164 (No. 98 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS For years some Sudan tribes, more particularly the Nuer. For past the situation in the Nuer country has been disturb ing , close proximity enabling the naturally trouble tribesmen to barter their ivory, &c . , for cheap arms with the Abyssinian and Galla traders who swarm there for that purpose . It is probable that, if this traffic could be stopped, the section of country occupied by the Nuer would soon become as well regu lated and as peaceful as any other part of the Anglo Egyptian Sudan . The matter is aggravated by the apparent inability of the Abyssinian Government to help in suppressing this traffic, which , moreover , has always been encouraged byGermanagents. The situa tionhas not been improved by the fact that, at the out break of war, a military expedition which was onthe point of being despatched to the disaffected Nuer district of Garjak and to the Anuak country had to be postponed The wily tribesmen , aware of the pre occupation of the Administration , boldly carried on their illicit traffic, and made use of the weapons thus obtained to wage further and fiercer warfare upon their more peaceful and helpless neighbours. The chief channel through which arms and ammunition enter Abyssinia , and so gain access to the Sudan, is via Jibuti,in French Somaliland ; and the districtsmainly implicated in fostering the trade directly with the Sudan tribes are those north and south of the Sobat.