Evening star., 1933-02-12
Britain's Interest Is
Now Centered in Kenya
BY A. G. GARDINER.

LONDON, February 11.-The most
:ritical meeting Of Parliament since the
World War opened Tuesday and 1t was
significant that the subject chiefly dis
cussed concerned none of the para
mount issues--war debts, India, Ire
land, disarmament, the World Economic
Conference or unemployment - but
centered in the far-away British colony
of Kenya.
This remote equatorial province in
Africa has suddenly assumed promi-
nence ON the world map owing to the
discovery Of gold in the Kavinrondo
region. The magnitude of the discovery
is entirely problematical, but the indica-
tions suggest that 1t may be OF the
utmost Importance and involve an area
Of great dimensions.
The public interest aroused in the
subject is not primarily financial, but
is related to the rights Of the natives,
which it Is alleged, have been gravely
compromised by the action of the gov
ernment Of Kenya, functioning under
the supervision Of the British colonial
Office. This suspicion has been the
theme of great and growing agitation
in the press and among religious and
philanthropic bodies. Both the House
of Lords and the House Of Commons
ION Wednesday were occupied with seri-
Gus criticisms of the action Of the gov
eminent of Kenya and with demands
that the British government take
measures to remove the distrust created
and assure the natives of the security
Of their rights.
4 \ X
The attack was led in the House of
Lords by Lord Lugard, the most famous
Of living authorities on equatorial
Africa, and by the Archbishop of
Canterbury and Lord Reading. In
Commons the protests were equally
powerfully backed.
No objection was raised to the ex-
ploitation Of the gold discoveries, but
the case Of the critics is that the
rights Of the natives are paramount
and that those rights are being seriously
compromised in the interests of rapid
development Of gold mining and in the
spirit Of haste and secrecy.
The natives rights to undisturbed
possession of their holdings are secured
by an ordinance Of 1880, decreed before
the gold discoveries were made. BY this
ordinance 1t Is provided that If the
worked compensatory to land shall be
given to the dispossessed natives, and
also that when native land is needed for
government purp Jses the native councils
shall be consulted.
The basis of the accusations Is that
an amending oiCi..ancc Is now being
rushed through the Kenya Legislature
which violates these provisions and that
the colonial office gave sanction to this
violation while Parliament was on vaca-
ton and without an opportunity for
instructed discussion Of the subject
The Archbishop of Canterbury and
other critics condemned the haste and
secrecy of the proceeding and suggested
that the men on the spot, confronted
by q sudden emergency. had sacrificed
the interests of the natives to the in
terests of the exploiters and in doing so
natives in the good faith Of the govern
ment.
In defense Of the Kenya government,
the colonial minister in Commons and
Lord Hailsham in the House of Lords
pointed out that prospecting work was
on only q thousand acres of
a total native reserve Of 1000 square
miles: that only 800 families had been
disturbed, and that compensation to the
natives was given on the same scale as
to the white settlers. Moreover, the
natives will share in the prosperity
consequent on the discovery of gold.
These assurances left the public mind
dissatisfied and newspapers so widely
separated as the London Times and
Manchester Guardian remark that the
emphasis laid on the insignificance Of
the present operations is mere special
pleading calculated to increase the pre-
vailing uneasiness and fears Of the
natives as to the future.
Views vary as to whether the mining
development should be carried out by
the government, as the Labor party
suggests: by a company in which the
has a majority control, as
Lord Lugard suggests, or by private
enterprise under government restric-
tions, as Sir Herbert Samuel suggests.
(CopyriRht. 1Qaal