I do not propose to follow the right hon. and gallant Member who has just spoken into his references to East Africa, because I am not competent to deal with East Africa. The hon. Member for East Woolwich (Mr. Snell) raised points dealing with West Africa, and as it was my very good fortune to accompany the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies on his recent tour of West Africa, perhaps I may be allowed to make a few remarks on that part of our Dominions. I should like to express my own appreciation and that of my colleagues of the great courtesy and kindness of all concerned out there in making our tour a success, and making everything as easy for us as they possibly could, right down to the smallest man who had anything to do with it.

The right hon. and gallant Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Colonel Wedgwood) dealt with the question of the system of land tenure in West Africa That is a very little known part of the world. We have there in our administration, built up a system which it can truly be said leaves no bad taste in the mouth, whatever may have happened in the past in other parts of the Empire. There is in the interior a system which has been based entirely on respect for native rights in regard to the land. I say nothing in regard to our old dealings on the coast, when it was, of course, the great centre of slavery and slave raiding for labour in the West Indies. We have only in the last 25 or 30 years really begun to deal with the interior of our West African possessions.

When we got into the interior, we found, in Nigeria at all events, a big civilisation and big Mahommedan Emirakes. We found a great deal that was good there, and it has been our system to maintain native chiefs in their territories, advised by British political officers. We have, of course, suppressed slavery in Southern Nigeria and, as far as possible, cannibalism and human sacrifices. In Southern Nigeria, in the palm forests, we have allowed the natives to keep their own land, and to run it, through their own village communities. West Africal has now come to a point where it has to realise that it is one unit in the world and in the world's struggle for markets. One of the speeches delivered by the Under-Secretary indicated that there is no intention of fundamentally altering the present system of native land tenure. We must rather see how we can assist the native farmer to keep his place in the competition of world markets. It cannot be denied that West Africa is being subjected at the present moment to severe competition from the European plantations in Sumatra, the Belgian Congo and elsewhere.

I do not want in any way to anticipate the Report which my hon. Friend is preparing, but I think it is essential that the native should have European-run mechanical plant for the better extraction and purification of the farm products. I do not think anyone who has been there will deny that some steps must be taken very soon in order to get a better and purer product. The wonder is that the native producer has been able to do such a lot. There is an almost inexhaustible kind of farm fruit, but the crying need is, of course, for better roads and better facilities for transportation. In Nigeria there will shortly be open some 1,200 or 1,300 miles of railway. The Gold Coast is a little better off as far as roads are concerned, though they are not so well off in regard to railways. They have 400 miles of railway, but under the energetic governorship of the present governor they have, in the last five years, constructed some 4,000 miles of motor road. That is a very great achievement, indeed. The administration in these few years has been extremely fortunate in having had surpluses of revenue with which to be able to carry out their projects. Under the native system of production no less than half the world's supply of cocoa is produced. They export, not only that amount of cocoa, but some 300,000 tons of manganese and other products which the natives cart down half a ton at a time. When the deep water harbour of Takoradi is completed it will be of great advantage to that part of the world. There is one particular point to which I should like to draw attention. When the native has been paid by the European trader for his goods a great deal of the money he earns is wasted in endless land litigation. There has grown up a class—for we educated a certain number of them—