MAU MAU
SIR.---May I make a comment on your editorial note 'Life With Father' on the C:orfield Report'?
It is, of course, true that the Kenya Administration is to be blamed for its failure to see that benevolent paternalism could not last indefinitely. It had plenty of warning.
I arrived in Kenya in October, 1948, and, soon after, met a man, whom I had known in England 29 years before, who was then (November, 1948) a particularly influential member of the Government of Kenya. I asked him what importance he ascribed to the reports of subversive tribal meetings, just beginning to appear in the local press. I clearly remember the tenour, if not the actual words, of his replies. 'Don't bother about that. We know pretty well what is going on. We have our people at these meetings and have such things pretty well in hand.'
. . . Never believe what you read in the news- papers....'
It was the failure of the Administration to heed the warnings it must have received that was re- sponsible for the invitation to HRH Princess Elizabeth, as she then was, to visit Kenya in 1951. There can be no other explanation. To say that the interregnum (June 21 to September 30, 1952) was a crucial period is to exaggerate the importance of a contributory error. By then the rebellion had reached the point of no return. After all, Mr. Chamberlitin said: 'Hitler promised ME.' What did Sir E Baring's predecessor say?— Yours faithfully, CHARLES BRIDGE
18 Hale House, De Vere Gardens, W8
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