THE NAIRN TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1926, Page 23

THE NAIRN TRANSPORT

OVERLAND TO BAGDAD

DETAILS OF THE TOUR

NEW ZEALANDERS' FORESIGHT.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, 21st May.

The Bagdad correspondent of the' "Daily Telegraph" sends to London an interesting story of the Bagdad motor service. As this most useful enterprise was originated by two New Zealanders, the appreciation of the Nairn Transport Company, as it is sent to London, will doubtless be read with interest. Thus:—i "Voyaging is^actory," according to an Arab proverb, the truth of which no one who makes the desert journey to Irak in these troubled times will dispute. It is distinctly with a sense of victory that the last waSte spaces are left behind and the land of the two rivers reached. Only two years ago not even an enterprising traveller could go through this experience. If he wanted to sec Bagdad, he had to see India first; for the only way was tht tedious three weeks' trip by Bombay and Basra. Tho vast desert that stretches southward from the Turkish frontier into the' country of the Wahabis and divides Syria and Palestine from Mesopotamia was still a closed preserve for wandering Bedouin and for camel caravans. Wheeled traffic had, until 1923, shrunk from trusting to the tender mercies of the uncharted sands. But the British of Irak created a need for a quick route between London and Bagdad. So in the spring of 1923 an attempt was made to cross from that city to, the Euphrates direct by car. A Bagdad merchant, Mohammed ' Ibn Bassam, had already got, deviously across from Deir-ez-Zor, which lies on the upper Euphrates where the river leans furthest westwards, and his experience proved useful to the convoy of throe cars which set out on the direct reconnaissance. They were under the technical control of the Nairn Transport Company, which had been started just after the war by two enterprising New Zealand brothers for supplying the gap left by the absence of a railway from Haifa and Beirut. The 500 miles of desert were passed without disaster. It may be interesting to remark that a Lancia, a Buick, and an Oldsmobile were chosen to face this ordeal. A WEEKLY SERVICE. Other trial trips followed the Same route from Damascus through Jebel Te'nf and Routbah Wells, and on 18th October, 1923, a weekly,regular service began which has never since been abandoned. Contracts to carry the mails were entered into, first with the irak and then with the British Government, and letters were brought within ten and a half days of London, or, roughly, three times nearer than by the old all-sea route. Passengers were attracted in swelling numbers. Not only officials, civil and military, but tourists followed this romantic . approach to the city of the Caliphs. The nights were, it is true, apt to .be bitterly" cold, but the inconvenience was slender as compared to the attractive novelty, the speed and the cheapness of the motor mail. On one occasion, for a wager, Beirut was reached from Bagdad in 16J hours, the distance being 614 miles. Then came the Syrian War. At first the Nairn service continued to cross the danger zone which, lies on all sides of Damascus, where rebel bands rove in search of plunder. But after they had been "shot up" late last summer and one of tho drivers killed (by rebels who were subsequently captured and hanged), the route had perforce to be abandoned. Less plucky and resolute men might have suspended the overland mail until peace was restored. But it took more than a war and a desert to stop the Nairn brothers. They were unable to make what would be the easiost detour, that to the north from Beirut, through Horns and Hama to | Palmyra, and then across to KamaOii, | for that area of Syria was also disturb-1 ed, and was the scene of more than one [ hold-up involving loss, of life, j

Had the Trench authorities been able to provide an armoured car escort this way would probably have been adopted, but unfortunately no arrangement has so far been reached. In consequence a journey is now being regularly followed for which there can hardly be a parallel in the history of motor transport. THIRTY HOURS AT THE WHEEL Each week the convoys cover nearly a thousand miles, more than half of it over desert that has nothing in common with the level sands that naturally suggest themselves to the western eye. From Beirut the winding coastal road over the Ladder of Tyro and through Sidon is taken on to the beach of Akka—Eichard Coeur de Lion's Acre. Thence across the roadless beach to Haifa, and by Nazareth to Jerusalem ends the first day's run. The second day is short, and only gets the convoy as far as the Emir Abdullah's capital, Amman, in Transjordania. This stretch through Jerico and the Dead Sea Valley and over the mountains of Moab is the last experience of road that the mails enjoy until they are almost within sight of Bagdad. A night is spent under canvas at Amman, by the side of the Arab legion's camp. At 6 o 'clock in the morning the really difficult section of the journey begins. From that early hour until noon on the following day the cars travel without a stop, except for hurried mails. Normally three cars go together, and four drivers are taken. Thus it happens sometimes that one driver will remain at the wheel continuously for thirty hours, his only respites being when he is helping to light a fire and cook tinned sausages. Bagdad is reached, if all goes well,,on a Saturday, and the cars start out on the return journey with the same drivers on the following Thursday. This programme is not altered even if, as has happened several times lately, the incoming convoy is one or two days late. While in Bagdad the cars have to be put into proper order for their thousand miles. So the Nairns' drivers do not, as they themselves say, "get their money for jam." That they continue cheerful is a phenomenon that one may leave the Union of Transport Workers to explain. This temporary route follows no ancient highway across the desert, and its surface is terribly testing. One stretch has been christened ''the Bay of Biscay," owing to its amazing irregularity that causes the cars to rise and fall without a pause like ships in a choppy sea. A passenger who neglects .to hold on for dear life while going through the Bay finds himself shot painfully up against the roof and half-stunned. Another stretch 'of roughly forty miles crosses a, wilderness of lava stones, and only cautious, skilful driving prevents axles from being cracked. The worst enemy, *o far, has proved to. be the rains, which produce mud so thick that can are bogged for hours, and even for days. Luckily, the ground dries as rapidly as it gets spit, so soon as the rains cease. THE R.A.F. TO THE RESCUE. Short of' a sudden attack by Wahabi or by Bedouin from further north, no serious disaster can befall the convoys las they work in connection with the Eoyal Air Force. If they are overdue an aeroplane is sent out to look for them and to take them food or spare parts. R.A.F. armoured cars, moreover, patrol the route, and have made themselves very sincerely respected by the tribesmen. The possibility of losing the way is further obviated by the plough line driven for the guidance of the fortnightly Cairo to BagcTad air service, and by the string of forced landing; grounds. Incidentally, the R.A.F. supplies a groat convenience, in the shape of a* wrecked "Vernon,"' abandoned, "out in the blue," from the remains of which fuel is taken for the supper fire. ' . How long this remarkable route will be kept up depends on the success of M. de Jouvenel in pacifying Syria. While it lasts it affords a convincing tribute both to the personnel and to the cars. The loads carried, mails, water, food, "spares," spades, and tow ropes, besides passengers, are dis : tinetly formidable. Special Cadillacs and Buicks are the makes most commonly used. Together they form an excellent combination, as the heavy Cadillac stands the strain particularly well, and the lighter Buick comes into , its own on soft ground, into which it | does not sink so. readily, and from

which it is sometimes able to tow its sunken companion. With the summer the problem of rain-sodden surface will, of course, disappear, and before the next rains begin one may hope that the outskirts of Damascus will once more be safe.' According to the latest announcement, arrangements have now 'been made for a French armed escort to convoy the Nairn mail by the route indicated above as "the easiest detonr."