NEW ROUTE TO EGYPT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 29, 9 June 1913, Page 4

NEW ROUTE TO EGYPT.

According to a usually well-informed London correspondent, Lord Kitchener is shortly to visit London in con nection with a scheme, promoted In a foreign syndicate, to open a new route to Egypt. It is further stated that one item in the scheme fm v the new route is the purchase of the Mariout railway, and the Khedive has recently been approached by a group of French and Italian financiers about it. It is understood that correspondence has been taking place between the Khedive and the Egyptian Government on the subject, the latter contending that considerations of military strategv render it important that the railway sooner or later should be acquired by them, and that they should purchase it now from the Khedive himself rather than allow it to pass under foreign control. The railway, which is a narrow gauge, runs from Alexandria through "Mari out. a district of Cyrenaica, towards the Tripolitan frontier. It will be remembered that a, portion of Cyrenaica, was handed

over by Turkey to the Egyptian Government at the beginning of the Turco-Italian war. The construction of the railway was started by the Khedive at his own cost some years ago. The lino has from time to time been extended, so that at present it is about 147 miles ling, and is about 168 miles from the Tripolitan frontier. Mariout is the ancient Mariotis, the granary of Europe in Roman times, and the wheatsheaf in the j Roman coat of arms refers to this district, which was then watered by many streams, but is now dried np. It is proposed, however, to extend the Xubarieh Canal for the purpose of watering the soil, which is said to be very productive