The Doctrine of Trusteeship
In a recent issue of The Spectator Lord Hailey, discussing colonial problems generally, observed that "the doctrine of equality 'of status [between whites and natives] has so far maintained itself with difficulty in face of the claims of the white communities in East and Central Africa." Official publications which have just reached this country from Northern Rhodesia bring reports of a speech made recently in the Legislative Council of that colony by Colonel Gore-Browne in his capacity—a point to be noted—as Member Nominated to Represent Native Interests. There are in Northern Rhodesia approximately 14,000 whites and 1,400,000 natives. The principle of the closed shop prevails in the great copper-mines of the colony, which means that the natives are excluded from any skilled job. It is with that background that the Colonel declares that "to any of us who are white men it should be clear that the white men must be protected in this country
against undue competition." (" Undue" obviously means "native "). "I would never," the Colonel continues, "though I represent native interests, and much of my life is given up to the furtherance of the native cause, be a party to anything which reduced the white man's standard of living, or drove him out of his .job, without providing another and a better job." That means only one thing, that in the view of the Member Nominated to Represent Native Interests, no native, however skilled, may ever get a job which any white man happens to hold or want—and that in the native's own country, where he outnumbers the white men by too to a. Colonel Gore-Browne favours amalgamation with the self-governing Southern Rhodesia (though he admits that the natives whom he purports to represent are dead against it), because "every Englishman, somewhere down in his consciousness, has the feeling that self-government, or as near self-government as we can get in this world, is part of his birthright." The government of
1,400,000 natives by 14,000 whites, and the exclusion of the former from all skilled work, no doubt squares with the formula "as near self-government as we can get in this world."
