CAIRO TO THE CAPE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19285, 14 April 1928, Page 18

CAIRO TO THE CAPE.

PROPOSED MOTOR HIGH ROAD. TREK BY TWO MEN.. : (JEOM OtTB OW* CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, March 6. Sir Abe Bailey the -well-known South African millionaire, cherishes the dream of seeing a motor road brought into being to link up the Capo with Cairo. A good deal has been said about this project from time to time, and it has come up again quite recently. Preliminary detailed investigations and survey of the country would have to be undertaken, much of Central Africa being still little known. An Englishman, Mr Noel G. Clarke, feels that he is the man to go out on this exploratory trejj, because he knows a great deal of Central Africa, having lived in the country for 20 years. -For a very long period he was Controller of Supplies and Transport! in Northern Rhodesia. Big game hunting has taken him into the wilds. He speaks five of the native languages, and has many other attributes to stand him in good stead in thus assisting in the development of the British Empire. Mr Clarke reckons that it will take him about 15 months to do this trek of 7000 miles, starting from Cairo, making dletailed notes of the types of country, and mapping out the best route. This, in his view, will be the solution of the development of Central Africa, and he considers that the motor high road would be more practical and useful than linking up by railway. Mr Frank Gray, a former M.P., is taking a keen interest in the projected trekking enterprise, and Mr Clarke hopes to .start off very soon. It will be necessary to get to Broken Hill or Abercorn by the beginning cf the wet season (about November). According to present plans, he will be accompanied by a New Zealander, Mr Eric J. Baylev, of Gisborne, who has been in the Mother Country for some time. His parents have been living in London for a year or more, and) they think of going back to New Zealand this year. Both men are very fit, and each 'strikes one 1 as being a good companion for the other.