University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk ...

249.
The a. tation for the retention of t nda 1$ 1"ý
A cane biotorv of rrenoure Croup activity.
This agitation was aimed at the extension of
britiah rule in the East African interior) the area
including Uganda and part of Kenya, which had been
declared a 13rjtiah ophero of influence in 1890.
The Uganda question was CIOD01y conuocted with the
position of the British Vast Africa Company* which in
1681 had obtained a concession from the Sultan of
Zanzibar to economically exploit the area which later
became the British ophoro, and a charter from the
British Government which gave it administrative powern.
The founder of the Company wan Sir William Backinncal'
who was also the Coipany'n preoident. The vice-preoident
was Lord Sraszey, s forcer Liberal M. P, The diroctora of
tho Company included Thomas Fowell Buxton of the Church
(1) ! 4ackinnon, the Scottish director of the British India
Steam Navigation Company, had been concerned in a number
of African schemes# He had plans for a Zanzibar conceaaion
an early no 1877, but his propoaalo were turned down at
the instigation of Lord Salisbury see Maria do Kiowit,
"The Biotory of the Z. B. E. A. Co. 1S%6-1895, " London
Fh. D, thocis# 1955, for an account of this incident
and for a detailed history of the Company.
(1)