Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/753

 FINANCE — DEFENCE — PRODUCTION

701

of a territory is invested with judicial powers comparable to those of a justice of the peace.

Finance. Estimates of revenue and expenditure for fire years in pounds sterling : —

1918 1919

UM

1 Ml

Revenue Expenditure.

£ 1,733,937 2,382,820

£ £ 1,693,180 1,953,534 1,974,219 2,081,955

£ .466 2,422,154

£

2,541,000 2,781,000

For 1920 the receipts an

d expenditure were estimated as follows : —

Receipts

Francs

Expenditure

Francs

Customs :

Direct taxes ....

Portfolio

Taxes on ivory

Mines

Agricultural receipts

13,000,000 16,000,000 3,199,000 1.77S,000 10.292,400 1,530,000

Administration

Public debt ....

Army

>>"»»y

Religion and Education.

8.750,000 5,556,159 8,767,390 1,088,320 1,297,880

Total (inclu

ling all items)

55,686,674 <2,227,4tfM.)

Total (including all items)

60,553,874 (2,422,154*. )

Debt 1919, 349,347,446 francs.

Defence- — The Colony possesses a force of native troops amounting to about 16,000 men. They are all infantry and are organised in 30 inde- pendent companies. The force is recruited by voluntary enlistment. The officers and non-commissioned officers (365) are Europeans, for the most j>art Belgians. The term of service is seven years, and the recruits are trained in five camps of instruction before being drafted to their com- panies. The Territorial police number about 6,000 men.

Production. — The chief products in the order of their importance are rubber, palm-nuts and palm-oil, white copal and cocoa. Ivory is also abundant. Coffee grows freely, and the cultivation of cocoa is successful. Rice, cotton, and tobacco are grown in a great number of the native villages. Planta- tions of rubber, cacao, and coffee have been established by the Government and by private enterprise. Cattle thrive satisfactorily in all districts where there is no tsetse fly, notably in the highlands of Katanga and Kivu. Mining flourishes, the chief minerals being gold, diamonds, and copper. Other minerals are known to exist — coal, iron, tin ami manganese — but as yet these have not been obtained in paying quantities. The gold mines in 1919 employed some 8,000 natives ; the output was 3,356 kilos. The most important mines in the Congo are the copper mines near Kambove, operated by the Union Miniere. The total output in 1919 was 22,130 tons of copper. The exportation of diamonds in 1919 amounted to 215,532 carats.