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THE MODERN REYIEW FOR AUGUST, 1925

how much money will be spent is of no importance compared to the more vital question of selecting the people on whom the money will be spent.

The cause of higher studies will suffer as long as abler men do not go into the University and stay there contented and with the conviction that they are secure in their posts so long as they do not cease to carry on their work properly and whole-heartedly. Even some very great scholars in the University do not know where they stand and when they would be asked to leave. And the relation of salaries to qualification or that of control to scholarship is even more of an anomaly.

It is not desirable that the Government should be allowed to come into the field of University management, nor is it fair that the Government should allow the University to be controlled by vested interests and cliques. It is necessary that the Government pay for the advancement of learning; but they should see that things are done properly. We are not suggesting official management of the University. The scholars of the nation should control the University, but in this kingdom of scholars there must be democracy and not oligarchy or tyranny.

A. C.


how much money will be spent is of no importance compared to the more vital {question of selecting the people on whom ~he money will be spent. The cause of higher studies will suffer so long as ' abler men • do not go into the University and stay there contented and with the conviction that they are secure in. their posts so loDg as they do not cease to carry on their work properly and whole-heartedly, liven same very great scholars in the Uni­ versity do hot know where they stand and when they would be asked to leave. And the relation of salaries to qualification or that of control to scholarship is even more of an anomaly.

It is not desirable that the Government should be allowed to come into the field, of University management, nor is it fair that the Government should allow the University to be controlled by vested. interests and cliques. It is necessary that the Government pay for the advancement of learning; but they should see that things are done properly. We are. not suggesting official management of the University. The scholars of the nation should control the University^ but in this kingdom of scholars---- there must “he democracy and not oligarchy—or tyranny. u ~ ~ ~ " " A. 0.

THE EAST AFRICAN COMMISSION REPORT By C. F. ANDREWS.

HE Report of the East African Commission is a remarkable document in many ways. It is the first comprehensive document dealing with the whole of the vast territory o: East Africa which has come under British rule. This East African Dominion has an area covering nearly 1 million square miles and a population of 28 million people.. The time spent in East 'Africa by the Commissioners was only 86 days. It is obvious, therefore, that the facts, which have been presented in the Report have "rather been such as have been collected for the Commissioners than such as would be the result of an independ­ ent enquiry. The most striking thing about the Report is this : that the Labour member sided always with the Conservative Chairman, and it was the Liberal member of the Commission, named Mr F. C. Linfield, who alone brought out the weakness of the official position and strongly upheld what may be called the ‘pro-native policy’. The Majority Report, in its main aspects, is obviously a white-washing Report. It repre­ sents a piece of special pleading, of the most disquieting character, for the whole European Hantation System. Yet all through the Maj­ ority Report itself there run phrases, which clearly indicate the evils carried on under

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the plantation system. The Minority-Report on the other hand, is throughout a rejection of that system in favour of native cultivation. It is difficult, therefore, to understand how Mr. Linfield, who wrote the Minority Report, could himself be a party to the statements contained in the Majority Report. For indeed it may be truly said, that his whole Minute published at the end of the Report, is the strongest possible condemnation, of the find­ ings of the Majority Report itself. He found that his two fellow-workers were unwilling to quote figures with regard to population which he himself had asked fdr. Therefore he dared to quote them. These figures, which are offi­ cially given, show with terrible clearness that the indigenous population in these large areas of East Africa is on the whole declining. In one area the Government Census Report declares that the reasons for this declining popula­ tion are as follows(1) The long absence of male members from home, (2) the contact with European civilisation; (3) the diseases caused by immoral living. Mr. Linfield quotes these facts and figures which he could not get his two colleagues to publish. .Another fact which comes out in his Minute is a written statement-.by the Chief Native Commissioner of Kenya, which declares that as late as 1923, only a little over one