§ 41. Major Wallasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the percentage of land in Nyasaland owned or reserved for the African and European population of the country, respectively.
§ Mr. ProfumoNo category of land is exclusively reserved for any one race. Of the total land area, African trust land of 86½ per cent., public land 9½ per cent., freehold land in private ownership 4 per cent. African trust land is vested in my right hon. Friend and is administered by the Governor for the common benefit, direct or indirect, of Africans: subject to this, leases may be granted to 985 non-Africans as well as to Africans, but no estate greater than a lease for 99 years may be granted without my right hon. Friend's special sanction.
§ Major WallWill my hon. Friend agree that the basis of the African opposition in Nyasaland to Federation is the fear that Europeans will take their land, and will not he agree that the land actually farmed by Europeans is infinitesimal in amount and is not likely to be increased?
§ Mr. ProfumoI think it is right to say that that is in the back of some of their minds, and I am glad to have this opportunity of refuting it.
§ Mr. MarquandIn view of that answer and the one which the Secretary of State gave to me, would not it be as well to revise these arrangements, if leases up to 99 years can be given without reference to the Secretary of State himself? In view of the possibility of uranium being there, would not it be better to look at the matter again?
§ Mr. ProfumoI will ask my right hon. Friend what he feels about that.
§ Mr. J. JohnsonIs it not a fact that what the Nyasas are objecting to at the moment is that the land owned by the big plantations, like British South Africa Company, is now being split up and numbers of white settler farmers are coming in? Can the hon. Gentleman give the figures for white farmers in 1952 and, perhaps, in 1957?
§ Mr. ProfumoI think that the immigration of whites is really very small indeed.