A LINE WITH A FUTURE 119 



to the Nile near Lake Albert, and thence by 

 this river and its railways to the Mediterranean 

 Sea. 



Of the feeder lines of this central line of com- 

 munication, the railway from Katanga to Lobito 

 will, when completed, be the most important of 

 all, commercially and strategically. Commercially, 

 because it will bring thousands of tons of ore, 

 copper, gold, and platinum, hundreds of miles 

 nearer Europe ; will bring the high plateaux of 

 the great Zambezi- Congo divide, with its vast 

 possibilities of cattle ranching, stock raising, and 

 cereal cultivation, into close touch with the meat 

 needs of Europe ; and will take the settler from 

 the sea to the Bihe highlands, a second Argentine, 

 and beyond them to another land, Katanga, 

 richer than Brazil. Strategically, because it forms 

 a short cut, not only to war needs in copper, but 

 provides another route to India and Egypt, should 

 the Mediterranean be closed to Britain. 



In October 1920, the rail-head was still at 

 Chinguar, where it had arrived in 1914 ; but 

 Paulings, the great African railway contractors 

 who have done so much for Africa, and incident- 

 ally for Great Britain, are pushing forward, with 

 their usual energy, the work of railway construc- 

 tion eastwards to Katanga. 



I left Chinguar on the morning of the 1st, and 

 after a comfortable journey with two breaks for 

 food at Huambo and Cuma, and a sleep in the 

 carriage at Ganda, where the train halted for the 

 night, arrived at Lobito Bay on the afternoon of 

 the second dav. 



