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Coll 54/1(S) 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Reconstruction' [‎29r] (62/940)

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The record is made up of 1 file (468 folios). It was created in 20 Mar 1949-13 Dec 1949. 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. .

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16* Minerals have not so far* been discovered in the
Protectorate, and the most important activity to be
encouraged in it is that of agriculture* For this purpose
increased water supplies and improved irrigation schemes
are prime necessities, and it will be seen that the
development programme devotes the sum of £ 300,000 to this
object. The most important project of this nature is the
Abyan Irrigation Scheme*
17« Abyan is a district about 30 to i40 miles to the
North-East of Aden, through which two river beds pass from
the mountains of the interior to the sea coast. In the
past local Arab irrigation dams and channels have not been
sufficient to prevent a large proportion of the water that
passes at certain seasions down these river beds escaping
to the sea. In recent years an Abyan Board has been set
up for the improvement and conservation of existing
irrigation works in this area, and a grant of £20,000 was
made to this Board in 1946. Now a further interest-free
loan from the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund of
£230,000 has been approved, and with this assistance it
is hoped to accomplish two principal purposes. The first
and main objective is to determine how much of the Abyan
area can be brought under cultivation by controlled
irrigation. To do this it is necessary to collect as much
data as possible regarding water resources, run off,
survey levels, operating costs, etc*, during a period of
at least three years. The second objective is to bring
land which is known to be suitable under irrigation and
cultivation as quickly as possible. It is hoped that a
total of 120,000 acres may be irrigable. At the same time
it is reliably estimated that a minimum of 30,000 to 40,000
acres can be watered without difficulty each year and the
scheme x^rovideo for bringing 28,000 acres of this area
under irrigation control during this three-year period. The
development of these 28,000 acres will in itself provide
valuable data for further development of the irrigation
system.
18. The effect of such an irrigation scheme, the first
of its kind and scale in Southern Arabia, is bound to be
felt in other parts of the Protectorate and is likely to
be the forerunner of similar if smaller schemes. The
prosperity of Abyan and its inhabitants should be greatly
enhanced by the increased production which should result
from the scheme, and the people of neighbouring areas of
the Protectorate and in the Colony of Aden should benefit
by the increased production of cheaper food. It is hoped
that the agricultural development of this area will
obviate the danger of famine which is a recurrent evil
in the Eastern Aden Protectorate and to a lesser degree
a frequent threat in the Western Aden Protectorate.
19. It will be seen from Apx>endix II that educational,
medical and public health schemes are also being undertaken
in the Protectorate. Among the latter the anti-malarial
measures are particularly important in connexion with the
irrigation scheme for Abyan, a district in which malaria
is rife if it is not checked.

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Content

The file contains papers relating to the Middle East (Official) Committee. It consists of: papers circulated to members of the Committee, received by the External Department of the Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO); a few items of CRO correspondence with the Foreign Office, the Cabinet Office, and Commonwealth governments; and a register of papers received or sent by the CRO relating to the Committee, with internal CRO correspondence (at the back of the file).

The file includes agendas for meetings of the Committee, and minutes of the meetings on 28 April, 5 May, 5 July and 19 July 1949. Matters discussed and recorded in the minutes include: the reconstitution of the Committee; the re-settlement of Arab refugees from Palestine; the report on Economic and Social Development in the Middle East by the Working Party of the Committee; the future work of the Committee; the Conference of HM Representatives in the Middle East to be held in London from 26 to 29 July 1949; United States President Truman’s ‘Fourth Point’ (Truman’s message of 24 June 1949 to the United States House of Representatives, communicating a ‘Recommendation for the Enactment of Legislation to Authorise an Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance for Underdeveloped Areas of the World’); and further studies of the Working Party.

The file also includes the following papers prepared by (or approved by) the Working Party of the Committee: draft, revised and interim versions of the report on Economic and Social Development in the Middle East; papers relating to the economic and social development of Iraq, Syria, Greater Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan , Egypt, the Lebannon, Saudi Arabia, Cyrenaica, Tripolitania, Eritrea and Somalia, and the Colony of Aden and the Aden Protectorate; and a paper on Middle East oil.

In addition, the file includes other papers relating to matters discussed at the meetings, and the following subjects: Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan ; irrigation development in Iraq; Persia’s [Iran’s] Seven Year Plan for development; informal conversations on social and economic affairs in the Middle East between representatives of the Foreign Office, the Treasury, the British Embassy in Washington, and the United States State Department; the work of the Development Division of British Middle East Office; a survey of the oil resources of the Middle East; and economic development in Cyprus in relation to the Middle East.

Extent and format
1 file (468 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate reverse chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.

Numbers in red pen on the top right hand corner of items in the file refer to entries in the register of papers received and sent by the Commonwealth Relations Office at the back of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 468; 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.

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English in Latin script
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Coll 54/1(S) 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Reconstruction' [‎29r] (62/940), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/4756, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100043455634.0x00003f> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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