MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 483 



Much valuable material has been brought to light, but 

 in a country of an area of nearly 1,000,000 square miles, 

 which has only recently been occupied, it is no light task 

 to decide which of the thousand and one claims to atten- 

 tion merit first treatment, or, when priority has been 

 settled, to contrive means adequate to secure the object 

 in view. 



The Sudan, it must be remembered, is still in a state 

 of transition. For instance, the penetration of the 

 railway into the interior has caused the economic centre 

 of gravity to shift southwards, with the consequence that 

 much of the scientific and technical work, necessarily 

 confined in the earlier days to the study of conditions 

 in the Khartoum district and the northern parts of the 

 Sudan, though not wasted, possesses now only an indirect 

 relationship to some of the principal demands of the 

 moment and of the immediate future. 



Circumstances have changed and efforts can now be 

 concentrated on the root problem. Preliminary skir- 

 mishes are over. The main battle has commenced and 

 the Sudan can now see clearly before it the object of its 

 aims. Speaking from the economic point of view, its 

 main task is to promote such conditions as will render 

 cotton growing in the Gezira a permanent success. 



That existing conditions lend themselves in the most 

 providential manner to this form of enterprise is already 

 patent, but that is no reason for not making assurance 

 doubly sure. 



The foregoing remarks are sufficient to show that con- 

 siderable progress has been made in providing the 

 elements of equipment necessary for economic progress. 



Time is too limited to enable any reference to be made 

 either to the detail of scientific investigations of the 

 resources of the country or to the profound economic 

 influence of the form of educational system which is 

 gradually being constructed. 



Similar reasons preclude more than a passing allusion 

 to other factors of great importance in the economic 

 situation, as, for instance, to the effect of the abolition of 

 slavery and the policy whereby the native has been 

 secured undisturbed possession of his land. 



