This very short documentary on gum Arabic was made during a visit paid in February 1950 by Mr Lloyd Owen. Title - This very short documentary on gum Arabic was made during a visit paid in February 1950 by Mr Lloyd Owen. Purchasing Manager of Messrs. Rowntree and Co. Ltd. York and Mr Frank Vines, Manager of the Liverpool office of Messrs' Kleinwort and Sons Ltd in the company of Mr G.M. Bittar, Managing Director of Messrs Boxall and Co. Ltd to the heart of the gum producing area - El...

This very short documentary on gum Arabic was made during a visit paid in February 1950 by Mr Lloyd Owen. Title - This very short documentary on gum Arabic was made during a visit paid in February 1950 by Mr Lloyd Owen. Purchasing Manager of Messrs. Rowntree and Co. Ltd. York and Mr Frank Vines, Manager of the Liverpool office of Messrs' Kleinwort and Sons Ltd in the company of Mr G.M. Bittar, Managing Director of Messrs Boxall and Co. Ltd to the heart of the gum producing area - El Obeid and its neighbourhood, in Kordofan Province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The introduction to this Short has been culled from the writings of the late Leonard E. Boxall, the founder of the original firm of Boxall and Co., Khartoum. Photography by Mr. G. Karakashian. Tropical photo stores, Khartoum. Title- GUM ARABIC. The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan produces some 25,000 to 30,000 tons of Gum Arabic a year. This represents about 75 to 80 per cent of the world production of gum Arabic. Gum Arabic is a semi-wild product, the exudations of the acacia verek which are increased by tapping, i.e. wounding the tree. The gum tree has to do all its growing during the light rains between May to October because with the fierce heat of the waterless desert it lapses into a state of coma or suspended activity. It is as the leaves wilt and the tree looks as if it were dying that the gum is formed just beneath the bark to keep the tree moist and alive throughout the drought which the following rainy season brings to an end. If you were to plant a gum tree near the Nile or elsewhere near water it will not produce gum. This straggling, unimportant looking overgrown gooseberry bush is one of nature's wonders. Keep it comfortably moist and cool and it will produce no gum. There in the waterless desert, subject to dry, cracking, scorching winds, it turns its natural starches into gum, a substance which holds more water for its bulk than any other substance known. Title - With the damp winds that blow across Africa from the Gulf of Guinea and herald the rains the gum trees begin to put forth leaves and give no more gum. Then come the actual rains and the erstwhile desert is carpeted with wonderful flowers. The acacia bursts forth into as mass of feathery green interspersed with yellow blooms, but, more important to the gum merchant, it grows and stores the starch and other material necessary to form gum to hold that moisture which keeps it alive when the cycle turns once more from death and desolation and when, behold a gum season once more! The gum is brought into markets in bullock hides and sheep and goat skins carried on camels, donkeys and bulls. After being auctioned it is poured into the jute sack of the buyers and taken to cleaning sheds or straw `rakubas' to be cleaned and afterwards railed to Port Sudan. Title - The cleaning is done by native women of whom Messrs Boxall and Company employ anything between 400 and 600, according to season and time of year. Any adhering bark is picked off with the fingers or knocked or rubbed off between two crude stones. Lately, at Gedaref and Kalaat-en-Nahl, pieces of iron about a foot long, and three-quarters of an inch wide, have been used instead of the striking or rubbing stone. Gum is usually packed in double jute bags with a net weight of approximately 100 kilos, and after a final inspection and weighing at Port Sudan it goes on its world-wide journeys to be used for much the same purposes, though greatly improved ways, as it has been used during the past 5000 years. There is an opening shot of the factory of Boxall & Co. Ltd. Senior managing members of Rowntree and Co. Ltd (possibly Mr Lloyd Owen or Mr Frank Vines) stand with local employees, looking at the gum trees in the desert. One of the senior officials then attempts tapping a gum tree, before a local shows him how it is done. Several shots show Sudanese people leading a camel train, transporting gum in skins ready to be auctioned off. The following sequence captures the Gum Arabic market place; Sudanese farmers wearing white shawls rest after a long journey, an irritable camel is restrained, market officials check the lots, and farmers wait in the auction area. One of the travelling officials then poses for the camera with a camel and some locals. The officials then shake hands with local traders. The filmmaker next captures native workman transferring the gum into jute sacks, which are carried to an area where they are weighed. Women are then seen sorting out the gum. Cutting away from the gum sorting, there are brief shots of an elegant dinner being enjoyed by senior officials. Returning to the production line, the jute sacks filled with Gum Arabic are sewn up. The final passage opens with a close up of a Sign which reads, `The Yorkshire Insurance Co. Ltd. Agents for the Sudan Boxall & Co', and the final shot returns to the exterior Boxall's factory.