A Victory for Injustice .
Compelled by public opinion, a very healthy opinion, to give ground in the matter of Tshekedi Khama, the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations gave enough on Tuesday to enable practically the whole of the Labour Party to vote with the Government and a certain number of hesitant Conservatives to abstain. The basic fact is that a man who has ruled the Baman- pwato territory in Bechuanaland with conspicuous ability and success for twenty-three years, against whom no charge of any kind is or can be laid, is exiled from the territory by decision of the Secretary of State because the Secretary of State has formed the opinion that his presence would lead to disorder—though since his original forced departure he has returned temporarily five times (with permission) and no disorder of any kind has resulted. Tshekedi has enemies in the territory—not necessarily through any fault of his own—and they have the ear of the people while he is banished. That is one reason for mistrusting Mr. Gordon Walker's proposal that he should shift the decision on banishment from himself to a tribal mass-meeting, or kgoila, which should declare for or against Tshekedi's return. This at the best is pure expediency, with no suggestion that any question of justice enters into it. As Mr. Hopkin Morris pointed out with great force, this country.has signed the United Nations Declara- tion of Human Rights, which provides among other things that no one shall be subject to "arbitrary arrest, detention or exile." It is expressly added that the Declaration shall apply equally to trust territories. What is a protectorate if not that? Mr. Gordon Walker refuses to do justice, and is apparently ready to see in- justice done if a mass-meeting so demands. Of one of his argu- ments it can only be observed that a person who once declared it expedient that one man should suffer for the people does not enjoy an enviable reputation in history.
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