would like to make it quite clear that
my former adverse criticism of the conduct of tome members of the Security Forces in Kenya did not apply to the units sent out from home. The Buffs, the Devons and the test are doing a very difficult and unpleasant Job exceedingly well, and are living up to the best traditions of the Services.
It is a pity that those traditions, of humanity
Lc' non-combatants and of discipline, are not better understood by some of the locally recruited forces. The defence that is usually it,I.ade in Kenya for brutality to the Kikuyu
general is that it is the only possible way
of dealing with the Mau Mau rebellion; but is this so ? It seems to me that indiscriminate violence, is not only wrong, but inefficient. There are still some Kikuyu, possibly fifty thousand, who have never taken the Mau Mau ?alit; and a much larger number have taken it under compulsion, and would renounce it if they dared. It is not much encouragement to them to stay on our side, or to come over to it, if some of our own forces beat and rob them simply because they are Kikuyu. It is Very hard on the Devons and their colleagues that the British public should suspect them of !hose very misdeeds which are making their Job, in Kenya more difficult.—Yours faithfully,
JANE MEIKLEJOHN
15 Ox Lane, Harpenden, Hells '
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