RUSSIA 1125 



was adopted in the new naval programme submitted by the Minister of Marine in December 

 1911, which involved the purchase of three battleships of 20,000 tons each, three scouts of 

 3,000 tons, twelve torpedo boats of 820 tons and six submarines. On May I, 1912 a bill 

 was introduced fixing the naval force at 4,500 men, ,as compared with 5,687 in 1910. 



(K. G. JAYNE.) 



Portuguese Dependencies. 



The Portuguese dependencies occupy a total area of 793,980 square miles in Africa 

 and 8,972 square miles in Asia. The total population in the African territories is esti- 

 mated at 81 millions, and that in the Asiatic territories at about 896,0x30, but for several 

 of the individual territories no recent estimates exist. 



The population of Angola (W. Africa: see E. B. ii, 38) is estimated at 4,000,000. 

 That of the chief town, Loanda, was 17,541 according to the census of 1911, and that of 

 Benguella 5,000. Revenue (1911) 515,860; expenditure 704,750. The manufacture 

 of rum, till 1911 one Of the most important industries, was abolished in 1911, the 

 factories being dismantled under compulsion, and indemnities, covered by a local govern- 

 ment loan, being paid to the manufacturers. An industry recently developed is the 

 whale-fishery from Lobito. The Lobito-Katanga railway, which when completed will 

 have a total length of over 800 miles within the colony, was completed in July 1911 for 

 225 miles. 



The islands of St. Thomas (Sao Thome) and Principe (est. pop. 45,000), form the 

 province of St. Thomas (W. Africa). This has acquired some notoriety in connection 

 with the abuses disclosed in 1908-09 relative to the conditions of native labour on the 

 cocoa-plantations (see E. B. xxiv, 48d). The new regulations, which came into force in 

 1910, provided that labour-recruiting should be permitted only in specific zones in 

 Angola; the numbers to be recruited were limited; recruiting agents were to be licensed 

 by government; the recruiting was to be carried on publicly, under the supervision of 

 Portuguese officials and native chiefs; labourers were to be conveyed only by specific 

 routes, and were to be repatriated during four periods annually, half their wages being 

 in the meantime collected by the government and paid over to them on their return home. 

 In January 1911 recruiting in Angola was stopped, and a new field was created in 

 Portuguese Guinea. Natives who did not desire repatriation were given the right to 

 enter into new contracts, under regulations designed to prevent compulsion on the part 

 of employers. The general position now appears to be more satisfactory, in the view 

 of British representatives on the spot, though enquiries and statements in the British 

 parliament and elsewhere during 1912 still reveal a considerable body of opinion that 

 the abuses have not yet been entirely removed. 



The trade of Portuguese East Africa (see E. B. xxii, 163 et scq.) is in great part transit; 

 its total value was 8,514,041 in 1910. Among industries of recent development may be men- 

 tioned the whale fishery near Inhambane, the cultivation of sisal hemp in the Quilimane 

 district, and the exploitation of oil-producing trees. Among recent public works the devel- 

 opment of the ocean-beach south of Lourengo Marques as a recreation ground and residential 

 district is of great importance to residents and may become so for visitors from the Transvaal. 

 The Nyasaland Government and the Shire Highlands railway company have determined to 

 extend that line from Port Herald to a point on the Zambezi, contingent upon the con- 

 struction of a railway from the river to the port of Beira in Portuguese territory, which would 

 divert from Chinde to Beira a large proportion of traffic. 



RUSSIA 1 



There has been no proper census in the Russian Empire since j 897, but the Central 

 Statistical Committee issues annual estimates of the population, based on the yearly re- 

 turns. The total population for 1911 was put at 167,003,400 (European Russia, 

 120,588,000; Poland, 12,467,300; Caucasus, 12,037,200; Siberia, 8,719,200; Central 

 Asia, 10,197,300; Finland, 3,084,400). The various peoples of Russia have altogether 

 101 different languages, Russian predominating in 41 of the 78 provinces, 21 ter- 

 ritories and 2 circuits, into which the country is divided for administration. The 

 population of St. Petersburg is given as 1,962,400, Moscow 1,533,400, Warsaw 872,478, 

 E. B. xxiii, 869 et seq. 



