This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
874
THE EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE

can be no doubt that many quarrels which have led to serious and costly punitive expeditions could have been amicably settled had the parties been able to discuss the situation in any common language, for it must be remembered that the greatest talent and one of the great passions of the African is the use of words. In North America the negroes are most successful as clergymen and lawyers, and in Africa serous difficulties can often be avoided if they are heard with a large patience and the aggrieved parties are allowed to argue for two or three days. Secondly, though native reserves are a good thing if they mean that the land necessary to natives is secured for their use and cannot be taken up by Europeans, they are not a good thing if they mean that natives are to be left to themselves, and that no attempt is to be made to induce the nomadic tribes to adopt a settled life and abandon raiding. We know that these tribes are not incurably nomadic, for many have settled down within the last few generations, and no effort should be spared to make the Masai and other races adapt themselves to new conditions, for the continuance of their wandering and predaceous habits can only mean their rapid extinction.

Since the Government has changed their policy and begun to favour European immigration, which they did not in practice encourage until the autumn of last year, the country has made most rapid strides, and the increase in trade and general prosperity is greater than the most sanguine would have dared to anticipate twelve months ago. The revenue has increased 50 per cent., imports 88 per cent., and exports 50 per cent. Provision was made for a deficit of £45,000 on the working expenses of the Uganda Railway in the past year, and the most sanguine estimate made was that the line would pay its way in two years' time. Instead of this, it appears that in the period of March 81, 1904, to March 81, 1905, the receipts have actually covered the expenditure, and yielded a small surplus. The chief exports at present seem to be hides, rubber,