§ 5. Mr. Brockwayasked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations the number of African students from Basutoland who are at present studying for university degrees; at which universities they are studying; and the number who are training to qualify as African assistant district officers.
§ Mr. AlportForty African students from Basutoland are at present studying for university degrees. I will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT a list of the universities at which they are studying. 543 None of these students has yet expressed an intention of entering the Administrative Service.
§ Mr. BrockwayMay I ask whether the hon. Gentleman does not regard the number of forty as terribly inadequate, whether his Department will seek to extend secondary education in Basutoland so that students may develop to this point, and whether he is aware that no African can become even an assistant district commissioner without a university degree and, in official language, a stiff interview? Will the hon. Gentleman look into the whole of this matter?
§ Mr. AlportAny applicant for the Administrative Service goes through the normal methods of selection—that is to say, before the Overseas Civil Service Appointments Board in this country or the High Commissioners' Selection Board in the Protectorates. If the hon. Member means that we should reduce the standard of quality of entrants, I could not accept that suggestion.
§ The following is the list of universities and the number of Basuto students at each:
| Bristol | 1 |
| Dublin | 2 |
| Durban Medical School | 6 |
| Edinburgh | 3 |
| Fort Hare | 3 |
| London | 1 |
| Oxford | 1 |
| Pius XII College Roma, Basutoland | 21 |
| Reading | 1 |
| University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland | 1 |