[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sire—Thank you for publishing
Mr. J. L. Hammond's article on " The Future of Africa." It is good that democratic public, opinion in England is coming to see that the real problem in Africa is something more than the threatened conquest of Abyssinia by Italy ; that it is the greater problem of European Imperialism in Africa.
Mr. Hammond proposes that all the African Colonies should be put under the direct government of the League of Nations.' Recently Lord Noel-Buxton and Sir John H. Harris proposed that the Italian claim to Abyssinia should be settled by putting that country directly under the control of a League of Nations advisor. Both these proposals, while better than the present national imperialistic domination of Africa, do not specifically mention the African people theniselVes.. Under such plans; Abyssinia, which with Liberia is one of the two remaining independent African nations, may, in spite of League controh, be swallowed by European economic interests, and the foreign political control of Africa would then be complete. Such It " solution " of the problem would be no lasting solution and its partiality would lead to many future wars.
A solution which could be put forward by democratic friends of the African people would be that the League should set up an active Council on African Affairs, the membership of which should be predominantly African and Negro. Without some such Council I (and others) feel sure that the interests of the African people willmot be the first concern and the old eVilS of European Imperialism will survive.—Yours faithfully, 4 Maurice Walk, N.W.11. JOHN P. FLETCHER.
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