Evening star., 1941-04-13
Railroad Proposed
to Spon Sahara
By Frederic J. Hnskin.


attention of all Europe, there are said
to be many plans in the making for
| gigantic after-war developments. Pos
sibly the greatest of these is a determine
ton Of interested nations to lay down
railway to span for 1000 miles the rocky,
sandy Sahara Desert. The idea is not
entirely new, for 10 years ago the French
worked out such project and sounded
out Italy, Great Britain and Belgium
as to their interest in its development.
1t was reported at the time that reaction
on all fronts was favorable.
The long camel caravans which have
| traversed the Sahara for generations
have taken their leisurely course along
traditional paths determined by the
oases. Beyond these more or less
| habitable spots where there is water and
some vegetation lie great expanses of
waterless plains and hills which until
recent years were entirely unexplored
and unmapped After the close of the
| first World War, the French, impatient
| for exact knowledge of their African
domain, penetrated deeper every year
into the Sahara and brought increasing
areas of it under control.
In their explorations the French
plowed their way across this great desert
with motor trucks fitted with caterpillar
wheels; they flew above 1t and traced
ranges of dunes and ancient water
| courses upon maps previously character
lied by blank spaces; they drilled artesian
wells and cultivated crops where there
was nothing but dry sand before. Dur
ing those years they looked forward to
the day when one would be able to ride
across the Sahara in Pullman car,
slipping iced drinks in front of an elec-
trio fan all the way from the Mediter-
| ranean to the Gulf of Guinea, travelling
from Paris to Timbuktu in four days.
But the trans-Saharan railway is not
| proposed primarily for the benefit Of
globe-trotters who would enjoy the
novelty of journeying from the center of
! civilization to the edge of the tropical
| Jungle in a de luxe train. Its principal
use would be to bring the now remote
countries of Africa within convenient
reach, from the administrative and mill
tary as we'll as the economic point of
view. The new line would enable French
commanders or other military officials to
throw a regiment or so upon any dis
turbed point with a promptitude which
would insure a pacification of the desert
and make policing of it manageable.
Moreover, the trans-Saharan line
would serve to stimulate economic de-
velopment of the colonies south Of the
desert. carrying wine, salt, sugar. dates,
gasoline, clothing, and the manufactures
| of Europe to the relatively isolated popu-
lations near the Equator. and bringing
back cotton, cocoa, palm oil, rubber,
timber, hides, tobacco. and numerous
other raw materials of lesser value.
! Africa's greatest handicap is its lack Of
/ TRANSPORTATION. but its trade has ex-
panded steadily for many years. For
instance. the aggregate of its commerce
has been about IS per cent greater in
| the last decade than in the previous 10
years, while its production Of foodstuffs
| and raw materials has gained greater
percentage. Exports and imports Of
Nigeria, the Gold Coast, the Belgian
Congo and French West Africa alone now
amount to approximately s5oo,ooo,0oo
annually.
According to present plans the line
would extend from Oran, Algeria, to Gao
on the Niger, thence following the Niger
Valley via Nancy to the Gulf Of Guinea.
1t is here that the international part C
the project comes in. The railway might
be prolonged into Nigeria to connect
with the British system there an6
through the Cameroons and French
Equatorial Africa into the Belgian Congo
Before the Nazis seized Belgium, the Bel
gians expressed a keen interest in this
possibility, and it is assumed that their
| interest still remains The consensus is
that if the Belgians are not interested
Hitler is and the plan would likely meet
his approval.
Adjoining the Belgian Congo on the
east are the British possessions of
Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika, the
former German East Africa, representing
with the French colonies to the west and
north an immense and little developed
| tropical area abounding in variety of
raw materials, and capable perhaps of
becoming greater market for European
goods. The new line would put this vast
territory in touch with world markets.
Fortunately for the explorers and rail-
way builders, the Sahara is not entirely
an area OF shifting sand It is a great
stony windswept expanse. composed
mostly of rock which here and there
forms hills and plateaus. On the i'm
mense plains, which are remarkably level
is found fairly solid surface of sand
and pebbles which offers a natural base
for nl)Uor road or railway. It Is the
regions of moving sand, together with
general scarcity of water, which makes
the Sahara formidable for transport
These areas are always covered with sand
dunes which sometimes are as high as
500 feet.
The actual construction of the pro-
posed railroad, according to engineers,
might take place at rapid rate. A few
years ago in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
a railroad was laid at the rate of miles
a day, and in Siberia at the rate of 6
miles day. In Arizona, in the United
States, in Russia, Turkestan, and in
Australia, railways have been built
across great deserts. In the Sahara the
question of water supply for builders and
for trains Is difficult one, for water in
the middle of the desert contains too
| much mapnesia and S,,I,hates to ha rsed