It was necessary to consider the possibility of the country through which the Northern Railway passed soon falling into the hands of the enemy. Steps had, therefore, to be taken to safeguard the military stores in that district in time. Where railways were available this was, of course, not difficult; but the further transport by land needed much preparation. The bulk of our stocks of ammunition, clothing and medical stores was at New Moshi and Mombo. It was evident that we would be unable to carry away the factories, or parts of them, by land; they must, therefore, be made use of and kept working for as long as possible where they were. Assuming the enemy would attack from the north, our evacuation would obviously be towards the south, and not only the preparations, but the movement itself, must be started without loss of time—that is, as early as August, 1915. The Commandant of the Line, Lieutenant Kroeber, retired, therefore, in an able manner, collected light-railway material from the plantations, and built a line from Mombo to Handeni, at the rate of about two kilometres (one and a quarter miles) per day. The trucks were also brought from the plantations, and after mature consideration, man draught was decided on in preference to locomotives. Thus our stores were moved from the north by rail, complete, and in time, to Handeni. From there to Kimamba, on the Central Railway, we principally used carriers, except for a few wagons. It was, after all, necessary not to hurry the movement unduly, for, in spite of all the visible preparations for a hostile attack on the Kilima Njaro country, I still thought it possible that the main force of the enemy, or at least a considerable proportion of it, would not operate there, but in the Bagamoyo-Dar-es-Salaam area.