ANOTHER BIRTLES RECORD!

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 10 December 1927, Page 13

ANOTHER BIRTLES RECORD!

GOOD EFFORT IO BEAT LONDON CALCUTTA BEST.

If Mr Francis Bittles can maintain ail the way to Calcutta tho daily mileage o.t his dash across Europe he will easily beat the Lomiou ou Calcutta motor record of St) days,

Ho docs in fact expect to arrive in Calcutta by Christmas Eve and so complete the second lap of his elfort to reach Australia in his 14 h.p. ear overland through Burma.

“1 have got to get through by then, ’ ’ he says in an interview al dofia, ‘ ‘ because of the snow on the Persian hills, 10,000 feet above sea level. lam travelling alone and I am taking no arms with me until 1 get to Calcutta because the Dacoits kill you all the sooner for the sake of any arms you have got. Dacoits are creatures 1 don’t like.

“1 don’t mind tigers; the tiger is an animal of groat dignity. 1 am play ing up to its dignity too; for I’ve got twelve dozen fly papers with me and 1 am going to put several round my camp each night. Any tiger which sat on a fly paper would look so foolish that it would just skulk away. If it doesn’t, well before 1 left England 1 went round studying tigers to see how they chewed up their food. At Calcutta lam going to buy a heavy calibre revolver and a high velocity rifle ami I’ll camp out with the hood of my car up and the tarpapulin down on both sides so that any wild animal knocking about will not know which point to attack.’’ When Mr Birtles set out from the Motor Show at Olympia, London Sir Harry Brittain officially noted ' tho numbers on his four tyres. These will be checked when the motorist arrives in Melbourne to test the claim that he can complete the 16,000 miles on one set of Dunlops.