ADVENTURERS' JOURNEY

Waipa Post, Volume 41, Issue 3186, 9 August 1930, Page 6

ADVENTURERS' JOURNEY

A thrilling account of a young Englishman's courageous journey into hitherto uncharted tracts of desert in Southern Arabia has reached London, and has been read to the Royal Geographical Society by Sir Arnold Wilson. The adventurer, Mr Bertram Thom/is, served in Mesopotamia during the war, and stayed there at its end, "for fun." He learned Arabic and Turkish, and went into the political service. In 1924 he became Financial Minister to the Sultan of Muscat, and for five years now he has been his Grand Vizier.

Two years ago Mr Thomas grew a beard, dressed as a simple Bedouin, and, with camels, servants, a tent, and survey instruments, rice, and dates, journeyed 500 miles into country which had never been trodden by a European. Now he has done it again. The journey is considered an achievement of great importance in the realm of geographical discovery, for the explorer has made the first authentic record of the nature of a tract of country which is nearly as big as England, and of which no record has existed.

"It is the first and greatest step towards the final solution of the Riddle of the Sands of Arabia," Sir Arnold Wilson told a News-Chronicle reporter. The expedition passed through dangerous country, where, in the words of Mr Thomas, " might is right, and man ever walks in fear for his life and possessions." The South Arabians, he says, are inveterate smokers of the community pipe, which usually consists of an empty cartridge case, the cap removed to permit " drawing." Mr Thomas recounts how, on the return journey, one of the tribesmen became ill with serious stomach trouble, but quickly recovered as a result of a branding operation. The instrument, a rifle-bolt striker made white-hot, was applied to seven places on the man's heels, head, and body. The romantic young Grand Vizier is expected in England in October.