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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The
Commonwealth Development Corporation and the British equivalent
for the Commonwealth of the Marshall Plan –
the Columbo Plan – was mainly
based upon shrewd economic considerations being targeted at retaining
Britain’s
trading and financial role in the ex-colonies and consequently safeguarding
British
economic and political positions, as a world power. The gradual
conversion of the Empire into the
Commonwealth led finally to the Modern
Commonwealth “club”, which was the 1945-51 Labour
Government’s major
political adjustment and achievement. This was due to the fact that,
although
being a socialist and anti-colonial party, nevertheless the Labour Government
strongly believed
that Britain’s position as a world power must be maintained,
and therefore they also managed to harmonise
their socialism with the
Conservatives who were traditionally and conspicuously the strong supporter
of
the British Empire and its expansion. This was because Labour’s approach to
maintaining and
protecting of British interests in the period of being in office,
1945-51, had been shared by those
Conservatives who were well liked and
respected by their own party and who were also close to Churchill.
Before the
end of World War Two, Stanley, the Colonial Secretary, a close friend of
Churchill who had
even been spoken of as a future Chancellor, and Andrew
Cohen, the Governor of Uganda, had been speaking
positively of the policy that
Labour eventually adopted during 1945-51 to protect British interests, which
was
virtually completed by Macmillan when he left office in 1963.

Consequently the imperial sentiments of the Conservatives had become
integrated with Labour’s
colonial doctrine of trusteeship. The Labour
Government and in particular Bevin in 1946 expressed the view
strongly that the
ending of the British Empire could lead to a rapid falling of the standard of life
in
Britain and her colonies, and thus he said he was not ready to let the British
Empire simply disappear. As a
result of the way that the decolonisation process
was handled and channelled into the establishment of the
Modern

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