Last Word One Must Forgo Certain Things To Attain Peace Trevor Stuart was swiftly dispatched to the Colony of Freetown to investigate and help restore normalcy in the explosive Colony, where violence had been the order of the day. The arrival of Trevor Stuart though was acclaimed by some of the Colonial Officers as a swift response to the problems of Freetown, was also a slap in the face of Governor Dunstan Robertson who could not bring the state of violence under control. Trevor Stuart, a retired Major from the Royal Army and Administrator of repute in Bengal in India arrived in Freetown with the determination to make the natives see reason and lay down their bows and arrows. Trevor Stuart came with trusted assistants such as the renowned police investigator, James Baker, commonly known as Jim, the auditor /accountant, Malcolm Duncan and a Lawyer, Moses Carter. Trevor Stuart was well received by the Colonial Secretary, Philip Mason who later introduced him to Governor Dunstan Robertson. “Your Excellency, Trevor Stuart arrived two days ago and I need not refer to past correspondence relating to his arrival. White Hall seems to believe that the great country man here, Trevor Stuart can cool down the tempers of the natives.” Philip Mason made a brief statement to the Governor. Governor Donstan Robertson turned himself two full tots of whisky and said, “Trevor Stuart, when you administer the affairs of pitiful natives you never can win. When the lawlessness natives born schools, hospital and administrative buildings for no reason than the flimsy fact that I decreed that local tax be increased by six pence. I could have used the state forces to gun the natives down. But if you kill one native, London will shout and the Revisionist newspapers in London, Washington. Adelaide and Paris will come out with screaming headlines, “Governor kills innocent natives. Yet, my dear Trevor, when you don’t do anything, the natives go on the rampage, destroying government property, the folks in London write insulting letters to me. It is a no-win situation, my dear Trevor.” Trevor Stuart rubbed his hands and said, “Your Excellency, my men and myself will look into the matter and will write a comprehensive report and make recommendations that will bring lasting peace to this Colony.” Trevor Stuart and his men travelled all over the Colony, meeting Chiefs and other elders and even some members of the so-called resistance. At one meeting at Magballa, one of the leaders of the resistance shouted at Trevor Stuart, “you foolish man, what do you know about our customs to warrant you to come here and lord it over us? The fact of the matter is that this country belongs to us and nobody from another country has any right to ask us to pay taxes to foreigners. We have painfully accommodated you people, you give us insulting instructions in our own-country, you extort money from us in the name of taxations, and as if that was not enough, that stupid Governor now has the audacity to ask us to pay an extra six pence apart from the five shillings we are already paying. Mr. Man, if you have been sent here by the king to threaten us, go back and tells him that this time we will listen to no one.” Trevor Stuart cleared his throat and walked up to the resistance leader, Foday Bockarie, saying, “My friend, this is your country. Infact, the British Government is seriously thinking of pulling out, for you are now mature to be independent. Did you go to school, my dear friend? Foday Bockarie smiled, “to answer you directly, I went to school. Infact, I was a chief clerk before I abandoned my job to join the resistance; I was fed you with injustice, so I relinquished the job.” Trevor Stuart held Bockarie by the right shoulder and said again, “my friend this is your country. The schools, the hospitals and other government offices belong to you. You are not stagnant; your people need more schools, hospitals and court barri buildings. Don’t forget that the government also has to spend money to help develop your country. My friend, I don’t think an additional six pence in the tax levy is too high a price to pay for the development of your country.” Foday Bockarie was silent for a while, looked at Trevor Stuart straight in the face and said, “I am pleased that you are the first white man who has come here to reason with us. The others have always been bullies, always instructing us to do this or that. Please, give me between one and two hours so that I can talk to my colleagues in the resistance group.” After one and a half hour, Foday Bockarie and twenty other members of the resistance confronted Trevor Stuart. Foday Bockarie asked Trevor Stuart, “we have consulted, we think your reasoning is good, but what guarantee is there that you won’t betray us?” Trevor Stuart assured Foday Bockarie, “I won’t betray you, take my word, and I will forward your own grievance to the Governor and to my bosses in London. I agree with you my dear friend, that to administer a country without consulting the citizens in poor administrators, I also agree with you that Governor and his men, should have notified you one year ago about the intention to increase the tax levy by six pence. But on the other hand, he had not demonstrated maturity and patriotism by destroying state properties. My dear friend, I will organize a meeting between you and the administration in Freetown.” The outcome of the meeting was unbelievably successful as both the people, the former members of the resistance and government officials agree that the fighting must come to an end. Peace returned to the Colony and after Trevor Stuart and his men had left, praises were heaped on them for the excellent manner in which they brought the state of instability to an end. Governor Donstan Robertson was recalled to London and was replaced by a new Governor, Martin Parker, a graduate from Oxford and an experienced administrator who had already served as Governor in one of the Islands in the West Indies. Foday Bockarie, one of the leaders of the resistance was appointed Executive Officer and put in charge of supervising the chiefdom. Foday Bockarie and the newly appointed Colonial Secretary Sam Duncan were drinking beer at Sam Duncan’s house one evening, when the Colonial Secretary asked, “Foday Bockarie, what brought about all this fighting we were hearing about? And why was it necessary for an arrogant Trevor Stuart to travel all the way from England to come and settle dispute which could have been settle amicably by both the administrators and you, the members of the resistance?” Foday Bockarie replied, “indeed, it was a shame for an outsider to come and tell us to stop fighting, a thing which we could have done without any external interference.” Sam Duncan gulped his beer, belched and asked, “what did you people learnt from Trevor Stuart?” Foday Bockarie roared in laughter, “Sam, coming to look at it, we learnt the most obvious of things from Trevor Stuart-a simple lesson which everybody ought to have learnt-one must forgo certain things to attain peace”.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 09:38:32 +0000
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