A Spectator's Notebook
I HAVE ALWAYS believed that the Central African Federation was an experiment well worth making, and realised that its success depended on the statesmanship of moderate men like Sir Godfrey Huggins and Mr. Michael Blundell. I have equally believed that the threit to it came not from the native Africans, who are not nearly as alarmed as some of their advocates in this country would have us think, but from some of the white settlers who object to the official policy, which is intended eventually to lead to a racial partnership. I have received rather frightening confirmation of this in some letters which a friend of mine has received from an acquaintance who is a settler in Nyasaland. The letters are almost a parody of what is supposed to be the settler attitude : 'Mails come in a funny way now, the Govt. insisting. on the urging of the Colonial Office, that niggers should be employed. Wherever possible our mails are up to maggots.' Poor old England, what with being swamped with niggers and Yanks, etc., to have her better breed going stale on her. Well, it's the limit. Another war is indicated to stiffen them again.' There is a lot more about the readiness of the whites and especially the European unions to resort to passive resistance, strikes and go-slow methods, in order to defeat any enlightened Government policy. I am quite sure this is an extreme view, but the extreme view is not as isolated in the Federation as it is comfortable to think. I am equally sure that the responsible leaders of the Federation need the support and encouragement of all of us—including the Colonial Office —here, instead of the sniping to 'which they are subjected by some so-called progressives.
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