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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“Britain was in Africa and Asia for the Africans’ and Asians’ good and that her
aim was
to develop them to a stage where they could fend for themselves,”24
The
policy of giving aid to the ex-colonies would also conceal the admission of the
error of past
imperial policy. Therefore, it could be said that among both
imperialists and anti-imperialists the
policy of colonial development was
uncontroversial, as it continued assistance to the developing
countries and, at the
same time, the economic interests of Britain were protected.

As
was said in the previous chapter, it was, in particular, Oliver Stanley,
the wartime Conservative
Colonial Secretary, who had anticipated Britain’s
economic crisis after World War Two, and therefore
suggested the idea of
development policy. Therefore, it is essential to examine his role in more
detail.
Oliver Stanley was close to Churchill and was spoken of as a future Chancellor.
Apart from
being the Colonial Secretary, he had held several ministerial offices.
There was minimum dispute in view
of his record as Colonial Secretary from
1942 to 1945. He was respected and liked by his party and also
his political
opponents and other people with whom he dealt in the colonies. Stanley was
entirely in
sympathy with the new conception of development and welfare which
had come into currency since the
thirties. He was, in particular, the driving force
behind the preparatory work in the development field
and was responsible for the
1940 Colonial and Development Act. In the constitutional field he
created
important precedents. Internal self-government for Ceylon and Malta, universal
suffrage in
Jamaica, and an African unofficial majority in the Gold Coast
Legislature were all established or
promised during his time in office.

The
Jamaican example was significant because it was the first outside the
Asian territories of a major
constitutional advance following hard upon local
nationalist agitations (led in this case by Bustamante);
while, to provide for the
first African majority in an African Legislative Council was clearly
a
breakthrough, a constitutional modification different in kind from any of its

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