Another Groundnuts Resignation
Articles from a special correspondent on the East African ground- nuts scheme, which appeared in the Spectator in February and May of this year, have pointed out that, despite the difficulties which have been encountered, there is not the slightest reason to write off the scheme as a failure. A further article, from Kenya, based on a recent survey of the project, appears on a later page of this issue and emphasises both this point and the remarkable work being done by the men on the spot despite a constant fire of ill-informed criticism from outside. But it has always been clear that this effort could not be indefinitely maintained unless the central policy of the Overseas Food Corporation remained reasonably stable and the much too frequent changes among the leading executives in Tanganyika were brought to a stop. Seven such senior officers left in the first four months of this year, and a question asked by Mr. Hurd in the House of Commons did not elicit a satisfactory explanation of so serious a change. Now it is announced that Major-General Harrison, a member of the Board of the Overseas Food Corporation and general manager in Africa, has gone. The Minister of Food, in accepting this latest resignation, mentioned only the reasons of health which made it necessary. But General Harrison, in offering to resign, had also referred to the difficulty facing a member of the board who had also to direct the scheme in East Africa. He said that the man on the spot must be free to con- centrate on local problems, subject only to general direction from London. A break in continuity due to journeys to London must be avoided. That looks like sound sense. The main point now is that the groundnuts scheme must hold firmly on its course without the sudden and incalculable changes both of policy and of staff which have been all too frequent in recent months. Mr. Strachey is shortly going to Tanganyika to inspect the scheme for himself. If he gets an uninterrupted view of it, and, as a consequence, sees the paramount need for coherence and continuity, it should not be long before the corner is turned.
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