AFRICAN DEPENDENCIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 11

AFRICAN DEPENDENCIES

ADMINISTRATION PROBLEMS DUKE'S WORDS OF COUNSEL British Wireless RUGBY, Nov. 3 Speaking at a meeting of the Royal African Society, the Duke of Gloucester said that, with the increasing complexity of the problems of the administration of education and agriculture, it was more than ever necessary for the people of this country, who bore the final responsibility for the African dependencies, to find out all they could at first hand of the rapidly changing social conditions.

One of the problems which would strike visitors, particularly in East Africa, was that of soil erosion. Changes in the systems of agriculture had exposed the soil to the full fury of tropical wind and rain, and the denudation of the fertile top soil was proceeding, sometimes with appalling results. Active steps were being taken to combat that evil. The Duke referred to the inestimable value of the Colonial Civil Service. He said it was most heartening that Africa was still getting a fihe type of young man for service in all parts. Nowadays many persons, not only in this country, were watching the way in which we discharged our trusteeship for 40,000,000 Africans whose destinies had become linked with ours, but wo were not alone in that continent, and the maximum benefit to Africa could only be attained by close co-operation and good understanding with the representatives of the other Powers concerned in the administration of African dependencies.