101 C- > O coal. On the 1st January, 1917, it was raised to 20 per cent., on the 1st October of the same year it was raised to 30 per cent., and in September 1918 it readied 40 per cent. On the 15th January, 1920, it was increased, with certain reservations in favour of essential foodstuli's, to 100 per cent. The surtax on passenger fares was likewise raised from 50 per cent, to 100 per cent, from the same date. The amount anticipated to be derived from this last increase in 1920 is estimated at £E. 300,000.

Another measure which resulted in immediate and direct addition to the revenue was the increase in the tobacco duties.

In September 1919 the Egyptian Government revised the rate at which the duty was leviable, by raising them to P.T. 50 per kilog. on tobacco in leaf and P.T. 60 on manufactured tobacco and cigars. The duty on tombac was likewise raised from the same date. The rates in the Soudan in accordance with the procedure hitherto followed, were revised accordingly. The increased revenue anticipated to be derived from these rises is estimated at about £E. 40,000 in 1920.

The Soudan Budget in 1920 benefits also by the profits accruing from the note issue of the National Bank of Egypt, and credit has been taken for the sum of £E. 3,5,000 in the Budget for 1920 on this account.

The Soudan Government has thus managed to find funds for all the increased expenditure thrown on the Treasury during the period under review, in spite of the suspension of the contribution by Egypt. The annual budgets have been balanced without imposing hardships on the population or impairing the prosperity of the country, and since 1916 the final accounts have been closed with substantial surpluses. These surpluses have been passed to the Reserve Fund and utilised to meet some of the many and urgent demands for capital expenditure.

It must not be overlooked that a very large proportion of the additions made to the revenue, as described above, are of a more or less transitory nature, and that the annual budgets during the whole period have been framed on a war basis.

The Government has therefore considered it wise to strengthen its financial position by increasing the unpledged balance of the Reserve Fund to the maximum amount possible, and by setting aside out of the surpluses realised the largest possible amount towards the working cash balance required by the Treasuries.

The unpledged balance of the Reserve Fund has accordingly been raised to £E. 119,500, and a sum of £E. 100,000 has been set aside with a view to building up a working cash balance of at least £E. 450,000 as soon as the situation permits.

With a view to increasing production the Government have continued the allotment of funds for the completion of the scheme embarked upon in 1909 in the Dongola province for the irrigation of some 100,000 feddans by annual flooding on the basin system. The amounts allotted since 1913 amount to £E. 27,000 In 1917 the urgent need to increase supplies of food in Egypt and the Soudan led to an understanding by which it was decided to combine the resources of both countries. In order to increase production as rapidly as possible in the Soudan, which depends mainly on rainfall, a number of areas in the Berber and Dongola provinces, amounting to about 19,000 feddans, were prepared and put under cultivation by means of pump irrigation. The money for this scheme, estimated at £E. 400,000, was advanced by Egypt on certain conditions as to repayment.

Of the various projects which have been studied for increasing production and developing the resources of the country the most important are the following :— 1. The irrigation of the Gezira Plain. 2. The irrigation of the Tokar cotton producing area. 3. The extension of the Soudan railway system. With a view to carrying out the above works the Soudan Government have raised a loan of £E. 6,000,000.

It will be of interest to recapitulate here the history of this loan and the efforts made to bring the schemes to a successful issue.

In 1911 experiments in cotton growing were started at Tayiba on the Blue Nile near Wad Medani by the Soudan Plantations Syndicate acting on behalf of the Soudan Government. The object of the experiments was to ascertain, before the Gezira Canal project was embarked upon, whether cotton could be profitably grown on the land coming within the scope of the Gezira Canal project by local cultivators with the water which is available during the period of high Nile, viz., between the 15th July and the 30th March, or at the latest the 15th April.

The area on which the experiment was conducted amounted to 3,000 feddans, and was carefully selected as being as representative as possible of the soil which the Gezira scheme would eventually irrigate. • House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.