A series of British Official photographs (Crown Copyright Reserved). Numbers 419, 428, 434 and 439 all have the following typewritten caption on the reverse:

'Sisal in Tanganyika.
At the outbreak of World War II the important continental market of the Tanganyika sisal growers fell away and the industry found itself a 'surplus producer'. To preserve the industry and the only source of sisal in the Empire the British government decided at the end of 1942 to purchase a stockpile of 100,000 tons of East African sisal and a scheme was introduced to restrict the production to this total. This scheme kept the sisal industry working. In 1942 the sudden closure of the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies as Allied sources of hard fibres sent Tanganyika up first place as the world's most important producer of sisal. This necessitated an overnight change from the restricted production of 1941 to full scale production of 1942. Tanganyika sisal was changed with great suddenness from being a 'surplus' to a 'rare' commodity. By 1944 the production had risen to 111,100 and this year (1945) it is estimated that Tanganyika will produce and export 118,000 tons bearing in mind that 100 tons of leaf has to be cut and decorticated to obtain 3 tons of sisal fibre one has some idea of the importance of the Tanganyika sisal industry in the United Nations war effort'.

Numbers 420--427, 429-433 and 435-438 all have '(Picture issued: 1945)' as part of their typewritten individual caption on the reverse. The similar content, individual captions and reference numbers indicates that they are actually part of the same series as 419, 428, 434 and 439 as they all relate to Sisal in Tanganyika.