BRITISH AND GERMAN EAST AFRICA, AND UGANDA 118
ing attitude, going so far as to urge the district associations
“to carry out with the utmost rigor a determined and relent-
less boycott of Indians in the colony.” To the Government
they made representations along the following lines:
Experience in the past has proved the impossibility of mixing
Europeans and Asiatics in one colony on any footing acceptable to
both; therefore the Imperial Conference laid down the policy of
segregation by countries as between East and West, by reciprocal
control of immigration. ...
The policy of segregation should not be prejudiced beforehand
in countries which have been given constitutional rights which
are, in reality, a pledge of self-government in the future. . . .
The introduction of a form of Eastern control in Africa is a real
and potent danger to the Empire. The Imperial Government
should not prejudice the future of the African by sharing the bur-
den of responsibility for government with a race who have no
right, either by conquest or peaceful penetration (except under
British protection), to consider themselves entitled to rule the
African. That in the future the African should share in the
government of his own continent is in keeping with Imperial
policy, and that meanwhile he should fill such posts as his capacity
allows is surely his right. European settlers are undoubtedly com-
plementary to African advancement; Asiatics are only detrimental
tot... 1
On March 27, 1922, the Indian appointees of the Kenya
Legislature, who had hitherto refused, took their seats for
the first time, upon advice from the Government of India.
A feature of increasing importance in the later stages of the
contest has been the back-fire started by the Indians against
the aspirations of the whites for local self-government. The
Indian delegation which went to London in 1923 defined
their position as follows:
We think it safest and best, in the present circumstances, that
neither the Indian nor the European settler should have the
control of native affairs, and that the legislative power should be
L The Times (London), December 12, .3%1.