RHODESIA 
237 
the outside territories — certainly a wonderful expansion 
from the insignificant settlements under the shadow of 
Table Mountain. 
It is the boast of Southern Rhodesia that she contributed 
a larger part of her population — one third of the adults — 
to the military services of the World War than any other 
member of the British Empire. As in certain other places, 
the effect seems to have been to stimulate the desire for self- 
government. Though a majority of the Legislative Council 
had voted in the spring of 1917 in favor of the administrative 
unification of Northern and Southern Rhodesia, in Septem- 
ber a meeting in Bulawayo initiated the organized move- 
ment for “responsible government.” Sir Charles Coghlan 
led this movement, opposing union either with Northern 
Rhodesia or with British South Africa, the object being to 
make Southern Rhodesia an independent Dominion under 
the British Crown. 
On July 29, 1918, the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council handed down a decision of great importance to 
Rhodesia, namely, that the lands (as distinguished from the 
mineral rights), to which the British South Africa Company 
claimed to have received title from King Lo Bengula, be- 
longed to the British Crown in virtue of the conquest of 
1893. The decision acknowledged the right of the Company 
to dispose of these lands as long as it administered the terri- 
tory, and its right to receive compensation, whenever the 
Crown should take over the administration, for sums ad- 
vanced by the Company in connection with its administra- 
tion. The decision affected some 81,000 square miles, not 
including 383,000 square miles which had been set aside as 
native reserves. The Company then filed a claim which as 
amended amounted to £7,866,000 without interest, and to 
about £18,000,000 with interest.! After two years a com- 
! The Times (London), January 20, 1921,