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training and experience in their diverse avocations, few, if any, had ever been called upon to apply themselves in the conditions which they necessarily had to face. Moreover, few had worked together before and there were not the customs and traditions which, in an established undertaking, guide the newcomer and help him to settle down. The whole staff were newcomers.
146. Beyond the exacting conditions of living and of work, including for many prolonged separation from their families, the staff had to face the additional strain imposed by the unexpected setbacks and the disappointing progress of the project to which they had devoted themselves. They had to do so, moreover, without the opportunities for recreation and diversion of interest which established communities provide and to which most had been accustomed. The experiment of creating self-contained living and working communities on such a scale in so short a time and in such exacting and alien conditions in a tropical country might well have failed on the human side. That the majority stood up as they did to the discomforts and disappointments of these first two years and maintained their loyalty to this new enterprise to which they had set themselves is a tribute to the spirit in which they responded to its inspiration. The test will come when it is seen how many choose to return when their first term of engagement is com- pleted. This test can already be applied to the Contractors' staff with their shorter periods of engagement. The proportion applying to return is encouraging for the future.
147. The number of Africans in employment on March 31, 1949 was 27,836. It was manifestly impossible at the outset to provide for these men anything but the most temporary accommodation without room for their families, nor was it possible to improve conditions rapidly, and although the pace of improvement had been greatly accelerated by the end of the year the Corporation was still unable to offer, except to a small minority, the living conditions provided by long established industries, and certainly not the standards which it is a policy of the Corporation to provide for all as time allows. The ration scale is adequate and even generous by African standards, but the Corporation has not offered special inducements not provided by other good employers. It has, however, an elaborate trade testing system designed to encourage and reward the man who wishes to better himself by his own efforts.
148. News travels fast in Africa and the African is not much attracted by the prospects of future benefits when present conditions are hard and only slowly improving. Nevertheless, the Corporation has had no difficulty in attracting African labour in the numbers which it requires. That this should be so in a country where there is competition for labour and where labour shortage is regarded by many as a bar to rapid development, is convincing evidence of the relations built up by the Corporation's European staff with the African labour. As the Corporation's long term labour policy matures it should be possible to consolidate these good relations permanently.
PART II: AGRICULTURE
149. Mr. D. L. Martin, who had been one of the members of the Wakefield Mission, and who, from its inception until February, 1948, had been the General Manager of the Project in East Africa and thereafter General Manager (Agriculture) on secondment from the United Africa Co., Ltd., relinquished this post in December, 1948, his place being taken by Mr. John Phillips, Professor of Botany at Witswatersrand University, Johannesburg.
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