The Pittsburgh Press (May 11, 1941)
Vichy, the Genii of Berlin?
TRANS-SAHARA RAILROAD TO DAKAR BEING RUSHED
Man’s most modern equipment…
…man’s most primitive tools are combined to build a 1,500-mile railroad across the Sahara Desert to Dakar.
Map shows route of France’s projected railroad to connect Oran and Dakar. Line will connect with existing spur from Oran which runs a short way into the interior of Morocco. At Tosaue, it splits. One branch will continue south to Niamey, from which point the Niger River runs to the Gold Coast. The main line will swing west to connect at Segou with an existing spur from Dakar.
Washington, May 10 –
The people here who see the arm of Berlin on the sleeve of Vichy are looking with growing concern at the 1,500-mile railroad which poverty-stricken France is building across the Sahara Desert to link Oran and Dakar.
They point out that Dakar, the westernmost point in Africa, is only 1,700 miles, or less than eight hours by air, from Brazil; is less than 2,500 miles from American defense outposts at Trinidad and Puerto Rico; is but 3,000 miles, or only the distance across the American continent, from the Panama Canal itself. They say that, with easy rail transportation from Oran, across the Mediterranean from Spain, the Germans could bring to Dakar tanks, guns and men which could easily be flown to an invasion of the Western Hemisphere.
Subject of controversy for 50 years
It goes without saying, they add, that the port of Dakar, as a submarine and naval base, could control the whole South Atlantic and that German planes and ships based there could play havoc with Britain’s vital ship lanes from Australia and the Far East around Africa.
The first announcement that a “normal-gauge railroad to be known as the Mediterranean-Niger system” would be built appeared recently in Vichy’s Official Journal. Pictures of construction underway just reached the U.S. by transatlantic Clipper. Two of them are shown above.
The question of a Trans-Sahara railway has been the subject of controversy for 50 years. In addition to the physical difficulties involved in bridging 1,500 miles of desert, there has been much doubt that commercial operation of such a railroad would pay. Exhaustive studies indicate that construction would cost about 5 billion francs.
Big expense for poor country
Those here who look with distrust on the project point out that this seems a tremendous expense for a France which reportedly has to print money just to meet the cost of maintaining Germany’s army of occupation. It has, in fact, been reported that German construction firms are doing the actual building of the Dakar railroad.
In the ministerial report recommending to French Chief of State Marshal Petain the building of the railroad, it was stressed that:
Europe should, to maintain its rank in the world, be directly connected with the nearby African continent.
The report went on to say that the line would be the first step in the construction of an international trans-African network.
Those here who suspect the whole project point to recent announcements from Vichy that men were being conscripted for “desert labor in Africa.” They say it can mean only one thing: Berlin wants the railroad built in a hurry.