The Dual Mandate in British East Africa

Abstract

The World War and the peace settlement affected the position of Great Britain East Africa three ways. First, the greater part of German East Africa was acquired, as the mandated territory of Tanganyika, and this, together with Colony and the Uganda Protectorate, forms the group generally known today as the East African Dependencies.' Second, with the settlement of returned soldiers and others the highlands of Kenya, the small white population was considerably increased, thus bringing up the racial issue, and adding point to the question already being asked, whether was not a country destined for European colonization. Third, the spirit of the mandate system, and the face of white immigration, Great Britain accepted the principle of trusteeship for native peoples as the basis of her administration Kenya, as well as Tanganyika and Uganda. The Duke of Devonshire's Memorandum of 1923 2 laid it down that, in the administration of His Majesty's Government regard themselves as exercising a trust on behalf of the African population . . . which may be defined as the protection and advancement of the native races. In fact this famous white paper went further, and enunciated the doctrine of paramountcy of native interests, so hotly contested later by European settlers. Primarily, it declared, Kenya is an African territory, and His Majesty's Government think it necessary definitely to record their considered opinion that the interests of the African natives must be paramount, and that if,