Thames Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1929. A WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENT.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17762, 9 December 1929, Page 4

Thames Star

MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1929. A WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENT.

“With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.”-»-Lincotn.

New Zealand can take pride in the achievement of the Nairn 'brothers, who pioneered the motor between Damascus and Bagdad. The fame of these Blenheim •boys and their enterprise in face of the constant Arab menace is probably better known in London and Paris than in the Dominion. For they have made a valuable contribution to mail and passenger j communications between Europe and the Near East by taking their motors over the short cut 'between 'Syria ( and Irak. At the request of t'he| British Postmaster-General they in • J itiated a service' reducing the distance between London and Bagdad., from 24 to 9 days. Now it is proposed to clip off another day by. starting an air mail, across the clesert. The result will be that the desert journey from Damascus to Bagdad, which for centuries occfi.pied 11 days on the fastest camels, J and was cut to 30 hours by motor,; will soon take eight hours : by air.' Here is a little epic in progress and a little lesson in the evolution of transport.