More Changes for Kenya •
The more conservative of the settlers in Kenya are finding it hard to adapt their ways of thought to circumstances which for them are changing with bewildering speed. The uproar over the use of General China to negotiate the surrender of other Mau Mau leaders had scarcely begun to abate when constitutional changes of some importance were sprung on them. Mr. Lytteltoii has jumped to it in Kenya, and the parliamentary delegation which returned from the colony only a matter of weeks ago has the satisfaction of seeing its report acted- on promptly and decisively. Non-Europeans are for the first time drawn, as the delegation in its report urgently recommended they should be, into the higher councils of government and a start is made in laying the foundations of multi-racial rule. " The new Council of Ministers, which is to be the principal instrument of government, will include six unofficial members—three Europeans, two Asians and one African. This does not reflect the proportions of -Kenya's racial divisions, but considering the present state of affairs in the country the Africans would be wallowing in unreality if they kept up their opposition to the proposals. As to the Europeans, it is clear that Mr. Blundell carried the day for Mr. Lyttelton's scheme only after a bitter struggle. There remains a distinct danger that the settlers will split openly over this. But perhaps the wrath of the diehards will be to some extent assuaged by the Government's determination to increase rather than relax its efforts against Mau Mau in the field. The military successes of the past week or so are proof of this, and the setting up of a War Council should help to reassure the settlers who fancied that a compromise with Mau Mau—a " sell-out ", as they said—was on the way. The steps that have been taken are the right ones : the first towards bringing the actual emergency to an end as soon as possible, the second towards giving the non-Europeans some outlet for their political ambitions. It is infinitely more important than some of the settlers have yet been brought to realise that these steps must be taken simultaneously. There can be no real military solution without its political concomitant.
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