THE: COUNTRY 329 
tion seems so true that I quote his explanation of the 
present weakness of the Government, and the chief causes 
of native and immigrant discontent. 
“British East Africa has had persistent ill luck. Pes- 
tilence, drought and famine are enemies that in a com- 
paratively unknown land can neither be foreseen nor 
controlled, and they have devastated the country and 
engendered widespread misery and a spirit of unrest that 
has caused especial irritation against civilized restraint. 
“‘But the blame for the confusion 1s not all extra human. 
The clumsiness of men, and the conservatism of government 
systems have been only too powerful for evil. The main 
cause of disaster in the rule of the Foreign Office (at 
present the Colonial Office has taken over the Protectorate) 
as in that of its predecessor, the British East African Co., 
has been the lack of a policy based on a scientific knowledge 
of the country and its people, framed in accordance with 
the views of the local authorities as to what is practically 
and economically possible, and consistently and con- 
tinuously carried out, even despite the prejudices of philan- 
thropists at bome and the ambitions of military officials 
abroad. 
“The primary need in equatorial Africa is of a special 
service of men appointed by open competition. According 
to the present system, the selection of men is necessarily 
somewhat haphazard. A man is sent for a few years’ 
work to East Africa, thence he is promoted to act as consul 
at a Mediterranean watering-place or an American port. 
As soon as a man begins to understand the natives and 
to speak their language, he may be and often is transferred. 
Similarly a young official in British East Africa may at 
any time have placed over his head a man who knows 
nothing of Africa and African methods, and who may do 
serious mischief before he learns to take advice from his 
more experienced juniors.” 
