(4)
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.11.
Provided that the implications of the foregoing
qualification are accepted, the Corporation would propose proceeding with the present plan on the following grounds
曲
The plan is actively in hand and it includes for the first time large scale clearing and large scale cultivation,
It also includes for the first time conditions which give the operators a fair chance. It is true that they have not all the knowledge and experimental results or all the specialised. equipment which would be desirable, but they have more than before. If the attempt is not continued now it may never be known conclusively whether this means of development in Africa is economically feasible or not. Pilot schemes will never give, the full answer. Each succeeding year will show results, operational, agricultural and financial, from which far clearer lessons can be drawn than are possible to-day, and the fruits will be seen of the administrative reorganization and retrenchment now in hand. The expenditure of, say, another £16 millions to quintuple the productive asset and to apply these vital tests must be considered in relation to the sum already risked and, on any other alternative, lost. Progress will, of course, be held under constant review and if at any time abandonment seems the lesser evil it is not excluded. It is the urgent need, in the wider interest of the Commonwealth, to secure some new means of developing Africa and its people and of opening up new areas of food production with all that flows directly and indirectly from such development which justifics, in the Corporation's view, the recommendation that, having gone so far, the further risk be taken.
12.
4
104
The detailed amplification of the figures in the Appendices to this memorandum will be found in the First Report and Accounts of the Corporation and in the Development Plan prepared by the East African Management.
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LONDON
28th September, 1949
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