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EUROPE AND AFRICA 
mission presided over by Lord Cave (now Lord Chancellor of 
Great Britain) rendered a decision that £4,435,000 “would 
have been due to the British South Africa Company... if 
the administration of Southern Rhodesia by the Company 
had been determined on March 31, 1918.” The decision did 
not indicate who should pay this sum to the Company. 
The election of 1920 showed that few in Southern Rho- 
desia then favored the continuance of the Company’s ad- 
ministration or the status of a Crown Colony — the issue 
was between responsible government and union with British 
South Africa. Of the thirteen members elected to the Legis- 
lative Council in that year, eleven belonged to the Respon- 
sible Government Party. One of the appointed members 
voted with the eleven, and a resolution asking for respon- 
sible government was carried by 12 to 5 votes. The opposi- 
tion contented itself with arguing that the change was pre- 
mature. Lord Milner, the Colonial Secretary, took the 
same ground. But on March 7, 1921, Winston Churchill, 
the new Colonial Secretary, appointed a Committee under 
the chairmanship of Lord Buxton (who had recently been 
Governor-General of South Africa) to consider “when and 
with what limitations (if any) responsible government 
should be granted to Southern Rhodesia” and the procedure 
of making the change. The Committee reported in April, 
proposing that the voters of Southern Rhodesia should hold 
a referendum after a constitution had been drawn up and 
they had for consideration a concrete plan of government. 
Within a few months Sir Charles Coghlan and three other 
delegates went to London to consult with the Colonial Office 
concerning the constitution to be drafted; and in January, 
1922, the Legislative Council approved the draft of the Con- 
stitution. In April, the Government of the Union of South 
Africa agreed to terms which gave the people of Rhodesia a 
1 Brit. Parl. Papers, 1921, Rhodesia, emd. 1273.