Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-27

thority Is practically confined to Lhasa,
and is precarious even there, while no
end OF petty lanlaS are setting them
selves up for more august avatarS than
the incarnation of Avalokitesvara.
Lamaism is now in decay and corrup-
ton, but in its prime it produced in
Tsongkapa (born 1850 a religious
genius of the first order.
X X y
AFRICA.-It is curious how slow has
been the development of adequate
recognition of the immensely important
role Africa is destined to play in the
new economic scheme of things. Com
pletion of the Stupendous engineering
constructions at Lake Tsana, source
of the Blue Nile, and Lake Albert,
source of the White. and along those
streams. either now in process or soon
about to be. will, in addition to putting
beyond peradventure adequate regular
supply of water to Egypt nor forget
in this connection the proposed en-
largement of the Assuan Dam so as
practically to double its capacity, no
less amply insure realization of the
SudaneSe irrigation projects. Compile
ton of the Cape to Cairo Railway and
commencement of construction of a
Transsaharan railway from French
Northern to French Western Africa
are in prospect. Already the railway
mileage of British Africa exceeds
10000; easily one of the most remark
able of latter-day phenomena. Before
many years the cotton of Uganda and
the Sudan should go very far toward
making the British commonwealth of
nations self-suff1cient in respect of cot
ton: and. though good deal more
tardily. West Africa should in time
be performing like service for France.
Kenya coffee, Tanganyika sisal, Rho
deSian tobacco and frozen meat, each
of these commodities, now playing a
considerable, will soon be playing very
important role in the foreign markets
The two great bars to economic de-
velopment in Africa have been trans
rortation difficulties and tropical
diseases. The transportation problem
is to be solved partly by construction
or completion of few railway grand
trunk lines, each with a few branches,
but each fed by magnificent service
of automotive vehicles variouSly adapt
ed to various terrain partly by i'm
provement of the waterways and the
linking of them up to other systems:
partly by highway construction, where
of some of the British colonies afford
AsS0AS SnoAAAPACo, RdAGIy NY
development of aviation. stir an infant,
but growing like the infant Hermes.
AS for the tropical diseases, the I'M
speakably hideous menace thereof is
by way of being dissipated. Soon will
the tsetse fly be foiled of his dreadful
trade and the sleeping sickness be put
to sleep. At any rate, within a few
years no one will be deferred from
Africa enterprises by fear of tropical
diseases.
On January a motor road through
the darkest of darkest Africa was
opened to general traffic. 1t runs from
Stanleyville in Belgian Kongo north to
Buta in the same, then northeasterly
to Rejaf, opposite Gondokoro, on the
Bar El-Jebel branch of the White Nile
in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The
length Is 700 miles. Stanleyville, just
north of Stanley Falls, is the terminus
of uninterrupted navigation from the
mouth of the Kongo (about 1000 miles,
while Rejaf is the terminus Of naviya-
ton for steamers plying south from
Khartum. We are told that rs tour
ing cars and so motor vans will ply
in regular service on the new road. The
tariff for passengers is the equivalent
of about IL cents per mile.
X y n X
AVIATION The International
League of Aviation at Paris, whose
awards are not decisive as to relative
merit or fame. but are at least highly