Word: truce
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...smuggled out of jail, disguised as an African policeman and flown to Nyeri, where he set to work to write letters to his Mau Mau colleagues. China's letters offered safe conduct to Mau Mau representatives if they would meet British officers to talk over a truce...
...last week a truce of sorts had been arranged. British Commander in Chief Sir George Erskine ordered his troops to avoid clashes, give the enemy a chance to surrender. For the first time in a year, the rain-drenched forests lay silent: no bombs dropped, no rifles were fired...
What would happen next depended on the Mau Mau leaders. They apparently disagreed. In the Aberdares, prisoners reported afterwards, Field Marshal Russia warned of a white man's trap: "Those who surrender . . . will be massacred by an atom bomb." But into General Gatamuki's camp came Truce-Talker Kareba, whom the British had released. He persuaded Gatamuki to give himself...
...Nothing but Satisfaction." At midweek the decisions were made. Down from their fastnesses the Mau Mau came in hundreds. Chief Gatamuki's band headed for a wooded hill overlooking the village of Gathuini. They were forbidden by the truce agreement to enter the Kikuyu reserve, but assembling after dark, Gatamuki's men pitched their camp about 350 yards inside the tribal boundary. They were spotted there by elements of the 7th Battalion, King's African Rifles, commanded by Brigadier John Reginald...
...message for the Mau Mau: "This was the day set for your surrender. Your emissaries failed to show up. Now our major offensive begins." British troops and African Home Guards swarmed onto Mt. Kenya, driving the startled Mau Mau into ambush after ambush. Many did not know the truce had ended, and they died without knowing what hit them. But the Mau Mau accepted the challenge. "The white man tricked us," one terrorist said. "Our brothers were lured to their deaths. Now we shall never surrender." Said a thoughtful Kenya settler: "The Mau Mau war may go on for years...