Orders of the Day — Dominion and Colonial Affairs.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 29 Gorffennaf 1926.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Mr William Ormsby-Gore Mr William Ormsby-Gore , Stafford

I agree that in Northern Nigeria you have had a system of land nationalisation by the British Government which the right hon. Gentle- man tried to get adopted in Southern Nigeria which created native animosity. There is no doubt it would be politically and practically impossible to introduce legislation of the Northern Nigerian type either in the Gold Coast or Southern Nigeria. The political opposition of the people themselves would be such that it would be practically impossible for any Government short of military reinforcements to impose such a law on these countries. The right hon. Gentleman was terribly misinformed on a good many points. It is quite untrue to say that there is no advance of the native people in Kenya. I am perfectly satisfied, from all I have heard from the Governor, for whom I have an increasing regard and who is well known to most hon. Members in this House, and the sort of accusation flung at him by the right hon. Gentleman is unworthy of him. Sir Edward Grigg, it is perfectly clear, and also Sir Robert Coryndon before him, have been responsible for very remarkable developments taking place in Kenya, which are such that Kenya at this moment offers more opportunities and more hope for the study and solution of the problem of one civilisation coming in contact with another race and another civilisation than is to be found anywhere in the world.

I found in Kenya on the part of the settlers, particularly the post-War settlers, who are mostly ex-officers and ex-service men, a real interest in the native problem of this country. I found them interested in the problem not merely from the point of view of cheap labour. It is so easy to sneer at them, but most of them when they went out had nothing but their gratuities. They are people who mean to live there, with their children and children's children, and they are interested in the native. They do not take the South African view of the policy of segregation which they regard as utterly impracticable and they say that they have got to live with the native and be with them. The whole time they are raising the native in civilisation, and not only the native but the native family, and the whole tendency is to encourage the native to come into the family, to provide them with schools, and better sanitation and medical comforts, and generally to make them permanent tenants with their cattle and families in the European Empire. I am perfectly certain that that is a sound policy and that in Kenya we are seeing the working out of a dual policy of giving absolutely free choice to the native as to whether he stays in the reserve or comes out and lives and associates with the Europeans in agricultural work.