RIOTS ON GOLD COAST

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25566, 6 August 1948, Page 7

RIOTS ON GOLD COAST

INQUIRY COMMISSION REPORTS AFRICAN DISTRUST OF EUROPEANS (N.Z. PrMB AliOCiation— Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, August 4. African dlstruat and suspicion of the European is poisoning life on the Gold Coast, according to the report of the official commission of inquiry into the Gold Coast disturbances of February and March, in which 29 were killed and 137 Injured. The report says that suspicion surrounding Government action of any sort is the most serious problem facing the Gold Coast Administration. The commission accepted the Police Commissioner’s view that it was Imeossible to restore order without shoot - ig, and It held that the Governor (Sir Gerald Creasy) acted in good faith in dismissing six members of the United Gold Coast Convention. “The convention secretary in London, Kwarne Nkrumah, was identified with the West African national secretariat," the commission’s report said. “The object of this body apparently was to be the precursor of a Union of West African Soviet Socialist Republics.” The report lists among the causes underlying the disturbances the disappointment of returning African former servicemen with their home conditions, political frustration among educated Africans, the Government’s failure to appreciate the spread of liberal ideas, increasing literacy, and the alleged unfair allocation and distribution by importing firms of goods in short supply. The commission’s proposals include a draft for constitutional reform. It offers this because, it says, the people suspect that the outmoded chieftain rule is being exploited by the Government to suppress the people’s political aspirations.