Basse as an Upper River seat in 1938

The 1938 annual report identifies Basse as the headquarters of Upper River Province and one of the protectorate's important river ports. Its district list places the town within a wider administrative geography of Wuli, Kantora, Sandu and Fuladu East. The report gives an institutional position, not a founding account or a statement about the town's present economy. ^{[books-colonial-1938]}

The same report notes that river craft of different draft reached different upriver limits and that water levels changed with the rains. That seasonal geography helps explain why an administrative seat could also be a river-transport centre in the 1930s. The colonial report's ethnic categories and attitudes toward local practice are not used to describe Basse residents today. ^{[books-colonial-1938]}