Gold in Kenya The answer given by the Colonial Secretary
last week regarding the discovery of gold in Kenya is satisfactory so far as it goes. Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister said the Government's policy would be " to turn the mineral resources of Kavirondo to the fullest 'benefit of the Colony, while amply safeguarding the interests of the native occupants of the areas in question." The gold find is situated in native reserves, and it is known that a considerable crowd of poor whites and others from the South African Union has descended on the area and is engaged in washing for alluvial gold. More extensive operations, involving the sinking of shafts, are no doubt in prospect, obviously involving some disturbance of the natives' surface rights. If there is gold in Kenya it must, of course, be mined, but the Colony itself is entitled, as the Colonial Secretary says, to derive what benefit it can from the discovery, and it is of the first importance that haphazard immigration should be controlled. The Government cannot undertike gold mining itself, and the conditions under which con- cessions are to be awarded must be matter for careful study. * • *
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