The British took Arusha from the Germans in 1916 during World War I. German officials left the area, the British deported German missionaries and settlers, and only a skeletal military administration of the town remained. But slowly during the 1920s, civilian administration was implemented, missionaries from the United States arrived, British and Greek settlers reoccupied the former German farms, and the town grew, especially after the British moved the regional administration from New Moshi to Arusha. The extension of the railroad from Moshi to Arusha in 1928-29 greatly increased commerce. The Great Depression soon thereafter, however, squelched commerce, and Arusha in 1940 had less than 2,000 residents. Growth resumed during World War II and by 1948, the population had increased to more than 5,000. By the 1950s, Arusha was "a polyglot, westernized little town; it has a Greek community, several Germans predating World War I, and some German Jewish refugees post-dating World War II." A state of emergency was declared in the Arusha region in 1953 in response to the Mau Mau Uprising. Journalist John Gunther noted at the time that "a loyal tribe, the Waarusha, threatened to take violent countermeasures against the Kikuyus themselves, if the British did not. The authorities arrested the leading Mau Mau conspirators, screened thousands more, and deported other thousands back to Kenya."