ABSTRACT
The government did little, as Governor Smith later claimed, "to keep the native population fully informed," although officials were successful in limiting apprehensions associated with the July 1917 lunar eclipse which was visible in the Protectorate. The fear of some Malawians even to leave their homes to work in their fields was occasionally a difficulty, although the general depletion of the labor force was a more serious problem. Many Malawians felt little colonial concern was paid to their real and legitimate needs. The small European community was overwhelmed by the war and all that it brought and, therefore, sought to instill some sense of normalcy. Some residents asked the Council to establish a fixed African "location," or segregated community, outside the town; the intent was to separate the casual African labor, attracted to the area by the prospect of wartime jobs, from the established centers of community life.
