Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) were pushing for unification, and wanted to include Nyasaland in the union, seeing Nyasaland as a useful source of labor that might otherwise be drawn to South Africa. Nyasas resisted this move since they regarded the Rhodesias as "White Man" territory, and preferred the trusteeship arrangement in Nyasaland under which they had greater rights. As early as 1935, the Blantyre Native Association led by Sangala called a meeting of leaders in the area where they were invited to sign a petition opposing amalgamation. When the colonial administration asked the chiefs for views on unification in 1938, the formal statement in reply was in fact composed by Mumba. Writing on behalf of the Representative Committee in a letter to the Chief Secretary of the colony dated April 1935, Mumba asked why Africans were not allowed a greater role in the celebrations of the King's birthday and in the swearing-in ceremony for the Governor. He said that "...That such an important Government function should ignore or fail to find a place for even its few senior African officers ... including some well-to-do and respectable Africans, who can be of help in explaining the meaning of the occasion to others later, has created the wrong idea that they are not wanted there, and adds to their perplexities". There is a note of elitism here, distinguishing between educated men and the less sophisticated chiefs and headmen. Later, Mumba put the case more simply: "the natives of the country should be taken into the confidence of the government as His Majesty's subject like all others ... the natives are considered as children in these matters, and so they are, but it is as children when they can better be initiated into what is demanded of them when they grow up". On 12 May 1935 he talked with the governor, Sir Harold Kittermaster, on the subject of the proper method of communication between the government and Africans. He opposed the policy of the time which was to go through the Native Administrations, dominated by conservative chiefs and headmen, and recommended a greater voice for the Associations. He argued that the members of the Associations were in closer touch with the Europeans and better able to express opinions in a comprehensible way. However, the colonial government refused to take the Native Authorities or the Associations and their aspirations