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Exploitation of Africa

Paris (January 16): Six nations who control most of Africa's jungles agreed today to organise a permanent office to exploit the dark continent's wealth.

The office, to be known as the 'Organisation for African Technical Cooperation' (O.A.T.C.O.) is to be maintained either in Paris or London by Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia.

Liberia and Ethiopia may be invited to take part.

The pupose of the organisation will be to promote cooperation among the African Colonies in financing road and railway projects, airport construction and power and communications facilities in the unprobed jungle areas.

The nations already maintain offices at Dakar in French West Africa, Nairobi in Kenya, and Gambia, a British West Africa possession, mainly for co-operative efforts in health improvement, combating of insects and increasing farm production.

Another of the O.A.T.C.O. projects will be to study the scores of languages and dialects spoken in Africa and try to devise a system of simplifying them to make international business easier.

London (January 20): Hongkong dealers have been engaging in a business transaction which in England would be compared to sending coals to Newcastle.

According to well informed market sources they have been selling rubber to Singapore. The history of the deal goes back to last October when Hongkong imported 9,000 tons of rubber from Singapore ostensibly for re-export to China and Russia. It seems political developments in China prevented them from doing this.

But in the meantime, the Singapore price for rubber had advanced ten Malayan cents, and Hongkong dealers saw a chance to make a profit.

Several hundred tons of the rubber are already in Singapore. Fortunately however, the amount is not enough to cause any lowering of the existing rubber prices.

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