The Washington times., 1922-12-17

THE rrencn Government VIII beuo
- into the unexplored northwestern
portion Of the Sahara Desert. next
month. an expedition of caterpillar tanks,
whose purpose-or, at least, one Of whose
main purposes-will be to seek the "City
Of Brass" lost prehistoric city whose
existence has long been o curiously cir
cumstantial legend among the Arabs.
Those who remember the "Arabian
Nights" of childhood will recall the story
Of ".The City of Brass" - told by Sche-
berazade, the Sultaness. Those who have
read the great English explorer, Sir
Richard Burton's, fascinating fun transla-
tion for adults Of that same story win re-
call the impression of verify which the
extraordinarily detailed description Of 1the
place gives, and also Sir Richard's. .decla-
ration of his own belief that some such
city actually lies hidden and lost some
where among the oceans of sand and reefs
Of suh-baked focksr Of the immense Afri-
Gan desert.
While the official accounts give the
number Of the tanks to take part. In The
search as Ave, It Is reported that fully
dozen win participate. Each AZ tEese
tanks is completely arrnored and xrnnsd.
and each Of them has been especially
built for sand travelling and equipped
with large reservoirs for OF, gasoline and
water to carry them over hundreds Of
miles without replenishment. The etanl<s
will start from Tugprt, In French Algeria,
and hope to reappear at Timbnsssa,
French West Africa. The distance be-
tween these two points is about 1900
miles. !;
AS matter Of fact, the expedition ;Hss
Manned 70 be secret one. The shipment
Of the machines from Paris was observed.
however, and then the secret--or, at least,
o part Of it--carne out. It was at 6rst
said that the expedition was TO be merely
ates.of various new devices for explsra-
~. was pointed out that such expert
nH,nts hardly Justified the elaborate pre-
cautions being taken and the extraordi-
nary choice Of the testing ground. II was
ther admitted that the tanks expected to
20 INTO an unexplored and dangerous Sec
ton of desert on their way, and had to
: be protected. Only one Representative Of
the French Government would accompany
he eXpeuitiOu, ~ WuS Saiu, anu DO IL
could not be considered a. official. y
~ This did not, however, explain why the
resources of the French colonies in Africa
were being. used TO fit up supply bases to
the very edge Of the. unknown dessert re-
gion, nor why camel troops were to be
sent along with the tanks. IS,
,,The truth is that the mysterious city,
IL It exists--and the Government must
have fairly good evidence of its existence
To 60 to such trouble--lies somewhere In
tte region dominated by the Senussi,
sect, Of fanatical, courageous, hard-fght-
ing Arabs, whose influence is gradually
becoming dominant among the MchAm-
lnedan tribesmen Of the Sahara and the
( Sudan. There y reason to believe that
sffe Senussi are fully aware Of the loca-
ti6n Of the "City Of Brass" ,i1
ssThe City Of Brass, ,is supposed TO have
been built by . prehistoric race which
ages ago ruled over al Of Northern Afri-
cR. In the Arab traditions the race Il
spoken Of M s'the Sons Of Ad." AZ that
tfine the Sahara was not the desert It now
\. In II were great lakes Of both fresh
ahd salt water. fertile plains and valleys,
N0oded mountain rangSs and, In the than
DESERT part, great oSses In which were
6dilt whole cities. But the "Sons Of Adj"
s8 the Arab tradition run, becarne %
b0werful and arrogant and 20 skilled n
Strange, wise arts that they dsned Allah
II God So Allah put their country nm
der blight and destroyed both them and
their land.
Tsir Richard Burton, who lived for ysars
svong the Arabs - one Of them, and