GROUNDNUTS SCHEME
SIR,—I was interested in your article, Nuts and Men, in the Spectator of May 6th ; and, having recently returned from a visit to the groundnuts scheme, agreed with very many of the points made. Some of the issues raised concerned controversies into which I cannot enter. But on one matter of fact you seemed to beinaccurate. That was the statement that decisions are made in London " to take more goods from the coast to Kongwa than the railway can Ca1741, to aim at a traffic which cannot be handled by any existing port or any new port which can be built within the next two years."
The present position is that monthly import programmes into Dar-es- Salaam are decided by a committee on the spot, representing the various interests concerned, and taking into consideration not only the state of the port, but the capacity of the railway to clear the goods. Shipping • arrangements are made by the London office of the Overseas Food Cor- poration strictly within the capacity reported from Dar-es-Salaam, and according to the allocations of a shipping committee in London, similarly representing many different interests, and known as the East Africa Working Party. In many cases the London office of the O.F.C., far from causing increased traffic, has cut down the indents received from
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