With the expiry of the 25 years' term of the Company's charter on Oct. 29, 1914, among other alternative courses, three especially claimed the attention of the settlers. When, in 1908-9, the National Convention met to frame the Union of South Africa, Rhodesian delegates followed the deliberations in the interests of the country, and provision was made in the Imperial Act of 1909 for its subsequent, and volun tary, entry into the Union. That course was open. A second was to support a renewal of the charter, and a third to press for self government. The development of events under the predominantly Dutch ministry of Gen. Botha made Rhodesians hesitate to join the Union, and in 1913 a movement for responsible government took shape. The process of taking over the administration from the Company, however, presented so many difficulties that 11 out of the 12 members elected to the Legislative Council in March 1914 were pledged to maintain the Company's rule for the time being. A month later the council defined its policy. It affirmed the right of the settlers to self-government and instituted the proceedings necessary to ascertain what sources of revenue the Company would hand over to the administration that succeeded it. In these circumstances the British Government renewed the charter for ten years, with the proviso—in which the Company concurred—that responsible government should be granted before the term expired, if, and when, the settlers could show that they were capable of administering the colony. The directors of the Company were ready to surrender their powers, but they had to consider the interests of the shareholders. One difficult problem was the ownership of the unalienated land. The Company's ex penditure on administration had exceeded greatly the revenue col lected. The directors looked to the sale of these lands to make good the loss under this head, and with this purpose in view, they had declared formally in 1913 that the unalienated land, as well as its mineral rights and railway interests, was the property of the Company. The Legislative Council, on the other hand, maintained
that the land, being vested in the Company merely as "an admin istrative and public asset," would pass, on the expiry of the Com pany's administrative powers, to the colony. A privy council judgment (1918) decided that while the unalienated land was the crown property, the Company was entitled to dispose of it until its administrative losses had been recovered. A royal commis sion—the Cave commission—assessed the amount thus due to the Company at
(Jan. 1921). On the recommen dation of the Buxton committee, and in response to a petition from those who were in favour of entering the Union, both a draft constitution conferring responsible government and the specific terms offered by Gen. Smuts for admission to the Union were placed before the Rhodesian electors in 1922. The ques tion was decided on Oct. 27 by a referendum, in which 5,989 electors voted for entry into the Union and 8,774 for responsible government. This majority—all the more significant in view of the generosity of the terms offered by the Union—led to the intervention of the British Government. The Company agreed to accept in satisfaction of its administrative claims in respect of both Northern and Southern Rhodesia the sum of £3,750,000 in lieu of the royal commission assessment of £4,435,000, but it re tained its mineral rights and obtained an assurance that these and its interests in the railways would be respected by the govern ments which replaced it. The £3,750,000 was paid in cash on Oct. 31, 1923. Of this sum, £1,750,000 was the gift of Great Britain, and the remaining £2,000,000, raised by loan, was paid by South ern Rhodesia, which at the same time repaid the British Govern ment a sum of £300,000, advanced to the Company for adminis trative losses incurred since March 31, 1918, the end of the period covered by the award of the royal commission. In the meantime, on Sept. 12 (1923), the 32nd anniversary of the arrival of the pioneer force at Fort Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia was forrnally annexed to the British Crown.