A RAILWAY TO INDIA.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12480, 5 March 1909, Page 1

A RAILWAY TO INDIA.

The question of whether the journey from Port Said/to India could not .advantageously be tran sf erred from the sea to the railway metals is raised in the "Nineteenth Century," by Mr C. E. D. Black, who was formerly in charge of the Geographical Department at tlib Indian Ollico. A railway following more or less directly the 30th parallel of latitude through Northern Arabia and Southern Porsia to Queta or Karachi would, he contends, trayerso the shortest line between India arid Egypt, and prove an immense convenience to traders, passengers, soldiers, civilians, and the many other classes who ar.c constantly travel ling between the scat of tha Empire and its chief dependency. "Tiic total distance from the Mediterranean to the Indian railhead (2200 miles) ought to be easily covered in sixty-six hours or under three days, as compared with 3050 miles or. 9£ days in a steamship, a saving of 850 miles in point of distance and 6£ to 7 days in respect of time." Mr Black points out that the regions traversed by such a line would not be of the uniformly desolate character that first thought would suggest, while, indeed, the Persian section of the lino '.'would 'fulfil -exactly what our Consuls aoid commercial missions have been crying out for many years past, i.e., a means of transport for tlie .import-: and' export trade of the British sphereiin' Southern Persia." As to the matter of cost, Mr Black has made enquiries and calculations in which he appearsto place some confidence, and which he summarises in the statement that "for a dstance of 2200 miles that would work out to £13,200,000, or, with an addition of. £3,000,000 for rolling stock, £16,-200,000. altogether, considerably less than the cost of the Suez Canal." ; .