41

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Nigeria. The Northern Nigerian Railway, which we carried through many years ago at the Colonial Office, is now a very paying, prosperous proposition, and it is joined up with the Southern Nigerian Railway crossing the Niger by a fine bridge at Jebba. It reaches right up to Kano, with a branch to Bauchi. The bridge across the Benue River will contain a span 800 ft. in length, and will be the third-longest span in the British Empire. The whole of Nigeria is self-supporting. It is moving rapidly ahead. The Natives are very prosperous. We have difficulty in getting them to come 'forward as soldiers, although the force maintained is a very small one, on account of the big wages to be obtained. The cost of export to Lancashire of cotton would be very much less if it were not that the local purchaser was attracted by the idea of being able to wear clothes in increasing abundance. There is no doubt that the two Nigerias will absolutely vindicate the exertions made on their behalf by the late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. They constitute one of the most solid and valuable possessions of the British Crown, and will repay handso! Ely any further support by British credit which they may need. The extension of the Nigerian Eastern Railway, which at present consists of a line of 150 miles, is being taken in hand, and when complete the whole Eastern system will have 600 miles of line and will serve the rich tin-mines. There are both coal and tin mines, and these are both capable of being worked, not by shafts, but by galleries. Mr. Lloyd George : Is the coal rich ? Mr. Winston Churchill : Not compared to the best fields of England, but quite enough to run the whole of Nigeria. Mr. Lloyd George : I mean the quality. Mr. Winston Churchill : The quality is fairly good —quite good enough. At the terminus of the Eastern Railway on the Nigerian coast an important wharfage scheme has been planned. We are spending on it half a million—not of our money —Nigerian money. The most important wharfage scheme is at Lagos, where one and a quarter millions are being spent on the terminus of the main railway—l, Boo ft. of wharves built of concrete blocks, and so on. A deep-water harbour is contemplated at Secondee, on the Gold Coast. Thus we are steadily developing, in spite of the difficulties of the present time, our great tropical possessions. Ceylon. Coming to the other side of the world, a small but necessary extension of the Ceylon Government railway has been undertaken to open up rice-growing districts and relieve the Colony from her dependence on oversea sources of food-supply. Then we come to the Federated Malay States. Their railways were joined up with the Siamese Government railways on the Ist July, 1918. The Federated Malay States railway system now comprises 950 miles of line, all built out of current revenue, and loans have been made to Siam by the Federated Malay States on easy terms to enable the connection to be made between the two systems. A through train now runs from Singapore to Bangkok, and a further connection is being made along the East Coast. Malay States. The Federated Malay States form a most important feature in our administration. The Conference will remember the gift of the battleship " Malaya " in the year 1912, just in the nick of time for it to be ready. It was the most powerful battleship then constructed. It was one of the five fast and powerful battleships of the " Queen Elizabeth " type, and cost £3,000,000. Had our dreams of a great sea battle materialized there is no doubt that these ships would have played a very decisive part in turning the head of the enemy's line. In many other ways the Federated Malay States have voluntarily come to our aid. They have given us more assistance than any other part of the Colonial Empire has been able to do. At the present moment they are hard hit on account of the tin and rubber prices prevailing, but I am sure these conditions are temporary. The modern world cannot get on without these commodities. Then I mention the name of the great port of Singapore : that is a matter which the Conference will have brought before them on other

6—A. 4.