118 THROUGH ANGOLA 



was to be defeated by the good sense of the Belgian 

 people and the Avisdom of their King Leopold, 

 who always suspected the German Kaiser. 



England retained Belgium's friendship, in spite 

 of the abuse of this gallant nation by the un- 

 patriotic section of our press. 



King Leopold helped Williams in the con- 

 struction of the Lobito- Katanga Railway, com- 

 menced in 1903, and later to carry the Cape to 

 Cairo Railway from Broken Hill to the Congo 

 frontier, and through that State towards its 

 goal of Cairo. 



How Williams defeated the Hohenzollern's 

 aims and ambitions in Angola, which had been 

 fostered by our agreement in 1898 to allow them 

 a free hand, is a good story of its own ; for, guard- 

 ing 1 his secret, and within a week of leaving 



o ' o 



London, Williams had obtained a concession from 

 the Portuguese Government at Lisbon to build 

 the line from Lobito towards Katanga. This 

 concession forestalled the Germans, to the wrath 

 of the scheming Kaiser, who on finding himself 

 baffled, nearly dismissed his Minister for allowing 

 such a check to Germany's ambitions to be brought 

 about under his very nose. 



In 1907, when I was at Broken Hill in the 

 Belgian Congo, there was only one outlet for the 

 immense wealth of Katanga, that to the south and 

 east, by Bulawayo to Cape Town or Beira. To-day, 

 this Central African line, the future backbone of 

 the African railway system, can take one by rail 

 or river through Stanleyville to the sea at Boma, 

 and will soon take one north from Stanleyville 



