CHAPTER XVII

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. Communications.

THE Congo is the fortunate possessor of an admirable means of communication in the Congo and its affluents, which present a total of some 12,000 kilomètres of navigable stream, though in parts considerable expenditure is, and has been, necessary to overcome defects in the navigation.' There remain, however, certain long stretches of the river on which navigation is impossible, notably the Cataract region, in which the river in the course of 250 miles falls 560 feet; seven rapids and much broken water between Stanleyville and Ponthierville, and the Hinde Falls between Kindu and Kongolo; while on the Upper Lualaba there are the Kallengue, Kabulula and N'Zilo Falls, on the Upper Luapula the Mambirimi Rapids, and between Moero and Kiambi the Lulua falls, in a distance of 180 miles, 1,220 feet. The task of providing an alternative to a route by road to Stanley Pool was emphasized by Stanley, and, commenced in 1890, terminated successfully in 1898. The distance is 398 kilomètres, the gauge 76 centimètres, and the Company received not only 15,000,000 francs of its capital of 82,000,000 francs from the State but also a subsidy of 1,500 hectares a kilomètre.

The completion of this line was followed by projects of connecting Stanleyville by rail with Mahagi,2 which would

1 See Les Communications par chemin de fer et par voie fluviale au Congo Belge (in Bulletin de la Société belge d'Études coloniales, No. 4, April, 1912), and the official Exposé de la question des chemins de fer (Brussels, 1911). The navigation of the river is subject to the rules of the Berlin Act, which have been put in execution by the Government.

2 Masoin, Histoire, i. 64, 65.

have facilitated the advance to the Nile, on which the King had set his heart, but the difficulties of construction proved to be too great to permit of action, and instead attention was directed to the task of establishing connexion with the Katanga by providing railway links for the unnavigable parts of the river. For this purpose an agreement was made with the Great Lakes Railway Company in 1902, by which the State undertook to guarantee repayment of the Company's capital with 4 per cent. interest in ninety-nine years, and to assign to it 4,000,000 hectares for each twentyfive million francs of capital, the soil to be worked by the State on joint account, and the minerals to be exploited by the Company on similar terms. The actual capital raised was seventy-five millions, but in lieu of twelve million hectares the Company accepted three-quarters of the profits from eight million hectares, an obligation modified in 1913. The lines constructed by the State were to be worked by the Company, which also was to provide a flotilla to navigate the stretches of the river between Ponthierville and Kindu, and Kongolo and Bukama: the lines constructed are those from Stanleyville to Ponthierville, 127 kilom., completed on September 1, 1906, from Kindu to Kongolo, 355 kilom, and from Kabalo 1 to Tanganyika, 275 kilom., all constructed on the metre gauge, and the State, by virtue of its relations with the Company, has a voice in the administra

tion.

1

By a decree of March 11, 1903, authorization was given to the Compagnie du chemin de fer du Katanga to construct a line connecting the south of the Katanga with a point on the Lualaba below its confluence with the Lufira. The initial capital was provided to the extent of 1,000,000 francs, three-fifths by the State and two-fifths by Mr. R. Williams and his colleagues. There was, however, delay in completing the necessary arrangement for a connexion with

1

A day's journey up-stream from Kongolo, it having unhappily proved impossible to bridge the Lualaba, and thus to avoid transhipment at Kongolo. The line was opened to traffic in March, 1915. A decree of June 18, 1903, regulates the situation.

the Rhodesian lines, and it was only after Mr. Williams had succeeded in establishing in 1908 the Rhodesia and Katanga Junction Railway and Minerals Company that on January 25, 1909, the capital was increased by 25 million francs; this sum was provided to the extent of 10 millions. by the Union minière du Haut Katanga, substituted for Mr. Williams, and for the rest by the Compagnie du chemin de fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga, substituted for the State, the sum in question being deducted from the produce of a loan of 150 millions for railway construction sanctioned by a decree of June 3, 1906. The sum was intended to cover the cost of construction of the line from the border at Sakania to Elizabethville, and the work was carried out by the firm of Pauling, acting for the Compagnie du chemin de fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga. A further addition of 54 millions of capital was made to cover the completion of the line from Elizabethville to Bukama1: the funds were supplied by the Compagnie du chemin de fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga, which constructed the line through a subsidiary body; this company also works the whole on account of the Katanga Company. It owes its existence to a decree of October 30, 1906, and is of a remarkable character: its capital is only two millions, and the funds for construction have been provided to it by the State, which merely uses it as an agent. The Company, however, obtains valuable concessions, a guarantee of 4 per cent. interest, and the right to work minerals in the basin of the KasaiSankuru, enjoying 50 per cent. of the profits. In addition to its participation in the affairs of the Katanga Company, the Company is charged with the construction and working on account of the State of a line from the Katanga railway to Dilolo, the point on the frontier reached by the Portuguese railway from Lobito Bay, and of a line to unite the Katanga and the Lower Congo. To prevent friction between the three great routes to the coast, which will thus be ulti1 At which point the Congo becomes more or less navigable down to Kongolo. The length of the line is 534 kilomètres.

2 The Company is to share equally in the profits.

mately open to Beira, to Lobito Bay, and to the Congo mouth, a convention was entered into in 1908 1 providing for the division of receipts among the three lines, according to mileage run, for a period of sixteen years, the agreement, however, to become null and void if a new line is created. The gauge of the line, which recently was completed to Bukama, is 1.067 mètres, in harmony with the Rhodesian and Portuguese Junction lines.

The question of further railway development naturally raises difficult issues: the completion of the route by rail and water from the Katanga to the Congo mouth provides an outlet for the products of the Katanga which is entirely Belgian, but the length of the way, 859 kilomètres of railway and 2,770 of river with the necessary transhipments, precludes any idea of successful competition with either the Beira route, which could be accelerated by establishment of direct communication between Broken Hill and Salisbury, or the route by Lobito Bay, which must sooner or later be constructed under the existing agreements. Moreover, the route from Dar-es-Salaam might, especially if the future should see Belgium established at Ujiji and Kigoma, compete seriously for some purposes with all these routes, especially as there are coal deposits in the country opened up by the line from Kabalo to Tanganyika. It is accordingly contemplated to construct a line which shall connect Elizabethville direct with the line from Matadi to Leopoldville via Bukama and Thysville in the valley of the Inkisi on the latter line, while a second project contemplates the construction of a line from Pania Mutombo, where navigation via the Kasai normally ceases, to Mpweto on Moero, and thence to the south of Tanganyika. In either project there are obvious advantages, but the funds must be provided by the State and will involve a considerable burden on the resources of the Congo.

1 On March 31 and July 11.

2 Cf. Baron E. B. d'Erlanger, United Empire, 1917, p. 462. It is not unnatural that the agreement regarding the Portuguese railway should be rather unsatisfactory now to the colony.

The treaty with the United Kingdom of 19061 permits the construction by an Anglo-Belgian company of a line from the frontier of the colony to the navigable channel of the Nile near Lado, but no steps to this end have yet been taken. It is probable that the first step in railway construction in the north-east will be the junction of Stanleyville with Mahagi, the project contemplated in 1899 but then laid aside. Mr. R. Williams,2 in the period when he was anxious to carry out the project of Rhodes for railway communication between south and north, obtained the right from Leopold II to construct a line from the south of the State to the Nile in lieu of the construction of a line from Broken Hill to the south of Tanganyika, and from the north of Tanganyika to Kivu, as was once contemplated by Rhodes. The difficulties of country between Mahagi and Rejaf are apparently such as to render direct communication impossible, though the running of a line along the Congo-Nile watershed to Mahagi might be practicable, but none of these proposals have much direct interest for the colony, which is anxious to retain its trade for the western coast.

In the Lower Congo, between the river and Chiloango in the French Congo, the Mayumbé Railway Company was authorized by a decree of July 30, 1898, to construct a line, now of 137 kilomètres, which is worked by the State.

A question of some interest, which has been discussed in Belgium, arises as to the position of the government of the colony under the Berlin Act with regard to railway construction. Article XVI of the Act expressly lays down that on roads, railways, and lateral canals, which may be constructed for the purpose of remedying the innavigability of parts of the river and its affluents, or making good imperfections, there may be levied only tolls calculated on the cost of construction, maintenance, and management, and on the profits due to the promoters, and, as regards the tariff

1 Cd. 2920.

2 United Empire, 1917, p. 450. This contract fell through, as Mr. Beit desired too large a share in the minerals of the Katanga.