§ 17. Mrs. Castleasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies from whom applications will be considered for farms in the Mkushi area of Northern Rhodesia; and on what conditions.
§ Mr. ProfumoAnyone may apply who can satisfy the Agricultural Lands Board that he is an experienced Virginia tobacco farmer and that he has capital of the order of about £3,000 or more. Successful applicants will receive a partly developed plot on a 30-year lease with option to purchase after 10 years; they will be expected to plant a crop in the 1958 season and to follow the broad line of the farm plan prepared for each farm.
§ Mrs. CastleDoes the hon. Gentleman not agree that, when 250,000 acres of what Mr. John Roberts has described as some of the finest land in Northern Rhodesia is being settled in this way, it is imperative that steps should be taken to give Africans financial help to enable them to start tobacco farming in what is, after all, primarily an African country, instead of encouraging white immigration, which will only make the problems worse?
§ Mr. ProfumoThe hon. Lady knows, I think, that the Lands Board deals with only about 6 per cent. of the total area of the territory. The fact is that Africans can obtain land in native reserves or trust land free of charge and unencumbered on far easier terms than they could Crown land.
§ Mrs. CastleAm I to take it from that reply that no African is either to be allowed or encouraged to take up tobacco farming on an equal basis with Europeans in Northern Rhodesia on what is Crown land?
§ Mr. ProfumoThere is no legal obstacle whatever in the way of Africans, but at the moment none of them can qualify and they are not Virginian tobacco farmers.