The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)
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consider reports
submitted by the administering authority: -
accept petitions and examine them in consultation with the
administering authority: -
provide for the
periodic visits to respective trust territories at times
agreed upon with the administering
authority…”52
The
Trusteeship was the embryo of the “Four Policemen” scheme by which
the United States, Britain,
Russia and China would patrol the world to keep the
peace. Trusteeship to Roosevelt meant far more than
the guardianship of colonial
peoples. It contained the whole organisation of the post-war world.
“Having
stressed this important application of the concept in a way that he did not
divulge
publicly, it is no less important to emphasise that Roosevelt espoused the idea in
a
traditional sense shared by many Americans. He believed that subject peoples
should be held in tutelage
only until they could stand on their own feet.”53
Roosevelt’s conviction was strengthened by the courage and loyalty of the
Philippinos during the
Japanese conquest. In his message to the people of the
Philippine Islands on the 28th December 1941 he
stated:
“The people of the United States will never forget what the people of the
Philippine Islands are
doing this day and will do in the days to come. I give
to the people of the Philippines my solemn pledge
that their freedom will
be redeemed and their independence established and protected. The
entire
resources, in men and in material, of the United States stand behind
that
pledge.”54
In
Roosevelt’s view the colonial powers would do well to follow the United
States’ example in the
Philippines. Roosevelt also believed that the lessons of the
history of the United States’
independence could be applied to India. When the
government of the United Kingdom, in March the next
year, announced the
Cripps mission Roosevelt explained to the British Prime Minister that,
“following
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