27 OCTOBER 1950, Page 13

THE BRITISH IN EAST AFRICA

Sm,—I have read the article in your issue of September 22nd by Mr. Hitchcock, of Tanganyika, about the problems of that territory. The writer says that to introduce the Kenya corwlex to Tanganyika would be a major disservice to Tanganyika. I wonder what this means. Of the three East African territories, Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, Kenya is the one that has the largest and most vocal European popu- lation. Perhaps the acceptance of this fact and the responsibility which it entails is the " Kenya complex." Kenya has, on its Legis- lative Council, eleven unofficial European members, elected by Europ- ean constituencies, and behind the elected members there is a body called the Electors Union, which discusses anything which its members think important.

The Electors' Union has, at times, been disliked by the elected mem- bers, but at the present time it is working in harmony with them. It would not be accurate to compare it with the Trades Union Congress keeping the Labour Party up to the mark, but the general idea is not dissimilar, and as a result there is something of a European—or British —public opinion in Kenya. In Uganda and Tanganyika there is less organisation of European— or British—opinion, and what there is is of more recent growth. Also the Europeans chosen to represent European interests on the Legis- lative Councils are not elected by their peers but nominated by the Governor. In Uganda and in parts of Tanganyika it has become a habit to mock the Kenya folk, who claim to have a say in the future of East Africa. In those two territories the Europeans, who are only concerned with business prospects in their own business lifetimes, have nothing but contempt for the people in Kenya who live there, .who are concerned for their own children and who dare to have opinions about the three territories' political future. On our side, in Kenya, we are, most of us, willing to admit that, now and again, we bark up the wrong tree, but we are almost the only people who bark at all and we insist that we are quite often right. Scarcely any of the superior persons of Uganda and Tanganyika will deny that we were right when we made as much fuss as we could, in 1938-9, agadnst the idea that it would be a wise measure of appeasement to return Tanganyika Territory to Germany. Today we have not such a clear-cut issue, but we have Mr. Hitchcock saying that " an imposed white leadership is today an anachronism." Perhaps no one but himself knows what he means by " imposed." But whatever he means, the white's leadership is here ; it has been here for half a century and it has been beneficial to the Africans. Provided we are not too apologetic, it will go on being so. British people who live in East Africa do not feel that they have anything to apologise for ; they feel rather that they have a record to be proud of. They are, at any rate, quite sure that the " imposed white leadership," which consists in having British Governors with strong teams of British people under them, must at least outlive all those who, at the present time and in different lan- guages, are calling it an anachronism.—Yours etc., E. B. HOYLE Fate, P.O. Gilgil, Kenya Colony.