One of the main proponents of the route was Cecil John Rhodes, though his preference was for a railway.[1] German East Africa (Tanganyika, now Tanzania) was a gap in the British territories, but Rhodes in particular felt that Germany ought to be a natural ally. Shortly before his death he had persuaded the German Kaiser to allow access through his colony for the Cape to Cairo telegraph line (which was built as far north as Ujiji but never completed).[2] In 1918 Tanganyika became British and the gap in territories was filled.