The MAGIC CARPET
W
E thought it was an- other mirago, but the desert traveller does
not see these phan- tom cities at night. Here wo were, in the middle of a barren desert, 300 miles from the nearest civilised place.
In the darkness we could see tall bulldings, electric lights, and could hear Engilah volcea and the strains of a dance band that was playings in London.
That was perhaps the strangest adventure of all-to and a city. with all home comforts, in the midst of the Syrian desert.
We had thought to spend, the night in a tent, maybe in the car at a tiny pumping station on the Iraq Pétroleum Company's pipe- line. But "-4" is no liny out- post in the desert, with a lonely exiled Britisher in charge of score of Arab workmen. Quite the Favorne.
Ethrough the barbed wire
NTRY 10" H-4" 1 made
the bulld- fence
that guards ings Our host met us at the door of his house, a inanor house 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 cocktall was ready and feed beer was on. tap. Commander Brown apologised; he had just had three feeth stopped and was not feeling too AL. ·
Another surprise-dentistry in the desert! Oh, 'yes, Commander Brown explained. the company had its own dentist with X-my equipment and all. Ito flew up and down the ine, aftending to the feet of all who required treat- ment.
Food supplies are delivered by lorry or the company's own plane If necessary. Ice is made on the premises. So is ginger-ale and Boda-water.
Every one of the many solid stone-bull houses was made from the desert. slono quarried in
There are 110 people living in luxury in the middle of this deso- Into region of sand and stones. We slept that night, after we had eaten a meal that would have done
Ramedi the Jast 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 a Parisian chief, in rocms that had their own private bath 100m and "every modern conven!- ence."
II we hud tune we could have had a game of tennis, a round of golf in the desert, or some not bad shooling, as Commander Brown modestly put it.
After looking at the glant pumps that push the natural 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 "11-3," where breakfast, ordered by phone, was awaiting us. And what a breakfast! Grapefruit, a, aucculent kipper, eggs and bacon coffee. And
Though we thought we could be shr- prised no more. the Engineer- In-Charge still had Another aurprise in store. Three thousand Ave hundred Icet above sea-level they have snow here !!1 the winter time! Snowy in the descri!
It was here that
we learned that the German Minister at Cairo had been found after five days in the worst sand- storm in Hying experlenec ww alive and well. Reluctantly, left the pipe-line, and over 丸 faint track, past the
we
Cooks by Gas.
Large and small scale Cooking Appliances supplied and installed by,
HONG KONG & CHINA GAS CO., LTD.
Showrooms-Gloucester Building. band 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
sand-hills where the famous "Fly- ing Holdi" crashed, made our way towards Rutbal Wells. It was a lonely. thirsty drive. In 100 miles nil we saw, beakles sand and Gandhills, was the whitened skeleton
of
camel, and-grace- ful hovering eagles that made you shiver.
At Rutbah,
collection of mud huts and a fort. where the Imperial Airways ner on the Empire route comes down to refuel, 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 Ramedi, 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 Ramedi and Bagdad was under ten icet of water.
The Hitle town was in an uproar 600
Inmics 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 aire one room; the place was full up. We were awakened at four in the morning to find outside Д tremendous eight wheeled motor-coach, as big as a Pulioan corrlago.
It was the famous Nairn trans- port, just in from Damascus on its weekly crossing of the desert. "Jock," the e 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.
*.
The 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 a final 10 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 Kun gleaming on the gold (genuine D carut) domes and minarets of the Musque of Kadimain.
—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 Ras- chid)) £ couple of Belisha crossings!
WELL, we had got there.
Never were three people more pleased to enter the hospit- able portals of the General Maude Hotel and quaff a celebratory agon of veer overlooking the swiftly flowing Tipris.
And, believe me, there is no place in which a man can enjoy his beer more than in Bagdad after a desert.rul'
It had been a great journey. In
Children's Skin Complaints.
Head and Fare 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 fon eugenics before the Academy of handy. Many stubborn cases of)
Medicine at New York, described Bingern, ur, aut Wet Soren eugenics as the soundest and most Itch, have been successfully treated profitable form of preventive medi- with this delightfully fragrant, non- cine (sys Central News) Efforts irritating, highly antiseptic, soothing
ointment. at attaining biological control of human development were long over- dur, he said.
"The gist of the matter seems to | nie," he said, "to be summed up in the question-Are we going to continue to breed and support a race of sub-men, or are we going to encourage the ele yalion of the race and thus reduce our commitments in the field of what we call social servies?"
COMPLEX HUMAN PROBLEM
SHE-KO
FOR THE SKIN
is likewise helpful in cases of injuries to the skin, Cuts, Burns, Scalds, Bruises and similar hurts which heal rapidly when She-ku la applied.
For the treatment of all manner of akin troubles there is nothing - Lo surpass She-ko, Sold by chemists, or No one, Lord Horler pointed out, direct from the Dr. Williams Medickie! questioned the wisdom or morality of Company, 451, Kiangse Road, Share- biological control in the animal and hat, at 70 cents per package; post plant works. A principle which was free.
accepted in the case of "our horses,
our cattle, our dogs, our corn, and our
cabbages," he held, should have ceased
long ago to cause shock when con- far from complex, but scientists were templated in relation to human certain that baste laws remained the beings.
anme, and sought only the opportuni- ty to study " mass of ascertained facts that would prove of enormous vahue if we had them."
■
It was recognised generally, he con- tinued, that the human problem was
SO FLYWEIGHT FLYNN'S GOT "WHO? ME? INDIGESTION, EH? WELL, THEN, (I'M GONNA HAVE YOU GOTTA RIDE OUS IN TH▼ TH' LEG UP ON
HANDICAP!
HIM?
'OT DAWGS
JAFTER THE RACES, CRY IN YER BEER!
1.
HERE.
FREE TIP {PLAY"ÖLANK"
PEROSS THE
DOARD
Sittin' Pretty
YES, YOU! AN' HURRY!SWELL, PIN- GIT ÍNTA VER JOCKEY SUIT! WE'VE BEEN GIVEN THE HONOR OF LEADIN TH PARADE TO TH'
POST!
UPSIDE DOWNS TRACK
BAR
Tol I Love PARADES! 'JES' WATCH ME STRUT !
THE BOOGLE
BLOWS! THE NAGS PARADE TO THE POST/
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, MONDAY, JUNĘ 22, 1988.
4,000 miles we had not seen .1,000 miles of what the average motorisi would regard as real rond. We hind crossed, three deserta, and had spent days in sandstorms and terrific heat, yet the little "Magle Carpel" had "stood up" amaż- ingly.
OVERED in sand, quite unlike that spotless ina-
chine that 10 days before had left
proud of the British ear. And the London, all three of us were very
"Magic Carpet" must have beca proud of itself, for 11 was the first light-car ever to make this jour ney.. And what is more, it had done
in 11 days' running. time.
BO
The journey had been no mere stunt, but a practical "* fauit-And- Ing" test. And the report that hd been wirelessed to the factory at London avas, I believe, valuable, for one or two minor modifilentions were made in the Wolseley "Tena" and Twelves" before they were released to the public.
The hardships to which our Wol- seley was subjected are not of the kind to which the motor-cur is ordinarily subject, but the way our car stood up to those hardships was a revelation.
STAMPS make MONEY
D
ESPITE the caretul super- vision of the postal authori- tles, mariy stamps with errors, more especially of the sur charged and overprinted types, are issued to the publis.
་་
How many are aware, though, that in at least one country.an error" was deliberately printed and sold for postal purpose? This actually happened in Barbados, a British colony in the West Indies.
In 1907 the Governor authorised the issue of a special stamp in order to raise a relief fund for the sufferers of the earthquake and fire which ind practically destroyed Kingstown, Ja- malca, in January of that year,
For this purpose 70,000 copies of the 24. Blato blue and orange stamp of 1890 were surcharged with the words `~" Kingstown Rellet Fund 1d.
four Ines of script type, and they were sold to the publle at face vahir, but were avaliable for penny post only, the extra penny going to the Fund
I happened that a slugle sheet of theso was issued with the overprint in verted. When this was discovered, an 20,000 atamps was entire printing run off with the overprint deliberately inverted and was sold to the public_ht the same rate as the normal stamp.
The reason for this? Bimply to pre- rent speculation in the errors. Had a dealer obtained, the single sheet 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 fland of Mauritia belongs THE AUSTINTOright" of being the ar British colony to issue adhesive postage stamps. This was on September 21, 1847, seven years after their introduc tion in the United Kingdom,-
A local watchmaker had been con missioned to prepare and print stapip similar to those then current in Great Britain, and he engraved ou copper'. somewhat crude designs for penny and twopenny values of which he printed De at ting a total of one thousand stamps.
These stamps, now world famous as the Post Des Maurithis were mostly used on invitation cards to a ball given by the wife of the Governor, of the i5- land and very few specimens were pre- served. In fact their existence was 30+ known not the year 1883.
Between twenty an thirty canes only are known to exist, and naturally These are the rems of some of the mos 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.
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