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During 1903 the arrival of hundreds of prospective settlers, chiefly from South Africa, led to the decision to entertain no more applications for large areas of land, especially as questions were raised concerning the preservation for the Masai of their rights of pasturage. In the carrying out of this policy a dispute arose between Lord Lansdowne, foreign secretary, and Sir Charles Eliot, who had been commissioner since 1900. The foreign secretary, believing himself bound by pledges given to the syndicate, decided that they should be granted the lease of the 500 sq. m. they had applied for; but after consulting officials of the protectorate then in London, he refused Sir Charles Eliot permission to conclude leases for 50 sq. m. each to two applicants from South Africa. Sir Charles thereupon resigned his post, and in a public telegram to the prime minister, dated Mombasa, the 21st of June 1904, gave as his reason:?"Lord Lansdowne ordered me to refuse grants of land to certain private persons while giving a monopoly of land on unduly advantageous terms to the East Africa Syndicate. I have refused to execute these instructions, which I consider unjust and impolitic."[1]
On the day Sir Charles sent this telegram the appointment of Sir Donald W. Stewart, the chief commissioner of Ashanti, to succeed him was announced. Sir Donald induced the Masai whose grazing rights were threatened to remove to another district, and a settlement of the land claims was arranged. An offer to the Zionist Association of land for colonization by Jews was declined in August 1905 by that body, after the receipt of a report by a commissioner sent to examine the land (6000 sq. m.) offered. Sir Donald Stewart died on the 1st of October 1905, and was succeeded by Colonel Hayes Sadler, the commissioner of Uganda. Meantime, in April 1905, the administration of the protectorate had been transferred from the foreign to the colonial office. By the close of 1905 considerably over a million acres of land had been leased or sold by the protectorate authorities?about half of it for grazing purposes. In 1907, to meet the demands of the increasing number of white inhabitants, who had formed a Colonists' Association[2] for the promotion of their interests, a legislative council was established, and on this council representatives of the settlers were given seats. The style of the chief official was also altered, "governor" being substituted for "commissioner". In the same year a scheme was drawn up for assisting the immigration of British Indians to the regions adjacent to the coast and to Victoria Nyanza, districts not suitable for settlement by Europeans.
In general the relations of the British with the tribes of the interior have been satisfactory. The Somali in Jubaland have given some trouble, but the Masai, notwithstanding their warlike reputation, accepted peaceably the control of the whites. This was due, in great measure, to the fact that at the period in question plague carried off their cattle wholesale and reduced them for years to a state of want and weakness which destroyed their warlike habits. One of the most troublesome tribes proved to be the Nandi, who occupied the southern part of the plateau west of the Mau escarpment. They repeatedly raided their less warlike neighbours and committed wholesale thefts from the railway and telegraph lines. In September 1905 an expedition was sent against them which reduced the tribe to submission in the following November; and early in 1906 the Nandi were removed into a reserve. The majority of the natives, unaccustomed to regular work, showed themselves averse from taking service under the white farmers. The inadequacy of the labour supply was an early cause of trouble to the settlers, while the labour regulations enforced led, during 1907-1908, to considerable friction between the colonists and the administration.
