A telegram from Mombasa, dated December 21st, was published in
Monday's Times, announcing that the first locomotive had reached Port Florence, the terminus of the Uganda Railway on Victoria Nyanza. The line, which was begun just six years ago (December 11th, 1895) is 582 miles from Mombasa to Port Florence, showing that since last October, when the railhead was at mile 452, 130 miles have been laid. Extracts from the National-Zeigung of Berlin quoted in the same issue of the Times show that the Germans contemplate the achievement with curiously mixed feelings. The writer congratulates England on the completion of a colossal undertaking the political and commercial signifi- cance of which can scarcely be overlooked. "Unhappily the spectacle of English enterprise and success cannot bet arouse a feeling of humiliation in the minds of Germans who learn from it to consider the situation in their own East African possessions," the scheme for linking Dar-es-Salaam and Bagamoyo by rail with the Great Victoria Nyanza. and Lake Tanganyika remaining no further advanced than in 1891, when it was first mooted, thanks to the "pettiness of short-sighted colonial politicians." What makes the disap- pointment all the greater is the reflection that "the Hinter- land of German East Africa will contribute to secure the new English railway against the possibility of failure."
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