FUTURE OF RHODESIA

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2783, 30 May 1916, Page 8

FUTURE OF RHODESIA

500,000 ACR.ES FOB SETTLEMENT BY BRITISH SOLDIERS. The report of the British South Africa Company recently issued contains an important statement by visiting directors, urging that-the .inhabitants of Southern/ and Northern Rhodesia should consider the question o*f substituting a single unifled administration for tlio whole of the territory. The board recognise that their proposals for union will bo opposed by many who are hoping for an early ab. sorption of Southern Rhodesia in the* Union of South Africa, since it would be a more serious matter-for the Union Gov- j ernment to take over the administration of the North, with- its large native and small white population than to take over tho South alone. The board think ' (that unification would result in'a mora rapid .influx of settlers, among other advairKures, and. that Rhodesia . ivould eventually come, if the people so desired, into the Union with sufficient representation to protect its own immediate interests'. ' The hoard .expressed its desire to promote the'policy of "British Soldiers for the British Empire." As a practical step, they propose to grant 500,000 acres of free land for soldier settlers from overseas, leaving the selection of the men t« tho authority which will, it is assumed, be formed to deal with tho general question of land settlement.