INDIANS IN EAST AFRICA.
[To tax Enema or rim "Sererorces.") Sin,—Though auther late in the day, I would like to refer to the article in your issue of September 7th last regarding Indians in East Africa. Having myself cnly just returned from British East Africa, I mimed the article at the time of publication.
Questions of the gravest importance to the Protectorate aro often discussed in the London Press, and partly on account of the necessarily long period before these reach D.E.A., and partly owing to the few white men there with time to write their own views, the matters are dropped, and often an in- justice is done. and misleading statements remain uncorrected. I ant glad to see from your issue of February 1st that a Nairobi correspondent has pointed out some of the graver errors in your article. There are further points, untouched by him, to which I would like to draw attention. I trust that, in the interests of your many East African readers, you will be able to find me space.
You quote the Aga Khan, where he says that Indians' "labour and enterprise for centuries have given them an unanswerable claim" to the lands of East Africa. I consider this a misleading statement. More in accordance with the facto is the following extract from Lord Cranworth's book on East Africa, A Colony ire the Making,— " The origin of the Indian population [in REA.] lien in the employment of some 25.000 coolies of the lowest type in the construction of the Uganda Railway. When the Railway was completed, this large body of men, the riff-raft of a nation, remained, with a few exceptions. in the country. They form the basis of the Indian population therein and their numbers are increased by nearly every boat that comes from India, and, unfortunately, with much the same class as themselves, because the respectable Indian would be at least as loth to mix with them as is the European. The original stock, there- fore, was bad. And herein is no question of colour or race. If the original band of British settlers had been composed of, say, ticket-of-leave men, hooligans and militant suffragettes, it would hardly have been an incentive to respectable colonists to follow. This large body of men set themselves to the natural task of making money. To this end they have applied themselves, not ea is the British habit by developing the natural resources of the country, but rather by the draining dry of the sources already in existence."
Lord Cranworth then draws 'attention to the fact that these low-caste Indians live under most filthy and insanitary con- ditions, and are responsible for a very large percentage of the disease of the country. The local medical authorities bear out this last statement. I only wish I could have the oppor- tunity of taking you, Mr. Editor. round the Indian quarters in Mombasa and Nairobi, and allowing you to compare them with the comparative cleanliness of the African native.
It Is incorrect to say. se you do, that the Indians have pushed their trade throughout East Africa "without any European assistance." On the contrary, it is the European wholesale merchant and trader who has enabled the Indian to trade in East Africa as he does. The capital and credit of the European enable the Indian to trade. No Indian brings capital into the country, and if and when he makes money from the country he promptly seeds it to Bombay. The Euro- pean reinvests his earnings in the country. True, Indians have built houses in which Europeans live. But it is a very profitable occupation for the Indian. A small bungalow in Mombasa can be let for a rental of Rs.400 per menaem, un- furnished I It is surely unworthy of the Spectator to say that ". . . . it is as ridiculous for them [i.e., white men] to exclude Indians from Nairobi as it would be for Anglo-Indians to exclude Indians from Simla." Without offence, this can only be de- scribed as amusing. The Indian is a native of Simla. He is not a native of East Africa. We have our own native there, and a very good fellow he is, too. To exclude Africans from Nairobi would be absurd indeed, but no one would suggest that. The Indian is doing the African an injustice by doing work that the African could easily be taught to do. The native tribes could well supply skilled masons, carpenters, retail tradesmen, and the like, had not the Indian taken these jobs. It has been easy for the Indian to do so, by reason of the fact that the Indian is trained, whereas the native would have to be taught.
There is one more statement in your article to which I must refer. You say: -"It is quite true that after the war the difficulty of finding young Englishmen or Scotsmen to under- take the duties of government in tropical parts of the Empire will be very serious." Surely this is not the case. There should be an ample supply of demobilized officers looking for just such billets, and they should be the very best type of man for the work. Has our supply of Empire-builders failed, and must we now look to India for our pioneers?
I think that London editors such ae yourself are as handi- capped by your inevitable inexperience of local conditions as to make it impossible for you adequately to discuss important questions regarding the Colonies. Had you lived in East Africa you would most assuredly never have written your article. The pity is that your words, coming from such an influential source as the editorial columns of your journal, will be believed by many, while those who know the truth will not trouble to answer you. If it were the lot of you and your family to live in Nairobi, I can assure you that you would not relish the average Indian of East Africa as your next- door neighbour. No one wants to turn the Indian out of the country. On the contrary, he is moat useful in a number cf ways—chiefly as a merchant—but he must be kept apart from Europeans, if only for sanitary reasons, and his energies meat be effectively governed by the European, as he is un- fortunately not a good example to the native in his morale or hie mode of living. I am not speaking of the Indian in East Africa as an Indian, but as a man.—I am, Sir, Ac., Mszym a.
[The white people of East Africa who introduced the Indian element are responsible for it. No immigrants should be encouraged to come or to stay if they are regarded as hopelessly alien and undeeirable. As for the good type of young British administrator, we hope that our correspondent is right in saying that it is plentiful. He may, however, recall events in East Africa before the war which caused considerable anxiety as to whether the extremely high character and special apti- tude needed in the government of natives were still available.— ED. Spectator.]
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