BRIGAND OF THE DESERT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 214, 10 August 1937, Page 12

BRIGAND OF THE DESERT.

(By Ronald Woolfrey.) If “peace hath her victories no less renowned than war,” the peace-time activities of the League of Nations sometimes bring their full share of excitement and danger to those who are engaged upon them. It is well-known that, for many years past, the League has been carrying on a ceaseless compaign against the illicit drug traffic. Many stories have been written about the ingenuity of the drug smugglers in devising schemes for concealing their “dope” in the most innocent looking articles, such as cakes of soap, oranges, and even wooden legs and sets of false teeth. What is not so much appreciated is that the drug traffickers are often desperate characters, ready to shoot their way to safety if their liberty is threatened. This fact is driven homo in the new report of the Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau at Cairo, one of tho chief bodies 'which works hand in glove with the Opium Section of the League of Nations. There is, for example, the story of Sallam Khidr, drug trafficker and brigand of the desert. His name is posted as “wanted” at the Frontier Administration of Egypt and Sinai. Five or six times he has narrowly escaped arrest. The authorities are more than ever eager to lay hands upon him since he shot dead an n.c.o. at close range when tho latter was taking part in an attempt to round him up. Recently, reliable information was received that Sallam was hiding in a shack in the sparse, shrub-coveusd desert lying west of tho Suez Canal. A plan was agreed upon for surrounding the place at dawn. Sallam, in due course, came out to a near-by stream, but took alarm when the party get within twenty yards of him. He dashed into a maize field and, travelling on all fours, made off with incredible agility. Although the district was thoroughly combed, he disappeared completely. It was reported that, as soon as the first shot was fired, an Arab woman unfastened Sallam’s distinctive white camel, which made off unattended in the direction of the desert. Some time later the criminal was observed, mounted on his camel and riding through the desert at great speed. Sallam, it appears, has terrorised the whole countryside, so that none of the peasants would dare to say a word that would endanger the life of the outlaw. Sooner or later, however, tho authorities are confident that lie will fall into the net. “The pitcher.” they say, “that goes often to the well gets broken at last.”