A RAILWAY ROMANCE 117 



Belgians, and the backing of Portuguese, British, 

 and Belgian friends, this enterprise has passed 

 from endeavour to success, to the better prosperity 

 and friendship of three friendly and allied nations, 

 Britain, Belgium, and Portugal. 



There were rumours of rich finds of copper in 

 the Katanga region when in 1907 I crossed the 

 Congo hinterland, intent only on hunting and 

 happy at getting away for a little from the un- 

 ceasing toil of scientific work. I did not dream 

 that within a few marches to the north-west was 

 a chain of rich copper-bearing hills, stretching for 

 200 miles in length and 10 miles in width, and 

 now known to be the greatest copper deposit of 

 the world ; a copper Hand, which has already 

 produced 140,000 tons of copper, is turning out 

 40,000 tons a year, and will produce later 100,000 

 tons annually. 



I knew in that journey, though, that the story 

 of red rubber and the Belgian atrocities was 

 greatly exaggerated, if not entirely untrue, for 

 I never met or heard of any of these things. It 

 is probable that there was a close relation between 

 the discovery of the wealth of Katanga and the 

 story of the Belgian atrocities ; for the Kaiser 

 in his desire for the one, had invented the other, 

 and found degenerates and traitors of the type 

 of Roger Casement to carry out the unclean 

 intrigue to estrange Belgium from England. The 

 K iser imagined that possibly with the help of a 

 very small but anti-patriotic section of the British 

 people, he might win his way to the wealthy 

 heritage of the Congo. But this crafiy scheme 



