HC Deb 26 July 1960 vol 627 cc135-6W
Mr. Wall

asked the Minister of State for Commonwealth Relations when the report of the Economic Survey Mission to the High Commission Territories will be published.

Mr. Alport

I am glad to inform the House that this Report (which is addressed to the High Commissioner for Basutoland, the Bechuanaland Protectorate and Swaziland) was published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office today. Copies are being placed in the Library of the House.

I should like to take this opportunity to express the gratitude of Her Majesty's Government to the Chairman of the Mission, Professor Chandler Morse, and to the other members for the thorough and imaginative report which they have produced. I should also like to take this opportunity of thanking the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and its President, Mr. Eugene Black, for nominating the Chairman of the Mission and assisting with their advice in the appointment of the other members.

The Mission's main recommendations can be summarised as follows:

  1. (1) for Basutoland they emphasise the necessity for a concerted and intensive campaign in soil use and conservation, and for the provision of better educational facilities;
  2. (2) for the Bechuanaland Protectorate they consider that the major opportunity lies in increasing the output of the livestock industry;
  3. (3) for Swaziland the Mission suggest that the main task is to improve education and communications, and thus create conditions in which the agricultural and mineral resources can be developed to the best advantage of the Territory.