Sir, – Rarely have I read a letter in the paper of record so full of bile and incorrect assumptions as that from Roderick Bradley concerning the late Colonial Office Terence Gavaghan (November 21st) and the actions of the colonial administration in putting down the terrorist campaign of the Mau Mau in Kenya.
Mr Bradley does not mention at any point the murderous campaign carried out against white settlers. The various murders, bombings and rapes appear to have disappeared from the records. The Mau Mau orchestrated a campaign against white rule using terror techniques. They dominated local tribes by using perceived witchcraft and terror against their own. New Year’s Day 1953 was the start of this campaign with the murder of Charles Hamilton Ferguson and Richard Bingley, swiftly followed by attacks on the Simpson and Rusk families. Mrs Simpson shot a number of attackers but the Rusks were killed and mutilated along with their six-year-old son, Michael, hacked to death in his nursery.
Terence Gavaghan ordered the police and military to seek out this terrorist group. He co-ordinated what was to become standard counter-insurgency tactics of putting bases in enemy territory and taking the fight to that enemy. This would culminate with Operation Hamlet in 1955 when Gavaghan ordered the army and former Mau Mau to infiltrate and attack the terrorists in the Aberdare Forest. This saw a Mau Mau commander Gen China captured and 5,000 of his men surrender.
Does Mr Bradley seriously make an argument that citizens of a country were to stand by and be attacked or that the man in charge was to do nothing? He does not note either the attacks and terror wrought on the native population by the Mau Mau.
It is an appalling slur on Gavaghan to label him alongside the Milosevics of the world. Counter- insurgency interrogation tactics were used on prisoners and indeed were raised in the Commons in 1959 and yes, mistakes were made but judged from the safety of afar it is easy to criticise and condemn.
The Irish have played a profound role in the empire over the years, an empire that helped progress throughout the world and it is a role we should acknowledge and respect, not denigrate. – Yours, etc,