An important letter from Earl Grey to the Directors of
the &nth African Company is published in the Times of Novem- ber 28th. In it his Lordship, who is now administering Rhodesia for the Company, states that a new policy will be adopted, that the native Indunaa or chiefs will be restored to the position they held under Lobengula, and that all arrange- ments for the supply of native labour will be made with them through Native Commissioners appointed by the Com- pany. We have discussed this policy, which we consider most injurious, elsewhere. Earl Grey further observes that Mr. Rhodes has done "immense service;" that the Company has performed a grand feat, having kept a fighting force of three thousand men in a state of efficiency for six months ; and that although compensations will amount to more than was anticipated, yet prospects are good, the prices for farms and townlands having been well maintained. He dreads, indeed, only a scarcity for the next few months. .but he has made arrangements for feeding forty thousand men for three months, and Mr. Rhodes has ordered np a million pounds of " mealies," for which he will himself pay if the Company will not. Altogether the Earl is most cheerful. It will be observed that throughout the Company, which was supposed in Parliament to have lost much of its powers, is treated as the only authority responsible for Rhodesia. We should prefer her Majesty, who at all events has no dividends to earn.
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