212 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



tribe, the Wa-Kamba, at all events, are absolutely 

 precocious at anything connected with machinery ; and 

 there is no doubt that the sight of a bursting shell has 

 a wonderfully deterrent influence on the bellicose 

 intentions of the savage. It may be, and is, argued 

 that it would effect a saving if the defence of the 

 country were entrusted solely to an augmented force of 

 police. Perhaps there might be a saving in money, 

 but there are many who think that police work should 

 be entrusted to police, and military or punitive 

 operations to soldiers. Certainly, excellent as the 

 police are in their own sphere, they have much leeway 

 to make up before they can compare in efficiency from 

 a military point of view with the King's African Rifles. 

 Before disbanding or curtailing further the small but 

 highly efficient force that we now possess, it is to 

 be hoped that those who are responsible will take down 

 the map and mark well the various people who form 

 our neighbours. 



The question of the troops on the Northern or 

 Abyssinian boundary gives rise to a different class of 

 question. On this boundary we have one company 

 of the King's African Rifles. They are scattered over 

 a series of posts into which they are dug and fortified. 

 Owing to the difficulties of transport across the desert 

 country which separates the frontier from the habitable 

 Highlands, they are admittedly enormously expensive. 



Those settlers who are averse to what is called the 

 Frontier policy argue that a very large expense is 

 incurred. That no gain does or is likely to accrue to 

 the Protectorate from the maintenance of these isolated 

 forts. That, on the contrary, the scattering of these 

 isolated baits is liable at any moment to involve 

 us in an expensive war or the sacrifice of what little 



