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Coll 54/1A(S) 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Reconstruction' [153r] (306/323)
The record is made up of 1 file (161 folios). It was created in 2 Dec 1949-12 May 1950. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
THS GEZIR/i SCHEME
^ In 1925 the Sennar Dam and canal system were completed
c-nd the first 300,000 acres of the Gezira plain put under
irrigation*
The Scheme, which now covers 900,000 acres of the
Gezira plain, is operated on a partnership basis between
the State, as represented by the Sudan Government, the
people, as represented by the native cultivators and
a ‘'specialised management" as supplied by the Sudan
Plantation Syndicate and the Kassala Cotton Company
whose suitability for the task had been established by
their successful operation of the earlier pilot-schemes
in the Gezira and a large pumping scheme in the Northern
Province. The basic shares of the three partners in the
scheme are: tenant, 40/o, Government 40%, and cotton
companies 20 % - a division which follows the local historical
custom for the sharing of irrigated crops between the
cultivators on the one hand and the owners of land and
implements on the other.
Apart from its immense economic value to the Sudan,
the Scheme is of wide interest for its sociological character
and achievement.
Although not comparable in size with the giant Tennessee
Valley Administration, the Scheme has some similarity in
principles and has been faced with some greater obstacles
in practice, e.g. , the problems of developing a backward
people in need of foreign capital but in fear of foreign
domination, of organising agriculture on sound competitive
lines where it has limped along on a peasant basis for centuries
of giving the farmer the strength of a corporate organisation #
and the necessity of doing all this in an atmosphere of
co-operation strong enough to capture the imagination and
support of the people as a whole.
The use, but not the ownership, of the land has been
nationalised, i.e., no individual owner can keep his land out
of the Scheme or hold the country to ransom on the terms of
entry. The Government has assumed entire control of and
responsibility for the land, paying the owners as compensation
a rent equivalent to the highest market rate before the Scheme
started and giving them, in addition, original priority option
to tenancies.
A primary purpose of the Scheme was the production of a
cash crop and, after many difficulties which were overcome
by the achievements of the Government's agricultural research
institution, that purpose has been fulfilled. The areas
gfed were devoted mainly to the cultivation of high-grade
long-staple cotton. By means of its direct and indirect
revenues, the Scheme now makes a substantial contribution not
only to the general costs of the administration but to the
development of the social services of health and education
and of now agricultural underta. ings in other parts of the
Sudan. Apart from the Government's share, the cash payments
to the 20,600 tenants, which now amount to more than a million
pounds a year, greatly stimulate the circulation of trade.
/Apart
About this item
- Content
The file contains papers received or created by the Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO) relating to the Middle East (Official) Committee. It mostly consists of papers circulated to members of the Committee, received by the CRO. The file also includes: a few items of CRO correspondence with the Cabinet Office and the Offices of the United Kingdom High Commissioners in Karachi and Pretoria; and a register of papers relating to the Committee received or sent by the CRO, with internal CRO correspondence relating to the file, at the back of the file.
The circulated Committee papers consist of:
- The agendas for, and minutes of, the Committee meetings of 3 and 17 January 1950, at which was discussed Washington discussions on economic and social development in the Middle East, the utilisation of surplus oil revenues in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , technical assistance to the Middle East, and possible requirements of Middle East governments for sterling assistance for economic development.
- Papers prepared by the Working Party of the Committee on economic and social development in Sudan, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. States, and technical assistance to the Middle East.
- A paper stating the Committee’s general policy regarding the promotion of social progress in the Middle East, entitled ‘The Social and Internal Political Implications of Economic Development in the Middle East’, prepared as a brief for the discussions of the Committee Chairman, Michael Wright, with the United States State Department.
- A record of discussions between Wright and the State Department, on long-range development in the Middle East, held on 14 and 17 November 1949.
- Minutes of meetings between Wright, and other Foreign Office and British Embassy representatives, and the International Bank, held on 21, 22 and 23 November 1949, and a joint memorandum summarising the result of the discussions.
- The final report of the United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East, entitled ‘An Approach to Economic Development in the Middle East’.
- The United Nations Resolution of 8 December 1949 to set up a Relief and Works Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.
- Other papers relating to technical assistance to the Middle East, and possible requests by Middle East Governments for sterling assistance in connection with their development projects in 1950 and 1951.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (161 folios)
- Arrangement
The papers are arranged in reverse chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.
Numbers in red pen on the top right hand corner of each item in the file (apart from one item which does not have a number in red pen) refer to entries in the register of papers received and sent by the Commonwealth Relations Office at the back of the file. The copies of papers listed on the register as being sent to the Economic Registry or Mr Thomson (Economic) are not included in the file.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 161; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/12/4757
- Title
- Coll 54/1A(S) 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Reconstruction'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:17v, 23r:45v, 48r:50v, 87r:92v, 104r:104v, 108r:108v, 114r:116v, 129r:160v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence