Guest Posted 11 June , 2017 Share Posted 11 June , 2017 (edited) Just tripped up a reference to this scheme ( in Roy Moxham: "Tea:Addiction,Exploitation,Empire" London,2003)) of which I had never previously heard. There seems to be a file about it at The National Archives: Empire Settlement Act 1922: British East Africa disabled officers' colony Law Officers' Department: Law Officers' Opinions. Empire Settlement Act 1922: British East Africadisabled officers' colony. Held by: The National Archives - Law Officers' Department Date: October 1922 Reference: LO 3/610 Subjects: Africa I am slightly aware of the "soldier settlement" schemes after both the Great War and the Boer War but this is a new one on me. Apparently recruited 55 formmer officers to grow flax on 25,000 acres of government-granted land around Kericho, Kenya. Just as the world flax price collapsed. The scheme was run on military lines, mismanaged and a failure. The land was sold off to James Finlay and Brooke Bond for tea growing. Rather surprised that there appears to have been no previous mention of this scheme on GWF. Would anybody on GWF have any further information about this scheme or who were the ex-officers involved?-It's worth a thread to try and gather a bit of information. Seems to be a pre-echo of the Groundnut Scheme in East Africa after the Second World War (In which my dear old next door neighbor drove a tractor for 5 years) And one article about it,available to download on Google-whic,tantalisingly, does not name the officers involved, bar a couple. Beadoc- the British East Africa Disabled Officers' Colony and the White ... www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/40n2a4.pdf by CJD DUDER I note the previous thread "The 1919 Soldier Settlement Scheme in Kenya' but this seems to have petered out Edited 11 June , 2017 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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