fund, and extraordinary receipts from sales of land and cotton in previous years which had been kept in suspense to meet emergencies. These together provided a total available for allotment of £E. 340,000 made up as follows: : LE. (1.) Unallotted balance on December 31, 1921 158,000 (2.) Sales of land in 1922 and other extra Out of this a sum of £E. 255,000 has been allotted for the following services : LE. (1.) Writing off stores destroyed by the fire at ... 39,000 (2.) Patrols No. 99 (Fiki Abdulla in Nyala) and 17.300 (3.) British Empire Exhibition... 3,000 ... 9,000 6,600 900 ... 1,000 35,000 (4.) Wadai-Darfur Boundary Commission (6.) Loss on Garad (Sunt grains) experiment, ... ... 1918 ... (11.) Public works, including housing (14.) Expenditure on services at Tokar in excess (15.) Amount required to bring the working cash. 5,000 11,500 Leaving balance reserve fund unallotted Total ... The above items might be classified as follows: ... ... Special losses or expenditure previously incurred Total 73,200 104,800 ... 77,000 255,000 The amount sanctioned for special expenditure covers commitments which had either already been undertaken or which it was. considered absolutely essential to undertake for the maintenance. of efficiency of vital services such as railways. The policy of the next few years will be to restrict such expenditure to a minimum SC as to enable the Government to accumulate cash reserves against its commitments in respect of the loans issued since 1919. The Budget for 1923. 43. The estimates for 1923 as compared with those for 1922 are as follows: The estimated revenue and expenditure for 1923 is, therefore, less than that estimated in the budget for 1922 by £E. 415,000. As has been indicated above in dealing with the actual results for 1922, the fall in the anticipated revenue is almost entirely accounted for by reduced estimates for railway earnings. Although some revival in trade may be looked for in 1923, it has not been thought prudent to budget for any higher figures inasmuch as the Government is following the policy of reducing railway rates, where possible, in order to encourage traffic. As against this reduction in revenue it is hoped that expenditure may be considerably reduced owing to lower costs. On the item of coal, for example, it has been possible to reduce the provision from £E. 370,000 made in the budget for 1922 to £E. 175,000 for 1923. In addition to reductions in expenditure on allowances and services due to lower prices. such as noted above, the most rigid economy has been exercised in framing the budget for 1923. Existing appointments involving an expenditure of about £E. 78,000 have been suppressed. Further, the temporary gratuity on account of high cost of living, which was reduced in 1922, has been further cut down for 1923 from 25 per cent. to 15 per cent. in the case of officials' salaries, and from 40 per cent. to 20 per cent. in the case of pensioners. This has resulted in a reduction of £E. 180,636 in respect of this service, i.e., from £E. 367,636 to £E. 187,000. Against the main reasons necessitating these and future economies, the following special factors affecting the financial situation must be noted: (a.) The Government is faced with a steadily increasing expenditure in respect of personnel and pensions, due to the automatic increases in rates of salaries, and to the normal increase in the number of those in receipt of pensions. The present administration has not been in existence long enough for the "peak figure" to have been reached yet under either heading. The Government is now carefully examining its future liabilities in respect of these items. (b.) Another factor which will prejudicially affect the revenue in future years is that the Egyptian Government has decided to withdraw the contribution of £E. 23,000 per annum, which it previously made to the repression of slave trade in the Soudan. (c.) Apart from the above-and this must be the main preoccupation of the Government for the next few yearsprovision must be made against its liabilities in respect of the loans issued for the Gezira irrigation scheme. Interest on the loans may very possibly exceed revenue from the scheme during the first years, and it is essential to build up a cash reserve against this contingency. The search for economies is therefore being vigorously continued. It is in this direction rather than in any increase. of taxation that the Government must look for improving its financial position. Subject to this the future is full of hopes. A special effort is needed to prepare for meeting the special strain of the next few years. Once this has been taken up and the schemes in respect of which the expenditure has been undertaken are bearing fruit a new era of expansion and prosperity should open up for the country. Exports. CHAPTER V.-ECONOMICS AND TRADE. 44. The value of external trade in 1922, as compared with that of 1921, has decreased from £E. 8,179,289 to £E. 6,621,380, the decrease amounting to £E. 1,557,909, or 19:04 per cent. As will be seen from the following table the value of exports is little less than in 1921, the decrease being mainly in imports: It will be observed that the value of external trade in 1922 is approximately double that of 1913. Taking commodity prices as being roughly some 60 per cent. above pre-war level, it may be said that the position in 1922 has not been altogether unsatisfactory, considering the difficulties under which trade in general has been suffering during the last two years. 45. The following table shows how exports compare in quantity with previous records : In comparison with the previous maximum export and also with average exports, the export of cattle, sheep, skins, hides and ivory has fallen considerably, though as compared with 1921 there is an improvement in the export of hides, skins and ivory. 46. The economic position of the country has been seriously affected by the reduction in the livestock trade as may be seen from the following table : A steady fall in values had held out hopes of an increased export which, however, did not materialise, owing to the interruption in the last months of the year of the trade with Egypt. The interruption of the cattle trade was due to the strict precautionary measures adopted by the Egyptian authorities as a result of the occurrence of foot and mouth disease in certain provinces. The reduction in the number of sheep exported was probably due to a combination of causes in Egypt, such as reduced total consumption of mutton, an increase in home grown mutton, and in imports from countries other than the Soudan; and to the closing of the Egyptian towns outside Cairo and Alexandria to Soudanese sheep. 47. The export of gum was good, and of cotton seed, cotton, sesame, dates, ground nuts and millet (dari) above the average. The following tables give the quantities and values of the exports since 1913 of the more important of these commodities, the extreme fluctuation in the millet trade being particularly worthy of note. 1919 1920 1921 1922 51,614 363,005 15,490 548,214 1,797 48. Direct exports to Great Britain show a small decrease of £E. 7,808, viz., £E. 789,085 in 1922, as compared with 22,608 7,167 258,225 90,624 8,909 397,628 233,283 12.592 259,125 |