THE COUNTRY 



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 is 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 home 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." 



