Lord Salisbury made one of his really illuminating speeches at
the annual dinner of the Railway Benevolent Institution on Wednesday. Recalling his experiences as chairman of the Great Eastern, where, coming fresh from the fight of politics, he found railwaymen much stronger than politicians, he pointed out that the premium inevitably placed on physical vigour in the organisation of railways called for the establish- ment of benevolent societies as a complement to such a system. As instruments of expansion, subjugation, and civilisation, he went on, railways were of enormous value. The Sirdraa wielded many weapons, but if they were to ask what material weapons he wielded, "I should say he won by the railway, and the railway alone." In this connection Lord • Salisbury paid a generous tribute to the skill of Lieutenant Girouard, novs,Railway Commissioner in Egypt, and amused his hearers by an account of the difficulties encountered on the Uganda Railway, where the works had been put a stop to for three weeks "because a party of man-eating lions appeared in the locality and conceived a most unfortunate taste for all our porters." Turning to China, he said, "The politics of China are the politics of railways," and expressed the earnest hope that we should at all events obtain the right, on paper, to cover the Chinese Empire with railways. After some pregnant remarks on the competition in railway expansion, Lord Salisbury finally insisted on the necessity of securing, by wise benevolence, the contentment of railway employes, and so furnishing a solid base for the vast pyramid of industry that is to control the world. Of the Cape to Cairo route, it is hardly necessary to add, Lord Salisbury said not a word.
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