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EUROPE AND AFRICA 
Matabeleland, the death of Major Wilson, and the flight and 
death of King Lo Bengula in the last part of the year. With 
the occupation of Matabeleland, came the incorporation of 
that district within the sphere of the company’s activities; 
and in 1894, the whole region between the Limpopo and the 
Zambesi Rivers was organized under one government, 
known as Southern Rhodesia, which consisted of an ad- 
ministrator and a council of four members, nominated for 
three and two years respectively by the company with the 
approval of Great Britain. In 1898, when the white popula- 
tion had grown to about 14,000 persons, Orders in Council 
were issued creating Southern Rhodesia a separate pro- 
tectorate and adding to its governmental organs a legislative 
council numbering ten, of whom six (including the Resident- 
Commissioner) were nominated by the Company and four 
elected by the people. A movement was soon set on foot to 
increase the popular representation and steadily fostered, 
until in 1903, it was decreed that seven should be appointed 
and seven elected. The population increased as well as the 
demand for popular control, until there were in 1914 about 
25,000 people in the protectorate and they elected twelve out 
of twenty members of the Legislative Council. It was the 
policy of the Company to continue giving an increased share 
of political power to the citizens as a preparation for self- 
government. In March, 1914, the people voted by a sub- 
stantial majority in favor of the continuance of charter gov- 
ernment. For the time all serious thought of union with 
South Africa was abandoned, out of fear of the grave eco- 
nomic and political complications that would be sure to fol- 
low such a move. The supplementary charter of the British 
South Africa Company (1915) provided that, up to the end 
of 1924, a majority of the Legislative Council might demand 
responsible government provided they could approve Rho- 
desia’s fitness for the task, financially and otherwise.