TNAG-0714-FCO40-910-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 47

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ary's justification of the cession was attacked by Konworthy on the

ground that "no attempt has been made to consult the native population And, he added, the fact that Ramsay Mcdonald's name was associated with

it gave no assurance since the treaty was not the policy of the Labour

Govt but of their predecessors. He dismissed the defence that the inhabitants of Jubaland were nomads and half-savages and that there- fore

annsultation of them was impracticable with the reply that British Govts had declared that they had consulted the wishes of the Sudanese and ascertained their preference for British rather than Egyptian ́rule, and these Sudanese were in no more civilized state than the Jubaland natives. As to the plea that no provision for consultation of the natives was in the Treaty of London he replied that they should have been consulted on that treaty too. As to the part of Jubaland

· under Zanzibar sovereignty, we had evidently consulted the Sultan of Zanzibar, he said, but we were in the rest of Jubaland as a result of treaties and agreements with the local chiefs there and it had always been our practice, even after conquest of such places, to act by agreement with such ciefs and we should do so now, however primitive they might be. The provisions restricting migration were attacked by this and other speakers as intolerable.

The Colonial Secretary (Amery) replied that the area was large, almost empty (c. 15,000 population) and its people nomadic; consultat- ion was therefore quibe impracticable and in such a virtually unadmin- istered area the population would be unlikely to be affected by any change of government, and HG had taken great care to deal with their most vital interest, viz. to protect their ordinary movement between the river and their grazing grounds; the limitation on migration arose only from the limits of the natural resources there.

Objections raised by. MPs on behalf of British companies and British nationals in the area to be ceded were answered with the assurance that the treaty provided that these would remain unaffected. · In committee the argument was vigorously raised that as the ceded area was part of Kenya, and Kenya had a Legislative Council, that: Council should at least be consulted, to which the Colonial Secretary replied that, though there were representative members in that Council, Kenya had not got self-government, and to conduct foreign policy on the basis of consulting such a body would be impossible. The Sultan of Zanzibar's consent was alao questioned [not without reason..