 Macleod wished to push ahead with majority rule and independence ; Home believed in a more gradual approach to independence , accommodating both white minority and black majority opinions and interests . Macleod disagreed with those who warned that precipitate independence would lead the newly independent nations into " trouble , strife , poverty , dictatorship " and other evils . His reply was , " Would you want the Romans to have stayed on in Britain ? " He threatened to resign unless he was allowed to release the leading Nyasaland activist Hastings Banda from prison , a move that Home and others thought unwise and liable to provoke distrust of Britain among the white minority in the federation . Macleod had his way , but by that time Home was no longer at the Commonwealth Relations Office . 
