Belgiant Congo 105 GENERAL REMARKS other point in the Sudan . At present the Katanga Railway extends to Bukama ; the river is navigable thence to Kongolo, whence the railway runs to Kindu, from which there is again navigation by river to Pon thierville, and then a railway to Stanleyville. From Stanleyville a line designed to open up the Kilo gold fields is projected to run to Mahagi , where in due course it will presumably be met by a line from the Sudan, through Darfur and along the watershed between the Nile and the Congo, which offers a practicable route. More direct communication by a line from the north of Lake Tanganyika to Lake Albert was contem plated when the treaty of 1894 was negotiated ; and Mr. R. Williams obtained from Leopold II the right to carry out this project, for which surveys have been made.1 This route would have to be completed by railway connexion between the Rhodesian system and the south of Lake Tanganyika, either via Elisabethville or from Broken Hill, and even assuming the exten sion from the north to Lake Albert, the making of a line thence to the north of Lake Tanganyika, and the connexion of the lake with the Rhodesian railways, there would still remain as gaps in the chain of railway connexion both Lake Tanganyika and the short stretch of the Nile between Halfa and Shellal. The difficulties therefore in the way of an early 'completion of the Cape -Cairo project are not to be minimized.

From the Belgian point of view, interest in the Cape Cairo project is naturally secondary to that in plans intended to preserve Matadi as the outlet for the traffic of the Congo, including Katanga, in successful rivalry with either the route from Benguela , the Congo portion of which has yet to be constructed , or that from Dar es-Salaam , or that from Rhodesia and Beira . It is admitted that the actual route via the 1 R. Williams, United Empire, 1917, p. 450.