Desert Transport

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 41, 18 February 1939, Page 12

Desert Transport

SERVICES CONDUCTED BY NEW ZEALANDERS. The story of the establishment of the first desert transport service in the wbrld in the unsettled and hazardous territories of Syria and Iraq shortly after the war, was told in an interview in Dunedin by Mr G. Nairn, one of the two New Zealanders who blazed the motor trail of 540 miles from Damascus to Bagdad. Asked how he and his brother came to embark on the veutupre which is nOw regarded as one of the transport triumphs of modern times, Mr Nairn said that they both served in the war and at the close of hostilities considered that they had nothing much to bring them back to New Zealand. He and bis brother had been in partnership in a business in Christchurch and at the outbreak of war hisbrother was in England endeavouring to gaiu certain agencies. He enlisted with the British forces and two years later the two brothers met in Palestine on active service. While with the forces they realised the value of an overland link betweeu the Mediterranean and Iraq to replace the long sea route via Bombay and the Persian Gulf. They were laughed at as crazy men by the French in Syria and were told by the Iraq Government that they were attempting the impossible. They persisted, however, in spite of tremendous odds which have no parallel in this concrete paved and macadamised age. The passenger vehicles used by Desert Transport to-day completely dwarf the cars with which the first crossings of the desert were made. They cost £lO,000 each and are stainless steel airconditioned Pullman trailer and tractor units, but in the future dicsei-driveu cars will be put on the run. New models recently perfected in the United States have completely captured the imagination of the brothers, who are convinced that they are the most powerful and efficient unit for such a service. Next year they propose to run huge sleeping cars, carrying a complement of 28 passengers in 12 sleeping berths and 16 Pullman chairs, which themselves cost about 500 dollars each. These will carry dressing-rooms, a miniature restaurant and accommodation for a ton and a half of luggage.