NOW THAT THERE is a new Colonial Secretary and a
new Governor of Kenya I hope we shall hear of a happy ending to the story of Mr. Lalji Devraj of Nairobi, a law-abiding and industrious young Indian who has twice been imprisoned without trial because—it seems--when' he was an immi- grant of fifteen, a dozen years ago, his sponsor in Kenya referred to him, in his application for a permit, as 'my son' when 'my adopted son' would have'been more precise. (The current Interpreta- tion Ordinance, incidentally, permits the one definition to include the other.) Thanks to Habeas Corpus, Mr. Devraj has twice been released by the Supreme Court, but he is unable to sustain an action for wrongful arrest and• imprisonment— and could quite easily be arrested again, and even deported—because the Immiektion Ordinance protects officials of the Kenya Goverhment from such actions in such a content. One judge has already said that he won't alloW Mr..Devraj to be kept in gaol 'merely to save expense and incon- venience' while the Crown tries to get another deportation order : it would be a good thing. it seems to me, if the Immigration Ordinance were so amended that the Crown was deprived of the power to make such a monstrous request. And how many other young Indians have been treated in this high-handed way who haven't had well-to- do relatives to invoke Habeas Corpus on their behalf?
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