Annual report on Sierra Leone / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
[1958]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Sierra Leone / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/146 (page 5)
    General Review First in importance among the noteworthy events of the period was the introduction in August of Sierra Leone’s new constitution, whereby the officials left both the House of Representatives and the Executive Council, and the latter became a body of 11 Ministers (including the Premier) presided over by the Governor. The post of Chief Commissioner of the Protectorate was abolished, its last holder, Mr. H. Childs, C.M.G., O.B.E., retiring in November, 1958. The post of Chief Secretary was also abolished and a new post of Deputy Governor was created. In the field of local government the end of 1958 saw the restoration of normal administration in the Northern Province, the area most troubled by the disorders of 1955-56. The course of events in the diamond producing Kono district ran less smoothly. After the success in 1957 of Government measures to control illicit mining it was hoped that African mining under the Alluvial Diamond Mining Scheme, and the highly mechanised opera¬ tions of the Sierra Leone Selection Trust in their own much smaller lease could continue peaceful co-existence. In August, 1958, however, illicit mining within the Sierra Leone Selection Trust lease increased to an alarming scale, and it soon became apparent that these inroads were highly organised operations. The gangs offered violence to the police and employed slings and matchets. They were highly mobile and raided not only working areas of the lease but also reserve areas, destroying their future usefulness by the unskilled and wasteful methods adopted. The police were reinforced and the law controlling the movement and possession of mining equipment was strengthened. By October, violence had subsided and there was an uneasy lull, but more trouble ensued and by mid-December the gangs were again very active and illicit mining was occurring on a very serious scale. The immediate situation was met by a reorganisation of the security and administrative services in the area, by increased police activity and, at the beginning of 1959, by heavier sanctions and stricter control of movement into and in the diamond areas. These measures restored law and order, and illicit mining was reduced to negligible proportions. The measures referred to above are aimed, not at the Kono people, but at the gang leaders who work behind the scenes. The Government fully recognises that the former need special help in meeting the problems which the finding of diamonds has brought and has prepared