This appeared in TA 70, September 2001
Extracts from the Tanganyika Standard in 1951:
21st July 1951 – The general Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution in 1950 recommending that the flag of the UN should be flown over all its trust territories (including Tanganyika) side by side with the flag of the administering authority (the UK). The UK abstained from voting on the issue but the Tanganyika government subsequently agreed that the UN flag would be flown on appropriate days like the anniversary of the United Nations Charter, the UN Day and when there were visits by Trusteeship Council visiting missions to Tanganyika.
August 4 1951 – Five rioters were reported killed on 25th July in Zanzibar
following the arrest of a group of 19 African cattle owners who had refused to have their animals inoculated against anthrax (Arab and Indian cattle owners had agreed to the inoculations). They were sentenced to six weeks hard labour but then people attacked the police van taking them to jail and released them. The crowd went on to attack the prison and advanced on Senior Assistant Superintendant E.H. Hull and 40 police officers who opened fire to protect themselves. Some 120 volunteer police were sent over later from Dar es Salaam but stayed for only five days until peace had returned. Seven men including a policeman were later convicted of rioting and sentenced to from six months to three years in jail .A public inquiry was appointed under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice of Zanzibar. On August 11 the last 117 cattle were inoculated. This was said to have been the first serious trouble in Zanzibar since the 1948 docks strike.
August 18 1951 – A 130-mile oil pipeline from Mtwara to Nachingwe built in 1949 at a cost of £400,000 for the failed Ground Scheme was sold to the Israeli government for £250,000. Some 300 tractors and several thousand other vehicles left over from the Groundnut Scheme were still to be sold.
August 18 1951 – Record prices were paid at the customs auction yesterday for ivory (18 shillings a pound) with even smaller tusks going for £60. Rhino horn got 54 shillings a pound and hippo teeth £4.90.
August 18 1951 – District Officer K R E Dobbs (27), who had been sentenced
to nine months hard labour in Jury by magistrate F W Theeman for stealing by a public servant and four months for uttering a false document, appealed to the High Court against the sentence. At a trial arranged just 45 minutes after he had been originally charged, he admitted that elephant tusks had been brought in by a game Scout, he had declared them to be his property and he had not shot the elephants himself. He said that therefore he had to admit that he was guilty. At the end of the appeal the Chief Justice said there must be a new trial under a new magistrate because of doubt about the nature of his plea of guilty. (The result of the second trial is not known – Editor).
October 13 1951 – 1000 lamp bulbs are being stolen from coaches on the Central Railway Line each year. “Locking rings” are to be introduced.