become an acute and poignant problem, that
is not without its echo over here.

Rhodesia, through the British South Africa Company, is doing its bit
toward solution. It has set aside 500,000 acres which are being allotted
free of charge to approved soldier and sailor settlers from overseas.
Not only are they being given the land but they are provided with expert
advice and supervision. The former service men who are unable to borrow
capital with which to exploit the land, are merged into a scheme by
which they serve an apprenticeship for pay on the established farms and
ranches until they are able to shift for themselves.

The Chartered Company, despite its political machine, has developed
Rhodesia "on its own," and in rather striking fashion. It operates
dairies, gold mines, citrus estates, nurseries, ranches, tobacco
warehouses, abattoirs, cold storage plants and dams, which insures
adequate water supply in various sections. It is a profitable example of
constructive paternalism whose results will be increasingly evident long
after the famous Charter has passed into history.

No phase of the Company's activities is more important than its
construction of the Rhodesian railways. They represent a
double-barrelled private ownership in that they were built and are
operated by the Company. There are nearly 2,600 miles of track. One
section of the system begins down at Vryburg in Bechuanaland, where it
connects with the South African Railways, and extends straight northward
through Bulawayo and Victoria Falls to the Congo border. The other
starts at Beira on the Indian Ocean and runs west through Salisbury, the
capital, to Bulawayo.

These railways have a remarkable statistical distinction in that there
is one mile of track for every thirteen white inhabitants. No other
system in the world can duplicate it. The Union of South Africa comes
nearest with 143 white inhabitants per mile or just eleven times as
many. Canada has 27, Australia 247, the United States and New Zealand
400 each, while the United Kingdom has over 200 inhabitants for every
mile of line.

Rhodesia is highly mineralized. Coal occurs in three areas and one of
them, Wankie,--a vast field,--is extensively operated. Gold is found
over the greater part of the country. Here you not only touch an
American interest but you enter upon the region that Rider Haggard
introduced to readers as the setting of some of his most famous
romances. We will deal with the