138 COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



tance since the Chemnitzer Aktienspinnerei, assisted by the teaching 

 staff of the Chemnitz Technical College, has been able to devise a 

 patented process for spinning this material, that had hitherto been 

 only employed for upholstering purposes. The principal supplier of 

 this fibre has so far been East India, where it is known as " Akon. " 



I have had various interviews with the officials of the Sudan 

 Government, who are very much interested in this new product for 

 export, with a view to ascertaining the best methods for promoting 

 the export of this Ushr fibre, and in the course of my interviews I 

 have laid stress on the following three points : 



(1) That the Shieks of those districts in which " Ushr " grows 

 abundantly, and which are already connected with modern means 

 of transport, are to be instructed to direct the collection of this fibre. 



(2) That no royalty should be charged on the export of Ushr. 



(3) That the Government should make as low a charge as possi- 

 ble for carriage on the railways and freight on their steamers. 



The Government has willingly accepted these three points, and 

 intend to promote the growing and collecting of the fibre as much as 

 possible ; a German firm has been entrusted with the commercial 

 part. 



The result remains to be seen. 



The difficulties in connection with the development of the Ushr 

 fibre are : 



The milky juice of the plant is poisonous; it is, at times, used 

 by the men who are called upon to serve in the army, in order to 

 escape from military service ; they inject the milky substance into 

 one eye, with the result that they lose the sight of it. If the collecting 

 of the fibre is done carefully there need be no fear as to any poisoning, 

 but a prejudice will certainly have to be overcome. The collecting of 

 the fibres must also be undertaken in proper time and carefully, as 

 otherwise the wind would blow away a great many fibres; and, 

 finally, the wages for the picking will be of great importance. If a 

 person could only gather 1 kg. of fibre in a day and receive for this 

 work 3 P.T. it would not be remunerative. It seems, however, 

 possible that the picking could be carried out cheaper. 



There are in the Sudan various other fibre plants which might, 

 under certain circumstances, supply commodities for export, for 

 instance, " Papyrus " and the " Leptadenia spartium," in Arabic 

 "Merakh." 



MEANS OF TRANSPORT. 



In spite of the great improvements carried out since the English 

 occupation, the means of communication still leave much to be 

 desired. 



The natural road of communication of the Nile towards the 

 north is impossible, owing to the six cataracts which begin just 

 below Khartoum and extend up to Assuan on the Nubian-Egyptian 

 frontier, but the water-way of the Upper Nile is sufficiently good 

 up to Gondokoro and Uganda, after it has been possible to cut 

 through the swamps caused through the floating masses of 

 plants, called the "sudd." These large swamps of the 



