The Colonial Office and Kenya
The Colonial Office is well advised in issuing a statement explanatory of the situation in Kenya. Some suggestion has been made that a good deal of fuss is being stirred up about nothing. Men like Lord Lugard and the Arch- bishop of Canterbury arc not in the habit of taking public action without good cause, and when an ordinance de- signed to safeguard the rights of the native to land is amended so as to modify those safeguards in certain respects, the- situation demands immediate and vigilant scrutiny, however small the encroachments may seem to be. A good deal hangs on the construction to be placed on the word " temporary." The land excluded from the reserves, says Sir Philip Cunliffe Lister's statement, " is only for the duration of the lease." But mining leases, it is understood, are for 21 years, with the option of renewal : that is by no means a negligible period: It has never been seriously suggested that the gold in the Kakamega area should not be worked, but when it is realized what an influx of gold prospectors into a, crowded native area must mean, justification for expression of anxiety in this country is abundant. It is just as well that the Duke of Devonshire's doctrine as to the para- mountcy of the interests of the natives in what is, after all, their own country should be re-emphasized from time
to time.
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