The Uganda Protectorate.

Manawatu Herald, 27 September 1902, Page 2

The Uganda Protectorate.

Mr W. T. Stead, in the Review of Reviews, writes on Sir H. Johnston, the Man and his Book, which book is the lately published “ The Uganda. Protectorate, ” every inch of which ia interesting. We purpose however, from want of space, to give extracts as to the value of the whit* man’s interference in the country. Of the results of European influence in Africa Sir Harry Johnston gives a good account. His deliberate verdict is that the Europeans, even in the Congo Free State, have distinctly improved the conditions of human existence for the African population. Speakiilg of the Belgians, he says:—

“I can only state, in common fairness, that that very small portion of the Congo Free State which I have seen since these new countries were administered by Belgian officials possessed excellent buildings, well-made roads, and was inhabited by cheerful natives, who repeatedly, and without solicitation on my part, compared the good times they were now having to the misery and terror which preceded them, when the Arabs and Manyema had established themselves in the country as chiefs and slave-traders.” Both in East and West Africa his verdict is clear and emphatic. The European may have brought a good many evils in his train, but he has extinguished far greater miseries than any of those which the natives have suffered at bis hands. Peace now reigns, and law and order prevail over vast regions which before our advent were given over to the wide-wasting atrocities of the Arab slave-traders and their African allies

“ The population of parts of Kavirondo on the slopes of Mount Elgon of the Nyando Valley, and of much of the Nandy Plateau has been absolutely extinguished—men, women, and children being slain, and the remnant starving to death in the bush. One can only say that in every district there prevailed absolute insecurity for life or property.” As in East Africa, so he declares it has been on the Western Coast:—

“ The bloodshed and misery that went on in these regions was incomparably more awful than the whole aura of “ atrocities ” inflicted by ill-conducted Europeans, or produced by European warfare with the natives incidental to the extension of European rule over the western third of Africa. I for one, with every desire to be unprejudiced, cannot come to any other conclusion, than that the natives of Nigeria have immensely gained in happiness and security of life and property whenever wo have undertaken the direct administration and control of the countries in which they live. Visit the rivers of the Niger Delta now, and see if you can state with truth that the negroes are not happy, numerous, and commencing to lead a civilised and comfortable life.”