§ Mr. Dodds-Parkerasked the President of the Board of Trade what investigations have been made and action taken to utilise papyrus and urn suf grass from the Sudd areas of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan for paper making.
§ Mr. H. WilsonLaboratory tests to determine the possibility of using Sudan papyrus and urn soof grasses for the production of pulp and paper have been carried out by the Imperial Institute from time to time in the course of the past 20 years. These tests indicate that Sudan sudd grasses can be used as a paper and board raw material. A report dated August, 1930, states that the Sudan papyrus produced a well digested pulp yielding a pale brown paper of excellent strength and quality. The pulp bleached readily producing a white paper of similar character and high quality. Only one mill test has been carried out on the initiative of the Sudan Government when merchantable paper was produced from a consignment of about 10 tons of dried papyrus. In its raw state papyrus would be used in the United Kingdom by those48W mills normally pulping esparto and homegrown straw, and so long as supplies of these materials are adequate, as they are at present, it is unlikely that the mills will be prepared to use any alternative materials unless it is commercially economic. Supplies of papyrus pulp would be welcome if prices were reasonable, but so far no serious consideration has been given to the possibility of large-scale pulping operations in Africa. The cost of freight and local climatic conditions would have a considerable bearing on the matter. Papyrus is now being used in Uganda for the production of building board and interest in this raw material has been in the past shown by the French Equatorial Africa Authorities and by the Palestine Government. The whole question of using African grasses as paper and board raw material is now under consideration by the Primary Products Committee, which has been set up by the Colonial Office as the authority chiefly interested as regards British Territories in Africa.