SLAVES UNDER THE BRITISH FLAG [To the Editor of THE
SPECTATOR] SIR,—It is anything but a pleasure to " cross swords with so good and tried a friend of native races as Sir George Maxwell, but in saying that my statements " are so misleading " I am bound to point out that he refrains from saying in what respects.
Sir George Maxwell quotes the admirable texts of pro- clamations issued by Government, but as an experienced administrator he knows the wide variation in remote regions between issuing a proclamation and getting it carried out.
I appreciate to the full the fact that the Administration and my friend Tshekedi Khama are most anxious to apply all the terms of the proclamations throughout an area as large as France, Belgium and Holland put together. My whole point was, and is, the extraordinary difficulties there are in giving effect to them, and only those who visit this wild and remote region can realise this. I should be greatly surprised to learn that any official authority was prepared to say that the proclamations have in fact been carried out.
Another striking omission from Sir George Maxwell's letter is that it only refers to the Bamangwato area, whereas my article, as I made clear, referred to the whole territory in which the Masarwa are to be found.—I am, Yours, &c., Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, S.W.r.
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