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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“dictation by this country, and obedience by the other parts of the
Commonwealth…. Even in the
colonies where the machinery of
government is still in our hands, even there you find everywhere
growing
up a public opinion which has got to be consulted, and a public opinion
which can only be
ignored at the cost of terrible troubles in the future.”26

This
was proved to be the case when, in 1960, Harold MacMillan, in his
speech to Members of both Houses of
Parliament of the Union of South Africa,
in Cape Town, said:

“The growth of national conciousness in Africa is a political fact and
we must accept it as
such. That means I would judge, that we must come
to terms with it. I sincerely believe that if we can
not do so we may imperil
the precarious balance between East and West… the great issue in
this
second half of the twentieth century is whether the uncommitted peoples
of Asia and Africa will
swing to the East or to the West. Will they be drawn
into the Communist camp?”27

Thus,
as has been discussed, it was due to his political vision that Stanley
began to think of uncontroversial
fields of economic development, and moved
toachieving these policies while being the Colonial Secretary
in the war period.
(i.e. the Development Act which, later, as we have seen, the Labour
Government
sanctioned as the Colombo Plan).

Therefore, the Conservatives during the Second World War, and in
particular the Colonial Secretary,
Oliver Stanley, who had foreseen the post-war
economic crisis, and as a result of his beliefs (as a
matter of principle) in the need
for one, and his broad agreement with the goals and methods of
Labour’s policy,
managed to provide the basis for a bi-partisan colonial policy.

By
the time MacMillan left office, in 1963, it became clear that the
aspirations of traditional
Conservatives for mainly economic unity was

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