ANOTHER BIRTLES RECORD

Shannon News, 16 December 1927, Page 3

ANOTHER BIRTLES RECORD

GOOD EFFORT TO BEAT EONDOXCAECUTTA BEST. jf Mr Francis Birtles can maintain all the way to Calcutta the daily mileage of his dash across Europe he will easily beat the Eondon to Calcutta m'otor record of 80 days. He does, in fact, expect to arrive , in Calcutta by Christmas Eve and so complete the second lap of his effort to reach Australia in his 14 h.p. Bean overland through Burma. “I have got to get through by then,* h e says in an interview at Sofia, “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 I get to Calcutta because the Dacoits kill you all the sooner for the sake of any arms you have got. Dacoits are creatures I lon’t like.

“I don’t mind tigers; the tiger is an t animal of great dignity. lam play-, ng 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 on a fly paper would look so foolsh that it would just sulk away. If it doesn’t, -tfell before I left England I went round studying tigers to see how they chewed up their food. At Calcutta I am going to buy a heavy calibre revolver and a high velocity rifle and I’ll camp out with the hood of my Bean up find the tarpaulin 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 the numbers on his four tyres. These will b e checked when the motorist arrives in Melbourne to test the claim that, he can complete the 16,000 miles on one set of Dunlops.