EAST AFRICAN RULE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21068, 30 December 1931, Page 10

EAST AFRICAN RULE.

CLOSER UNION MOVEMENT. REPORT BY A COMMITTEE. [ rno.M orn own ronncspoNDENT.] CAPETOWN", Nov. G. A report by the joint committee, on closer union in East Africa lias created a favourable impression in Kenya. 'I lie general feeling is one of relief that no experimental revolutionary proposals are suggested for trial in the territories, and that in consequence no new political controversies will be raised. The settlers are not likely to find fault, with the report except again with its suggestion of doubt thrown upon 'iio wisdom or soundness of the white settlement, experiment in East .Africa. Most people regard the report as marking time. Jt is ir a inly welcomed because it brings everybody down from the clouds of speculation to the solid ground of known fact.

The East African Standard t pays:— "The absence of revolutionary proposals and its generally negative character are. encouraging indications that the East African territories will be permitted, on their own responsibility and through their own wisdom, to follow sound and natural lines of development. "In the course of a very generous statement on the value and importance of white settlement, reference is again made to the old question of the possibility tiiat the colony will be. populated in the future? by plantation managers instead of settlors. This, and a partial statement of certain aspects of financial policy during the last quarter of a century, have led the committee to suggest that figures and arguments submitted to tliem 'merit serious consideration before any policy of further intensive white settlement is

"In unhappy phraseology the committee has introduced an element of doubt which may colour the reception of an otherwise excellent report. What the committee has failed to realise is that during the last 25 years the energies of white settlement in creating new wealth from Kenya soil in the form of- steadily increasing exports and the establishment of industries has been the only important and reliable source of financial sustenance for tho country, has enabled the Government to function for more than a tbcade without grants from the Imperial Government, and by providing the means lias made possible development of services for Africans which the latter could never have provided m their present state of development."