Kenya
sal,—It has been gratifying to us to read, through the venue of your paper, articles of sound sense, and on the whole correct reports of happenings in the colony, since the declaration of a state of emergency. The settlers' outlook has been so badly presented in the majority of newspapers that a totally wrong impression of the happenings, day to day, in Kenya has been given, and, worse, been absorbed by the uneducated (concerning Kenya) masses at home in England.
In one recent week we have heard that a young European was shot and wounded on his farm, two army askari were missing, and later found murdered, their hands having been cut off, their rifles and fifteen rounds of ammunition stolen (the latter will mean possibly thirty attempts in the future on the lives of Bombers of the community), a forest-guard murdered, his body foully cut about, and decapitated, a European farmer's pig-sties burnt down, with forty-odd pigs inside them at the time, and many other outward signs that all is still not well regarding the situation generally.
One can see, from the faces, actions and doings of the Wa-Kikuyu still employed on many farms in this area-alone, a smug satisfaction, and an open challenge to us. They have noticed that comparatively little inconvenience has been given to them since the start of the emergency, when they had been expecting in the majority of cases drastic action to be taken by the " Serkali " against them. This• apathetic handling of the emergency is going to cause much more unrest in the end.
That we should have to be the pawns in a party struggle. is, to say the least, hard to swallow, and one realises only too well that the Conservative Government, or indeed any other party should it be in power, would be loath to "go to the country" over what is, unfortunately, to them a petty matter, and hence they are scared to take what action we all know is necessary to combat Mau Mau. As long as the Wa-Kikuyu are more scared of Mau Mau than the forces of law and order and administration, then the situation cannot improve. Should the Labour M.P.s, who are causing this state happen to live in this country. I am sure that they would be the loudest callers for stronger action to be taken by the Government against Mau Mau, and indeed under the present circumstances one might expect them to give more support to the Government, considering that it is their fellow countrymen who are suffering, together with members of the other races, the foulness caused by Mau Mau. A warning should be given to those who thank us for our restraint up to now in not having done what many of us would like to do ourselves—take the law into our own hands. This restraint must not be taken for granted, if we are to suffer in the future from attacks on our persons and our farms. We hear too much about protecting the loyal Kikuyu and too little about protecting the loyal settlers; hence we shall have to protect ourselves more adequately in the future.—Yours faithfully,
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