Bisbee daily review., 1918-03-24

' By J. B. ThornhiII, F. R. c. S., author
 of British Columbia in the Making | "Adventures in Africa Under the Brit
 sh, Belgian and Portueese Flags" etc | This is q far cry from Bisbee to the [ Congo but Katanga bears somewha
 the same relation to Central Africa as does Arizona to North America Copper mining is the business of bOtn Naturally people ask-for Central Af rica has been more or less of a closed bool1-where is Katanga and what chances are there? I will try to an swer these questions and tell in as con else a manner as possible what l lunoT' about Katanga of which country l wGs one of the pioneers.
 I have not the material to illustrate these notes with cut so I ask the reader to take a map of Africa-the Rand McNally atlas in the library will do. Look just beyond the northern border of Rhodesia and there is tha name Katanga. How Watanga, an in significant village which has long since disappeared, came to be the name by which the greater part of the highlands of the southern Congo Is known is quite an interesting story. Commander Cameron, who crossed Ali rica from Nanzibas to Benguella Tn 1875, wrote copper is found at Watan- ga and for a considerable distance 70 the westwards" Neither David Liv- ingstune nor LeYett Cameron ever wis ited the copper belt, the discovery ot which is one of the romances of Gen. tral Africa So long ago as 17S3 the Portugese tried to find and Dr. Lacer- da perished in the attempt. The copper belt was discovered by the late MT. George Grey, the brother of the for mer British secretary for foreign af- fairs. Grey was amusing himself after having carried out an expedition for an other purpose trying to find the source of the Kafue one of the Lambesi's big gest tributaries. Near the source of the Kafue Grey climbed a mountain and from it counted in the open forest country thirty-seven bare hills. He asked the natives what the hills were and they said copper" The result was that he led another expedition to the copper belt and over 200 copper mines were found. The English com pany foolishly recognized the. illegal monopoly of King Leopold instead of taking the mines under the mining law of the Congo State or purchasing them from the natives, as they had a right to do under the international act that created the independent state of the Congo as a free trade country with the king of the Belgians administering it as the foreman of eleven European powers The special British treaty would have secured them their rights. This is going to lead to trouble later on as a group of international finan- ciers have secured virtually every thing in 320, 900 square miles in high. healthy part of Africa which must be- fore long become the home of a white race.
 At present the Katanga copper belt is reached from Cape Town so I asa the reader to follow me up along the so-called Cape-To- Cairo railway and | will STOW how each advance took place The British acquired the cape iron the Dutch iHl 1906. Twenty years la CT. owing to an Outcry in Englan. about slavery. the British government arbitrarily abolished slavery in SOuth Africa and gave Sl00 a slave comper satlOn tabOut quarter the value or g slavel. The BOers were the Dutch ana British malcOnteLts and slave OWners who moved nOrthwards and founded the Transvaal. For fifty years there was no advance nOrthwards till dia. monds were found in the desert (kal ahari) now Kimberly, and gold was found at Barberton in the eastern TTansvaal Then came the first Trans vaal war and the Boers became tex cept for the British right to move