8J5 61 Alexandria if it were found possible to abandon the employment of ghafirs in these towns and to replace them by police.

42. P From December 1915 to September 1919 the Police School was placed under canvas, the buildings having been taken over by the military authorities as an army hospital.

Between 1914 and 1918 113 cadet officers passed the examination after their two years’ course and received commissions as police officers. On the 1st January, 1919, ffiere were 72 cadet officers at the school, of whom 32 were in their second and 40 in dieir first year.

In April 1919 all the cadets went out on strike for three weeks at the same time as the Government employees, and on the 17th December they again struck for two days; the ringleader was expelled from the school.

A section was formed at the school in October 1917 for the training of police alerks, but the experiment was unsuccessful, and was abandoned in July 1919.

Between 1914 and 1918 1,240 conscripts from the recruiti department of the Egyptian army were trained as mounted or foot police for his Highness’ body guard \>r ks prison warders; 92 per cent, of these men were illiterate when they joined the school; 79 per cent, passed their training examination in reading, writing and arithmetic. In January 1919 there were 244 conscripts at the school.

The behaviour of the conscripts during the troubles of 1919 was excellent, thankp to the staunchness of the non-commissioned officers on the staff of the school.

43. P The total number of prisoners at the close of the year 1919 amounted to 16,978 compared with 13,310 at the close of 1918, the daily average being 15,411, or an increase of 1,026 on the hgures of 1914.

Of the 16,978 prisoners, 6,234 were undergoing sentence of penal servitude (5,965 in 1918), 5,831 detention or imprisonment (4,724 in 1918), 1,107 were under appeal (884 in 1918), and 3,806 were still awaiting trial (1,603 in 1918). Of the number confined at the close of the year, 476 were women (727 in 1918).

In accordance with the decree of the 11th July, 1908, 95 men and one woman were sentenced during the year to the Adult Eeformatory for indeterminate periods; the total number confined in the said reformatory at the close of the year amounted 10 693. The number of juveniles in the reformatory on the 31st December was 841 (1,028 in 1918), 691 being boys and 150 girls. The daily average confined throughout the year was 749 boys and 152 girls.

There was a certain amount of influenza prevalent, more especially in Upper Egypt; otherwise, the prisons were free from infectious diseases in epidemic form.

The mortality per thousand on the average population was 29*7, of which 2-1 irom infectious diseases and 4-2 from pulmonary tuberculosis; 38 prisoners were released on medical grounds, of which 10 were suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis.

An up-to-date sewage installation (partly working now) is in course of construction at Tura Convict Prison.

The expenditure of the department during the year 1919 (from January to December), exclusive of special grants for buildings, but including industries, amounted to £E. 380,395 (£E. 314,904 in 1918), the cost per prisoner on daily average population of prisons, in which prisoners are fed and clothed, being £E. 22-fe2 m/ms as compared with £E. 20 in 1918 and £E. 12 in 1914.

44. H General.

Since the last annual report was written various administrative changes affecting the department have been carried out, of which the following are the most important:— The lunacy and veterinary sections were converted into separate departments, the former under tlie Ministry of the Interior, the latter under that of Agriculture (1914).

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