Correspondence
A LETTER FROM EAST AFRICA.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] •
Sut,—Your correspondent, after a long time " in the blue," and a visit home, has had the opportunity of a tour from wYcli he has returned almost bewildered at the strides along the= road of progress made by these " younger sons " of the British Commonwealth, during the last two or three years.
The word " strides " hardly describes the advance. Rather must one turn to motoring terms of speed not only to illustrate the wonderful -way in which we have gone forward but also because the, key-note is just motors, and motors by the thousand. The railway advances and speeds up, but it was the vast number of motors and the more and better roads which chiefly struck us. As we landed at Mombasa we saw that week's arrivals from the factories of Detroit —250 cars in their cases lying in a long line on the quay— and, instead of the old rickshaw, we were besieged by the drivers of long lines of " taxis.", Then, again, in Nairobi and other towns it was the great number of cars and lorries which impressed us most, with large parking areas, filled with cars, in all the business parts. In our own township, the registration number for our-new car is over four thousand above our old one which is not yet five years old.
The new deep-water quays at Mombasa, with the great new concrete warehouses and Customs houses were in full use, and our liner, instead of spending the week or more unloading into lighters in the roadstead, went alongside and was to be away again in three days with the help of the great electiic cranes. The new Customs house for passengers handled our things quickly and smoothly, while we enjoyed the cool, concrete place instead of the stifling heat and muddle of the old, iron shed of only a year ago. Many and grand new business houses and hotels had sprung up everywhere, and more still were in building, while the excellent hospitals and the native Maternity Centre—complete with trained native midwives—showed how the health organization is keeping pace both with the need and With modern ideas. Our railway journey to Nairobi was in the new corridor coaches, with a fine restaurant-car instead of the hasty and scrambled meals formerly taken at stops on the way. One criticism only we had—that the carriages were on the cramped models of the South African ones, instead of like those in the Sudan, which are more comfortable and more suitable for equatorial travel.
In Nairobi we had theprivilege of several talks, and found a sharp divergence of opinion on the Hilton Young Report. Not only was Nairobi opinion divided, with perhaps a fairly large majority against it in the main, but different areas— notably Mombasa—were in direct opposition again, so that some parts seemed violently opposed and others. enthusiastically in favour of the recommendations.
Three new and huge hotels had sprung up in Nairobi, dwarfingour old friends of just a year before, while the Wonderf l new offices of the Kenya and Uganda Railway
would be thought a fine building even at Home. Then the new broadcasting station, with its daily programme, illustrates how East Africa is keeping up to date. It can, perhaps, only be dimly imagined by Home folk how thrilling it was, for instance, to hear every word of the election speech:es broadcast from Home, and more still to hear Big Ben striking the hour—and to hear it a few seconds before people walking along Whitehall Locusts provide the topic of the hour, but the menace of these most destructive pests is being dealt with by field parties before it can become grave, so that where a year or two ago great tracks of Africa would be absolutely devastated, now the hoppers " are met at the earliest stage and Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika can be quietly going about their business without fear of the crops being all eaten up. If the technical departments did little else, this work alone would repay all the money spent, while it illustrates the return which scientific research and organization give in the great field of tropical agriculture. And East Africa needs more research and the best brains before she can begin really to take the great place in the world we who live here confidently predict for her—to take two examples of pests now causing anxiety, the mealy-bug and the boll-weevil alone cause thousands of pounds loss every year, while cattle diseases often mean the loss of more than half the calves born every year.
Game continues to attract many visitors from Home and
America, and some of our troubles in this direction have already been ventilated in the Times. The wholesale slaughter of game from motor-cars by certain " sportsmen " is difficult to excuse, but the more stringent laws needed to combat this only make the Game Departments more expensive and the ordinary sportsman irritable while the chief offenders escape. There is still enough and interesting shooting for all-corners and the good hunter is welcomed wherever he goes—even to the hospitals when he is careless
Uganda has had its Cotton Commission with a most valuable inquiry and Report. The railway extension to the Capital is well on the way and the great road schemes under the loan are rapidly opening up the western parts. Plague has made its appearance in quite formidable proportions, but again research and the technical departments have proved their value and restrictions and inoculations have been quite readily undertaken by the chiefs and people so that its force seems spent with really very few casualties— some twenty in all. Once again the motor must provide the illustration for the speed with which things advance in this country for a (native) Ranger regularly comes to her company parades driving her own car—quite in the English style ! The cars in the countries of East Africa are about 75 per cent. American—surely a commentary on English methods of business. Nearly all the cars outside the towns, in fact, are American. The few who are faithful (like your correspondent) to English cars believe that they save in the end by lower petrol consumption and a better second-hand price, but there is no doubt that the average American car is better suited to the rough conditions and hard driving of the country. East African thoughts jealously follow everything said by friends and critics at Home, but again we plead for more real knowledge and study of our problems and possibilities. Hard work and even harder shall we have to put in before all those rich possibilities are explored, but sympathy and helpful advice will well repay our Home friends where much of present-day criticism only hurts. Dress reform for men at home amuses us out here—we have long worn the short-sleeved shirts and " shorts " which have been paraded as " new " at Home. Our own dress reform takes the form of sky-blue or rose-pink shirts !- I am, Sir, &c., Youa EAST AFRICAN CORRESPONDENT.
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