Abstract
ON March 9, 1938, H.M. the King appointed a Commission “to inquire and report whether any, and if so what, form of closer co-operation or association between Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland is desirable and feasible”. The Commissioners were five in number, of whom Viscount Bledisloe acted as chairman. After preliminary inquiry and the hearing of evidence in England, the Commission proceeded to Africa, arriving at Bulawayo on May 16. When evidence had been taken in Southern Rhodesia, the Commission visited Portuguese East Africa, passed on to Nyasaland and returned through Northern Rhodesia to Salisbury. Taken together, the three territories which came under the purview of the Commission include an area of approximately 500,000 miles, with a total population estimated at roughly 4,300,000. Of these, approximately 68,000 are European, 8,000 are Asiatics and ‘coloured’ in the sense in which that term is used in southern Africa, namely, the offspring of union between non-native and native, and 4,230,000 are natives. The proportion of Europeans to natives in the combined territories is 1 to 62; but the ratio is more significant when the territories are distinguished: in Southern Rhodesia it is 1 to 22, in Northern Rhodesia 1 to 129 and in Nyasaland 1 to 881. While both European and native populations have increased between 1926 and 1936, the rise among Europeans has been relatively more rapid owing to the development of the copper mines. It shows a decrease in the later return owing to the interruption of development work in the mines; but with the renewal of activity it is again increasing slowly.
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Ideals in Africa. Nature 143, 829–831 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143829a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143829a0