IN his column (LT, March 15) Jack Straw tells us that in Kenya “the British white colonialists were notorious even within the British Empire for their racism”.

We might not know who these colonialists were, but we know the politicians who supported them.

The Conservative government had given Sir Richard Turnbull the task of defeating the Mau Mau Land and Freedom Army which he carried out with the utmost brutality, including the use of concentration camps.

James Griffiths, the deputy Labour leader, gave his party’s full support.

When Labour returned to power in 1964, Harold Wilson appointed Turnbull High Commissioner of Aden. His task was to defeat the National Liberation Front of North Yemen.

When his widespread use of torture was exposed by Amnesty Internatonal, Labour’s Foreign Secretary, George Brown, vigorously defended it.

Barbara Castle, Jack Straw’s mentor, was Secretary of State for Overseas Development at the time but, as far as I am aware, she uttered not a word of protest.

Z Ahmed, Nab Lane, Blackburn.