103 o j>7 plated. Owing to the immense increase which war conditions have produced in the cost of all materials and laboirr and to the higher interest charged on loans, the estimates for the scheme, including interest during construction, were raised to £4,900,000. This sum includes provision for the repayment of the advances made by the National Debt Commissioners, and another provision of £1,000,000 for interest during construction of the works and until the time when it is anticipated that the receipts derived by the Government from the scheme will be sufficient to support the annual charges. It also includes £400,000, being the estimated cost of the erection and equipment of ginning factories, building of offices, warehouses, residential quarters for the managerial staff, &c., and the pui’chase of farming implements and machinery.

lUm 2.—The second item in the schedule to the Act of 1914, viz., “ Extension of the Soudan railway system, £800,000 ” was intended to provide for the repayment to the National Bank of Egypt of the advance of £E. 800,000 which they had made to the Soudan Government for building the extension of the Soudan railways from ICliartouro. through the Gezira to El! Obeid. Since that time the Soudan Government has been able to make provision out of its revenue for the reduction of the above advance to £E. 700,000, and this constitutes the second item in the schedule to the 1919 Act.

Item 3.—k. sum of £400,000 includes the estimated cost of the line from Suakin to Tokar, a distance of about 60 miles, £14.0,000 for irrigation works at Tokar, and £60,000 for interest during construction, and for contingencies.

In 1916 the Egyptian Government foumdi itself unable to supi}Dly the Soudan with its requirements of silver. The Soudan Government, therefore] with a view to meeting the increasing demand of trade and averting a critical situation, authorised the free circulation of British silver florins and shillings, in all towns and districts in the Soudan.

Since 1916 a sum of £E. 800,000 in florins and shillings has been imported In fiscal and currency matters the action of the Soudan Government is necessarily largely governed by the action of Egypt. Consequently the currency measures taken by the Egyptian Government at the outbreak of the war by conferring inconvertibility on the Notes of the National Bank of Egypt and by making them legal tender were adopted in the Soudan, and met with success.

In like manner the cuirrency notes of P.T. 10 and P.T. 5, subsequently issued in Egypt by the Egjptian Treasury, have been introduced into the Soudan.

In 1919 the public finances have continued to improve, and the revenue has reached a figure never before attained.

The accounts for the year are not yet closed, but the results, as nearly as can be at present estimated, will be as follows :— Revenue Expenditure Surplus Budget Estimates 1919.

Anticipated Amounts.

£E. 2,685,000 2,685,000 £B. 2,950,500 2,683,000 267,500 This result is eminently satisfactory, but the sum of £E. 267,500 cannot be looked upon as a real surplus. The Soudan Budget only provides for services of a meurring nature, demands for capital and extraordinary expenditure being met out of such funds as may be available in the Reserve Eund. The amount of the surplus will therefore be passed to this fund to meet some of the many and urgent demands that have to be financed in this manner.

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