Coll 54/2 'Middle East (Official) Committee: Working Party' [‎89r] (177/642)

III. ERITREA
(i) General
1. Eritrea has an area of approximately 48,000 square miles
varying from sea level to over 8,000 feet. About 1 million
acres only can be classed as agricultural land, the remaining
29 -g- million acres consisting of rocky, mountainous areas quite
useless for cultivation. The population is estimated at a
little over 1,000,000 inhabitants, including about 26,000
Europeans, mostly Italians.
2. This country possesses, in even greater degree than Libya,
the characteristic features of over urbanisation, with its
large capital at Asmara, a town of about 110,000 inhabitants,
7,600 feet above sea level. The standard of amenities and of
utilities such as electric lighting and power is unusually high,
roads are good and there is a remarkable railway constructed
by the Italians in very difficult mountainous country. In present
circumstances, the structure is top heavy; the foundations are
quite unsubstantial.
3. Agriculture is generally poor and backward. For the most
part productive land in areas of adequate rainfall is already
overcropped. Some room for immediate expansion exists in the
Western Highlands, where fairly extensive stretches of virgin
soil still exist. Here the proximity of the Ethiopian border,
with consequent danger from raiding parties from Ethiopia and the
prevalence of malaria, have deterred settlers. The introduction
of machinery and modern methods and irrigation schemes mainly of
a long-term character would be expected to achieve some permanent
improvement, but the nature of the country is such that the
prospects of any large scale development in the agricultural
field are not very encouraging. Up to the period of the British
Administration, no serious effort appears to have been made to
impart any agricultural education to the natives and agricultural
practice is of an extremely low standard. As a result of the
inadequacy of its agricultural resources the country is dependent
for a very great part of its foodstuffs on importcfion, much of
which is from the Tigre District of Ethiopia.
4. Livestock breeding forms one of the principal occupations in
Eritrea. Cattle, sheep and goats are all kept in considerable
numbers. In this field, as in Agriculture, however, the
backwardness of the natives and the inadequacy of their lands
limit and detract from the value of their activities. Since the
number of animals possessed rather than their quality is the
accepted criterion of wealth, overstocking has resulted, particularly
of goats which cause devastation of afforestation and herbage with
resulting acceleration of soil erosion.
5. Again, as a result of ignorance and profligacy, the forestry
resources of Eritrea have been severely depleted over generations.
The present British Administration has been fully alive to the
importance of conserving trees and shrubs primarily to protect the
soil, but no major schemes for re-afforestation could be contemplated
during a "Care and Maintenance " Administration. At the present
time, therefore, although the economic life of the country depends
very largely on activities in the agricultural and pastoral fields,
since there is little else on which it can depend, the fruits of
these activities are meagre, and even the implementation of carefully
considered plans for irrigation, ro-afforestation, agricultural
/education