The New Central Africa
The conference on Central African Federation in January will be crucial, and it is of the first importance that by the time it happens alrconcerned, the British public included, should clear their minds as completely as possible on the changes federation would involve. To that process the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Commonwealth Relations made a useful contribution in a speech he delivered at Liverpool on Monday. With both political parties in this country in favour of federa- tion in principle, and alive to the advantages it would confer on all the three territories concerned in the fields of finance, industry, communications, education, health, the immediate and much harder task is to bring home a realisation of the benefits of federation to the Africans. Mr. Foster's speech was concerned largely with that. He was right in emphasising the fact that the natives' land would be as safe under federation as it is today, for land will remain within the province of the Nyasaland and North Rhodesian Protectorates and of South Rhodesia; and not be transferred to the new Federal Government. Altogether, as he said, " the African inhabitants will notice no change in their ordinary routine of life,- except that in due course they'will find that they are receiving greater economic and social benefits, and a rise in their standard of living which without federation they never would have had." That statement heed not be challenged, and it means a great deal. The same is true of the claims the Under-Secretary put forward 'for the Native Affairs Board, with the Secretary of State behind it, as an effective protection for native rights under the new regime. Whether so low a proportion of African seats as six out of 35 in the Federal Assembly can be justified is much more debatable. The answer to the funda- mental question whether it is just or expedient to impose the scheme on Africans against their will, in the conviction that it is in their interests, may be deferred till the January con- ference has taken place.
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