Editing Basutoland (section)

===Interwar period===
[[File:CO 1069-209-89.jpg|thumb|Visit of Colonial Secretary to territory]]
[[File:CO 1069-209-92.jpg|thumb|Opening of the new Senqunyane Bridge]]
The first task of the Basuto National Council was to revise and draft the "old laws of Moshoeshoe I", which they did within three days. These new laws were called the " Laws of [[Lerotholi]]" after the sitting Paramount Chief. However the commoners believed that the Chiefs who sat on the council did not follow these laws, leading to opposition by the Commoners Council, one of the earliest political organizations in the territory.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eldredge |first=Elizabeth A. |date=1994 |title=Review of Government and Change in Lesotho, 1800-1966: A Study of Political Institutions |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/161778?searchText=&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=basutoland&so=rel&ab_segments=0/basic_search_gsv2/control&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default:b49ccb6dfa5755ecb722684a6f548dfb&initiator=recommender?searchText=&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=basutoland&so=rel&ab_segments=0/basic_search_gsv2/control&refreqid=fastly-default:1affc98c770961600dad017621915fcb&searchKey=&seq=3 |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=349–352 |issn=0022-278X}}</ref> This forced the council to pass reforms, recommended in a 1935 study of Basutoland by British official Alan Pim. This reduced the number of chiefs and their judicial powers. The legality of the National Council itself and the laws it passed came to the forefront in 1940, with a succession crisis caused by the death of Paramount Chief Seeiso Griffith. The regency for his two-year-old son was disputed by his brother Bereng Griffith and his first wife Mantsebo, who had the support of the Resident Commissioner. It was ruled in 1942 in the Basutoland High Court that the "Laws of Lerotholi" were not legally binding and that the British [[High Commissioner for Southern Africa]] could choose who they wanted as the Paramount Chief. This led to efforts by the Basotho to convert the National Council into a legislative institution.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eldredge |first=Elizabeth A. |date=1994 |title=Review of Government and Change in Lesotho, 1800-1966: A Study of Political Institutions |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/161778?searchText=&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=basutoland&so=rel&ab_segments=0/basic_search_gsv2/control&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default:b49ccb6dfa5755ecb722684a6f548dfb&initiator=recommender?searchText=&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=basutoland&so=rel&ab_segments=0/basic_search_gsv2/control&refreqid=fastly-default:1affc98c770961600dad017621915fcb&searchKey=&seq=3 |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=349–352 |issn=0022-278X}}</ref> The country was also badly affected by a combination of land shortages, drought and the arrival of railways. This led to the colony being a net importer of food and an exporter of labor, mostly to the neighboring South Africa. This was addressed in the 1935 study by Pim, who recommended increased investment in agriculture and efforts to stop soil erosion in the territory. This resulted in reforms by the Basutoland government to reduce erosion such as creating buffer strips and cattle grazing schedules. These were met with opposition from the native Basuto due to the fact that it was run mostly by South African administrators and often increased erosion in many places. Development projects that took place in the 1950s also met with similar opposition from the natives, due to the fact that they had very little input into how these projects were managed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Aerni-Flessner |first=John |date=2014 |title=Development, Politics, and the Centralization of State Power in Lesotho, 1960-75 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43305214?searchText=&searchUri=/action/doBasicSearch?Query=basutoland&so=rel&ab_segments=0/basic_search_gsv2/control&searchKey=&refreqid=fastly-default:7c668ae0e82dc26c60b810a15842b446&initiator=recommender&seq=6 |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=401–421 |issn=0021-8537}}</ref>