94 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ( No. 98 The three provinces of the Blue Nile, White Nile, and Sennar are, as it were, the granary of the central Sudan, and , as the population is on the increase and the Arabs are gradually becoming adapted to agricul ture , a prosperous future is in view . Moreover, these provinces benefitfrom their proximity to the three large towns of Khartum , Omdurman ,and Khartum North .

In the provinces of Bahr el-Ghazal, Mongalla, Nuba Mountains, and the Upper Nile the inhabitants, with the exception of the more intelligent and industrious natives of the western Bahr el-Ghazal, are primitive , indolent by nature, and with few wants . As labourers for development schemes they are oflittle use . When communication with the outside world becomes easier , and when cloth, beads , and other European articles become more familiar to them , their wants will increase, and they will realise the necessity of working in order to obtain the means to buy the things they need. In WestAfrica thriving native industries have sprung up under precisely this stimulus; and an instance of much the same process is to be seen in the Lower Sudan provinces, where the Arab camel-men are obliged to work in order to obtain money to buy gold ornaments for their women . The demand is so great that native jewellers have found it difficult to main tain a sufficient supply .

With regard to the supply of native labour as a whole, there remains much to be done in its organiza tion and development. It has had to be supplemented from outside sources. Labourers have been brought from Upper Egypt on short contracts for Government work of various kinds , and the great majority of the dock labourers employed at the Red Sea ports are Arabs from the opposite coast of the Red Sea . These men are hardworking and frugal, but show little or no inclina tion to settle in the Sudan . The West Africans, as already mentioned ( p.91 ), furnish a migratory supply of labour; several hundred families come yearly to the western districts of the Bahr el-Ghazal from over the