338 THE LAND OF THE LION 



time as the development of the great water powers of 

 the country enable East Africa to manufacture her own 

 raw products, along the great water courses and by the 

 coast line. There are millions of acres of such rich land 

 lying at present under brush and swamp, superb plan- 

 tations they would make, but the cost of reclamation is 

 at present prohibitory. 



As I have pointed out in these notes of a traveller, 

 there are also many high plateaus where it seems as though 

 the white farmer could work all day and where two crops 

 a year could be raised. In Queensland, a far hotter 

 country, such work is now being carried out very success- 

 fully by white men, and in the northern part of the South 

 American continent, there are communities of pure-blooded 

 Spaniards who in almost the same latitude and in an even 

 higher altitude are thriving, and have thriven, for two 

 hundred years. 



If colonies of the unemployed could be directed here, 

 helped and educated until they succeeded in taking root, 

 they would do more to guarantee and perpetuate English 

 influence and rule than could any military or governmental 

 occupation (as at present thought of) possibly accomplish. 



Lastly it is evident that the Protectorate needs as much 

 as anything else, a firm hand at the helm. All within it, 

 black and white alike, must obey the law if the Protectorate 

 is to prosper. It is obvious if the white man may defy 

 or evade law, the black man will be quick to observe it. 



There is an evil tradition in East Africa, that as it is 

 a black man's country, and the whites are but as one in 

 a thousand, nothing to lower their prestige can be tolerated. 

 A white man cannot do wrong, a white man should not be 

 punished, even if he openly defies the law. (An exception, 

 and a good one, was made to this rule lately by the Nairobi 

 officials; I am glad to say a prominent white man, who 

 had defied the law, was sent to prison.) This vicious 



