EAST AFRICA ; A NEW DOMINION. By . Major Archibald Church.
(H. F. and G. Witherby. 18s.)—Major Church, a former Labour member, who went with the Parlia- mentary Commission to East Africa in 1924, has written an interesting book on the several territories. He predicts a great future for them if they are wisely developed on scientific lines. Unlike most of his party, he is by no means hostile to the European settlers. He holds that there are large areas, now vacant, where British colonists might do well, not only
in Kenya but also in Tanganyika. " It is," he says, " the duty
of Government to undertake the recruitment of labour," in the interests of both the European and the native. But he does not want the white settler to depend on cheap black labour, and he urges the planters to cultivate crops that need the least amount of manual labour and that can be harvested by machinery. Majo,r Church denounces the more fanatical Labour men for their lack of vision. But he also condemns the administrations for lack of enterprise. He hardly realizes that they are all compelled to progress slowly because they are short of funds. However, the East Africa loan which many of his party opposed will enable some of the reforms that he advocates to be carried out.
Previous page
