Annual report on Northern Rhodesia / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1952]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    8/134 (page 2)
    The conference prepared a draft federal scheme consisting of detailed proposals which could, if approved, be translated into a constitutional instrument. The object which the conference had in view when preparing that scheme is best explained by quoting the final paragraph of the preface which accompanied the scheme when it was published on the 18th June, 1952, in a White Paper. That paragraph reads— “ The scheme endeavours to safeguard the essential interests of the three territories and all their inhabitants and to strike a fair balance between the need to create a federation possessing, both economically and politically, adequate scope and strength for its work and the requirement that the terri¬ tories themselves shall continue to exist as vigorous entities, independent of the federation within the sphere of government assigned to them.” The Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council debated the draft federal scheme during its July meeting. The motion was one merely to “ take note ” of the scheme and therefore no decision on it was taken. During the course of the debate the principle of federation and the general terms of the scheme were supported by the Government spokesmen and by the elected members. The African members reiterated their opposition to federation and the two nominated European members representing African interests, while accepting that federation would have its benefits, expressed their opposition to the imposition of federation against the general wishes of the Africans. As an outcome of the conference the four Governments appointed a Fiscal Commission to investigate and report on the financial arrange¬ ments which should be made for the federation of the three territories, a Civil Service Preparatory Commission to make recommendations concerning the establishment of a federal public service, and a Judicial Commission to consider the constitution and jurisdiction of the federal supreme court and other matters connected with the constitution of that court. Those commissions were appointed during the course of July, each of them consisting of a representative or representatives of each of the three Central African territories sitting under a chairman. The chairman of the Fiscal Commission was Sir Jeremy Raisman, formerly the finance Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council in India; the chairman of the Civil Service Preparatory Commission was Sir William Douglas, until recently permanent Under-Secretary of State in the United Kingdom Ministry of Health; and the chairman of the Judicial Commission was Sir Robert Hudson, a former Chief Justice of Southern Rhodesia. The commissions met in Central Africa during August and their reports were published as White Papers by the Governments on the 29th October.