364 THE LAND OF THE LION 



now there is no great danger of their being harassed, but 

 the kindly Elgao and N'dorobo are close neighbours and 

 need immediate protection. "Closing" their little country 

 would be no hardship on the incomers, and would save 

 the simple and brave people from untold misery. 



Nairobi as it is at present is a fruitful cause of evil to 

 the whole country. Thousands of porters and labourers 

 from many different tribes come there to get work. They 

 are engaged for Government contracts or on hunting 

 sefaris, and return there to be paid off. There are some 

 five hundred white men and women in and near the town, 

 and how many Somali and Hindi it is not easy to say. 

 Probably at least two thousand. The black population, 

 of course, varies a good deal, but there cannot be fewer 

 than from ten to fifteen thousand natives, and very few 

 comparatively of these are married. When the labourers 

 and porters come back, having worked on Government 

 contract or on sefari for months, much of their cash goes 

 in a wild spree. Men and women in plenty are there to 

 grab from them what they are but too ready to part with. 

 The results can better be imagined than described. 



British East Africa needs to-day the service of the 

 ablest young men the homeland can send her. There 

 amid her tribes, among her mountains, work that cannot 

 fail to influence the great future awaits the doer. 



She needs, first, a settled policy that shall free her 

 from the unsettling result of whirligig politics and shift- 

 ing parties in England. 



Second, she needs the trained civil servant fitted for 

 his work among settlers and natives, reasonably paid for 

 doing it, reasonably pensioned when it is done. 



Third, she needs a first-rate staff of young men; vet- 

 erinary, agricultural, medical, educational, and police, to 

 study the country, overcome its peculiar dangers, solve 

 its problems and aid those in authority by placing at their 



