moment, although he and I and others, perhaps even on my own side, do not always seem in complete agreement, we have got to co-operate to try to help those 8½ million people to work out their salvation in Central Africa and to work out economic interdependence.
That is where I would leave it. I would say just one word as to the future. This country, as my right hon. Friend the First Secretary said, has immense possibilities, because of its natural resources and climate. I am quite certain that there is no part in Central Africa where we could get greater progress in education, in health, and in material prosperity.
What we have to warn the inhabitants about is the danger of building up their economy on the basis merely of industry. The future of Central Africa will depend on how far they can develop directly from their agricultural industry. I give an illustration. Northern Rhodesia has, unfortunately, only one major industry—copper. Only 43,000 Africans are employed in it. Yet the employed population of Northern Rhodesia is 260,000 and the total population 2,500,000.
The way to develop Central Africa is, I am convinced, to start from agriculture, to process its products and to situate new factories in the agricultural areas. In this way, the people will develop a balanced economy. If that happens, and if those who control investment, not only in this country but in Europe generally, really will help the people of these territories, there will be tremendous possibilities should they then go in for some form of economic association in their independence.
In Southern Rhodesia, which is regarded as so backward, 95 per cent. of the Africans are today receiving primary education.
Mr. Humphry Berkeley (Lancaster) What about secondary education?
Mr. Turton I think that the figure is about 9 per cent. in secondary education. I will let my hon. Friend know. In what other country in Africa can one find results such as that? I would be delighted if one could. One of the worries about higher education, however, is what we are to do in the Bill for the University College in Salisbury. That was a wonderful idea, but it is in grave peril and requires help from all of us.
I believe that we can get success out of failure if we can encourage toleration out there and, I would say to the right hon. Member for Middles rough, East, if we can practice toleration here in this Parliament. I have not congratulated my right hon. Friend the First Secretary of State. That is not because I bear him any ill will for what he has done, but because I believe that he has only taken the first step. I believe that the steps to come will be more difficult than what he has achieved, but I grant him that his success at Victoria Falls was unexpected.
I assure him that all of us wish him well in these later steps because we believe that, out of the failure of multiracial partnership, there are high hopes for a new form of association in Central Africa that will be to the lasting advantage of all races and of all colours. But we will only get that if we in this House realise that we have to pay for our past mistakes and that we must carry out our duty quite uninfluenced by threats from extremists of any race or colour.
5.24 p.m.
'Mr. James Griffiths (Llanelly) I hesitate to add my congratulations to those showered upon the First Secretary of State, but I do want to pay him the compliment of having conducted these very difficult negotiations with very great skill. I was intrigued to read in a newspaper report that the hon. Member for Lancaster (Mr. Berkeley) had likened the procedure of choosing a leader of the Tory Party to that of choosing a tribal chief in Africa. If that be true, then the right hon. Gentleman will have a decided advantage over his rivals for that position, for he comes back to this House at a very crucial moment in his career and the history of his party with laurels from the funeral.
