233
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TIPICO 885/26
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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saw a good deal of the districts in question, and he came to the very definite conclusion that such a line from Nakuru to Lado, passing north of Lake Chioga on the tracing roughly sketched in these notes, would be an eventual trunk line of the very first importance, and would be gathering traffic along its whole course.
I am assuming that there would be a branch from some point in the Trans-Nzoia down to Lake Victoria, probably to the deep water port of Victoria itself.
Believe me, &c.,
E. H. M. LEGGETT (Major).
I sail for East Africa on a 3 months' trip, starting this afternoon.
P. Ezechiel, Esq.,
Office of the Crown Agents for the Colonies,
4, Millbank, Westminster, S.W.1.
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If the above axioms are accepted, it follows that Mombasa and Beira are the ports which require concentrated attention.
Dar-es-Salaam might appear at first sight to rank with these two; but the traffic of the Dar-es-Salaam-Kigoma Line will not be heavy for many years unless fed from the Congo aide of Tanganyika. This Congo traffic could be diverted into Mombasa by the construction of a line from Kahe to Tabora, which would probably not cost more than the fitting of Dar-es-Salaam to cope with heavy traffic if due allowance be made for the traffic which such a line would itself generate,
Tanga will serve the plantation area of the Pangani Valley; the rich area of Moshi and Arusha are actually closer to Mombasa than Tanga, so that the sterile portion of the Tanga Railway between Kumbara and Kahe (about 90 miles) might with advantage be picked up and laid to tap some immediately productive area.
Kilwa and Port Amelia are both good harbours though the former lacks fresh water; they are, however, cut off from the interior by Lake Nyasa and will therefore be secondary ports serving only as outlets for their immediate districts.
The following are "fixed points" which must control the main railway system of the
interior :-
(a) The Lake Edward Basin. This provides the only economic crossing of the Great Central Rift Valley. Entry from the East is provided by the Katongs and Ntungwe Valleys and exit to the West is provided by the Bwitwa Lakes Valley,
or by the gap behind Beni; and the bed of the Rift is here 1,000 feet higher than North of Ruwenzori,
(b) Ikomba, on the Tanganyika Plateau-a gap in the shed of the Tanganyika, Rukwa,
Rufigi, Nyasa, Zambesi and Congo water-basins.
(c) The Kagera Falls, which provide the crossing of the Kagera River and entry to my
valley which traverses Ruanda,
(d) The Rufua Gap, which leads from the Kagera system to the Nile system.
No. 9.
MEMORANDUM BY MAJOR E. S. GROGAN ON THE PRINCIPLES OF RAILWAY
DEVELOPMENT IN CENTRAL AFRICA.
I submit it as a matter of vital importance that the main arterial system of African Railways should be adumbrated now, so that each Provincial railway proposed may henceforth be considered not only in relation to its own particular objective but also as to how it may achieve that particular objective in subordination to its possible function as an integral part of such arterial system.
Africa is already rich in examples of the awful economic waste inherent in sporadic railway enthusiasms generated in the water-tight compartments of British-African administration.
The following examples of cactus-like growth dictated by local exigencies as distinct from co-ordinated plan dictated by axiomatic principles may be cited :-
(1) The Butuwayo-Elizabethville section.
(2) The first proposal of the Beira Nyasaland Railway.
(3) The Thika tramway.
(4) The Uasin Gishu alignment as recommended by Sir Charlee Bowring.
(5) The Jinja-Namasagali Line.
(6) The Port-Bell-Kampala Line.
(7) The proposed Kampala-Toro Line.
(8) The proposed Congo extension of (7).
(9) The proposed Belgian Stanleyville-Kilo Line.
(10) The difference in gauge hetween the South and North African systems and the East
African system.
They are all examples of how the alignment indicated by the ultimate major objective has been deflected towards the call of the proximate and minor objective, be it political, economic or financial.
The axiomatic principles which will define the African Railway system appear to be the following:-
(a) Capital monies available will be limited.
(b) No great strategic, as distinct from economic, purpose will now prevail since the
elimination of Germany as an African political factor.
(c) Railway development, being primarily economic in purpose, will take the form of tapping immediately productive areas by construction following the line of cheapest access to the sea.
(d) The terraced formation of the African Continent and the nature of African rivers combine to compel construction along watersheds rather than along valleys--as a general principle.
(e) Port facilities are an important factor in cheap access to the sea; (for example, the
present terminal charges at Mombasa equal the cost of 240 miles rail haulage) Modern port facilities necessitate immense capital outlays. Concentrated expen diture on one or two great ports rather than diffused expenditure over many porte is therefore indicated, with the result that the main communications with the interior will tend to focus fanlike on the great ports, leaving the included coastal segments to be served by their own minor ports, e.g., the Pangani Valley and Tanga.
(f) Nodal points on the resulting latitudinal systems will be connected longitudinally to provide rapid passenger transit, interchange of rolling stock and to serve local production and internal as distinct from export trade.
(g) The vastness of Africa's topographical features such as the two Great Rift Valley
with their contained lakes, the Victoria Lake, the Zambesi, the Congo, the Nile, the Kiva Volcanoes and Ruwenzori, confine the East-West and North-South com- munications to a very narrow compass of alternative alignments.
17th April, 1920.
MY DEAR SIR HERBERT,
No. 10.
MAJOR H. B. TAYLOR to SIR H. READ.
EWART S. GROGAN.
35, Kensington Court Mansions, W.8.
30th April, 1920.
I AM sorry I did not take advantage of stating my views fully at yesterday's meeting, Major Grogau and Mr. Wilson Fox taking up much of the Committee's time; and perhaps I lost my opportunity criticising Mr. Wilson Fox's train-ferry scheme in place of stating my
own view.
I certainly agree in such a South to North connection by rail, lake and river as advocated by Mr. Wilson Fox, and though I do not recommend the installation of train-ferries at first, I quite see that they will come in time and will serve a very useful purpose; but I really would go further and not advise even rail connection, but join up the waterways by motor transport, so as to make a possible through system of working for passenger mails and parcel traffic. I quite agree that given facilities to travel to attract visitors, trade will follow. This connection is also desirable for administrative purposes and control; for the working of ports and railways and fixing of rates is of much more than local interest, and cannot be left wholly to local authority; and it should be recognised, as in the Union of South Africa, that the working of the railways and harbours should be for the furtherance of the country's welfare, and not for general revenue purposes, though naturally reserves must be accumulated for renewals of stock and permanent way.
I recognise Major Grogan's view as to fixing of nodal points, and this must be kept in view when sanctioning any rail extension; and to this end I consider it most desirable that a Survey Staff for reconnaissance purposes be placed under the orders of a Commission of Transportation, which will in advance obtain full information both as to practicability of route and trade prospects.
The main points to be considered are:-
(1) Main outlets,
(2) Possibility of linking up of system, ie., nodal points.
(3) Internal communication.
The main outlets of the area under consideration are the porta on the East Coast, and as
I stated at Mr. Scott Elliot's lecture at the Society of Arts, "goods will take the cheapest route," and I do not agree to the policy of trying to force traffic from its proper outlet. It is not economic all the more so in view of the statement made by Lord Milner yesterday that he looks at these countries as one.
There will be sufficient traffic from its own hinterland concentrating on Mombasa to warrant making it a first-class port and to keep the Uganda Railway busy; and to enable this railway to carry the anticipated traffic much additional rolling stock is wanted, and evidently from the report a general overhaul of its system of working.
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