218 MOZAMBIQUE 



the various districts and studying the conditions 

 on the spot that I came to modify my views. 



QueHmane, the most progressive of the districts, 

 is yet to be considered and the circumstances 

 there are complicated through the existence of 

 the prazo system. The prazo companies control 

 an enormous number of people, certainly over 

 half a million ; and though they employ on their 

 plantations, including the sugar plantations of 

 the Zambezi, under 15,000, they complain of 

 shortage of labour. The prazo companies, as 

 I have elsewhere explained, are, in the main, 

 organizations for the exploitation of the natives ; 

 this exploitation taking the form of imposing 

 upon them taxes to be paid in kind. The men 

 and boys have to bring their loads long distances 

 to the collecting stations. Receiving nothing 

 for their produce, it being a tax, the journey is 

 a hungry one both going and returning. The 

 emaciated condition of the people one meets on 

 the roads is evidence that this must be so. 

 Calculating the men required to carry the produce 

 collected for this tax, the days occupied in the 

 double journey, the period for rest and recoup- 

 ment afterwards, the labour absorbed cannot be 

 less than the equivalent of 10,000 men daily 

 throughout the year. This is unprofitable labour, 



