oe

The

crime

KENva must lie heavy on the

Consciences of all the peoples
of the Commonwealth. A cruel
and brutal war has been raging
there for nearly two -and a half
years to hold the African in-sub-
Jection and maintain the settlers
@S masters of the best land in

€ country.

This war cannot be won by the
British in a military sense. If it
Could be, it would still leave

- UNsolved, and indeed untouched,

Every agrarian, economic and na-
tional grievance, and would thus
Mevitably lead to a new war in
the near future.

So there is no solution ‘by
foree, and the ‘only real alterna-
Ives are evacuation of the sett-
€rs from the good land, mainly
the “White Highlands,” or a
Senuine and sincere compromise
which will at least give the Afri-
Cans something to make their

 €xistences into tolerable lives.

Instead of making serious ef-
Orts to, secure a genuine com-
Promise, the’ government of Ken-

ya—mainly at the expense of the

British taxpayers—continues this
War-that-cannot-be-won at increas-
€xpense, and with increasing
tuelty and ruthlessness.
This futile cruelty must be
. - It is our responsibilty;
and the shame which we all bear

we do not stop it grows graver
every day. P gs &

But while any sensible person

Can see that the war should be
th Ped, the nearest approach
€ government ever makes is to

Posal for a compromise.

forward some jejeune pro-

of Kenya

By D. N. PRITT, K.C.

Whereupon the settlers—people
whose general outlook would
make a Jim Crow senator from
the Deep South sound like a
reasonable man—rage with fury
at the government's “weakness.”

And the Africans, for their
part, do not trust, and can hard-
ly be expected to trust, any such
proposal. : .

t

Let me give a little of the
very strong evidence that exists
for the statements I have made.

Since the announcement of the
state of emergency in October
1952 every conceivable form of
violence has been used against
the African population, shooting,

bombing — including phosphorus
bombs — torturing, beating up,
starving, imprisonment (with
chains round their wrists and
ankles), flogging and detention
camps.

Even official figures admit that
already 70,000 Africans are in
detention camps, while over 8,000
have been killed.

On November 5 last year, an
official communique stated that
for four successive days security
forces had maintained attacks on
the south-west slope of Mount
Kenya, and that selected targets
had been bombed, shelled and
mortared. |

In the result, no difference
seems to have ‘been made, for on
January 11 came the announce-
ment of a new phase in the fight
against the resistance movement
with the commencement of “Op-
eration Hammer,” a large-scale
Grive against the forests of the
Aberdare mountain range, en-
gaging nine battalions of over

10,000 men. :

In spite of the scale of this
attack, General Erskine warned

Arrested Africans under guard in th

=

that he did not expect much suc-
cess.

Thus, after all these “warlike
operations” the government is no
nearer “victory” than it was at
the beginning.

*

That the settlers will not allow

any real conciliation has been

repeatedly ‘shown.

At the first announcement of
the proposal to open negotiations
with General China in April 1954,
a veritable storm broke out
among the white settlers with
hysterical meetings, demands for
the resignation of General Er-
skine and threats to march on
Goverment House in Nairobi.

The actual negotiations were
prevented by what was later ad-
mitted to be unpremeditated ac-
tion by the Kenya Regiment—
composed mainly of sons of white
settlers.

Only last month, announcement
of a new surrender offer by the
government, with all its limita-
tions and inclusion of an aninesty
offer to security forces, provoked
a further outburst from the set-
tlers, with wholesale resignations
(later withdrawn) from the Kenya

_ This case is making history —

By MICK BENNETT

March 15 the Frankfurt Ap-

a Peals Court is expected to

Nd down its ruling in one of

Se Most dramatic cases in post-
ar legal history. Whatever that

~-rulin

oe is it will not close the
ase, for both sides have an-

- RoUnced their intention of carry-

‘Slay;
Successfully

it to the West German Su-
réme Court if they lose.
The case is that of a wartime
© worker who, two years ago,
sued and won
amages against I. G. Farben,
1¢ giant German chemical trust,

Dow: re pe in liquida-
tion, ported to ‘be in staat

The story starts many years

480, with the building of the

Thecnwitz concentration camp.

~ Sla

Usefulness,

camp ands of the inmates of this
P spent part of their time as
Dlant Workers at the I. G. Farben
Tubb Where synthetic fuel and
War 2 Was Produced for the Nazi
Machine,
ore inmates of the camp
aight to the gas cham-
ink others worked for a time
illne € plant until exhausted or
living from bad food and worse
8 conditions ended their
Ne of the slave workers who
= Gane was Norbert Wollheim,
‘erman-born American Jew.
_, February 1953 he was

> Sate 40,000 “imarke (about
$2409) ais marks (abou

Mages against I. G: Far-
i Compensation for mental
€s suffered while a worker

ben |
inure

in the I. G. Farben plant.
@

A sensation was caused at the
trial by the appearance of two
British witnesses, Sgt.Major
Charles Coward and R. W. Ferris.
They had been prisoners of war
near Auschwitz and +Ahad first-
hand experience of the camp.

The court at the time praised
“the rare courage of these two
Englishmen who did something
for the Jewish prisoners because
they were human beings too.” —

‘Coward subsequently had his
remarkable wartime story told in
The Password is Courage, by

‘John Castle.

Describing his arrival at Aus-
chwitz station he related how
“before him, waited a great sea
of filthy, under-dressed Jews in
all stages of emaciation and
privation.

“Tt was impossible to guess
how long their train had been
held up on its. journey but the
toll in human life was only too
evident in the pile of bodies
stacked on the platform.”

@ i

Immediately the case closed
two years ago, I. G. Farben lodg-
ed an appeal and hired a team of
internationally famous lawyers
to present its case.

I. G. Farben based its appeal
on the contention that the Hitler
regime had ordered it to build
its plant near Auschwitz and
therefore claims for compensa-

tion should be against the Bonn

government. .

‘Dr. Ormond, appearing for
Wollheim, denied the company’s
contention. Auschwitz had been
recommended by I. G. Farben
engineers as the site for a plant
precisely ‘because slave labor
was available, he said.

It had already been proved, he
said, that the company’s super-
visors threatened those who fail-
ed to fill their work quotas with
being sent to death in the gas
chambers.

Since the court decision in
1953, 2,000 camp survivors have
filed claims against I. G. Farben.

Thousands of survivors of the
Nazi horror camps who did slave

labor for other German firms are —

anxiously waiting the result of
the Wollheim case.

In a press statement two of the
three liquidators of I. G. Farben
Dr. Franz Reuter and Dr. Walter
Schmidt, said Farben could not
be held liable for such claims as
the responsibility lay with Hit-
ler’s: government. eS,

The West German government

‘had now taken over the task of
meeting claims against the Third

Reich:

J. G. Farben spokesmen add
that if the normal pattern of com-

‘pensation for those persecuted :

on political and racial grounds
is upset by this case, it ‘would
be liable to undermine the Lon-
don debts agreements on German
external debts.

These were based on the con-
cept that the slave labor ques-

*

tion was one of. government re-
paration and not of individual
law suits.

The Soviet Union would have
had the opportunity to organise
the millions of forced workers
employed in Germany during the
war and submit similar claims.
This could bankrupt the German
economy as a whole.

If the case goes against I. G.
Farben, they contend, there
could be “unforeseen catastro-
phic economic and political con-
sequences not only for West Ger-
man industry but also for the
Federal Republic and the West-
ern Alliance.’ : :

The reference by I .G. Far-
ben to
brings to mind the description
by Charles Coward.

It is of a young girl, naked and
marble-white with cold, ¢clutch-
ing a child of a few months to
her breast and leading by the
hand a small girl of about five,
crooning a song as she went
along.

“The song became louder as
she entered the gate of the
deathhouse. It was taken up
by others and, despite the kicks
and blows aimed by the guards,
swelled in volume until it as-
sumed the last gesture of this
proud race.”

What compensation can there
ever be for that except the un-
remitting fight against German
rearmament, the struggle to en-
sure that it shall not happen.
again?

€ concentration camp at Langata.

“individual law suits’ ,

ee

Police Reserves, mostly settlers.

Pressure from settlers, which
has been going on for some time,
to get rid of Attorney-General
John Whyatt looks as if it might
now succeed. Their desire for
his removal is simply because
he is not extreme enough for
them; he would not seem mild
anywhere else!

The same may well be the
case with General Erskine whose
replacement by Maj.General G.
W. Lathbury, vice-adjutant-gen-
eral at the British War Office,
was announced on January 11.
General Erskine was to my know-
ledge always trying to stop the
beating-up of Africans.

I remember one day, last sum-
mer, when I was walking across
the village green in Kitale, ac- -
companied by my European police
guard, someone handed him an
envelope, |

He opened it, pulled out a long
mimeographed letter, and re-
marked: “Another long screed
from General Erskine, telling us
that the beating-up of: Afric:
must stop.” :

I replied, “Well, it mus
mustn’t it? It’s all bea are
which he said, “Yes,. it’s all
wrong, and it’s horrible; but we
have got to get information.”

And the government’s Post-
seript to this is to announce an
amnesty to the “security forces,”
which does not only mean that
they will not be Punished for
what they have already done, but
also conveys a strong indication
that they can 80 on behaving in
the Same way in future.

Fortunately, the se
those who think like hes or
not the only Europeans in Kenya,
and a most hopeful sign of an-
other viewpoint came recently
in a sermon preached in Nairobi.

Rev. David Steel said he was
voicing the disquiet of the great
majority of the European popu-
lation in Kenya at the manner
in which the Kenya government
is discharging its responsibilities.

The government, he said, had
taken very dangerous steps along”
the road to tyranny, and it was
time to retrace; he called for a
judicial committion to pronounce
on the legality of much of the
emergency legislation, which, he
said, was “not only unjust in the
eyes of God, but illegal by the
accepted law of man.”

It is clear that the behavior
of the white settlers is an em-
barrassment to the rest of the
European population, and any
Protest »by them should receive
the widest possible support.

This whole Kenya situation
must be tackled at once, in the
name of humanity and decency,
by real negotiations on an equal
footing, in some place outside
Kenya, between the leaders of
the African people and the Ken-
ya government.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 11, 1955 — PAGE 9