FOUR 'RACES IN KENYA
Sta,—Mr. Gordon Smith's comments on Mr. Hill's article on Kenya need elucidating. Mr. Smith writes: "Their decline the decline of the Masai) and division remain a noteworthy feature of our colonisation." Sir Philip Mitchell, the Governor of Kenya, has written that, "the Government, for reasons which then seemed adequate, and which I do not myself think can be subjected to valid objections today, decided to assign to the Masai an area of land judged to be ample for their needs...." In 1904, when their first move occurred, they had just suffered a severe epidemic of smallpox and rinderpest, combined with famine and, accord- ing to Sir Philip, " there cannot have been more than 30,0(X) and may have been far fewer." Today there are some 53,000 occupying an area of 15,000 square miles. The decline of the Masai was not caused by their move.
The fact is that, because of pestilences and famine, • the Masai had declined in strength and importance just before we appeared on the Kenya scene. My own feeling is that, had we not appeared, the Masai would by this time have been conquered by another tribe—perhaps even by the Somali. That, however, is only a matter of opinion.—Yours truly,
The Old Rectory, Cavendish, Suffolk. R. S. RYDER.
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