What, No Amnesty?

In a Kenya courtroom one day last week, a husky African wearing a white hospital smock heard a British judge sentence him to death for "consorting with armed persons," i.e., the Mau Mau. The African was "General China," No. 2 in the Mau Mau's leadership; he had been taken by the British after a fierce firefight north of Nairobi (TIME, Jan. 25).

A onetime corporal who served with the British in Burma, 32-year-old General China was puzzled by the sentence. "I surrendered," he said. "Where is my amnesty?" Apparently he had forgot that the British offer of amnesty applied only to "those who come out of the bush in daylight, waving green branches." General China had been intercepted at the head of a band of terrorists; only after he was shot in the throat did he offer to give himself up.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.