Railway Across Sahara

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21963, 15 May 1941, Page 4

Railway Across Sahara

THROUGH fifty years of prosperity and power France discussed building a railroad across the Sahara Desert, but never did anything about it. Now, though the French nation is prostrate, the Vichy Government has authorised the great project at an estimated cost of 5,000,000,000 francs. This line of steel across 1,250 miles of desert would bring French West Africa and Algeria together, linking the port of Dakar and the African Atlantic coast with the harbour of Oran on the Mediterranean. The vast region north of the Niger is immensely rich in tropical resources. Tapping these through a direct rail line offers great commercial possibilities in normal times, though not under war conditions. But the military and strategic value of the railroad would be immediate to France —and to Germany, if France should continue under German domination. It has been seen with what tenacity the Petain Government held Dakar against De Gaulle’s attack. If that port fell into German hands and cpuld be supplied from Algeria it would command the trade routes of the South Atlantic. Moreover, the Senegal area produces some of France’s finest colonial troops, as well as materials essential to war industries.

The route presents nd great engineering difficulties. Motor caravans crossed it in 1922 but were found too expensive for profitable operation. Railheads have already been pushed south from Oran and several hundred miles east from Dakar. The desert interval is flat and free from sand storms. Diesel engines should be able to haul heavy freight over it economically. But the fate of France and Europe will be decided before the last rail is put into place.