DESERT RESCUES

Hokitika Guardian, 26 May 1931, Page 5

DESERT RESCUES

OF STARVING BEDOUINS

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.)

(Received 12.20 p.m.) LONDOa, May 25

A party of .starving Bedouins beside tile slide uni of a camel, liu- Bones oi winch they had picked so clean that vultures pen-lung on ils s,<ull could him no flesh thereon, was a sight eonfronting M. P. Clayton, theii rescuer, from imminent death.

tlavton, who is the head oi a desert survey, has been recommended a merilorous service medal, lor the perilous rescue of these and other Bedouin driven from Kiafra Oasis alter the Italian troops captured it in January. Clayton .unaware of this stalled out to recover a broken down ear at Cwenat Oasts and found a group of perishing Bedouins crouching beside it. They told Clayton that other hands were lost in the waterless Libyan des-

Clayton scoured the wastes lor hundreds of miles daily in cars, delying the risk of a breakdown, found three widely scattered parties and conveyed them to safety, after learning tlmt he was too late to rescue many of their women and children whose bones strewed the desert sands. The party when rescued numbered nineteen, and were orguinlly fovtv-two They were compelled to e.bniidot) their Weaker companions and: had oaten all their pack animals except two starving camels.. It was this party which had deprived, the vultures of their meal. They we’re half mad and their feet were raw and bleeding after tramping from Kufrn to Rakhla, a fortnight’s camel journey.