90 craft navigating the inland waterways of the country, and the information thtis collected is likely to be of considerable value to Government departments and to the commercial community. Statistics have been prepared showitig the quantities of goods usually transported for the Government, and recommendations made for the control of such transport by the Department and for the acquisition of various craft. A scheme is being thought out for the general regulation of water-borne traffic, which is likely to include the improvement of locks and bridges, the dredging and amelioration of waterways, and the provision of iunctions at various points in order to develop thorough communication. Recommenaations have been made concerning rates of freight by water, and a scheme prepared for an intensive use of water transport to meet requirements in case railway communications should be interrupted.

59. Mechanical Transport Department.

The Mechanical Transport Department was creat in the summer of 1919 with a view to centralising the control of Government vehicles. In spite of difficulties encountered in engaging a competent technical staff, the Department has gradually assumed the duties of providing and repairing the, transport of the various Government administrations throughout the country, and organised a system of furnishing and controlling running supplies. The Department is endeavouring by degrees to standardise the types of vehicle in use. The work of the repair shops doubled between August and December 1919, and specHications and drawings are in hand for new repair shops, stores, offices, and garages.

60. Air Service.

An air law is being drawn up on the lines of the International Air Convention. It is proposed that air police, customs guards, &c., should be provided by the Royal Air Force on repayment. There is not enough work as yet to justify the creation of a civilian service.

YIII.—WAKFS.

s61. General.

Lord Kitchener, in his report on Egypt for 1913, ,was able to announce the conversion into a Ministry of the Wakls Department, the‘maladministration of which had been a long-standing subject of controversy and anxiety. The establishment of the Ministry upon a sound financial and administrative footing has been a task of no little difficulty for successive Ministers, and it is a matter for satisfaction that the last six years have been years of gradual but solid progress.

At the end of the financial year 1914 to 1915 the Ministry was Still in severe straits, and its difficulties had been increased by unavoidable delays in the collection of rents from tenants who, like all small property-owners in Egypt, were labouring under the economic stress of the earliest period of the war. At this date the liabilities of the Ministry amounted to £E. 136,784, and the necessity was foreseen of having to raise a loan of £E. 150,000 from the National Bank. But a vigorous effort was made to restore the situation, and after two and a half years’ strenuous work the Ministry had not only succeeded in paying off its liabilities, but had spent £E. 120,000 in remunerative reclamation and improvement of its lands.

The Wakfs Budget for 1917 estimated for a revenue of £E. 534,000, or an excess of £E. 132 over expenditure, and since that time, aided both by the greatly increased value of land and by higher administrative efficiency, the Ministry has been distinctly prosperous.

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