the British car. And the Magic Carpet must Have been proud of itself, for it was the first light-car ever to make this Jour- ney. And what is more, it had done 80 131 11 days' running time.
The Journey had been no mero * stunt, but a practical " fault-find- Ing Lest. And the report that had been wirelessed to the factory 'at London was, I believe, valuable, for one or two minor modifications were made in the Wolseley "Tens" and "Twelves before they were released to the pubile,
The hardships to which our Wol- seley was subjected are not of the kind to which the motor-car is ordinarily subject, but the way our car stood up to those hardships was a revelation.
STAMPS make MONEY
D
ESPITE the careful Buper- vision of the postal authori- tics, many stamps with errors, more especially of the, sur- charged and overprinted types, aro Issued to the pubite.
How many are aware, though, that in at least one country an "error" was deliberately
printed and gold for postul purpose? This actually happened in Barbados, British colony in the West Indies.. In 1007 the Governor authorised the issue of a special stamp in order to raise a relief fund for the sußerera of the earthquake and fire which had practically destroyed · Kingstown, Ja- malen, in January
of that year.
* *
For this purpose 70,000 copies of the Ed. alato Blus and orange stump of 1000 were surcharged with the wordia -Kingstown Relief Fund -in four lines al script type, nud they were sold to the public at face value. but were avaliable for penny post only, the extra penny going to the Fund.
It happeded that a single sheet of these was issued with the overprint In- verted. When this was discovered, an entire printing of 20,000 stamps was run off with the overjirint deliberately Inverled and was sold to the mible at. the same rate as the normal stning.
The reason for this? Simply to pre- vent speculation in the errors. Had a dealer obtained the single slicet of them he would have probably sold them for as much money as had been raised for the Fund, and there are some limits to what, the public will stand.
** To the island of Mauritius belongs the distinction of being i Brat British colony to issue adhesive postage stamps. This was on September 31, 1947, seven years after their introdue tion in the United Kingdom.
A Jocal watchmaker had been com missioned to prepure nud print stumps. similar to use then current in Brent Britain, und he engraved on copper somewhat cruce designs for penny and twopenny values of which he printed une at a time a toint of one thousand stamps.
These stamps, now world famous as the Post Oce Mauritius. were mostly ted an invitation cards to a ball given by, the wife of Bie Governor of the is- land and very few specimens were pre- Herved. In fact their extatence was un- known unit the year 186d.
Between twenty and thirty copies. only are known to exist, and naturally These are the gents of some of the 11109 famous collections in the world.
E. N. Palmer
ARRIVED!.
BIG BROADCAST
SONG & DANCE ALBUM
No. 7
FRANCIS & DAY'S 9th
SONG & DANCE ALBUM
TSANG FOOK PIANO Co.
Marina House, 19 Queen's Road Central. Tel. 24648.
WHEN AT HOME
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