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pleasure and by the right of the Minister for African Interests to secure post- ponement pending reference to the Secretary of State of any proposed executive actionplay the federal Cabinet which he considered detrimental to African interests. A fuller account of the proposed African Affairs Board and of the responsibilities of the Minister for African Interests is given in Annex III.
52. It must not be supposed that the need for invoking these arrangements would arise except on the rarest occasions. We do not believe that the Central African Cabinet or Legislature would proceed with action or legislation which was regarded as detrimental to African interests by the Minister for African Interests or the African Affairs Board. In the case of differences of opinion a settlement would no doubt be reached by the usual process of consultation, the important point being that the machinery for consultation would be estab- lished locally. But the existence of these special arrangements would be a protection for African interests and, still more important, should give a sense of security to Africans at the present stage of their political development.
The Development Commission
53. In economic development Southern Rhodesia is the most advanced of the three territories and Nyasaland the least advanced. All three territories are engaged on extensive development programmes which have been drawn up after full consideration of the needs of the territories and for which finance and other resources have been earmarked. It is clearly necessary that these develop- ment plans should go forward, but there is everything to be gained from the closest possible co-ordination of development policies and programmes and we regard it as of great importance that effective inter-territorial machinery should be established for this purpose. We recommend that there should be a Development Commission composed of representatives of the central and the three territorial Governments and Legislatures and that, working in the closest touch with it, there should be a Central Planning Staff, with the necessary experts, forming part of the appropriate federal Ministry.
54. It would be the function of the Development Commission and the Central Planning Staff to co-ordinate and keep under review the development needs and programmes of Central Africa as a whole. The Central Planning Staff, with such assistance as might be required from the specialist departments of the territorial Governments, would carry out a complete survey of the development needs of Central Africa, taking into account the existing territorial development programmes and recognising that they would go forward, at the same time indicating the gaps found in these programmes and the further development requirements. The Central Planning Staff, in consultation with the territorial Governments, would also work out the extent to which the finance, personnel and supplies needed for development could be provided from the available resources of Central Africa as a whole. In so far as this was not possible a combined statement would be drawn up of the assistance required in those respects from outside Central Africa. The responsibility for carrying out the various parts of the Central African development programme would lie with the territorial Governments as far as territorial departments were con- cerned and with the federal Government as far as federal departments were concerned. But the Development Commission and the Central Planning Staff would be responsible for keeping the general execution of the programme under review and for indicating from time to time probable shortages and variations in requirements for outside assistance.
Central African Loans Council
55. We believe that as part of the co-ordination of development planning there should be complete co-ordination of Government borrowing from sources