Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1916-02-03
ACROSS THE SANDS
Remarkable Transportation Sys-
tenn in Africa.
Likely to Have Big Effect on the
Problem Of Defending the Land,
%whieh Is Now Occupying At
tention of Statesmen.

ID r. Of
Railroad telephone and telegraph
make it a much more simple matter to
marshal the elements of defense in the
Land of the Pyramids than it was
when Napoleon | brought his soldiers
there. The irrigation and railroad de-
partments have been treated as the
most important public services under
the British administration of the
try. and the railroad development has
taken on an especial importance since
the outbreak of the war. The railways
of Egypt, now contributing manifold
their investment toward the security
of the British frontiers in the middle
East, are described in the following
bulletin, issued by the National Geo.
graphic society:
Stretching from the Mediterranean
sea, across a great continent of burn
ing sand, beyond the Nubian desert.
into the heavy jungle of Central Afri-
ca, there lies one of the greatest steam
routes in the East, by rail, by boat,
and then by rail again. The building
of this way first made it possible for
England to bring the Sudan into a
SITE of comparative order and safety,
and consolidated one of the widest
reaches of land remaining at the be-
ginning of the twentieth century.
Around this steam route the prosper
fty OF modern Egypt has been built up,
while along it the methods and stand
ards of civilization have encroached
more and more upon the wild, hazard
Gus, want-burdened freedom of the
desert.
"Egypt's railways, with few and un-
important exceptions, are state under
takings. The Egyptian Delta Light
railway is the largest of the private
lines, with 625 miles of ~trackage. 1t,
like the other privately owned lines,
operates in the rich agricultural delta
of the Lower Nile. The main lines Of
the state system run from Alexandria,
Port Said, and Diametta to Cairo, thus
linking up all the more important
cities of the rich delta and both ends
of the Suez canal with the Egyptian
capital. These lines have branches
throughout the region of the lower
Nile, where is located the most pro-
ductive Of the worlds cotton fields.
From Cairo one line follows the west
ern bank of the Nile southwark to Nag
Hamadi, where it crosses to the east
bank and runs to Luxor and Assouan
in Upper Egypt, serving the irrigable
and fertile core of the great sand
waste.
I'm the beginning of the English adj
ministration the Egyptian State rail
way was in a bad way. Its roadbed was
out Of repair; its equipment seriously
deteriorated, and it's locomotives and
rolling stock were mostly out Of date.
It's income was not sufficient to keep it
in the ways of progress. British army
engineers were put in charge, and just
before the present wal the railroad
had become n of the governments
principal sources Of revenue.
There were, at the wars outbreak,
1,700 miles Of trackage open to traffic
in the State railway system. Port Said
was connected with Cairo, a distance
of 145 miles, on an express schedule
of four and one-half hours. From
Alexandria to Cairo, a distance of 1870
miles, the winter tourist was rushed
through to Cairo in just three hours.
The Egyptian system was linked up
with the Sudan government railway,
to Khartoum and beyond, by a steam
err service between Assouan and Wadi
Halfa.
THUS the long British frontier, from
the blue Mediterranean to the darkest
wilds of interior Africa, was bound
together with steel bands before the
worlds peace ended, and now these
lines of rail form one Of the highly i'm
portant factors in the European strug'
gle for the East"