Zanzibar trials
From Bruce Douglas-Mann, MP Sir: Cato's invocation of C. P. Scott (July 7) to return as a Miltonic censor, to cleanse the Guardian of opinions with which Cato does not agree (and particularly of my comments about the Zanzibar treason trials) would have met, with a sour response from the originator of the dictum "Comment is free but facts are sacred."
Cato uses expressions like "the blood-stained hands of Jumbe,” " Certain to be found guilty," and " Zanzibar authorities (if that word, implying legitimacy of some kind), can be used of such thugs." Colin Legum and I, both having recently been there (and neither of us being noted for "anodyne pieces" or "whitewash jobs ") write in more temperate terms. The trials are not yet over: even a trial should not be condemned until one knows the verdict and any sentence. and can assess these in relation to the evidence.
My piece had the title Justice at the Crossroads and the conclusion that "the present signs are not hopeful" that the trials will have been anything but a farce, but I do not regard that conclusion as yet certain.
Cato may prove to be right — but his predictions in all fields are likely to be more accurate if he wilt read the articles he attacks, with more care and less righteous indignation. I did not say that "Jumbe has put in some sanitation and built a road or two." I made no mention of either roads or sanitation and I class the autobahnen amongst Hitler's many sins.
1 do however consider that the acknowledgement by those who have least reason to love the regime that African living standards have been transformed since the revolution deserves a mention in the British press. I know a great deal about atrocities in Zanzibar and nothing about advances until I went to see for myself.
Bruce Douglas Mann House of Commons, London SW1
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