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The country was, before long, to develop in an unexpected manner. It came about through the decision of Lord Salisbury, then prime minister, to build the rail way projected by Mackinnon from the coast to Victoria Nyanza, and that at the expense of the British taxpayer. The object was twofold, to provide easy access to the headwaters of the Nile and to deal a heavy blow at the slave trade. The building of the railway from Mombasa was begun in 1896, the first locomotive reaching Victoria Nyanza in Dec. 1901, but it was not until March 1903 that the permanent way was practically completed. It cost the Exchequer £5,331,000. During the building of the railway the energies of the administration were largely absorbed in that great work, and in establishing effective control over the Masai, Somali, and other tribes. The coast lands apart, the protectorate was regarded as valuable chiefly as being the high road to Uganda_ But as the railway reached the high plateaux the discovery was made that there were large areas of land, perhaps as much as 20,000 sq.m., and very sparsely peopled, where the climate was excellent and where the conditions were favourable to European colonization.
The completion of the railway, by affording transport facilities, made it practicable to open the country to settlers. Hitherto the European population had consisted of officials, a few traders, and missionaries; the labours of the last-named class among the natives having already produced good results. The first application for land was made in April 1902 by the East Africa syndicate—a company in which financiers belonging to the Chartered Company of South Africa were interested—which sought a grant of 500 sq.m. ; and this was followed by other applications for considerable areas. The settlers had the unusual advantage of coming to a country already provided—and not at their expense—with railway and port facilities. That there were already some thousands of Indians in the protectorate—the railway had been built by Indian coolies— did not at first cause the whites much perturbation. They, the whites, were carving out virgin estates, and at the outset they got the small amount of native labour they needed. During 1903 there arrived in the country hundreds of prospective settlers, chiefly from South Africa—Dutch and British—but including many from England, men of the upper and middle classes. The first settler was Lord Delamere (the 3rd baron) and he became the recognized leader of the immigrant whites. To meet the requirements of the majority of the settlers the administration decided not to entertain any further applications for large areas of land; moreover, some of the best land was used by the Masai for depasturing their vast herds of cattle. In dealing with the
applications for land grants a dispute arose between the corn missioner, Sir Charles Eliot, and Lord Lansdowne, the secretary of State for foreign affairs. Eliot, an able man, who had been commissioner since 1900, refused to carry out Lord Lansdowne's decisions as to certain applications for land. He resigned his position, and in a public telegram to the prime minister declared Lord Lansdowne's instructions "unjust and impolitic." This was on June 21, 1904; on the same day Sir Donald W. Stewart was appointed to succeed Eliot. (See the parliamentary paper, Cor resbondence Relating to the Resignation of Sir C. Eliot, Africa No. 4, 1904.) Growth of White Settlement.—This quarrel drew public attention in forcible fashion to East Africa; and it raised the question as to whether the land should fall in large areas into the hands of speculators, or be divided into smaller blocks which the individual settler could develop. The second was the proper course ; on this both the foreign secretary and the commissioner were agreed, but Lord Lansdowne considered himself bound by a pledge given to the East Africa syndicate.
Sir Donald Stewart (who died in Oct. 1905) induced the Masai, whose grazing rights were threatened, to remove to another district, and a settlement of the land claims was arranged. An offer to the Zionist Association of land for colonization by Jews was declined in Aug. 1905 by that body, after the receipt of a report by a commissioner sent to examine the land (6,000 sq.m.) offered. Meanwhile, in April 1905, the administration of the protectorate had been transferred from the Foreign to the Colonial Office. By the close of 1905 considerably over a million acres of land had been leased or sold by the protectorate author ities—about half of it for grazing purposes. In 1907, to meet the demands of the increasing number of white inhabitants, who had f ormed a Colonists' Association for the promotion of their interests, a nominated legislative council was established, and on this council representatives of the settlers were given seats. The style of the chief official was also altered, "governor" being sub stituted for "commissioner." During this period relations with the natives were, on the whole, satisfactory. However, the Nandi, who occupied the southern part of the plateau west of the Mau escarpment, repeatedly raided their less warlike neighbours and committed wholesale thefts from the railway and telegraph lines. In Sept. 1905 an expedition was sent against them which reduced the tribe to submission in the following November, and early in 1906 the Nandi were removed into a reserve.