By the mid-1950s, Congress was successfully building (and in some cases repairing) bridges between itself, the grass roots, and the chiefs, so successfully that when in 1956 the provincial councils met to elect Africans to the Legislative Council, all five seats were won by Congress members. Nevertheless, the question of party leadership remained fraught. And the need for strong leadership was ever more important after August 1956, when Federal Prime Minister Roy Welensky declared that in the 1960 federal review, he was going to push for dominion status for the Central African Federation, whose parliament was dominated by Southern Rhodesia. If Britain did not agree to self-government for the Central African Federation, he said, then it would be time to contemplate other action, adding that he “personally would never be prepared to accept that the Rhodesians have less guts than the American Colonists had.” Congress needed a leader who could transcend and reconcile party differences, who could rise above divisions of “tribe,” region, and generation, and who could talk the talk of Huggins, Welensky, and the Colonial Office. His excellent personal qualities aside, Manowa Chirwa did not meet these criteria, since it was his membership in the federal parliament that had widened the gap between moderates and radicals. Chipembere and Chiume's profiles had risen considerably after their Legislative Council debuts and their fiery and at times humorous speeches there.