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there is a provision in their land laws that transfers of land between persons of different races must be notified to the Commissioner of Lands, and may be vetoed by the Governor in Council. The Government is thus enabled to prevent, by administrative action, the alienation of land in the Highlands to non-Europeans.
It seems fairly clear that any agreement with China, whether by Treaty or by exchange of Notes, which gave the Chinese nationals or companies the right to acquire landed property in the Colonies on a basis of reciprocity, would be incompatible with our policy in Kenya. On the other hand, for the reasons indicated above, it seems that we should be precluded (even if it was desirable having regard to the Congo Basin Treaties) from asking that the position in Kenya should be specially safeguarded in any exchange of Notes with the Chinese. But in the absence of any such safeguard, the Secretary of State is likely to be placed in great difficulty with regard to the Kenya Europeans.
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Our concern is not with the possibility that a Chinese might successfully invoke the provisions of any new Treaty to establish his right to buy land in the Kenya Highlands; that is remote, though perhaps it should not be excluded altogether. The danger is that the Europeans, when the Treaty is published, will immediately accuse His Majesty's Government of a breach of faith in acquiescing in the undermining of the White Highlands policy;
and if the settlers do not become seized of the point at once, there is always the possibility that it will
be dragged into the limelight by a claim on the part of Indians, whether in India itself or in Kenya, that the right which had been recognised in the case of China should be extended to Indians.
In either case the result could only be that the relations between the Kenya Europeans and the home Government, a factor which already seriously complicated any
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