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Rhodesia two of these unofficial members are responsible for the administration of departments, and there are special arrangements concerning the weight to be given to the views of unofficial members of the Executive Council. The LegislaBgColofonist of official membrandon offici817 members, including Europeans and Africans. In Northern Rhodesia the non-official members are in the majority, but power is reserved to the Governor to carry through by certification any measure required in the interests of public order, public faith or good government.
Previous Consideration of Closer Association
14. The Royal Commission under Lord Bledisloe's chairmanship, which considered the question of closer association between the Central African territories in 1938, expressed the belief that the three territories would become more and more closely inter-dependent in all their activities, but did not recom- mend that there should be immediate amalgamation. The reasons why they felt unable so to recommend were: first, that the native policies of the two northern territories and of Southern Rhodesia were in an experimental stage and that it was too soon to say which of these policies was in the long run more likely to promote the moral and material well-being of the African inhabitants ; secondly, that there was general opposition to amalgamation among Africans in the northern territories; thirdly, that the European population of the three territories was not at that time ready, either in numbers or in experience, to discharge the responsibility of administering the combined territory; fourthly, the differing constitutional status of the three territories and the fact that, whereas Southern Rhodesia was self-governing, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland were Protectorates under an almost wholly official form of Govern- ment; and fifthly, the differing degree of economic development of the three territories and the relative weakness of the financial resources of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. It is clear from their Report that the Bledisloe Commission expected these obstacles to closer association to become less serious as the development of the territories proceeded. The Commission were not in favour of the federation of the three territories because of their differing constitutional status and different stages of social and political development; but the federal solution does not appear to have been considered by the Commission in detail.
But
15. In order to secure closer co-operation between the three territories immediately, the Commission recommended the setting up of an inter-territorial council charged with co-ordinating the existing Government services and of surveying the development needs of the whole area. This recommendation was not implemented at the time, partly because of the outbreak of war. war-time experience showed the need for the closest possible co-operation between the territories. Accordingly, in 1945 the Central African Council was established with the object of promoting the closest possible contact and co-ordination of policy and action between Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland in all matters of common interest to the three terri- tories. The Council, which is purely consultative, consists of the Governor of Southern Rhodesia as Chairman and four members from each of the three territories, including the Prime Minister and other Ministers from Southern Rhodesia, and the Governors, Chief Secretaries and leading unofficial members of the Executive and Legislative Councils from the northern territories. The Central African Council and its Secretariat has achieved a certain success, particularly in arranging for the extension of a number of Southern Rhodesian services to cover the northern territories when no such services existed there and for the creation of entirely new services on a Central African basis: but its