THE EVICTION OF THE MASHONALAND NATIVES. [To THE EDIt'OR of
tie " gererirott."3
Sis,—The eicellent letter of the Rev. Sheerly Gripper upon the eviction of natives in one part of Mashonaland is an indication of the serious pbgition of the entire native population of South Rhodesia. The British public, so deeply absorbed in the war, has quite excusably omitted to notice the gravity of a situation which has been brought about in their name, and unless some- thing is done, and done quickly, the injustice will become firmly rooted.
It is now established that the entire natives of Matabeleland and Mashonaland have lost all their indigenous rights to land, primarily through a concession acted upon for over twenty years as valid, but now adjudged by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to have been a Worthleas document. The consequences which have followed the original action have been so disastrous to British prestige that every effort should have been made to recompense the natives so cruelly wronged; instead of that we see, as Mr. Cripps has shown, that, so far as the natives are concerned, everything in Sonthern Rhodesia is proceeding in exactly the same way as if the judgment had never been delivered—the lot of the natives is eviction vtheieVer it suits white interests I It is understood that Mr. Cripps has come to England to join with others in an appeal to the British public for an impartial inquiry into the position of the natives of Southern Rhodesia. Mr. Cripps has devoted a lifetime to the natives of Mashona- land, and several Free Churches now propose offering their pulpits to this courageous missionary. As one who knows the man and his splendid work, may I express the hope that the Anglican Church will extend a welcome not less hearty to the man who, in its name, has led the battle for the natives as did Knibb in Jamaica and Tucker in Uganda P If the Christian forces of Great Britain will give Mr. Sheerly Cripps the help he has the right to expect, public opinion Will insist upon reparation, or at least will demand that the propesed eviction frOm their homes and their cultivated lands of many thousands of greatly wronged Mashotse. and. Matabele natives shall noil
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