§ Major Beamishasked the Under-Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations what plans the Government has for development of the cattle industry of the Bechuanaland Protectorate.
§ Mr. J. FosterIn consultation with my Roble Friend the Secretary of State and with the Chairman of the Colonial Development Corporation, the High Commissioner for Basutoland, the Bechuanaland Protectorate and Swaziland has appointed a small expert mission to carry out a preliminary survey of cattle-raising possibilities in the western part of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Large areas of this little-known and thinly populated country are reputed to carry good grazing, out the lack of permanent water supplies and of communications has so far hindered development. The mission now258W appointed will consider, among other questions, whether capital expenditure on development of water supplies, both surface and underground, would be justified, and if so in what areas efforts should first be concentrated.
The Chairman of the mission is Mr. Arthur Gaitskell, C.M.G., lately Managing Director of the Gezira Cotton Board in the Sudan. The other members are Mr. Brian Currie, a Kenya rancher, Mr. C. Pickrell, Director of Extension to the State of Arizona, U.S.A., Chief Bathoen of the Bangwaketse tribe in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Mr. Tshekedi Khama, and Colonel L. van der Post (who will be in charge of the organisation of the expedition).
The mission is assembling in the Protectorate now.