STRONG OPPOSITION
PLAN FOR EAST AFRICA RESIDENTS' FIRM STAND The White Paper on inter-territorial organisation in East Africa has had a most unfavourable reception from the European residents, writes a Nairobi correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ of London Nobody disputes the importance of improving the management of the in-ter-territorial services, but the view of Europeans is that this is being used by an imported colonial administration as a cloak for the introduction of political principles, especially that of equality of racial capacity and responsibility, which at the present stage of development, it is contended, are completely illogical. The African peoples have a long way to go before they can even begin to understand the simplest problems of government, for which they are now being asked to share responsibility on equal terms. BRITISH SETTLEMENT. The Asians’ interest in East Africa is mainly commercial; their contribution to the battle casualties of the local troops in the late war was literally nil; the goodwill of many toward the British is questionable; and their contribution to the East African councils in the past lias been almost entirely limited to their own interests. On the other hand, the British settlement has been, and still is, a stabilising factor in the life of these countries, providing typical British inspiration, leadership, and the traditional colonial background for the exercise of African trusteeship. They are also home-building on a basis of permanence, which is foreign to the outlook of an imported civil service. BARGAINING FOR VOTES.
The present proposal would largely destroy the beneficial influence of the British setlement by introducing racial bargaining for votes; it would wrest from the community such share of responsibility as during the last 30 years they have succeeded in securing; and it would clamp a civil service government, alien to the people of the country, even more firmly upon them than hitherto. In addition, two wars have shown the importance to the security of the Empire of building up strong and loyal British settlements along Africa’s spinal column. The foregoing is, I think, a fair summary of the grounds on which British people in East Africa will take a firm stand against the proposals, says the correspondent. They would certainly like the people of Britain to appreciate that these are the honestlyheld views of their own kith and kin, who feel a genuine responsibility for the future of the Africans, and who, equally honestly, feel that they cannot share that trust on an ‘equal basis
with the Indians. The African and Lndinn reaction is not vet clear'. A meeting at Nairobi, attended b.v European representatives of several bodies, inffluding the British Association in Tanganyika, agreed on the,importance of taking joint- action, and that all members of territorial legislatures should be asked not to take su independent line.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 25677, 28 December 1945, Page 6
Word Count
464STRONG OPPOSITION Evening Star, Issue 25677, 28 December 1945, Page 6
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