§ 73. Sir W. de FRECEasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, if, in view of the premature close of the work of the Committee which last year inquired into the potentialities of the development of East and West Africa, he proposes either to instruct the Commission which has just been appointed to add this inquiry to those functions laid upon it or to re-open the former Committee and instruct it to finish its work?
Mr. THOMASIt is not the case that the work of the previous Committee under the Chairmanship of Lord Ronald-shay was closed prematurely and I see no reason to re-open it. I am not yet in a position to announce the terms of reference to the East African Commission; they may include an inquiry into economic development, but probably not in the same form as in the case of the 1923 Committee.