The Future of the British Empire

...Most British, in fact, think very little about the colonies, and know even less...

...There have been widespread labor disturbances in tht West Indian islands, sometimes culminating in bloody riots, as in the Bahamas a few years ago, and in Jamaica in 1938 and,the years immediately following...

...This class, which feels itself- as well-educated as the colonial system has outlived its usefulness...

...Individuals like Lord Hailey, an excolonial sdministrator of considerable talent and human sympathies, hsve done much to Convince the British that the Empire needs reforming...

...Perhaps as important as any other cause of an awakening among the colored races of the British Empire was the fact that a British and foreign-educated middle class of white-collar and professional workers has grown up in many if not most of the colonies, a class which feels that it should and as a right ought to take leadership in the administration of the affairs of those colonies...

...In 1910 the Government went even further, appointing a number of prominent British Laborites as Labor Commissioners in a number of the colonies to improve labor conditions snd foster labor organizstion...

...In fact, In one particular area of Nigeria, they've proposed that election of the council of chiefs be conducted by means of a secret ballot, and elsewhere they have advocated various adaptations of the old tribal form, to make it more nearly conform to western democracy...

...Their development and standard of living varies me mensely, from the quite European island of Malta to some of the most primitive regions in the world -New Guinea, for example...

...Since the labor movement has almost everywhere been in the van of the nationalists, this is sn important concession...

...Nor is pride of Empire a particularly powerful feeling, apparently...

...e • , PARTLY, this feeling that autonomy should be granted to the colonies arises from s lack of interest...

...The nationalist movement in India has gained worldwide attention during the last quarter of a century...

...JUST what the future of the colonial Empire of Britain will be is of course in the lap of the future...

...Be this as it may/ the British Empire appears to be in a state of transition which will ultimately leave it little resemblance he its former self...

...Britain" now stands pledged to give this great region its independence upon the conclusion of the war, and sooner or later it will probably find itself forced to do so...

...Organisations, too, have done valuable work in trying to convert the British to a more liberal colonial attitude...

...Hie National People's Psrty is organized throughout the island and has given the main leadership to the imli 11 lldSS|>s struggle...

...Perhaps the most important is the Colonial Burean of the Fsbian Society, which undir the able leadership «f Dr...

...These labor movements have not been . fought merely as economic struggles, but have been closely tied up with the fight against foreign role...

...There will be more and more extension of self-government to the colonies...

...An active little group of M-P's keeps itself informed upon events in the colonies and keeps the Minister hopping if things do not go right...

...It is expected that Ceylon will be given more or less complete Dominion status soon after the war...

...At that time Japan, a colored nation, for the first time took her place in a major world conflict...

...Partly, this arises from the fact that these movements have been neither so powerful nor so noisy as that led by Gandhi...

...TPO an American, who never thinks of West Africa * without thinking of the most primitive tribal ways of living, it is surprising to learn that there is not only a considerable native white-collar class growing up there, but that there is a strong movement for local autonomy...

...The Future of the British Empire The Trend Toward Self-Government in a Democratic Commonwealth of Nations By Robert Alexander WINSTON CHURCHILL has said that he did not " become his Majesty's Prime Minister in order to preside at the dissolution of the British Empire...

...The economic resources of most of the West Indian islands are completely controlled by foreigners, resident or absentee...

...It ia these colonies which make true the old adage that "the sun never sets upon the British Empire...

...They vary in size from little Ascension Island, a mere speck in the broad South Atlantic to the great East and West African and Malayan regions...

...Hindoo had an important part in getting the new Jamaican constitution pushed through, and her bureau supplies much if not most of the material used by those Labor Party M.P.'s who make it a practice to keep themselves and the country at large posted on colonial affairs...

...The public utilities are controlled from abroad, as are the great agricultural industries which are the staples of the region, so - that the straggle against these powers ham inevitably taken on a nationalistic tinge...

...These were organized primarily in two groups—one the Bustamente Labor Unions and Jamaica Labor Party and the other the Jamaica Trade Union Council and the National People's Party...

...As they point out...

...He wa* first drawn into the labor movement end the movement for national independence daring the troubles ef the {ate thirties, and he set all of bis energies to organising it and making it a success...

...There are still many like the young officer in the Waves who confided to the present writer that "you know, those Eastern races are all like children, and you couldn't really give them freedom...

...And, whether he likes it or not, Mr...

...Churchill has presided over a government which has taken several steps towards this transformation...

...ChurekiU'§ protettationt to the contrary, there doei teem to.be a movement toward the ditintegration of the British Empirt at an Empire, and itt reeonttitution at a Commonwealth of Saiion...

...They have taken very inadequate steps to extend the advantages of higher education to colonials...

...There serious labor unrest broke out into open rioting in 1938, and at the same time resulted in the formation of permanent political end labor organisations...

...The spread of labor movements, both communist and non-communist, was undoubtedly also a factor...

...Perhaps the most important step in the colonial sphere taken by this government has been the establishment of the Joint Caribbean Commission with the United States, the aim of which is the economic snd social development of the Caribbean region...

...The movement takes a different form in West Africa, naturally, than it does in the West Indies...

...On the other hand, in Britain there has come about a state of niiiul which proclaims that the ultimate^ object of the British is to see all of the colonies organized on a self-governing, independent basis and to see the British Empire turned truly into the British Commonwealth of Nations...

...TPHE upsurge of feelings of independence among the British colonies is part of the awakening of backward peoples which has taken place since the first World War...

...This will not come as fast as the colonials themselves desire, and will come perhaps too fast for the more imperial-minded Tories...

...The present government has tsken a number ef steps which will ultimately be of considerable assistance to the colonies in preparing them for Kelt-government...

...As one West African put it, "If the old chief tried to buck tin- will of the tribe he'd be cither dethroned or killed—or both...

...The Commonwealth will find itself faced with a new problem...

...However, there are genuine feelings of attachment to the Dominions and they are looked upon with more or less parental pride by many Britishers...

...Sometimes legsl and sometimes iTIsssJbd, the People's Party won a notable victory early in 1MI when the British government granted Jamaica a constitution giving the Jamaicians extensive rights of self-government, with the additional promise that the situation would agsin be reviewed in five years- presumably with an eye to granting the island even more complete autonomy...

...Ah a war measure, they have developed the resources (especially the mining and agricultural resources) of some of the colonies...

...Part of this attitude is undoubtedly the result of constant anti-imperialist agitation by British people themselvee...

...However, its general outlines can, perhaps, be seen...

...Some of these are organizations of colonials in Britain—like the West Africa Students' Union -but most of them are British in inspiration and membership...

...But, say the Wist Africans, the British have been attempting to change this concept...

...This victory came after an earlier constitution had been rejected by the Jamaican Legislature, under pressure from the Nationalists...

...further measures of self-government are expected in other colonies—Malta and Cyprus, for example...

...Witr., say, the establishment of Ceylon or Jamaica as a Dominion, a colored nation would be admitted to this association of independent powers...

...The second great section of the Empire is India...

...Imperialism, Tory and otherwise, is ¦far from dead...

...First, come the selfgoverning Commonwealths — Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland, which are all sovereign and independent nations, to a greater or leaser degree...

...But it is not as important as it once was...

...The movement in the West Indies has undoubtedly gone farthest in Jamaica...

...Previously, she had demonstrated an ability to hold her own with the western powers, and partly due to her example, but even more as a result of developments within each specific area, these moves against dependency gained force...

...fs into petty tyrants, dependent upon the British administration of the colony rather than upon the tribes themselves...

...In the colonies there has grown up in recent years a great surge of unrest—part of the awakening of the colored man...

...Adopting the practice of indirect rule, they have attempted tb turn the chi...

...The new Jamaican constitution was generally welcomed...

...When speaking of the Empire, the British usually classify it into three sections...

...Although the West Indians are predominantly Negro, they have been in close relationship to western ways of life for three centuries and have more or less absorbed the western, and more particularly, the British methods of social organization...

...They have extended the rights of labor in most of the colonies, and have made labor organization legal...

...The Fabian Colonial Bureau gathers information from the colonies on developments there, finds the demands and desires of the colonials, and tries to pass on this information to the Labor M.P.'s...

...In addition to these attempts to bring the native forms of government into more close approximation of western forms, the West African progressives have launched an agitation in favor of having the Colonial Office entrest the higher positions in the civil service in these colonies to the West Africans themselves...

...Few Britons hsve sny knowledge of the colonial Empire...

...The progressive West Africans oppose this transformation of the chiefship into a despotism, and desire, rather, to develop the primitive tribal organization into something resembling a parliamentary democracy...

...There are scores of these colonies of greater or lesser size and population, scattered on all of the continents but one and in all of the seas...

...On the othei hand, the majority of the West Africans still live under their primitive tribal forms of society, and the progressive and western minded individuals in those colonies see their tasj^as one of adapting this primitive tribalism to western ideas and social forms, and bringing about an evolution of the tribal society into a western democracy...

...It has appiopriated considers .!;¦ money for the economic development of the colonies, to make them less dependent upon single crops and thus Ic in susceptible In the ups and downs of I lie commodity markets...

...This agitation is dangerous, and a number of prominent leaders, not only in West Africa, but in other sections of the Empire as well, have been sent to jail...

...The latter is led by Norman Manlcy, s lawyer and a man of exceptional talents...

...The third great division of the British Empire is a collection of dependencies the colonies...

...This agitation for self-government was specially notable in the West Indies and in West Africs...

...But in spite of lack of popular attention from abroad, these movements have grown, especially during the last decade...

...However, in spite of this harshness, there has grown up in Britain a feeling that sooner or later Britain will and must give self-government tp the colonial sections of the Empire...

...For instance, the Wist Africans point out that under the tribal system, a rude form of democracy existed, where the chiefs could not take any action against the will of the tribe, or even without consultation with the tribe, and the Paramount Chiefs could not act without the consent of the lesser ones...

...The same with the Paramount Chief, who has been made an absolute monarch over his whole aria...

...So, in tpite of Mr...

...However, little or nothing has been said about similar movements in the colonial sections of the Empire...

...Changes in the colonial Empire of Britain are being brought about as a result of two different sets of developments—one in the colonial regions and the other in the mother country...

...Hitherto the British Common wealth has been an association of White, English-speaking Dominions...

...If and when it comes about, it will be a very heartening development and at least a small indication that the White Man realizes that the "burden" of governing the world is no longer his...

...sll of the lower positions in the country are held by the Africans, and they believe that there are now venough educated natives to hold the mure responsible positions as well...

...The political regime in these colonies differs vastly, varying from t'eylon which verges upon Dominion status, to less democratic regimes in the West Indies, to varying degrees of indirect rule in Africa and Southeast Asia...

...Rita Hinden has acted as a clearing house for liberals and taborites in Britain and the colonies Dr...