PILGRIMS LOST IN DESERT

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 May 1940, Page 2

PILGRIMS LOST IN DESERT

CARAVAN FOR MECCA. CAIRO, March 15. A lost caravan of 500 pilgrims returning from Mecca, the Holy City of Islam, is being sought in the Syrian desert by a French Mehariste camel corps, according to reports received here from Palmyra. The first news of the pilgrims’ plight reached the authorities in Palmyra when a patrol found six people near collapse from thirst and exhaustion. They stated that they were part of a caravan of some 500 returning from Mecca. The spontaneous pilgrimages to Mecca, such as the one now being sought by the Meharistes, are a problem continuously confronting the French authorities. Although the French and British have organised a special steamship service once a. year from Beyrouth, and Jaffa, to Jidda, the port of Mecca —known as the “pilgrims’ special,” designed to get the pilgrims to Mecca and home again—cross-desert journeys persist.

The authorities’ objection to the overland route to Mecca is that the pilgrims start with just enough money to get them to Mecca, then appeal to the French and British for aid to get home. A French desert patrol not long ago arrested 35 pilgrims, piled in four taxis, who, suddenly swept by religious fervour, started out across the desert towards Mecca with only a tankful of petrol.