LIFE IN THE SUDAN

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21304, 24 December 1940, Page 9

LIFE IN THE SUDAN

CONTENTED POPULATION d& DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE “Are you stationed in Khartoum? Oh, then 1 suppose you know So-and-So in Cairo.” A conversation.like this is frequently experienced by residents in the Sudan, and shows how little is known to the general public of the vast area within that territory. Cairo is over 1000 miles from Khartoum and the journey normally takes 3i days by the land route, the traveller first passing by train through the fertile valley of the Nile so far as Ossouan, thence by shallow-draught paddle-steamer up the Nile to Wadi Haifa, and finally across the barren Libyan desert until rejoining the Nile north of Khartoum. If he wishes to continue his journey south he again embarks on a paddle-steamer which chums its way slowly up the river, taking 14 days to Juba near the Uganda border. However, air transport has now altered the whole aspect of travel; Khartoum could, less than a year ago, be reached from London in 2£ days, and from Cairo in seven flying hours. To the traveller arriving in the Sudan by air or passing through on his way to Kenya or South Africa, it must seem astonishing that the country can have an annual trade turnover of £E.12,000,000 to £E.15,000,000. British Achievements His first experience of the country may be a stay for the night at the very comfortable modem hotel at Wadi Haifa, run by the Sudan Government Railways, but from there to Khartoum he will pass over one continuous stretch of sand, rocks and desert till the aeroplane swoops down to alight on the White Nile by Gordon’s Tree, a few miles from Khartoum. Going on south most ol the journey is over the uninhabited swamps of the Sudd region, the monotony being relieved only by the sight of an occasional herd of elephants or other big game. It is indeed a tribute to the patience and perseverance of the British authorities that such a country can have been brought into and kept in a state of civilisation under the control of a mere handful of British officials. The population is composed of numerous tribes, ranging from the wild-looking Fuzzy Wuzzy ol the Red Sea Hills to the naked Dinkas and Shilluks of the Southern Provinces, but all are now peaceful and contented, going about their daily work in security, and knowing that any disputes or grievances will be fairly and equitably settled by their own magistrates or the British District Commissioners. Khartoum itself is not only the sea: of the Sudan Government but the headquarters of all commercial concerns, apart from the Sudan Plantations Syndicate who control, on a partnership arrangement with the Government and the native tenants, the large area south of Khartoum irrigated by the Sennar Dam. From Khartoum the railway runs southwest to El Obeid, the centre of the gum-producing area, and north-east to Port Sudan, whence practically all the exports of the country are shipped to buyers all over the world A loop line runs from Sennar 150 miles south of Khartoum to rejoin the Khartoum-Port Sudan line west of the Red Sea Hills, bringing in produce and cotton from the fertile Gedaref and Kassala districts. Big Game Hunting Port Sudan itself is one of the best-equipped and most modern ports on the East Coast of Africa, with accommodation alongside for five large steamers, apart from the oil and coal quays on the other side of the harbour. Large warehouse accommodation has been built by private enterprise to cope with the expanding trade of the country, and an ample supply of fresh water for ships is brought down by pipe-line from the Red Sea Hills. Apart from its commercial importance the Sudan is a most easily accessible region for the big game hunter, and offers a wide range ol animal life as well as an indescribable variety of birds. The shooting of game is strictly controlled by the Government, but licenses to shoot a limited number of each variety, with a few exceptions, can easily be ob-

tained. Although the total volume of trade in the Sudan declined from CE.15,239,674 in 1937 to £E.12,369,2fi5 in 1938, practically the whole of this decrease was due to the general fall in prices of commodities, not to a smaller volume of imports or exports. By far the biggest decrease was in the value of cotton and cottonseed, the iTirmer falling from £E.5,392,511 in 1937 to £E.3,427,181 in 1938 and the latter from £E.514,164 in £1937 to £E.242,433 in 1938. Against this the actual quantity ol cotton exported has only fallen by 180,000 kantars and of cottonseed by 6500 tons. It will be seen, therefore, that the Sudan held its own as a producing country but suffered like the rest of the world by the universal fall in values. It is satisfactory to record that in 1939 the Sudan again produced a crop of cotton only 2000 kantars below the record crop produced the previous year. Under recent arrangements the bulk of the cotton crop is sold by auction at Port Sudan, sales being held twice weekly during the season. These sales have attracted most of the biggest cotton firms, who sent representatives to Port Sudan to sample the cotton and bid for them at the sales. As a result of these sales Sudan cotton was shipped direct to all parts of the world, instead of the bulk of it being sent to Liverpool and distributed irom there.