Letter from Colonial Office to Native administrator Mr Moffat Thomson on leave in the UK from Northern Rhodesia. Bulaya had worked for Moffat Thomson before he worked for Stewart Gore-Brown. Catalogue ref: CO 796/6 f597
Transcript
To Moffat Thomson Esq.
50 Castlebar Rd.
Ealing
W.5
15 April 125
Dear Mr Thomson
We have lately had a despatch [report] from the Governor of N. Rhodesia regarding the case of a native, Bulaya Chanda, who has been in this country since 1914 and who applied in February last for assistance towards returning to N. Rhodesia
The Governor says that you are being asked to interview Bulaya and then to communicate with us.
Bulaya called here (under the name Luale) on the 14 April accompanied by his wife, a white woman. I gather that he does not want to return to N. Rhodesia unless some attractive appointment is open to him and [where] he can take his wife and live with her as Europeans!
But what he does seem to fear is that some nefarious [evil] scheme may be on foot whereby he will be kidnapped and sent back against his wish.
He is anxious that you should see him personally, as he appears to think that Mr Templer Powell, his “governor” at the Playhouse Theatre, may be going behind his back.
In any case he is certainly not destitute.
He lives, I understand, at Herne Hill, but the Playhouse Theatre, W.C.2., is the best address for him.
Yours sincerely
[Signed] Gerald Creasy
« Return to Bulaya Chanda- Why has this letter been written?
- What does it reveal about Bulaya’s marriage?
- What does it suggest about Bulaya’s plans?
- What is the attitude towards Bulaya suggested by the words: ‘to return to N. Rhodesia unless some attractive appointment is open to him and [where] he can take his wife and live with her as Europeans!’?