212 THE LAND OF THE LION 



of them. One thing above all other things this country 

 wants badly, and wants now. A strong impartial govern- 

 ment. That is just what, alas, it has not got. A policy 

 of " cover-up," and " hush-up" at any cost, prevails. If an 

 official fails in his office, or if worse than that, he has been 

 guilty of more than one failure, too often the course pursued 

 is one of concealment. " Let us not have a scandal whatever 

 we do." This criticism may seem harsh and uncalled for, 

 especially coming from a visitor who has received, as I have, 

 on all hands, nothing but kindness and courteous considera- 

 tion. But I have fully convinced myself, by actual personal 

 investigation, of its unfortunate and literal truth. The 

 difficulties facing the executive in British East Africa are 

 very great. Every allowance should be made for those who 

 are set to do a task, with means utterly inadequate to the 

 accomplishment of that task. But however inadequate 

 those means may be, the policy of hushing up, and pretend- 

 ing not to know flagrant wrongdoing of public officials, 

 must be ruinous to official discipline and efficiency. 



This raid of Mr. , known all over the land, was not 



punished as it should have been. It is true that there are 

 difficulties in procuring evidence, natives would have to be 

 brought from a long distance, expense might have to be in 

 incurred, but if an example was once made of such unscrupu- 

 lous villainy, it would strengthen the hands of every single 

 magistrate in these far scattered posts, and help greatly to 

 raise the prestige of the native police (askari), which by the 

 way, needs raising badly. That hundreds of innocent 

 men should be murdered in cold blood, for attempting 

 to defend their poor little all of possessions, that this 

 should be done within an English protectorate, and that 

 the man doing it should remain not only unpunished, 

 but untried, is surely not according to what is best in 

 English tradition. 



In a land where disorder and injustice has wrought its 



