117 I L • a The following are summaries of the Governors’ reports for 1919:— 1. Bahr-el-Ghazal. The Governor reports steady but slow progress in this province and a good state of public security.

Much is hoped from the cattle-producing potentialities of this province if veterinary staff can be made available to deal with cattle plague. As the director of the Veterinary Department reports, however, adequate control of disease among savage tribes is only possible when the people are closely administered and sufficiently intelligent to understand and fall in with the instructions of the veterinary authorities.

The main obstacle to development is lack of communications. The Governor gives a good account of the Church Missionary Society and the Italian Catholic Mission in this province. The work is mainly educational, and the results are encouraging.

15. B This province has responded very satisfactorily to the schemes of agricultural development which were undertaken during the last two years of the war, and which have been referred to earlier in this report. These schemes apply to areas watered by pumps from the Nile and cultivated by native owners under Government supervision. There are five of these areas at present in this province containing a total of something over 12,000 feddans. The Governor describes them as centres of prosperity, and remarks that they were of the greatest value in affording grazing ground at a time when the Nile flood was very low and there was practically no rain crop in the desert.

The nomad Arabs in this province had a less prosperous year owing to the lack of rain, which affected both their grazing and their food supply. Those tribes that were almost exclusively camel-owning tribes have done well owing to the demand there has been for camels.

There is little crime in this province apart from camel stealing in the outdistricts, and petty crime in the towns.

16. B This province is the principal grain producing province in the country. The Governor reports that the harvest in 1918-19 was about 25 per cent, below the average, but in spite of this the general condition of the people has been satisfactory. Money is plentiful and merchants continue to make large profits.

A Boy Scout movement has been started in the province. It is proving attractive, and is a valuable supplement to the Government schools.

17. D The administration of this new province continues satisfactorily. The shortage of staff makes it impossible to deal with the immense area involved, but the Governor remarks that the condition of the people is steadily improving, and that a general settling down is noticeable. The fixed system of taxation is fully appreciated by the people, who have suffered so long from the corrupt and oppressive methods of the Fur Government. A certain amount of extortion still goes on, and it will be impossible to eradicate this until the staff is increased sufficiently to be able to administer the country closely and get into touch with the people.

The year has been a peaceful one. In December 1918 the notorious leader of the Guraan tribe, Mohammed Erbeimi, who had been a thorn in the side, of the French in Wadai for many years, and had been responsible for many raids into Northern Darfur, gave himself up to us. He was tried in El Fasher for offences committed in Soudan territory, and having been convicted, is now serving his sentence in Khartoum.

The future development of this province depends on communications, and until other means of transport beside the camel can be made available, the main export of the province will be livestock, and even this trade cannot flourish until the route from El Fasher to rail head, some 300 miles, can be properly developed.

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