Evening star., 1923-05-10
BY THE MARQUIsE DE FONTENoY

Fortunately. Lord Delamere and the
American born Sir William Northup
Mcmillan of St. Louis. Mo, are just
at present in London and in touch
with the Duke of Devonshire. who is
secretary of state for the colonies.
Otherwise serious trouble might al
ready have broken out in the East
African colony of kenya. between
the whites and the Indian immigrants.
kenya, which has its capital as
Nairobi--a name 50 familiar TO every
American and European who has
ever visited East and Central Africa
for purposes of sport, and especially
for big game shooting. and which
has it's principal port at Mombasa,
the finest harbor of the entire east
ern coast Of the dark continent--is
an immense tract of land of great
fertility and of rich pasture which
owes its present prosperity and its
remarkable development to d number
of rich men of birth and wealth who
were led by that spirit of adventure
and of enterprise which promopted
the builders of Great Britain'S huge
oversee empire. to transfer their
homes from the conventional mother
land to fields far distant.
Among the pioneers Of the kenya
portion of British East Africa. in ad-
dition TO Lord Delamere, and his
friend. Sir William Mcmillan. Were
Sir Alfred Pease, who entertained the
late President Roosevelt on the oc-
casion of his trip TO Africa. Lord
CardrOSs. eldest son and heir of the
fourteenth Earl of Buchan, and a
number of other men of the same
type-most of them formerly con-
nected with the army and navy.
X X X
In fact. kenya had much in commo n
with Virginia. in that its pioneer
founders were almost exclusively OF
what may be described as the cavalier
caste. They put their heart into the
nterprise-embarked large sums of
money in the adventure-in some in
stances. selling all their landed pos
sessions at home, in order to find a
more profitable return for their
money in Kenya one of the relatively
rare regions of the dark continent
that are particularly suitable for
white colonization.
X X X
The colony proSpered to such an
extent that it attracted emigrants
from British East India. who had
settled i'm Zanzibar and along the
coast for purposes Of trade. They
gradually drifted into the vicinity,
ending by outnumbering the ten thou
sand whites of Kenya. by two to
one. Not only did they encroach upon
the area which had been regarded as
restricted exclusively to white colon
ization and habitation, but they also
began to clamor for full equal status
with the white settlers, and to equal
franchise.
Led by clever native agitators from
Bombay, from Madras and from car
cutta, they made no secret OF tnelr
intention of converting all Brl' ,sii
Africa into another India. with In
dians instead Of Englishmen as 1ne
dominant and ruling race.
Although there is no sympathy pc
tween the Indians and the native
blacks, who number several millions.
vet the latter are being prompted by
the Indian agitation Tor francnlse
and equal rights win lie - n
put forward similar pretensions TO a
share in the rule, of what is, after all,
their own native land, and are show
ing a restless disposition to abandon
the relations of we'll paid labor with
the white capitalist for that OF i'm
possible equality.
X X
1t is urged that the situation ere
ated by the Indian immigrants in
Kenya 10 only the beginning OF
movement by Indian .nationalists to
swamp all British white populated
oversee dominions with native In
dians, among the leaders of the move
ment being Sriniviea Sastri, who rep
resented India at the disarmament
conference at Washington q year ago
] The contention which Lord Della