It is a far cry from the Chamber of Deputies in Paris to the Sahara, yet the repercussion of political feuds in the one are sometimes felt in the other. This close relation between politics and private enterprise in France was strikingly illustrated by a recent episode, which aroused considerable speculation at the time, but of which, so far as I am aware, the inside story has never been published. It will be recalled, perhaps, that during the early months of 1925 the American and European newspapers devoted considerable space to accounts of the automobile service which M. Citroen was about to establish between Algeria and Timbuktu. It was announced that preliminary expeditions sent out by the millionaire manufacturer had surveyed a route across the desert; that at frequent intervals along this route rest-houses, provided with all the comforts demanded by present-day travelers, had been erected; that a great fleet of tractors had been assembled at one of the rail-heads in southern Algeria; and that, for the equivalent of twenty-five hundred dollars, the tourist in search of novelty and adventure could purchase a round-trip ticket, rooms and meals included, from the French capital to the mysterious city on the Niger. In order to give the enterprise the necessary éclat, it was to be inaugurated by a distinguished party, including the King of the Belgians and Marshal Pétain. Then, only a few days before the date set for departure, the project was suddenly abandoned, the reason given being that the War Office had notified the promoters that the route was unsafe and that it was impossible to guarantee adequate military protection.