CAPE TO CAIRO BY MOTOR VEHICLE.
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To Open Up a Great Motor Route from End to End of a Vast Continent.
A FAREWELL dinner was given at the Royal Automobile Club on Wednesday evening to Major and MI's. C. Court Treatt, on the eve of their de. p.arture to Cape Town, where they will commence a journey of some 7,000 miles to Cairo, using two 25-30 h.p. Crossley cars. Lord Stevenson presided, and, in a happy speech proposing the health of Major Court Treatt, wished the expedition "Godspeed.
In his reply, the leader of the expedition emphasized the fact that. there was no intention to suggest or prove that motor vehicles should supersede the rail. ways. Motors must in the future act as feeders to the railways, for which purpose they were fitted by reason of their elasticity. Railways were the steel backbone of a vast. country, like South Africa, but motor vehicles could be the ribs of the backbone, and the possibilities were unbonnded.
It was their aim to find a route which would he suitable for the building of a great motor track across the desert regions, arid to open up the trade routes of a great continent, one which is going. to be of vast importance to Great Britain.
The two Crossley cars have been specially built. and -equipped for the ex
pedition under the careful supervision of Major Court Treat. One of the unique features of the cars is that the upper parts of the bodies or covers are so constructed that they can be lifted off the chassis, tho two being bolted together, to form a pontoon or boat. Into this one of the ears can be run and then transported across a river or lake. As many of these will be encountered on the long journey, one of the chief difficulties of the travellers should be overcome. The bodies fitted are very roomy and exceptionally strong. They are equipped with mosquito-proof netting and special water tanks.