Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "486500791",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Afghanistan, Situation Report 32",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500791"
}

{
    "id": "486500791",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500791",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Afghanistan, Situation Report 32",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500791",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Intelligence Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875513/875513-01-001.tif",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875513/875513-01-001.tif",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875513/875513-01-001.tif",
    "imageCount": 71,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500791",
    "naId": 486500791,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 21,
            "logicalDate": "1948-10-21",
            "month": 10,
            "year": 1948
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 19,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875513/875513-01-019.tif",
    "mediaId": "661ec2cbc4774333",
    "ocrText": "SECRET\nb. Industry.*\nBy 1948 Afghanistan had some 25 enterprises equipped with modern power-\ndriven machinery, chiefly hydroelectric. These installations include factories, mills,\nrepair shops, and cotton gins. The plants, erected since 1930, are owned by companies\nopen to private stockholders but are actually directed by the government since the gov-\nernment-managed banks own a controlling interest in the various companies. The\nplants endeavor to fill certain staple requirements of the people-matches, canned\nfruit, soaps, furniture, automotive repair, and publications-and to contribute to other\nessential needs such as textiles and sugar.\nThe cotton textile mill at Jebal-es-Siraj was constructed and equipped with\nGerman machinery in 1936-37, that at Pul-i-Khumri with British machinery in 1943-44.\nIn 1946 these mills produced nearly 6,700,000 meters of cloth, or about 6 percent of the\ncountry's needs, and about 1 million pounds of cotton yarn. In 1945 the new woolen\nmill at Kandahar and the old mill at Kabul produced a total of 260,000 meters of woolen\ncloth and 600 tons of yarn.\nThe beet sugar refinery erected at Baghlan in 1941 is equipped with Skoda\nmachinery. Maximum rated production is 6,000 tons of sugar, but the actual annual\noutput has not surpassed some 4,400 tons. Periodically the refinery is idle because of\nlack of beets. A second refinery is projected. With two plants in operation the coun-\ntry's annual needs of approximately 9,000 tons of sugar might be met if an adequate\nquantity of beets were grown.\nAn important segment of the infant industry of Afghanistan is centered at\nKabul, which is also the site of the government arsenal. Installations at Kabul include\na knitting mill, match factory, oxygen plant, slaughter house with cold storage facili-\nties, furniture factory, a plant for working semi-precious and building stones, automo-\ntive repair shop, government printing plant, tannery, and an old woolen mill. Kanda-\nhar has a cannery, Kunduz and Imam Sahib have small soap factories, and the sugar\nfactory at Baghlan makes soap in the slack season. Some ten towns have power-driven\ncotton gins.\nAfghanistan has three hydroelectric plants, each capable of producing some\n4,000 horsepower, which serve the cotton textile mills and the city of Kabul. There\nare small hydroelectric or Diesel-driven plants at about ten other sites.\nThe industrial and power enterprises were designed and installed by foreign\ntechnicians. Germans led in this work and resided at Kabul to the number of some\n150 until their expulsion during the recent war. American and Czech engineers are\nstill employed by the government, and it is highly questionable whether the Afghans\nalone would be capable of running and maintaining the existing installations. The\nnumber of skilled or semi-skilled workmen in the entire country is very small, certainly\nnot more than a few thousand, including truck drivers. Labor unions do not exist in\nAfghanistan.\n* See Map, Figure IV.\n13\nSECRET"
}