The correspondence dealing with the resignation of Sir Charles Eliot
was published on Monday. The question of a conces- sion of land to the East Africa Syndicate is not in issue, Sir Charles having made no objection to this grant. Apparently Lord Lansdowne directed the Commissioner to make no further large grants of land, but his instructions were mis- understood, and two concessions of thirty-two thousand acres each were about to be made to two private individuals, Messrs. Chamberlain and Flemmer. Lord Lansdowne, being in- formed that the land in question was part of the Masai grazing grounds, and that its alienation might lead to serious trouble with that tribe, ordered the Commissioner to do nothing further in the matter. On this Sir Charles Eliot resigned. The Government seem to us to have been entirely in the right, and though there may have been room for serious differences of opinion on the facts at issue, nothing can excuse the tone of argument which the Commissioner adopted. No head of a Department could submit to such treatment from a subordinate without making official discipline a farce.
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