U GANDA,” said Sir Winston Churchill many years ago, “ is a 
fairy tale. You climb up a railway instead of a beanstalk, and at 
the end there is a wonderful new world. The scenery is different, the 
vegetation is different, the climate is different and, most of all, the people 
are different from anything elsewhere to be seen in the whole range of 
Africa.” 
Uganda is, in truth, “ different.” It is a land, still largely unexplored 
by the tourist, of infinite variety, of strange and brilliant contrasts: a land 
of richly fertile valleys and of harsh forbidding scrub, of surging water¬ 
falls and sluggish swamps, of burnt-out volcanoes that are the legendary 
home of tribal gods. 
Look to the west: there are the fabled Mountains of the Moon 
with their veils of mist, their glaciers and perpetual snows. Turn east, 
where the tall clouds are pierced by the majestic mass of Mount Elgon. 
To the south spreads that great inland sea, Lake Victoria—so big that 
you could drown half England in it. 
And the country in between? It is as green as emerald, threaded with 
rivers and lakes, the haunt of story book animals—elephant and buffalo, 
antelope and eland, gazelle and zebra, lion and leopard. 
Uganda lies in the heart of the tropics, astride the Equator, and yet 
the climate over most of its area—thanks to the altitude—is unexpectedly 
pleasant: “a kind of perpetual English summer” is how it has been 
described. The temperature rarely rises above 85° F. (29° Centigrade), 
rarely falls below 60° F. (15° Centigrade); a beneficent rainfall keeps the 
country lush and green all the year round. 
Uganda’s area of 94,000 square miles makes it a little larger than the 
United Kingdom: the greatest distance from north to south is 400 miles 
and from east to west 350 miles. About one-seventh of the country is 
open water. 
The population is around 5j million, the overwhelming majority being 
African. There are about 48,000 Asians and 5,600 Europeans. Capital 
and seat of Government is Entebbe with a population of 8,000. The 
commercial centres are Kampala (population nearing 40,000) and rapidly 
growing Jinja. 
Uganda’s contact with the outside world is comparatively recent: it was 
not until 1862 that the explorers Speke and Grant, searching for the 
source of the Nile, reached the capital of Mutesa, the Kabaka (King) of 
Buganda, not far from the present Kampala. 
Buganda—its people are called Baganda and its language Luganda—is 
now one of the four provinces of Uganda: it is made up of the three 
districts of Mengo, Masalca and Mubende. It has its own King and 
parliament, its own power to make laws. In the other provinces, the 
Eastern (consisting of the districts of Busoga, Mbale and Teso), the 
Western (Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole and Kigezi) and the Northern (Acholi, 
Lango, Karamoja and West Nile), there are African Local Governments 
in various stages of development. 
The economic progress of Uganda began with the building of the 
railway from Mombasa in the early years of the century. Soon the 
country discovered its future in the cultivation of cotton. Today the 
export of cotton, all of it grown by African peasant farmers, is Uganda’s 
greatest source of wealth. Coffee, too, is a lucrative crop: Uganda is 
the biggest exporter of coffee in the British Commonwealth. 
While agriculture will always provide the livelihood of the majority 
of the population, the danger of reliance on these two crops, subject as 
they are to violent fluctuations of price, is fully realised and plans are 
well advanced for the development of secondary industries. 
Keys to this development are a £22 million hydro-electric scheme at 
Jinja, harnessing the Nile at the start of its tortuous, 3,850 mile course to 
the Mediterranean, and an extension of the railway westwards from 
Kampala towards the copper and cobalt mines in the foothills of 
Ruwenzori. 
Keeping step with this economic expansion is steady progress in the 
political and social spheres. Africans sit on the highest organs of 
Government and millions of pounds are being spent on the development 
of educational, health and other services. An international airport has 
been built at Entebbe; roads have been driven to the furthest corners of 
the Protectorate. 
Uganda then is a beautiful country, an expanding country, a happy 
country, particularly happy in the goodwill and understanding there has 
always been between those who live within her borders. 
SUDAN 
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MOROTO 
MURCHISON 
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CONSTRUCTION 
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QUEEN ELIZABETH 
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TANGANYIKA 
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BOUNDARIES 
Wy HOTELS 
HYDRO-ELECTRIC PLANT 
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ATIONAL 
PARKS 
an homestead 
Karamojong dancers 
Murchison Fails 
B.O.A.C. Comet at Entebbe 
National Parks 
T TGANDA’S two great game sanctuaries are the 
^ Murchison Falls National Park, lying astride 
the Victoria Nile and stretching for 1,000 square 
miles, and the Queen Elizabeth National Park in 
the region of Lakes Edward and George, with an 
area of 700 square miles. 
The Murchison Falls are the most dramatic 
sight in all Uganda. Here the pent-up waters of 
the Nile surge through a narrow gap, not quite 
20 feet wide, to plunge down a series of gigantic 
steps. 
But the Falls are only the culmination of a 
journey which provides one of the finest spectacles 
of unspoilt nature in the world. 
The voyage is best made from Butiaba in one 
of the Railway Administration’s launches, the 
Murchison or Livingstone: the return trip of 130 
miles takes about 24 hours. After leaving Lake 
Albert the Victoria Nile is navigated for 20 miles 
and wild animals graze unconcernedly as the 
vessels pass by. Hippopotamus and crocodile can 
be seen in their thousands; there are elephants, 
buffalo, wart-hog and antelope; baboons bark 
at the intruder; monkeys disport in the trees; and 
a bewildering variety of bird life lines the banks. 
For visitors who prefer to motor to the Falls 
there are tracks both from north and south through 
typical game country. There is also a landing 
strip for aircraft. 
The Queen Elizabeth National Park embraces 
Lake Edward and adjoins the huge Parc National 
Albert, in the Belgian Congo, thus allowing the 
free passage of elephant, buffalo and other game 
between the two territories. 
The park includes the southern foothills of 
Ruwenzori, a labyrinth of extinct volcanoes and 
crater lakes. Below, on the Lake George flats, 
are hippopotamus and water buck, lions and 
leopards, chimpanzees and giant hogs, guinea fowl, 
francolin and other birds in profusion. 
Safari lodges, providing simple, reasonably- 
priced accommodation, have been built in both 
parks and small, shallow-draft launches may be 
hired. 
Information about charges and regulations for 
photography may be obtained from the Uganda 
National Parks, P.O. Box 22, Lake Katwe, or 
from the East Africa Tourist Travel Association. 
