CHAPTER XX 



THE UGANDA RAILWAY 



It may be confidently stated that, in proportion to 

 the goods or passengers that it carries, more has been 

 written about the Uganda Railway than of any rail- 

 way in the world. The traffic manager must often 

 wish he could charge freight on the amount of litera- 

 ture under which it labours. Nevertheless, in spite of 

 this previous overdose, no work which deals in any 

 way with the Protectorate can be complete without 

 reference to the line, if only for the fact that without 

 it there would have been no Colony. 



The construction of the railway itself is owed to 

 the Anglo-German ageement and to the " General 

 Act of the Brussels Conference " in 1890. When the 

 British East Africa Company in 1892 found that in 

 attempting to administer and occupy Uganda they had, 

 speaking vulgarly, cut off more than they could chew, 

 and requested the British Goverment to relieve them 

 of their obligations, it was absolutely touch and go 

 whether or not we abandoned the whole territory. In 

 all probability we owe our retention of this splendid 

 tract mainly to the missionaries who were then working 

 in the country. As a result of their representations, 

 Sir Gerald Portal was sent from Zanzibar in 1893 to 



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