Febkuarv I, 1907.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



141 



The Center of the Congo Rubber Trade. 



"CITAS" ON STANLEY POOL. 



STANLEY POOL is of nuich more importance as a rubber 

 trade center than may be generally supposed ; or, rather, 

 certain stations on Stanley Pool, which is a lake formed 

 by the broadening of the waters of the lower Congo, just above 

 the cataracts which obstruct the navigation of that river. This 

 locality has been the subject of much recent mention from the 

 fact that it is named in connection with the boundary of the 

 rubber concession granted last fall to the American Congo Co., 

 covering an area lying along the Congo from the Pool up to llie 

 mouth of the Kasai river. 



• Practically all the rubber yielded by the Congo Free State is 

 produced above the falls, and the same is true of a great part of 

 the rubber from the French Congo, on the opposite side of the 

 river. In the earlier years of the Congo rubber trade, the ex- 

 ports of this material could be brought down the river only 

 to the uppermost of the cataracts referred to, where the rubber 

 wnuld be |)laci.il im the heads of native porters and thus eon- 



\'iEW OF CiTAS, Stanley Pool, 



veyed around the falls, in the direction of the Atlantic, to Ma- 

 tadi, which was and is the head of navigation on the lower 

 Congo. This was a tedious and costly means of transportation, 

 and so long as no alternative existed, the commerce of the Congo 

 region was necessarily of very slow growth. 



In time the Congo railway was constructed, extending from 

 Matadi, below the falls, to Leopoldville, above them — a distance 

 of about 260 miles. This work cost a vast deal of money, owing 

 to the difficult engineering problems encountered, but the expan- 

 sion of commerce which followed its completion has made of the 

 Congo railway a remarkably profitable enterprise. To-day all 

 the rubber from the middle and upper Congo regions, as well as 

 the greater part of the French Congo output, is carried for part 

 of the way in its progress toward the seaboard by trains on this 

 little heard of railway. 



Naturally the upper terminus of the Congo railway has be- 

 come the location of some important commercial enterprises, 

 being also the lower terminus of boat transportation on the great 

 stretches <if the river that extend beyond the falls. For example, 

 the transfer of millions of pounds of rubber every year from 



the steamers and other craft to the railway is in itself a large 

 business. This is handled mainly by one company, having its 



liiCTtion at a point nn St,^nlcy Pool known as Citas, near 



Kkak ok DiRErioR's IIorfE, Citas. 



Kinshasa, just before Leopoldsville, the last station on the road, 

 is reached. This is known as the Compagnie Industriclle ct de 

 Transports on Stanley Pool "Citas," the headquarters of which 

 arc in Brussels. 



The Cilas company represent on Stanley Pool most of the rub- 

 ber trading companies, taking care of the transport of their prod- 

 uce — including also ivory and gum copal — by rail to Matadi, where 

 it goes aboard steamers bound for Antwerp, Havre, and Bor- 

 deaux. There appear on this page several views of the trans- 

 port company's place of business at Citas, illustrating an im- 

 portant feature of the progress of rubber from the Congo forests 

 to the European markets. Once below the cataracts, practically 

 all this rubber formerly proceeded direct to .■\ntwerp, serving to 

 build up there one of the world's most important rubber markets. 

 Recently, however, the French companies have adopted the policy 

 of shipping to Havre and Bordeaux, which are becoming every 

 year relatively more important in the rubber trade, inscription 

 sales having been organized there on lines similar to the sales 

 long maintained at Antwerp. 



CAKiio OF Klbbkr .\xii Ivurv Laxdeu at Cita.s. 



