In the General Election of October 1959 African policy for the first time became a party issue, if a minor one. While party manifestos naturally placed overwhelming emphasis on domestic issues, the Labour party declared that 'the future of Africa is poised as perilously as that of India in 1945'. Macleod's mission was thus to provide genuine moral conviction in justification of that speedy disengagement from imperial responsibilities which had become politically necessary. Many among the generation of African leaders who had come to maturity since the war were well disposed towards this form of multi-racialism. The terms of reference and membership of the Advisory Commission which Macmillan was to appoint in preparation for the Review Conference were therefore crucially important. In East Africa Kenya clearly provided the crucial test for Macleod's hopes of moving rapidly from institutionalized multi-racialism to African majority rule. Central Africa continued to raise more difficult problems.