Elaborate Structure
Following the insistences and reassurances of Southern Rhodesian Prime Minister, Sir Godfrey Martin Huggins, a little more than 25,000 white Southern Rhodesians voted in a referendum for a federal government, versus nearly 15,000 against. Africans in all three territories were resolutely against it.
The semi-independent federation was finally established, with five branches of government: one Federal, three Territorial, and one British. This often translated into confusion and jurisdictional rivalry among various levels of government. According to Blake, it proved to be "one of the most elaborately governed countries in the world."
Huggins became the first Prime Minister from 1953 to 1956, followed by Sir Roy Welensky from 1956 to the Federation's dissolution in 1963.
Huggins resigned as Southern Rhodesia's Prime Minister to become Prime Minister of the Federation. The position of Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia was once again, as until Britain's Ministerial Titles Act of 1933, reduced to a Premier and taken by the soon-to-be controversial Sir Garfield Todd.
In Southern Rhodesia, most United Rhodesia Party (UP) cabinet members joined Huggins. There was a marked exodus to the more prestigious realm of Federal politics, and it was considered that Todd's position and Territorial politics in general had become relatively unimportant, a place for the less ambitious politician. In fact, it was to prove decisive both to the future demise of the CAF, and to the rise of the Rhodesian Front.
Read more about this topic: Federation Of Rhodesia And Nyasaland
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