POLICE ACTIONS IN KENYA

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27035, 9 May 1953, Page 7

POLICE ACTIONS IN KENYA

Inquiry Into Alleged Atrocities Wanted LONDON, May 7. The editors of two British religious journals issued a joint statement today calling for an official inquiry into allegations of police atrocities against the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya. The statement said the Kikuyu had alleged that men dressed as Home Guards had engaged in flogging? committed gross indecencies against women, and perpetrated mutilations comparable with those attributed.to the Mau Mau themselves. The editors of the two journals—the Church of England Newspaper and the “British Weekly” (the Free Church journal)—asked for a thorough inquiry. They recalled the recent questions on this subject in the House of Commons and described the Government’s attitude as “wholly unsatisfactory.” Reuter’s correspondent in Nairobi says the Governor of Kenya (Sir Evelyn Baring) has ordered the Police Commissioner (Mr Michael O’Rorke) to investigate allegations by an Irishborn lawyer, Mr Peter Evans, that two Mau Mau suspects were murdered by a European police officer and African police last month.

DEATH OF CHILD SWIMMER FATHER QUESTIONED BY POLICE (Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, May 7. Police today arrested the father of the five-year-old swimming star, Kathy Tongay, who died yesterday, and questioned him for about an hour and a half about his daughter’s death. Russell Tongay, aged 36, a deaf former Coast Guardsman, was fingerprinted. photographed and held for “investigation of murder” while detectives questioned him. Soon afterwards he was released on a writ of habeas corpus to appear in Court tomorrow for a hearing. An earlier autopsy showed that the child died from a ruptured intestine. With her brother, aged seven, the child was taught to swim when she was 10 months old. In 1951 Tongay wanted to let the children try to swim the English Channel but the British and French Governments would not give their permission.

New U.S. Air Chief.—General Nathan Twining has been nominated Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force for a two-year term, succeeding General Hoyt Vandenberg, aged 54, who will retire at the end of June at his own request. General Vandenberg, who has been Chief of Staff for five years, underwent a major abdominal operation last year.—Washington, May 7.