THE EMPIRE RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE. [To THE EDITOR or nu
"13PLCIUMS."] Sta,—The letter of Mr. A. R. Morkel in your issue of June 16th is obviously an attempt by a Rhodesian settler to make the Empire Resources Development Committee, of which I am Honorary Secretary, the stalking-horse for a thinly veiled attack upon the British South Africa Company. With that aspect of the letter I do not propose to deal, and I should have left it entirely unanswered were it not that its misstatements and misrepresenta- tions of fact might possibly mislead some persons who are, or may be, interested in problems of Empire development and who are ignorant of Rhodesian conditions and politics. The letter is intended to convey the impression that the British South Africa Company has failed in every commercial business upon which it has embarked in Rhodesia. In contradistinction, every co-operative enterprise hag, it is suggested, Succeeded. This picture of Rhode- sian conditions is quite at variance with the facts.
As regards the various undertakings to which Mr. Morkel speci- ally refers, it is clear that so far as railways are concerned it is not relevant from the point of view of Empire Development to consider whether Rhodesian Railways are, or are not, well managed, or whether they pay or otherwise. There is other more instructive and normal material to draw upon. Rhodesia is excep- tional, it that the mileage constructed per head of the European inhabitants is greater than in any other territory of the Empire. It is in fact over-railwayed from a strictly commercial standpoint at its present stage of development, if judged by the test of white population. In 1912 some 2,400 miles had been constructed to serve about 32,000 European inhabitants, or one mile to, say, every thirteen persons. Corresponding figures were: for Australia one mile to every 250 inhabitantes.for Canada one mile to every 280 inhabitants; for the Union of South Africa one mile for every 148 white inhabitants.
So far as the Labour Bureau is concerned, this also requires no discussion, though I may observe that Mr. Morkel's wholly unjusti- fied innuendo as to its methods is not likely to be well received locally. From a business standpoint, no one in his senses would form and finance such an institution with the sole aim and object of making a direct profit from its operation. Tho Labour Bureau, indeed, is forbidden by its Memorandum of Association ever to distribute a dividend out of profits.
Mr. Morkel's description of the mining industry is equally in- accurate, nor is it relevant to my subject, because the practice of the British South Africa Company has been to draw its revenues from this source as a landlord. In very exceptional and quits insignificant instances has it engaged in the business of running mines on its own account, or as a predominant partner.
The remaining concerns to which Mr. Morkel refers are the Land Bank, a Creamery, a Bacon Factory. and a Tobacco Warehouse. All these enterprises were undertaken—I quote the published Report of the British South Africa Company for the years ended March 31st, 1913 and 1914—" to assist materially the general development and prosperity of the territory and give an indirect return to the Company in many directions, as for instance by promoting settlement and the sale of land, in:proving railway receipts and reducing the coat of living." Mr. Minkel practically admits, as is the fact, that these primary objects have been attained in all eases. The Tobacco Warehouse, for special reasons. quite other than those suggested by Mr. Morkel, did not pay, and has been placed at the disposal of a Co-operative Society at a moderate rental. The Land Bank, the Creamery, and the Bacon Factory are all yielding a fair return on the capital invested in them, and extending their business.
The fact is that Mr. Morkel has completely missed the point. The enterprises which the Einpire Resources Development Com- mittee has chiefly in mind are typified by the great ranches, fruit, stock-raising and agricultural estates which the British South Africa Company is now developing energetically on business lines through its Commercial Staff, with the sole object—quoting from the some Report—" of obtaining a direct return from the capital ' invested both by way of income and of improvement in the capital value of estates." Development of this character in Rhodesia on a large scale, and according to a far-reaching programme, prac- tically dates from 1914, though previously to that year several important estates were, being worked by the British South Africa Company in A comparatively small way. Notwithstanding the war, great progress has been shown, the prospects of the ranches and of the citrus-fruit estates being particularly encouraging. Apart from their capital value, these enterprises may, so far as can be foreseen, be confidently relied upon to yield an income of several hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum well within the next ten years. Who will venture in such circumstances to place a limit on the income which might be derived from systematic development on similar lines of the immense resources of the Empire which are now lying fallow?--I am, Sir, Sc., .
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