PUBLIC EXECUTIONS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, — That entertaining
writer Janus considers that it takes considerable nerve to stand up in the House of Commons and advocate public executions. Surely no more than to put a half-truth into the mouth of a speaker ? Janus makes out that the settlers of Kenya would like to witness public executions. What was obviously meant was that they would like these functions to take place in public. And rightly so. How many of the smug, safe, unadventurous opponents of public executions in Kenya have lived abroad ? They have no idea what it is like to live in a land where natives easily mistake kindness for fear.
Even though some of these criminals hang for their crimes the rest of the tribe do not believe it, and so do not grasp that their fellow-tribesmen are dead. All they know is that life in prison is very pleasant, excellent food and lodging and little work. Were the guilty persons hanged in public, or at least in front of the chiefs and headmen, such crimes would rapidly decrease.
No one wants to be merciless, but in a black man's land populated by tribes who were complete savages thirty years ago, one cannot apply Western standards all at once. The great majority of settlers get on very well with the natives. My wife and I have had our servants for fourteen years, and many of the outdoor staff have been with us just as long. Natives love above all things to live with their
families and stock on a white man's farm. If we are as black as some of our critics would insist, why do large numbers of natives leave their reserves to live on our farms ?
If public executions had taken place half the recent crimes of violence would never have been committed. A fey', more speakers like Sir Gifford Fox would make the life of the settler considerably easier. At present he is regarded by the many who do not even know where Kenya is and/or what it is, as an inhuman monster. Let some of the critics, safely ensconced in their armchairs, try working with black men for their bread and butter before they decry their own [What Sir Gifford Fox asked, according to The Times report, was " if the right hon. gentleman was aware of the feeling among the white settlers out there who in very large numbers would like to see a public execution? (Cries of ` Shame '.)"—ED. The Spectator.]
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