LADY CHAYTOR’S ADVENTURE

Hokitika Guardian, 23 February 1929, Page 8

LADY CHAYTOR’S ADVENTURE

ENTERTAINED BY FOREIGN

LEGION,

An English society hostess lias achieved the distinction of being the first woman to spend a night in the desert under the flag of the French Foreign Legion. She is Lady Chavtor, wife of Sir Edmund Chaytor, of Witton Castle, County Durham.

This remarkable adventure, she revealed to the London “ Sunday Chronicle,” occurred during a hazardous journey she made by motor car across the Syrian desert by Aleppo. .Her only companions were two Arabs who knew practically only half a dozen English words between them.

“ We were faced with a five days’ journey, so that it was necessary to provide ourselves with sufficient food and petrol,” Lady Chaytor said. “These stores, with skins filled with water, were packed outside the car, and bedding and baggage inside, sc there was not much room for the drivers or myself.

A SEA OF MUD. “ Since neither of the doors would open owing to the amount of baggage packed against them, one of the Arabs had to lift me into mv seat as il I were a child.”

For five days the party ploughed its way across the desert. During the last stage of the journey to 'Aleppo a bitterly cold wind was blowing, and it '•onimenccd to rain in torrents.

“ The whole desert suddenly became a sea of mud, into which our car sank deeper and deeper, until we were buried up to the axles,” said Lady Chaytor. “The driver had to dig us out, and eventually we had to put chains on the wheels and drag the car over the most difficult parts.

“ Night had fallen when we arrived at the encampment of the Foreign Legion. T crept out of the car, wet through, and made my way into a wooden hut, in the middle off which stood a stove with a brightly-burning fire. Soldiers of the legion were seated around drinking and listening to the strains of an ancient gramophone. “ A Danish officer appeared, and in vited me to go over to the barracks. We waded knee-dee]) in mud, and } was taken into a room where the walls were hung with Oriental silk. “A French officer welcomed me. Everybody was most hospitable, and .1 was given a concrete room in which to sleep. Though it only contained a straw bed ayd a straw pillow, I spent a most comfortable night. “I said good-bye to the commandant and to the Danish officer, who, as he shook hands, remarked: “You are the first woman to he entertained by the Foreign Legion.’ ”