Proposed new constitution which British Government is considering for Protectorate of Swaziland will give half the seats in the new Legislative Council to 7000 European settlers and the other half to 250,000 Swazis.

Moderates on both sides approve, although there are settlers who would accept federation with South Africa and at the other extreme African nationalists who feel exploited by Britain and want majority rule and full independence. Swazi society is still semi-feudal with people owing allegiance to their King "the Lion," and British hope to transform this underdeveloped country peacefully into a multiracial self-supporting state. Land has great mineral, timber and agricultural potential which British companies and the Colonial Development Corporation scheme are helping to develop (scenes of gold, asbestos and iron mining and a new irrigation scheme). Strength of South Africa's economic interests and the country's dependence on a new railway to the port of Lourenco Marques could influence Swaziland's political development in a "white Southern Africa" direction, a possibility feared by members of the moderate Democratic Party but discounted by the Resident Commissioner.