Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/296

 174! THE BRITISH EMPIRE: — AFRICA

AFRICA.

ASCENSION ISLAND.

Ascension is a small island of volcanic origin, of 34 square miles, in the South Atlantic, 700 miles N.W. of St, Helena. It is entirely under the control and jurisdiction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty and is fortified. There is an excellent sanatorium up Green Mountain (2,820 ft.) for crews of ships visiting the island, whose health is impaired from service on the coast. There are 10 acres under cultivation, producing vegetables and fruit for the garrison. The population was estimated (1 September, 1912) at about 186, consisting of officers, their wives and families, seamen and marines, kroomen, members of the staff of the Eastern Telegraph Co., and servants. Garrison station, Georgetown, on north-west coast.

The island is the resort of the sea turtle, which come in thousands to lay their eggs in the sand annually between January and May. In 1912, 116 were taken from 500 to 800 lbs. in weight ; they are stored in ponds, and eventually killed and distributed among the people, a few being sent to the Lords Com- missioners of the Admiralty. Rabbits, wild goats, and partridges are more or less numerous on the island, which is, besides, the breeding ground of the sooty tern or ' ' wideawake, " these birds coming in vast numbers to lay their eggs about every eighth month. The island is included in the Postal Union, and is connected by the Eastern Telegraph Company with St. Helena, St. Vincent, Sierra Leone, and Buenos Aires ; with England and with the Cape of Good Hope by telegraph.

Commandant. — Captain G. Carpenter, R. M.L.I. References,

Giif (Mrs. D.), Six Months in Ascension. 8. Loudon, 1878. Johnston (Sir Harry), The Colonisation of Africa. Cambridge, 1899.

BRITISH EAST AFRICA.

British East Africa consists of a large area on the mainland (including the East Africa Protectorate and the Uganda Protectorate), under the immediate control of the Colonial Office, together with the Islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, still governed through their Arab Sultan by the Foreign Office. For details as to international agreements, &c., with regard to the British sphere in East Africa, see the Statesman's Year Book for 1907, pp. 216 and 217.

The East Africa Protectorate.

Goveriimeilt. — The East Africa Protectorate extends from the Umba to the Juba River, and inland as far as tlie borders of Uganda. It includes certain mainland dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar, viz. — a strip extending 10 miles inland along the coast from the German frontier to Kipini, the islands of the Larau Archipelago, and an area of 10 miles round the fort of Kismayu, these territories having been leased to Great Britain for an annual rent of 17,000Z. On April 1, 1905, it was transferred from the authority of the Foreign Office to that of the Colonial Office. By an Order in Council dated November 9, 1906, the Protectorate was placed under the control of a Governor and Commander-in-Chief. An Order in Council of October 22, 1906, constituted an Executive and a Legislative Council, the former consisting of 1 members, in addition to the Governor, the latter