Evening star., 1941-11-16

or wherever the Russian lines might be
holding.
But from Tehran, capital of Iran, all
the way to the east coast of China,
there is no north and south railway
connection with Eastern Russia. In all
of Afghanistan there is not a mile Of
railroad, and practically no concrete
nor macadam highways. There and in
Iran, there are no through highways
only dirt and gravel roads connecting
one small town with another. The chief
traffic arteries are caravan routes, often
along mountain ledges. only wide enough
for the passage of a loaded camel
The engineers are considering these
vast projects: Landing the lease-lend
supplies at Karachi. Indian port on the
Arabian Sea and shipping it by rail on
the weSternmost spur of the Indian
railway system to zahidan, near the
juncture of the borders of India, Iran
and Afghanistan; then trucking it for
1000 miles or so across Iran to the
Russian railroad which runs through the
Turkmen Republic, building their truck
highway to order.
Or they might send the freight from
Karachi all the way up to the famous
northwest border Of India and. where
the line ends at the Khyber Pass load
it on trucks and haul it to the Russian
rail connection at Termez. just over
the Afghanistan border.
Wild, Highland wilderness.
4
through a wild highland wilderness, the
roads there have been developed more
than in other sections of Afghanistan.
This is probably because the capital,
Kabul, is near here and because of the
proximity of the Russian railroad and
the network of strategic British railroads
just over the Indian border.
AS the distance from Karachi to the
Khyber Pass is 933 miles and the trip
across the corner of Afghanistan would
be about 900 miles, the American ma
terials would travel 1000 to 5000 miles
overland before they reached their des-
tinations on the Russian front lines. BY
water from New York. the goods would
have travelled about 10000 miles.
A number of other routes are being
examined, and one or all of them might
be used. One truck route or one rail-
road would not begin TO carry the traffic.
And the job would not be done when the
goods were deposited on the Russian
borders. Rail facilities in South Central
Russia are extremely limited and truck
routes might have to be opened in re-
gions where trucks never went before.
On the east OF the Caspian Sea, for in
stance, there are no highways-only a
sandy waste half as thickly populated
as Texas.
Single Line Inadequate.
The difficulty of building a railroad
In such country can be seen in statistics
on the Trans-Iranian Railroad, which
the ex-Shah completed three years ago
and which will be main artery for ship
ments to Russia. Within its 865-mile
length between the Persian Gulf and the
| Caspian Sea there are 200 tunnels and
| 1000 bridges-one of the latter being
| a 220-foot arch over an abyss 366 feet
deep. The line lies 1888 feet above sea
| level at one point.
The inadequacy Of this one line Of
transportation for the job ahead can
be seen in more statistics. Since the
Trans Iranian is single-track road,
engineers estimate that even with all
| possible improvements DO more than
| 10 trains day could be run on 1t in
each direction. On this line, where the
average speed Is 20 miles an hour and
where steep grades make long trains
impracticable, there probably are about
| "a cars to a train.
As more than 1000 cars are required
to carry the equipment for one square
division, this road could not transport
equipment for 10 divisions in less than
65 days, and this eouh be done only If
| all ordinS-y traffic was suspended AAd
the service worked without hitch.
But the Russians have about 800 divi-
sions, and experts have estimated the4
| II they fall back somewhat behind theH
present lines, losing more valuable fac
tories and raw material sources, they
will have to depend on the United States
and Great Britain to furnish them With
equipment 1or about 400 divisions.