§ Colonel WEDGWOODasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies how much land in the townships of Kenya is subject to legal covenants restricting the ownership and tenancy of such land to others than Asiatics; whether the existence of such covenants was known to His Majesty's Government at the time of the publication of the White Paper in July, 1923; and whether the fact was brought to the notice of the Indian 408W deputation invited to London by the Colonial Office later in the same year.
§ Mr. AMERYI have not yet received full particulars of the areas affected. In Mombasa they appear to amount to rather under 200 acres, but it must not be assumed that anything approaching that area is still at the disposal of the Government. In Nairobi the area is much smaller.
The matter was first raised in a telegram from Uganda at the end of March, 1924, many months after the White Paper was issued, and it was then brought to the notice of the late Secretary of State; but protracted correspondence with the Governments of Uganda and Kenya was necessary before the legal position could be fully ascertained, and it would have been premature for him to mention the matter to the Indian Colonies Committee, which he met in the spring of 1924, and which is, no doubt, the deputation referred to by the right hon. and gallant Member, even if segregation had been discussed at the meetings.