The Hancock Mission
The idea of sending an eminent scholar, Australian by birth, to attempt to settle some of the most difficult practical problems in a large area of tropical Africa, represents a rare flash of insight on the part of the Colonial Office. Sir Keith Hancock is in fact the man for the job. No one could be less ' more receptive of new possibilities; few, on the other hand, know as much about Commonwealth problems as this Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. This is an excellent combination for—in the first place—the Baganda are pro- foundly suspicious of Her Majesty's Government. Stories, referred to recently in these columns, of intrigues by the Resi- dent on behalf of Prince Mawanda, cousin of the deposed Kabaka, continue to circulate, and continue to exacerbate dis- trust. It is disturbing to learn that, after conciliatory gestures both by the Governor and the Baganda leaders in recent months, the opening. of Sir Keith's mission has taken place in an atmosphere of hostility which it will take great resources of diplomacy to dispel. But these resources he possesses. Then there is his second advantage—knowledge. When any problem is big enough, it becomes ' academic,' and the situation in Buganda calls for all the resources produced by profound study no less than for the arts of diplomacy. Their general nature was discussed in an article in these columns some months ago, when Mr. Thomas Hodgkin—now himself in Uganda—wrote of the difficulties of African Kings adapting themselves to the modern world : " the world of a money economy, proletarian towns, a new educated leadership, representative institutions, and the conflict between the ideas of African nationalism and White supremacy." In Buganda the situation of Mutesa II before his deposition illustrated the contemporary dilemma of the African King—to be a colleague of the Governor and have the politicians against him; or to be the Father of his People and incur the displeasure of Whitehall. This is an absolutely fundamental—and hence ' academic '—problem. If, in the face of such difficulties as the absence of political organisation in the Western sense, Sir Keith can find a solution which will permit the reinstallation of the Kabaka as a constitutional monarch, he will be doing not only a great service to the stricken Baganda, but a considerable service to his own country.
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