The Cape to Cairo Railway and River Route

and illustrated with lantern slides.

PRESIDENT HEWITT, in introducing the Speaker, said,- Gentlemen, it is a long jump from the days of David Livingstone to the present. When we think of Africa,

it is naturally the man we think first of-the greatest missionary the world has ever known. When we think of the kind of transportation that Livingstone had and

the kind that we are going to hear about today, we get some idea of the progress that has been made. We are indebted directly to Brig.-General Gunn for this opportunity of hearing an address by a south African, Mr. Leo. Weinthal, who for services in Africa has been decorated at various periods by Belgium, Liberia and Egypt, and for his special war work by King Albert of Belgium and Great Britain. He is a thorough Imperialist and has intimate and exact knowledge of conditions in Africa, which enables him to speak as one having authority. I was recently informed that there is no man hailing from South Africa on whom the British Government authorities depend more for reliable informationthan Mr. Leo Weinthal. (Applause) He is a man high in the Councils of the British Empire and it was said of him a year ago in London "Leo Weinthal knows; he tells you the truth; and he will not break confidences." The task before Mr. Weinthal today is that of condensing into the space of about an hour all that he wants to tell us and is anxious to tell us regarding the greatest transport route through Africa. I am not going to take up any more of his time now but will ask you to give him a hearty welcome. (Cheers)

MR. LEO WEINTHAL

Gentlemen,-I am sure you will allow me a few moments to express my very warmest feelings of gratitude at the honour which has been conferred upon. me in lecturing before this famous Empire Club the name of which came to England and South Africa, years before I had the pleasure of stepping on Canadian soil. I feel privileged to have been asked, first by Brig. General John Gunn with whom I had the pleasure of travelling from London to New York. I have always known that the Empire Club of Canada has been one of the most virile factors in spreading the true lessons oaf Imperialism in its most practical form. Imperialism has, in my opinion, two sides to it; there is the heroic, sentimental, and visionary side; and there is the tangible and practical side. The first materialized in the world wide rally to the flag in the grim hour of the Empire's need, August 1914, giving one of the finest examples of patriotism in the world's history. The former is led by our greatest and most distinguished men; the latter is carried out by those who, like myself, follow modestly in the path as civilian workers in efforts to develop the resources of our own world wide dominions and also in our own special ways td spread the knowledge of our great Empire to other parts of the world, and therefore try to bring about still closer bonds than exist even today. (Applause) We have come from across the seas and I know you will all admit that the seas do but unite the nations they divide. The Dominions of the British Empire are divided by seas but they are also united by the great waters and, in the six years of the terrible days of Armageddon so recently behind us, we have seen the great Dominions of the British Empire uniting and rallying for the defense of the flag, to the defense of civilization, right and justice, so that the forces of darkness might be banished forever-if possible-from the face of the earth. (Applause) This has nothing to do with the subject of my short lecture today, but I could not help referring to the question, because your Club is so closely knitted with the progress of the Empire in all its parts, that I thought you would not mind if I expressed my sentiments to you in a few words at the introduction.

Now I was going to tell you the story of the Cape to Cairo Railway and river route as it is today. I must apologize and ask you to permit me to explain that owing to a very important announcement which I am going to make directly, I am going to reverse this story. Instead of taking you from Cape Town 7,000 miles north to the Nile and the Delta and the Mediterranean, I am going to take you 7,000 miles South from the Delta, and land you at Cape Town. This I am doing, because since I arrived in New York I am very pleased to tell you that I have official authority from that great Transportation Company known as the American Express Company to announce, that during next year they hope to send the first party of American Tourists, which they hope will include some Canadians, from Cairo to Cape Town, and probably also another party from Cape Town north on to Cairo. Now, as the first party is going from Cairo to Cape Town, and some of you may possibly be in that party, I thought it only right today to give you the tour as you or your friend may be doing it next year.

In starting my story I cannot help referring to that great man to whom the sole credit was due for this enormous project in its initial stages, the man who dreamed it, who conceived it, the man who found other men to support the scheme and to carry out what some thirty-three years ago was considered to be an absolute, if not utopian dream. Yet today it is practically completed, and more than two-thirds of its route an actuality. That man was Cecil John Rhodes (applause) a great Imperialist, a great Empire Builder, who, even in the face of some mistakes he may have made in his political career, will have his name indelibly stamped in golden letters for evermore as the originator of the project which will bring to Africa and her people from north to south, from east to west, Progress, Civilization, Prosperity and Peace. (Applause) I ask you never to forget that the scheme is due to Cecil John Rhodes, and I ask you all to see Mr. Rhodes as he looked thirty-two years ago. (A slide was here thrown on the screen)

Now, please imagine yourselves on a fine steamer going from New York to the Mediterranean, and arriving off Northern Egypt. Whether you land at Port Said, the eastern end of the Nile Delta, or at Alexandria, the western end of it, the coast views are very similar. It is a flat shore with occasional white minarets under a blue sky and bright sunshine, peeping out from yellow sands, and green palm trees. We must take it for granted this afternoon that we are going to travel seven thousand miles in seventy minutes, You enter a very comfortable train, travel in three hours to Cairo, and I propose to give you some typical views of the Nile Delta as you see it from the railway windows. You will find the pictures of Biblical stories repeated actually in front of you. You can look out for hours on both sides of the carriage and see the beautiful scenes of blue-garbed Fellaheen workers turning out sugar and cotton to the value of thirty or forty millions sterling during every twelve months. Soon, in the suburbs of Cairo we have a glimpse of the environments of this great African city-the greatest as well as one of the oldest in Africa with nearly a million inhabitants, of which practically only fifty thousand are of European races. This will give you an idea as to why, when news comes from Cairo, you cannot understand sometimes that the situation in Egypt is as it is. As a fact there is a very large population there, quite three-fourths of which actually take no interest in politics except when they are led into them by certain people. The common multitude there follow just like sheep. When I was in Cairo before 1914 for eight or nine winters successively, I often used to watch processions of the so-called Nationalist students. In those days, with Lord Cromer and Lord Kitchener at the British residency, it was quite enough to turn out the Fire Brigade and give the processionists--if in any way turbulently inclined-a good shower bath to make most of those people make for their homes at record speed. (Laughter) Let us proceed. We have entered Cairo station, the Central station and chief terminus of the Cape-to-Cairo Railway route. It is a very fine building and I believe it is going to be shortly doubled in size.

For the next view we take a walk to the Citadel and Mohamed Ali Mosque which is a very finely designed Arabic edifice with some exquisite interiors towering domes and slender minarets. Incidentally a garrison of British "Tommies" is maintained at the Citadel and this instinctively creates a protective atmosphere.

My next view is a portrait of His Highness the Sultan of Egypt, who recently succeeded his uncle Sultan Hussein and who is a very enlightened highly educated and progressive ruler and in every way partial to the new British Protectorate which may shortly disappear in an equally close alliance, thanks to the wonderful diplomatic results obtained by Lord Milner and his able Commission.

I must now also ask you to pay a visit with me to the British Residency. (Slide) This photograph I took about ten years ago after a visit to the late Lord Cromer, with whom I had the privilege of many interesting talks, and who was, as you probably all know, one of our greatest Imperial pro-consuls and an exceptionally brilliant and gifted man. (Applause) In that stately home on the banks of the Nile I have had the pleasure and honour of being received as a personal friend of the late Lord Cromer, the late Sir Elwin Gorst, and the late Lord Kitchener, with whom I had my last interview in March, 1914,a conversation I shall never forget, for he did not want to talk of Egypt as I hoped he would but only wanted to hear from me about many of his old South African friends, especially General Botha for whom he had a great affection.

I have not, as yet, met Lord Allenby, since he has arrived at the Residency and whom the whole world justly admires as one of the greatest leaders in the recent World War, particularly on account of his incomparable dashing conquest of Palestine. (Applause)

Being at Cairo, let me take you out nine miles for a few moments to the Pyramids. You have all heard of the Cheops pyramid and the Sphinx. It is carved out of solid limestone rock really lying in a hollow in a deep excavation of the desert sand. You do not see it until you come right up to it, and when you proceed to the bottom and stand in front of the great animal figure with a human head (just where this Arab stands with his camel in the picture) the face assumes a human expression, the longer you gaze at its stony features. I have myself taken at various times quite fifty or sixty films and plates of her antique ladyship in order to catch some of those weird expressions under different atmospheric conditions, sunlight, moonlight, dawn, and sun-rise. You will see one of these snaps in the next slide. (Slide) I really think this photograph has a most unusual and live expression in the eye. Many people have tried to get the same effect but failed. I could talk to you for hours about the Sphinx-but time calls and we must proceed. I wish now to show you a type of the original fellaheen or the real people of Egypt, one of my old friends, at the famous Mena House Hotel opposite the great pyramid. He was truly a good old soul; he helped me to get all kinds of wonderful curios and information not available to the usual tourist. Amongst other delightful spots near Cairo is a place which every tourist and artist is advised to visit-the tomb of an Arab Sheik at A1 Marg, a village about nine miles from Cairo. It is truly a beautiful spot. As we get into our train on our road south we get a good general view of Cairo. We are proceeding from Cairo by railway direct to Assuan, where the famous barrage, known as the Dam, has been erected across the Nile, opposite the submerged Island of Philae, at a cost of

14,000,000.This section of country is extremely interesting; it passes from Cairo via Heloun, Wasta, Assiut, Keneh, through Lower Egypt to Luxor, a modern tourist and health resort, the southernmost section of Upper Egypt, directly adjoining which are the ruins of the ancient city of Karnak, opposite to which again are the world famed Valleys of the Tombs of the Kings.

In speaking of the Egyptian Railways, it may be stated that the first railway in the Nile Valley was completed from Alexandria to Cairo in 1867. From our dining and sleeping cars we are now looking out on wonderfully picturesque scenes on old Father Nile. Soon we are at Assiut. (Slide) This picture gives you an idea of the grand old river with its beautiful shadows and lights and incomparable reflections that must be seen, and the next thing you will probably see is a native boat going along full speed in the sunset, bound north for Cairo with a cargo of wheat. This I snapped one evening. One of my greatest pleasures in Egypt was to go picture hunting in an old Arab boat on the Nile. In entering Luxor early in the morning, you pass the vast ruins of the City of Karnak. From here long avenues, lined with hundreds of carved Ram Sphinxes, led to the river and the Priests took their dead in huge boats to the other side, passing the famous Colossi of Memnon and other temples, then buried them in the Desert Valley where the Tombs of the Kings are, and also in other vast cemeteries of the ancients. Here it was-where the jewelled mummies of all Egypt's dead kings were found, purely by accident. These bodies four- or five thousand years old, splendidly preserved, have evidently been the object of every intruding and robber race that came through Egypt, yet many of them were so well hidden by the Priests that they were discovered only fifty years ago through the Arabs giving the secret away, and they were all secretly taken to Cairo, where they now are in the great Bulak museum where the whole world has the opportunity to see these grand old ancient rulers such as Rameses the Second, and others.

Leaving picturesque Luxor---one of the beauty spots of Egypt--we are going to Assuan. The Cataract Hotel there gives you in the foreground a good idea of the comfortable buildings Tourists make their homes in during the season, and of the Rocks in the foreground forming the Nile Cataracts. The first cataract begins at Assuan. From Assuan we take a carriage or car, drive for a short distance and we come to the wonderful dam. Since this picture was taken, in the construction phase, of the great engineering triumph, it has been raised fifty or sixty feet, and has brought a territory of an additional three million acres under profitable cultivation. Through the raising of the Assuan dam the water is held up for nearly 120 miles south of it, and thus we have to face the great tragedy of Philae, that lovely island covered with the finest ancient temples of Isis and Osiris-records of Roman, Jewish, even the great Bonaparte's soldiers-all submerged in now alas--forty to fifty feet of the waters of the Nile. Here you see Philae-as it appears in 1900 before it was submerged (slide). In the centre you see the temple called Pharaoh's Bed. At the back, and in this picture, you will see how it looked inside eight years ago when I was examining the altar and finely sculptured portraits of ancient gods. There is another impression of Pharaoh's Bed taken against the sun; I took it from the boat on leaving. It is a sad and unforgettable impression as you look down on these unequalled and beautiful monuments of ancient art-now beneath you in the waters. The temples of Philae are rapidly disappearing. The water has, in a brief period risen to the top of the balustrades and columns as you see it in the next slide. The tragedy of Philae could easily form the sole subject of an interesting lecture for a whole evening. You see the palms with their tops showing how the waters held up by the dam have simply submerged everything with the result, that those magnificent ruins have disappeared, yet the practical addition to cultivated areas in Upper Egypt is so great that the matter of preserving ancient monuments had, naturally, to go by the board m the public interest. Now I take you on the Railroad from Cairo to Shellal, where the Sudan Government Steamer "Britain" is waiting, opposite to the white Egyptian train at the pier side on which you have just arrived, and you are now going with me on to that steamer. (slide) For a day and a half, this boat will take you over a beautiful stretch of the Nile to Wady Halfa, the first Sudan Station. The distance from Cairo to Shellal is roughly 555 miles, and you are now going 208 miles southward on this steamer, and will pass through torrid Nubia. Here you see some real children of the Nile and from this picture you are able to get a good impression of them. The Sudan Government looks well after these dark skinned youngsters, and sees to it that all their various requirements are attended to, such as scholastic and medical necessities, and, as the climate is so unusually beautiful and warm they require little clothes-most of them have next to nothing on. So being happy beyond description they need but little assistance.

Passing from Shellal we pass one of Thomas Cook & Sons, fine Nile steamers at full steam going south on the same route as the Government steamer. For many years Messrs. Cook have done magnificent service for passengers and tourists on the Nile. The trip you have done by rail in a night and a day coming down from Cairo to Shellal is covered in twelve days on one of those river boats. That river journey for those-who have the time-is unforgetable in many ways as you stop every day or two at the large number of ancient and more interesting places which abound on the route.

In contrast to modern steamers on the Nile I would like now to show you how an ancient Nubian skipper negotiates the River in his own way in a frail basketboat which apparently is considered quite safe, and in which he appears to be perfectly happy. (slide) Steaming through Nubia we pass hosts of historical places, the date palm city of Derr-Korosko of Sudan War fame, Roman forts on the crests of the hill, below which the entrances to tombs can often be noticed. Then there are many smaller ancient Egyptian temples etc., until we get to one of the greatest sights on the Upper Nile-close to the battle field of Toski---where Grenfell end Wingate smashed the hordes of Dervishes advancing into Egypt from the Sudan.

I refer to the great Rock temples of Abou Simbel beyond doubt the finest Rock temples in the world. The Royal figures in the front are sixty feet high. They represent Rameses the Second, the greatest Pharaoh of all the dynastics who built this temple carved out of solid limestone 5000 years ago in celebration of his victories over the Assyrians. There is an entrance quite forty feet high into the temple between the two central figures, and the aspects of Abou Simbel are most beautiful, outside as well as inside, as the slides showing this wonderful monument of ancient Egypt's glory prove.

The next view shows an Egyptian native boat. You will note how close it comes up to the temple--this is of course during the tourist season when the water is well up. I went there one year in April after the season, at the same spot you see now, and found the corn of the native crops growing luxuriously on the Nile Mud. Our steamer was quite a mile away in a narrow channel waiting for us till we finished our day at the Temple. We leave this grand monument of Ancient Egypt's mightiest ruler, whose mummified feature you can still view in a glass case of the great State museum at Cairo. A bronze memorial plate is fixed on the rocks near the entrance of the Temple 'to the memory of the British officers and soldiers, who fell in the cause of defending civilization on the adjacent battle field of Toski. Soon we cross Egypt's Southern frontier, gliding up to the landing stage at Wady Halfa--Lord Kitchener's chief base in the great Sudan campaign of 1898. Wady Halfa brings us to a new atmosphere of solely British administration and makes you feel at once that you are in a land risen recently from the ashes of barbarism to peaceful healthy prosperity under the direct protection of the Union Jack. At Wady Half a, there are still some living remnants of the Dervishes who were our bitterest enemies twenty-five years ago. They fought gallantly against us at Omdurman, and these old men-no doubt on account of good behaviour for many years, have I learn, been recently released. Now we see the Sudan Desert train "The Sunshine Express" ready to take us from Wady Halfa via Abu Hamed to Khartoum. Our chief station en route is Atbara junction, and after that we soon approach the fine bridge over the Blue Nile at Khartoum. At Khartoum-Gordon Pasha's City you are 1342 miles south of Cairo. It is a great city risen from the ruins of savage rule, which Lord Kitchener and General Sir Reginald Wingate have practically recreated. It is the one great city in the whole of Africa, where British enterprise and equitable treatment of native races, has proved more than anywhere else how to bring about actual and tangible results within two decades of a sanguinary war and the total destruction of retrogressive forces. (Applause) Here is the Governor General's palace (slide). Near here, are situated in a perfect tropical garden, beautifully kept, the steps on which poor General Gordon was killed. The next slide shows a scene in that wonderful creation of Lord Kitchener-the Gordon College. The boys you see are going in for physical exercises on European lines; they are the grandsons of some of the Emirs and Dervishes that were killed off en masse on the gory fields of Omdurman and Kerreri. Lord Kitchener made an appeal after the battle to the British people to find the money for founding this wonderful teaching institution in the heart of Africa for these conquered people. The response, and the subsequent results, have been successful beyond expectation. (Applause) Let me now show you some of the great men who have made and built up the Sudan. Here is the portrait of General Gordon, Pasha of immortal fame. (Applause) The next is that of Lord Kitchener, as Sirdar of the Egpytian Army, as he looked in 1898, that great master mind and gallant soldier, whose deeds I venture to say, have never yet been estimated at their true value. (Hear, hear) Both have alas passed from us, but happily we still have today General Sir Reginald Wingate (applause) the third of the gallant men who have made the modern Sudan, and to whom the people of the Empire owe the greatest debt for consolidating the work that he has done, not only in the Sudan, but in the recent great war of which little is known yet. Sir Reginald Wingate with a band of distinguished indefatigable official workers like Sir Lee Stack and Colonel Midwinter of the Railways, and many others are the real builders of the AngloEgyptian Sudan and have initiated most modern developments, with the financial aid of the Imperial Treasury, such as irrigation and cotton projects south of Khartoum and on the Upper Nile which will shortly yield epoch results to the Empire. I should like to take you for a whole week around Khartoum to the battle fields-to the ruins of Meroe, near Atbara, but the call is "Southward Ho." on our long journey to the Cape of Storms.

Two hundred miles south of Khartoum we leave the Sudan train at Kosti, where there is a fine steel swing bridge across the Nile at the southern head of the Sudan Railway from Wady Halfa, and 1582 miles south of Cairo. A most comfortable saloon steamer takes us down the Upper Nile, a distance of 890 miles, to the borders of British Uganda, through the wonderful Sudd districts and big game country, grand tropical scenery with most extraordinary continuous and unexpected views on both banks of the river-and altogether a tour which I hope many of you here will be privileged to make one day. Here you see what we may call one of the monarchs of the Upper Nile as seen from the steamer deck, a hippopotamus. You notice he is enjoying an afternoon siesta in a quiet pool, but in a few days after you may see' him a victim to the hunter.

Here is an African Zebra hunt on what is called a Safari, typical of a big game hunting scene in these areas, and I wish I could show you the pictures I have of elephants and lions at bay-a set of pictures sent to me years ago by the late Captain Selous, one of the greatest African hunters and explorers of our times, whose friendship I was privileged to enjoy for over thirty years, and who was unfortunately killed during the guerilla war operations in what was formerly German East Africa-now called Tanganyka Territory.

We leave the Sudan steamer at Gondokoro and are 2492 miles south of Cairo, and enter British Uganda. Uganda is an African Kingdom of 20,000 square miles and has a young native king or "Kabaka" now 24 or 26 years old. His name is Daudy. With his Ministers he rules, under British advisership, a great, peaceful and pastoral people who already produce a considerable quantity of cotton now being exported to the value of 1500,000 annually. It is owing to the enlightened policy of the Uganda and Sudan Governments that vast quantities of cotton are going to be produced along the White Nile and near the source of the great river, and it is from those sections of Africa and the Delta of Egypt that the largest supplies for our Lancashire mills are going to be furnished within the next decade (hear, hear). In Uganda we are on the Equator-in a very hot country, and I would like to advise you that we are now approaching the country where the sources of the Nile originate. (slide) Here you see the snowclad peaks and icy glaciers twenty thousand feet high, of the Equatorial Alps, known as Ruwenzori which, along with Kili Madjaro and Mount Kenia are the highest mountains in Uganda and British East Africa, the latter territory being now officially known as Kenya Territory.

1 am now going to take you 200 miles south-east from Lake Albert Nyanza and show you where the Nile actually leaves Lake Victoria Nyanza, that great African Equatorial inland sea three times the size of Scotland. Here you see a view of the Ripon Falls at Jinja where the Nile is born. The drop of water is only thirty feet, where it is pouring out of the Lake, which itself is full of wonderful scenes; islands that were once the home of sleeping sickness. in a great stretch of water on which you can now take excursions in every comfort on Government steamers of 1500 tons. Old Father Nile, after emerging from this Lake, travels 2,000 miles down the valley, through the Sudan into Egypt, till he empties his waters incomparably rich in fertile ingredients into the Mediterranean. The green strip on the map with a vast desert belt on each side produces food supplies on the largest scale, especially in the Delta, where you know that cotton and sugar are produced, to the value at present prices of not less than fifty millions sterling per annum. (Applause)

You have now seen the actual sources of the Nile, and I ask you to remember that when at Lake Albert we enter the Belgian Congo Colony. Now we cannot enter the Congo without thinking of its Sovereign, His Majesty, King Albert (applause) with whom I have had the pleasure of having friendly relations even when he was Crown Prince, when he went through Rhodesia to the Congo twelve years ago and, like a wise man, found out for himself, what was required to do away with the, at that time considerably exaggerated propaganda of atrocities. King Albert has since proved to the world, that the Belgian people can govern a Colony on most modern lines, with a vast native population properly controlled and that if necessary reforms had to be introduced, he was the man who had able officials to see them carried out effectively. (Applause) I can say, with authority, that fifteen years ago every Equatorial colony in Africa-no matter under what flag-had some kind of atrocities going on within their territories. Today these do not occur. The Congo authorities have not only done away with all atrocities in their territory but have made it one of the most progressive tropical colonies in the world. In the Belgian Congo today you have excellent motor roads and motor services. You have a modern system of administration from which we in South Africa, and even in East Africa and the Portuguese are taking valuable lessons every day. Let us now enter the Belgian Congo at Mahaji, which is a Port on the western shore of the Lake Albert Nyanza and one of the sources of the Albert Nile though the most important source is of course the Victoria Nile which I showed you emerging from Lake Victoria Nyanza, a few moments ago.

Near Lake Albert is' Ruanda, a district recently ceded to Belgium, formerly belonging to Germany, one of the greatest Central African cattle countries known and climatically said to be quite suitable to white population. The Ruanda people look somewhat war-like, but are not so in reality, and are on the whole a very fine native type and are anxious to work amicably both with the Belgian Government and with the British authorities. I should think this new part of the Belgian Congo Colony is going to be one of the few parts of the Congo where European settlers will flourish and ultimately make their permanent homes. But to bring this about -we want more and more railways and for these Africa is still calling loudly. (Hear, hear) At Mahaji, 2807 miles south of Cairo, we finish the first section of our great journey. From here we have to take a 600 or 700 mile motor ride running in a southwesterly direction to the Equator, right on to Stanleyville, the official capital of the Eastern Congo. I received a telegram a couple of days ago from the correspondent of the "African World" at Brussels giving me a message from the Colonial Minister, Monsieur Franck, a very distinguished colonial administrator and a good friend of ours, which reads as follows "The motor road constructed from Mahaji to Stanleyville .which necessitated a preliminary short caravan trip round the Rapids of the Nile and steamer trip from the Sudan border to Lake Albert will shortly be replaced by another route." This new motor road will proceed from the southern frontier of the Sudan to Stanleyville, via the Kilo goldfields through the great forest. Brussels cables further that this motor road is today in actual use for 400 kilom., from the Nile at Redjaf to Faradji then to Bumpile and Buta and 245 miles by steamer to Stanleyville. The motor roads on this section-now in course of construction-should be in running order in a few months time. It will be much easier for Cape Cairo passengers to take the respective trips by the new route and thereby avoid the difficult stretch round the Nile Rapids for a distance of quite 100 miles.

Here you see a typical view of the great Equatorial forest through which this motor road has been constructed. (Slide) You will understand that it has not been easy work, and does great credit to our Belgian friends but it is interesting to recall that these forests were all traversed in solemn dank darkness by Sir Henry Stanley 40 years ago and concerning which he gave us such wonderful descriptions in his books. Here you see villages, clearings and densest tropical jungle. Today, thanks to Belgian enterprise you will be able to view these scenes from comfortable motor cars for a run of 700 miles, with rest houses and supplies properly kept and fairly healthy, as long as ordinary precautions -necessary in the tropics-are observed. There are of course as yet no hotels in these primeval forests and tourists will have to carry their fuel and necessary food supplies, but eggs, fowls and fruit can always be obtained in abundance, and should make that part of the equatorial journey quite enjoyable, and full of interesting experiences.

The next view gives you an idea of the canoes on the Congo River and also of the width of that great River. Here are some of the inhabitants of that country, who do not look discontented. (slide) These are types of Congo natives, who it may be noted are very fine workers. (slide) Lord Leverhulme told us quite recently that he has in his employ some 20,000 of these native people in his different palm nut factories and plantations in the western Congo Valley, and he has found them the finest class of workers, and if they have proper food and supervision nothing but good could be said about them. Where, in fact, would Africa be without its wonderful native workers?

The next view shows Stanleyville. We are now concluding the first part of the second section to the Equator from the Nile. At Stanleyville there are some fine buildings and stores. The Stanley Rapids are in the immediate vicinity and from here westward the Congo Valley stretches 2,000 miles to its estuary on the Atlantic Coast.

The forest road via Leopoldville, Stanley Pool and Kinshasha, the centre of the Lever industries, you have just motored through from Mahaji to Stanleyville brings you to a point 3480 miles south of Cairo.

We are now going southward by Congo steamer and two short railways and another 300 mile river trip on the Congo after which we arrive at Bukama, which is the northern railhead and terminus from Cape Town in the furthest south.

In carts and ox wagons you see the manner we used to travel in Africa in days of old, crossing rivers by carts and mule teams, or trekking by ox wagon for thousands of miles. What a difference there is now from 25 years ago! today mails and passengers are not only being carried by fine steamers and sleeping car railway saloons, but in the Belgian Congo-they have a regular service of carrying passengers and mails by sea planes. Nowhere else in Africa have we got to this stage yet, as they, do in the Congo-viz., carrying their mails in 24 hours down to the Coast where it used to take 8 or 10 days.

I must now digress for a few moments, to the methods of constructing the Cape Cairo Route. In the Congo Railway section I am about to show you, the railway line was often constructed at the rate of a mile a day. They first cut a road through the dense bush and completed the earth-works, then laid iron sleepers, because the white ants in Central Africa were far too fond of wooden sleepers, particularly in that part of the country. Perhaps during the afternoon 'the railway looked something like this (slide) and probably towards evening it looked like that. (slide showing rails laid on sleepers) A construction engine would probably soon run over it, and then within a week you had it as shown here (slide showing complete track) the iron Spinal Road to the north completed for working traffic. (Applause) I think the magnificent railway construction work that has been done in that particular section of central southern Africa should be brought to the notice of people, who will be glad to hear something about Africa's remarkable railway builders. Mr. Cecil Rhodes was the genius to whom it is primarily due. His was the brain that conceived the idea. His was the magnetic personality that influenced the late Mr. Alfred Beit to work and to devote millions to the completion of plans, which sometimes did not quite meet with his personal approval. But Mr. Alfred Beit did not care as long as he could support his fellow comrade Cecil Rhodes for whose brilliant Imperial projects and ideals he had the greatest admiration. After Mr. Beit's death in 1906 it was found he had left a trust of four million pounds sterling to continue the financial support for the Cape to Cairo projects-a work which is carried on very ably and in a most thorough open-hearted manner by his brother, Sir Otto Beit K.C.M.G., who did so much for our boys at the fighting fronts during the late war, not only for South Africans but for all patriotic objects, wherever money and his own efforts could be of assistance. (Applause) Here we have another man who built most of the lines from the Cape to the Congo, the late Mr. Pauling (slide), another friend of thirty years standing. He passed to the better land eighteen months ago to the deepest regret of all who knew him. He was one of the best men that ever lived and one of the finest types of men that ever came to Africa for carrying out huge work in a practical manner. George Pauling's name will live along with those of Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Beit and also that of his partner Alfred Lawley, who is happily still in active service, building at present railways from Beira on the East Coast to the Zambesi, and to the East African Areas at the sources of the Nile. Mr. Lawley is keeping up the work which George Pauling in life accomplished so successfully, and is loyally supported in equally important operations by Sir Charles Metcalf, the Chief Engineer of the route, by Mr. Wilson Fox, M.P. and Baron Emile D'erlanger. Yet really next to Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Beit, comes the man who took up Rhodes work (when he passed in 1902,) Mr. Robert Williams, one of the greatest leaders in the development of Africa living today (slide). I may recall to you that Robert Williams had for many years men associated with him like the late George Grey, (brother of Lord Grey of Falloden) who-like Frederick Selous-was one of the best men of all the good men that ever came to Africa. Robert Williams fortunately lives today to carry on the work, especially the construction of another line which he is building from Lobito Bay on the Atlantic West Coast up to the western Congo Frontier in Katanga. This line will be the most important western rib of the Cape to Cairo spinal railway, and the money for it is being supplied by British, American and Belgian capitalists. To Mr. Robert Williams chiefly we owe the development of those important copper mines in the Katanga district between Bukama and the Rhodesian frontier. I can only give you an idea of these great copper mines and smelting works (slide). They turn out approximately 25,000 tons of pure copper per year, but so far they have only been working for eight years and expect to double and treble their output in the next five years. Of course it is nothing very- great compared to what you have in some copper mines on this continent, but it is a fair start and I think we have every reason to be proud of the achievement. During the war-the Star of the Congo mines and their smelters at Lubumbashi turned out 40,000 tons in one year, which was, incidentally a very useful contribution to the British Ministry of Munitions. (Hear, hear) At Bukama the northern terminus of the railway from Capetown, you are 4368 miles south of Cairo, and after passing Elizabethville the rising Capital township of Katanga and the Belgian frontier station of Sakania--you reach the Northern Rhodesian frontier-British Rhodesia. We run through some wonderful tropical vegetation-pass two great mining areas on the line-at Bana Kuba and Broken Hill, where extensive lead and zinc deposits are being mined on the largest scale. Then we cross the wide and navigable Kafue River by the longest bridge in Africa 1850 feet- fifteen spans of 100 feet each-another of George Paulings achievements, and it stands as a noble specimen of what British workmanship can accomplish under very difficult circumstances in Southern tropical Africa. (slide) We are now well on the road to the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi and approach Livingstone 5226 miles south of Cairo. From Bukama onwards you have travelled in the Congo-Rhodesia-Cape Express, and out of the window you get a glimpse of a Review of the Northern Rhodesian police (natives) who did very gallant work with General Northey in German East Africa. This review took place eight years ago when I was at Livingstone, the official capital of Northern Rhodesia, which is only seven miles from the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi,--which we are now rapidly approaching. Here is the first view of them taken 3,000 feet high from the Aeroplane "Silver Queen" in which Colonel Sir Peter van Ryneveld and his gallant colleague Captain Sir Quinton Brand, both gallant young South African Boer flying men-flew from Cairo to Capetown. This view shows you the great cleft into which the Zambesi river plunges and gives a very good idea of how the railway bridge to the north is spanning the narrow gorge through which the whole of this enormous mass of water from the Falls passes, the only place where it breaks through and comes into a canyon of fifty-five miles in length, ultimately to empty itself 1,000 miles away, passing rich coal and oil areas, within 100 miles of the sea, into the Indian Ocean. Reverting, to the Victoria Falls, I cannot help diverting your attention for a moment or two. When I entered Canada and made my first visit to Niagara Falls, and after a good look at both sides, I must honestly admit at once that I came here holding entirely different views about the Niagara Falls to the ideas I hold today after my inspection. I certainly think comparisons between Niagara and the Victoria Falls, especially critical comparisons, are quite unnecessary. We are naturally in South Africa, very proud of our Victoria Falls, they are the greatest cataracts in the world, and must be seen to be appreciated in their grandeur and infinite might. Yet Niagara has its equally wonderful outstanding features. The different, figures as to the height and to width of the Victoria Falls are as follows: The height of these great Falls-this is at their beginning on the north bank, viz, the Western Falls, also named the Devil's Cataract, is roughly, from where it drops into the depths 400 feet; The average height of the whole Victoria Falls is 400 to 450 feet, over a total width of 3500 yards. The height of Niagara Falls is, according to official figures, 160 to 170 feet, on an average, as against 450 feet of the African Falls, with a width of, roughly 1,000 yards against our 3500 yards.

Now, this sounds somewhat alarming and certainly gives the first honors to the Victoria Falls. I have been there a week at a time and tried to study them under all kinds of conditions, atmospherical and otherwise. You can certainly view them quite differently to Niagara, you can get on a rocky ledge about half way up their height and be only 100 yards away from the front-in such a different way to the manner you can see Niagara, where you mostly look down on the. Falls. I would say that when facing the mighty waters of the Victoria Falls a feeling overcomes every one that you are something very small in this earthly vale of tears, and that there must be an Almighty Power-with this enormous display of Nature's supremacy facing you-making you think all the time very deeply about the wonderful resources which an Almighty Providence has provided for mankind to use for its own advancement as it may be required (applause). For a moment I would like to compare the waters of Niagara with the Victoria Falls. The gallons per minute at high water coming over Victoria Falls are estimated at 100,000,000 at low water 70,000,000. At the Niagara Falls I find the high water figure is per minute estimated at 83,000,000 gallons and at low water at 66,000,000 gallons. The tonnage of water passing over the Victoria Falls per hour is estimated at 30,000,000 tons at high water, and, at low water during the African winter months of 20,000,000 tons. Niagara at high water passes 25,000,000 tons and at low water 20,000,000 tons over its edges, so that your Canadian and American Falls are fully equal to our much greater African Falls in tonnage and in water it precipitates, particularly at low water. What struck me at once when looking at both the American and the Canadian side, was the outstanding fact of the terrific and enormous inherent force with which the Niagara River water comes along before it precipitates itself over the edge-a fierce stream-apparently far greater in the resistless power of its tremendous current, than we have on the Zambesi. But we must always remember this, that where you have your own wonderful Falls and River fed by two great Lakes, our Zambesi flows 1200 miles almost sluggishly from its source near the west coast of Africa across the continent, through mostly flat countries and is fed by some large tributaries and general ordinary rivers, and thus really cannot be compared with the force of water pouring into your little Niagara River from those great lakes, more like vast inland seas than anything else. I would repeat that no one who has seen both Niagara and the Victoria Falls would dare to make any critical comparisons. Niagara is such an object lesson in the successful harnessing of Nature's power by applied modern science-in its distribution for industrial exploitation of that power-that so far as the Niagara Falls and the Zambesi Falls are concerned-we in Africa have-I think-to wait a long time yet before we shall see such sights as I saw yesterday. I can only hope that our Governments concerned-Rhodesian and the Union authorities-will send a commission to study matters on the spot, and some day use the power of our great Falls at the Zambesi in a similarly beneficial way for the country and its people as you are doing here. (Applause) Now we will go back to the Victoria Falls and show you after the Western Fall, the main Fall of which is in its width alone about equivalent to your Niagara, viz,--1,000 yards. It is a truly wondrous sight when you stand in front of one of those giant columns of waters rushing into the depths below you. To get some kind of an idea you may, imagine yourself standing in front of St. Pauls Cathedral in London and looking at the golden cross on the dome above-450 feet-You can then imagine the vast height and extent of these falling waters. I do not know any better way in which to give you an impression of the height and the magnitude of the whole spectacle.

The next view is eastward at the Rainbow Falls, and we do have some perfect rainbows especially near that paradise of tropical vegetation known as the Rain Forest, just where the water breaks through from the gorge at the back. You now see finally the Eastern Falls, what we call the Eastern Cataracts. In any case, what I have shown you represents practically a width of over 2'% miles-a wonderful sight-one of the greatest the world offers today-which everyone should see if he possibly can do so, and I may say "once seen it can never be forgotten" (slide). (Applause) Let us proceed. This is the great bridge thrown across the gorge in 1904 as it was during construction (slide). It shows you the beautiful design of another good personal friend-alas also gone west-Mr. George A. Hobson, of Sir Douglas Fox, and partners, who are with Sir Charles Metcalfe-previously mentioned-the famous engineers of the Cape Cairo Route. The other view shows you the bridge as it was completed. When I passed, yesterday, over the suspension bridge at Niagara and saw the foaming rapids and whirlpool beneath me, I concluded that one certainly fees more uncomfortable in looking at your rapids from 200 or 250 feet above them than you would look at the comparatively quiet river bed of the Zambesi River from this great bridge thrown across the gorge at a height of 400 feet.

We are obliged to leave the Victoria Falls and I would remind you that we are now 5226 miles south of Cairo and well on the road to Buluwayo--on the Congo-Zambesi Express, stopping at Wankie Colliery, one of the greatest African coal mines, with a carboniferus area of 300 square miles in extent (slide). Perhaps one of the chief reasons why the power of the Victoria Falls has not been used, as yet it may be, is because of the cheap power obtainable from the adjacent coal mines-seventy miles south-for here they can mine good coal at a cost of ten shillings to ten and six pence per ton. Wankie now supplies coal and coke for the whole of Rhodesia and also the copper mines of Katanga. At 280 miles south of the Zambesi we come to Buluwayo--the old capital of Lobengula, Chief of the Matabel tribes who ruled an iron people with grim despotism and an iron hand. Buluwayo--a modernly laid out city with wide avenues-a full size statue of Cecil Rhodes deservedly pointing to the north in its principal streetis full of interesting sights. Just behind the Government House are three Kafir huts (Rondavels) which Rhodes had built (slide). That thatch-roof and those walls built of mud made a comfortable cool and clean home. One but was used as a sitting room, one as a bedroom and one as a study. Just behind the huts is the tree under which Lobengula sat in judgment and got rid of hundreds of his people who did not act according to his liking. (slide). The ring of stone is still there, also the big stone on which the despotic chief sat. Those days are happily past, the view of Government House alongside of it is the best proof as to what civilization has done, and no matter how the methods of conquest of the early days were criticised, I can assure you-they were the only way of stopping the savage barbarism which then ruled this land. Today it is admitted that practically everything those gallant pioneers did was largely justified, and everything that was done then has since conferred great benefits on South Africa, and Rhodesia in particular, and on the British Empire in general.

We cannot fail to visit the famous Motopo Hills--the impregnable last resort of the warlike Matabele tribes. We slowly climb to the top of a hill 800 feet high crowned with huge granite boulders, which looks out over vast valleys resembling an ocean of petrified sea waves. When Cecil Rhodes got up there he said "Truly, this is the World's view" and he was right. Any visitor arriving there the first time has a peculiar impression, which cannot be well described. I have been there several times. I have visited that lonely grave and not very long ago, they buried near him his dear colleague and life partner in his Imperial Work, "Dr. Jim"-otherwise known as Sir Starr Jameson, Bart (slide). They are buried there together and I should think these two graves will for years to come be the centre for thousands and tens of thousands of tourists who will visit South Africa and who will pay their respect to the memory of those two great men carrying out their Imperial ideals in such magnitude of conception and in such a remarkably short time. The "Founders" grave they call it in Rhodesia-a hallowed spot it will be to all, forever! Before leaving, here is a picture of a sturdy Matabele boy who is the guardian of the graves. I photographed him and hope to meet him, that faithful soul, who keeps the watch on this lonely hill so well, on my next visit to Rhodesia, which I hope will be next year. In connection with the grave, I am giving you here in conclusion the letter of Mr. Rhodes which he wrote on the 7th of Sept. 1900, and sent to a friend when talking about the prospects of completing the Cape, to Cairo Railway- here it is: (slide).

"As to the commercial aspect of the Line, everyone supposes "that the railway is being built with the sole object of some "one getting in at Cape Town and getting out at Cairo. This "is of course ridiculous. The object is to cut Africa through "the centre and the railway will pick up trade all along "the route. The junctions to the East and West Coasts which will occur in the future will be outlets for the traffic obtained "along the route as it passes through Africa, at any rate up "to Buluwayo, where I am now. It has been a payable under

taking and I think it will continue to be so as we advance "into the Far Interior. We propose now to go on and cross "the Zambesi just below the Victoria Falls-I should like to "have the spray of the Falls over the carriages.

Yours

C. J. RHODES

7.1.1900

A peculiar and pathetic fact I found out 8 years ago when I was there last, was that Mr. Rhodes never saw the Victoria Falls. He was once within 70 miles of them when he got a very bad attack of Malaria, and was ordered straight to Salisbury. After that he never had the opportunity again-what with the Matabele rebellion and war and the Jameson raid. He went back to England during the Boer War and passed away 2 years after he wrote that letter. Very beautifully did he refer to the spray from the Falls over the northward bound carriages-but he was not spared to see the realization of his dream-when the Bridge was opened to railway traffic in 1904-two years after his death.

At Buluwayo we are 5806 miles south of Cairo, and are now on the way from Buluwayo to Cape Town. Close to Buluwayo we pass a gold mine which is called the Old Nick. This picture (slide) however is not the Old Nick, it is the headgear of a very famous and world known Rhodesian gold mine, about fifty miles by motor from Buluwayo--the Lonely Reef. There are no other mines-strange to say-within many miles of it and at the Lonely they are now working the 28th level and turning out 7,000 to 8,000 ounces of gold per month. It is one of the few gold mines in which the great London House of Rothschilds are interested and is paying a 25% dividend on its moderate capital, and is considered by experts to have still many years of profitable work before it.

The question of natives in Rhodesia has been much discussed. The natives. in the colony are going well on the whole, and although there has been in recent years a big agitation by certain well meaning societies in England against the land holding conditions of the charter as held by the British South African Company (as affecting the natives) it is generally admitted that on the whole there is not very much to grumble at. .I would like to tell you that the natives have not been robbed of their lands and anyone who has studied affairs in that country will have to agree that when a just and equitable claim is made on behalf of the native Races it always has the fullest consideration not only by the Chartered Company but in the final stage by the British Government (applause).

Now we enter the last stretch of our long 7000 mile journey. On the way from Buluwayo to Cape Town we pass Chief Kharnas country-Bechualand and famous little Mafeking scene of Baden Powell's noted siege and approach Kimberley. This is the great diamond mining centre of the world, the headquarters of the De Beers Consolidated mines. At Kimberley we are 6089 miles south of Cairo.

We are approaching the Karroo, the prairieland plateaux lands of Central South Africa, wherein I was born-one of, the finest countries in the world as far as climate is concerned and the home of virile health and therefore much happiness. We are now about 10 hours journey by rail from Cape Town. Presently "•e enter the mountainous belt of the western Cape Province at the Hex River Pass. The line turns in cork-screw fashion. Down in the valley you see the vineyards and fruit farms, nestling in lovely foliage and with low mountain crest capped with snow and ice, and also Views of prosperous farming scenes. Our train is now reaching Cape Town. The Congo-Zambesi-Cape Express is finally rushing into Cape Town Station (slide). In South Africa we have, as you note, some very fine engines. Our railways are splendidly organised. I am privileged to give you an extract from a cable which I received from Johannesburg here last night from Sir William Hoy, the distinguished General Manager of the South African Railways and Ports who has been to America and Canada and is coming again to your side before long-a man of exceptional ability who takes the keenest interest in studying everything he sees in his own sphere in the United States and Canada along with the view of applying it beneficially to the requirements of South Africa. Sir William Hoy says in his cable

"Johannesburg Nov. 3rd, 1920

Government message. to Leo Weinthal, King Edward Hotel, Toronto. Hearty Greetings to Members of Empire Club of Canada. This is the Diamond Jubilee of First Railway in South Africa being opened. 18,000 miles are now in working on routes south of Equator of which we are

working 11,500 miles. When construction of junction

of northern and southern links of Cape Cairo Route is decided upon=darkest Africa-land of mystery-will be so no longer. Not long ago the whole project of route was regarded as an idle dream project. Now the project is beyond the realm of fancy and approaching realization. Of the whole distance of 7,000 miles from Cape to Nile Delta 5,000 miles can now be travelled over by rail. Our southern section exceeds 2,600 miles northward to navigable Congo with a net work of branches to Walvis Bay--on the south western seaboard connected with Beira -Delagoa Bay and Durban on the East Coast, linking up interior railways and paving the way for civilization progress and prosperity. This central highway through jungles of primeval Africa and along the Great Lakes, where the Nile has its source is truly one of the greatest romances in the history of railways.

(Signed, HOY)

In connection with this eloquent message I may tell you I cabled to my office that I had been invited to address the Empire Club of Canada and since receiving the cable from Sir William Hoy, General Sir Reginald Wingate of Sudan fame, sent me the following cable

"Best wishes to the members of the Empire Club and for your lecture, which should be most helpful in focusing attention on the increased railway construction so urgently and vitally demanded for the development of Africa."

Having entered Cape Town station, I would show you the exterior view of it. You now see the route by which you have come from Buluwayo on the section map (slide)-and will remember you have travelled 6736 miles from Cairo-adding 148 miles from Port Said to Cairo-making the total mileage of journey 6884 miles. I am now going to show you some glimpses of Cape Town, with grand old Table Mountain practically overhanging the City-one of the finest sights in the world (slide). When you walk through Adderley street in that beautiful bracing air, the blue sky above you in practically everlasting sunshine-in this white city nestling among lovely forests and rich foliage on the slopes of a grand old mountain, it is a sight and experience never to be forgotten. I maintain that Cape Town is one of the beauty spots of the southern hemisphere, unequalled in its historical and picturesque environments.

Here is the famous old Dutch House-called Groote Schuur, "Great Barn"-built by Cecil Rhodes after the original was burned some 25 years ago, which he bequeathed to the nation as the residence of the first Prime Minister of a United South Africa, under the British Flag (applause). It is situated on one of the outlying spurs of Table Mountain, the Lion's Rump, and strangely enough the first Prime Minister of a Federated British South Africa to live in it was the late Right Honourable General Louis Botha. Here is General Botha. (slide) when at his best. Eight years ago my wife and I met General and Mrs. Botha at "Groot Schuur" when thev gave us a delightful day in that beautiful spot. I might easily give you my remaining time talking of General Botha alone, but ordinary words fail to describe what this great man accomplished-how he kept his bond for the peace he signed with Great Britain; how, in 1902, eight years later, he assumed the Premiership of South Africa at the Union Convention-how only four years after that historical event he suppressed with iron loyalty a revolt of a section of his own people; how he then equipped two armies and offered their services to the British Empire. (Hear, hear and applause) Can the grand work he did in conquering South West Africa at the opening of the world war, that large area, at a comparatively ridiculously small cost and in a very brief time, and his further work in sending 100,000 South Africans across the seas and into German East Africa ever be forgotten? Can we ever fail to remember how he came to the Peace Conference at Paris and what an outstanding figure 'he was according to Mr. Lloyd George in that Assembly? Or can we fail to remember how he created an unforgettable impression by his solidly splendid manner of calmly handling difficult problems? To our unspeakable grief he was suddenly taken from us fifteen months ago and we mourn in his passing the loss of a great Boer and British Imperialist whose death was not only an irreparable loss to South Africa but, as Mr Lloyd George justly said not long ago, an even greater loss to the Empire and the greatest loss of all to the wide world and to the whole of mankind (great applause) Yet, fortunately for South Africa, we have at its head another great Africander leader of Cape Dutch Stock, the Rt. Honourable General Tan Smuts (applause) who is generally admitted to be one of the world's outstanding figures. Jannie Smuts is a Cambridge man who has won the highest university honours and proved himself not only in the Boer War as a great `military guerilla soldier-which war we do not to-day desire to specially mention anymore-but in the world's war an equal talent for handling armies and difficult and varying diplomatic problems with unvarying success. I am sure if he could have only remained in England General Smuts would have been a conspicuous figure in the front rank of the Councils of the British Empire, judging by what he accomplished during his stay in London and at the Peace Conference in Paris. (Applause) I am delighted to be able to note from cables published in this morning's papers, that he has been able to bring sufficient influence to bear on his own party, known as the South African Party-who are loyal throughout-to invite all South Africans of British descent-the so-called Unionists, to unite their forces and he will now truly carry out what Louis Botha preached for years-viz, there should be one general policy only, and a United South African Nation under the Empire flag. For today we do not want anymore to be called Boers or British in South Africa. We want to be called South Africans and we are as proud of this fact as you are justly proud of your name as Canadians, no matter what nation you may originally be descended from. A South African nation, which is now being built up, and which will continue to be built up, Will stand for nothing else than for its own peaceful internal development and for greater progress of the Empire, which it will at all times support staunchly. (Applause) Time is slipping fast and I am anxious after Groot Schuur to show you just a glimpse of the Rhodes monument, which is twenty minutes climb on this mountain from the foot of the hill. This is a most dignified memorial, erected in memory of Rhodes with his effigy in bronze at the top, and the huge replica of the famous equine figure of "Energy" by Tweed. The monument as a whole is magnificent in its conception, and suited to its rugged environments. Quite close to it is the site of the new Cape University Buildings which are soon to arise and where Professor Sir James Beatty and other conspicuous leaders of thought and culture in the Sub Continent will spread their knowledge. In this New Southern Home of research, science, and learning, from which most important developments are certain to ensue, young South Africans will come out in future years to proceed to many parts of the world. At this house of learning hosts of South African born students will reap benefits untold through the generosity and Imperial minded foresight of men such as Rhodes, Alfred and Otto Beit and Julius Wernher. I cannot bid you goodbye at Cape Town without showing you just one picture of Table Mountain, which is typical of the beautiful colouring of our South African land with a canopy of fleecy clouds curling over its grey crests, the forests of silver leaf trees on its slopes and in its rugged glens. Imagine for a moment the grim old mountain above you-yourselves rushing through vineyards-fruit farms and exquisite scenery over a splendid road for many miles at a stretch-down towards the rocky coast leading to the Cape of Good Hope on one side, and the Indian Ocean-or the Atlantic Ocean, as you like, with heavy surf breaking on the golden beaches or over cruel black reefs. All the time for ten months out of twelve you are in beautiful sunshine, with wild flowers galore and through scenes of indescribable wealth of colour and general attractions! This motor ride is certain to be one of the greatest attractions for American and Canadian tourists when they complete the journey in reality over which I have taken you in imagination to-day, or perhaps even the circular trip in South Africa itself, which can be taken at any time at comparatively small cost in great comfort. The motor-car has, like every where else-revolutionized African travel. A Union Castle Steamer takes us away from Cape Town and we are bidding good-bye to South Africa. You have done 7,000 miles in 70 minutes in imagination. You will be able to do this journey next year in something under 50 days.

You are now on the boat and may be bound for London, Canada or New York, and you have had an opportunity of seeing an enormous stretch of land in Africa from north to south. You get the last glimpse of old Table mountain, Africa's "Southern Sentinel;" you are at sea and may be able to think of leisure over what I have been telling you this afternoon. Perhaps it may have given you a little more knowledge of our vast and mysterious continent than you had before, and the search-light thrown on this great trans-continental route to-day may bear fruit in some way. I hope anyhow that when I have left you and you may later on read more African news in your papers (which I am going to try in future to send you from the other side) (hear, hear), Canada and her people will be more interested than they were before and that anyhow you now know a little more about Africa than you did when you entered this fine room an hour ago.

THE PRESIDENT asked Mr. A. Monro Grier to express the thanks of the Club to the speaker of the day.

Mx. A. MONRO GRIER : It is impossible for me to select a sufficient number of adjectives to describe the charm of the lecture we have listened to with such thoroughly deep interest. If I called it witty, if I called it patriotic, if I summoned all those words and several others of an appreciative character, you might yet complain of my utterance on the score that I had failed to grasp the full significance of the theme. But these things, at least, it was, though it was entitled to various other encomiums. I am sure that henceforth our interest in Africa will be far greater than it has ever been, and I am sure that the modesty and charm of the speaker's presentation of (his subject will greatly enrich it in our eyes. I can pay you no greater compliment than this, Sir, as I tender you the thanks of this Club-that you have once more, as speakers before you, perhaps in lesser degree, demonstrated the breadth of the spirit of our Empire. We are all true to one another and to the whole realm to which we belong. T suggest that there is poetic fitness as well as absolute right in those concluding words of Cecil Rhodes, written in that spirit which is always in the true poet "I want to feel and see the spray of the Falls upon the carriages." That Spirit was also in Shakespeare when he used words which, in my judgement represented the standard of England actually and symbolically, when he said-"This happy plot, this earth, this realm, this England." (Loud applause)