Annual report on Northern Rhodesia / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1961]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Northern Rhodesia / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/158 page 4
    During the latter stages of the conference in London, political feeling in the Territory had been running high, and there was a serious risk of inter¬ racial clashes, particularly on the Copperbelt. On 12th February, the Federal Government mobilised two territorial battalions in the Territory as a precautionary measure, to be used in aid of the civil power, if necessary, and at the request of the Governor. In fact the need did not arise as all areas of the Territory remained quiet and the Territorials were stood down on the 1st March. On 22nd February the five members of the United Federal Party in the Territorial Government resigned their ministerial positions in protest against Her Majesty’s Government’s plan for the revision of the consti¬ tution. Their places on the Executive Council were taken on 6th March by three members of the Northern Rhodesia Liberal Party and by one additional official. Although the new Government no longer commanded an assured majority in the Legislative Council, it was supported on most issues by the independent African members of the Council and in only one division of the House—on a minor issue—did it suffer defeat. During the months of March and April the political temper of the Terri¬ tory subsided and from April until early June the Governor held a series of consultations with representatives of all the political groups on the details of the proposed constitutional changes, in discharge of Her Majesty’s Government’s request. Once again it did not prove possible to arrive at any common measure of agreement about the scheme and in the second half of June the Governor travelled to London to make his report to Her Majesty’s Government. On 26th June a despatch containing the Governor’s recommendations to the Secretary of State for the Colonies was published as a White Paper (Cmd. 1423). In a statement to the House of Commons the Secretary of State said that Her Majesty’s Government proposed to accept these recom¬ mendations subject to certain modifications. In contrast to the outline constitutional proposals of February which had principally offended centre and right-wing European political opinion, it quickly became apparent that the details added in the June White Paper and statement caused offence to African and liberal European opinion. After discussion with African political leaders, the senior elected minister, Sir John Moffat, advocated in the Legislative Council on 3rd August two further changes in the constitutional scheme which he invited Her Majesty’s Government to consider. Meanwhile, there had been militant speeches from African leaders at a special conference of the United National Independence Party which took place in the middle of July near Broken Hill, and early in August there began an outbreak of disorders and violence, centred principally in the Northern and Luapula Provinces of the Territory.
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