Southern Rhodesia's Wealth
The potential wealth of Southern Rhodesia is immense, but it will take extensive capital expenditure to make it available to the world. This has long been known, but the first interim report of the Development Co-ordinating Commission of Southern Rhodesia, which was published on Monday, gives a practical programme for development priorities over the next five years. The main obstacle to rapid progress is the transport situation. Apart from its southerly link with the Union, Southern Rhodesia only has rail access to the sea via the Portuguese port of Beira. Both the railway and the port
installations are British owned, but with a limited traffic capacity, and there is good reason for reconsidering the possibility of linking the Rhodesian Railways with the South-west African system at Walvis Bay—a proposal which has always had strong support in Rhodesia, but has hitherto been set aside on the grounds of expense. If rail facilities were improved it is estimated that 4,000,000 tons of coal could be exported annually. This would involve the opening of a third colliery in the Wankie coalfield, which is again by no means a new project, but one which has been held up in the riast chiefly owing to the fact that, apart from the railways and the copper mines in the north, there has been little market for Rhodesian coal. `The report also recommends the expansion of the country's cotton and steel industries, and it must not be forgotten that in addition Southern Rhodesia produces quantities of gold, asbestos, chrome and copper. It is likely that once expansion starts in one industry it will come in a bound for the whole country, and will be of great benefit for the rest of the Empire.
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