THE ECONOMIC CONQUEST OF AFRICA BY THE RAILROADS. 725 



In sharp contrast with Alfjcria the protectorate of Tunis is woik- 

 ing ener<;eti('ally to provide the rc'ji'encv with a nunilu'r of railroads. 

 One company, th(r Bone-Guchna, has built the whole system with 

 the single exception of the line from Sfax to Gafsa, which was 

 established solely for the i)urpose of hauling the crude ph()s])hates 

 from Metlaoui. The " old '' system, as it is called, is the extension 

 to Tunis of the Algerian main line ; the " new " system is made up of 

 coastwise lines, with three branches into the interior. 



The next step will be the extension of these branches far enough 

 inland to make them commercial lines. Such was the intent of 

 the law of April 30, 1908, which authorized the Tunisian Government 

 to make contracts to the extent of $8,000,000. P'rom Pont du Fahs, 

 a line will be run as far as Kalaat-es-Senar and then be turned 

 toward Sbiba. Both of these places are in the midst of great phos- 

 phate beds, AAhich the franchise holders are not only allowed but 

 expected to work. Another road will be run from the iron district 

 of Nezfas .to Bizerta, and Sfax will be connected with the Sonsse 

 system, bi-inging into the system the now isolated Sfax-Gafsa line. 



One can not but remark the rational and just policy which has pre- 

 vailed in this protectorate; everything has been worked out with an 

 eye to the economic development of the country. But it is only 

 fair to say that Tunis has enjoyed from the beginning the freedom 

 of action which Algiers achieved only last year. Political inter- 

 ference, so common in Algiers, and petty local rivalries, like those 

 of Oran and Constantine and Bone, are scarcely to be found in the 

 land of the bey. 



The only one of these town struggles worth mentioning is that 

 between Bizerta and Tunis. Bizerta, a port of some military impor- 

 tance, is desirous of becoming a great connnercial center as well. 

 Its interests therefore clash with Bone on one hand and with Tunis 

 on the other; but this rivalry has had an effect beneficial rather than 

 otherwise on the railroad development. 



The European power to whom the honor of having done the great- 

 est work toward the introduction of the railroad into Africa is, 

 unquestionably, England. Before long British locomotives will cross 

 the continent from Cairo to the Cape. In the northeast they already 

 run to Khartoum, a distance of nearly 1,400 miles from Alexandria. 

 Egyptian trains which formerly had their terminal at Assiut (225 

 miles south of Cairo), now go 78 miles farther on tracks laid by the 

 English in 1881 to reach Keneh. From this point to Assuan, near 

 the first cataract of the Nile, the road is in the hands of a private cor- 

 poration. Still farther on is the military line into Sudan, pieced 

 onto the Egyptian system by the little fragment built in 1874-75 

 between the first and second cataracts. 



