ABSTRACT
Large military economies and greater security resulting, first, from increased mobility and accessibility enabling fewer troops to do more work, secondly, from the reduced expense of maintaining and supplying such troops in garrison, thirdly, from the improvement in the conditions of their service (food and housing) and consequently of their health (especially in the case of expensive white officers), are to be counted on. The construction of the tramway, besides tending actually to increase the volume of production and trade, would have the effect of attracting in the direction of the Niger and the sea the existing trade of the inland Hausa states. The French across the border are eager competitors for this trade, seeking to maintain it in its present channel, through territory controlled by them, across the Sahara as to bring it to the Niger at the point where their own railway from Dahomey will eventually cut that river.
