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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Thus
joint sponsoring schemes were organised. Australia provided land for
migrants while both the British and
Australian governments helped with passage
money and better transport organisation. Such schemes nonetheless
met with only
minimal success. Mainly because the interest of the British in the colonies was
waning.
1920 was the best year for migration and this was before the state
schemes were operating, when 135,000 went
out, but this in no way approached
pre-war figures. All together, the empire settlement scheme was a failure,
because
most migrants preferred to finance their own passage.

Life in
the four main Dominions (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and
South Africa) of the white settlement was
progressing rapidly to British levels
and in some cases ahead of them. The ready availability of food and
space and
the openness of opportunity helped to produce a healthy, proud community.
Advances in health
treatment did not take long to reach the colonies. As for the
education, the emphasis upon equality of
opportunity meant that many colonial
children had better prospects for a good life than their British
counterparts. In
Australia primary education became the prerequisite of all children and after the
turn
of the century increasing emphasis was put upon the furtherance of training
at a secondary school level. Yet
feelings of insecurity in culture of the colonies
still continued and the ultimate in excellence was still
conceived of in British
terms. So while colonial universities expanded and new ones opened,
Oxford,
Cambridge and the Inns of Court were seen as the hallmarks of success.

The
undervaluing of the spirit of initiative in the colonies was because the
colonial was not yet prepared to
assert a cultural independence. Already there
were cases of political ideas which arose first in the colonies
and were later
adopted in Britain. “Secret ballot, the payment of members of parliament, votes
to
women and manhood suffrage were put into operation first in outposts of the
empire. Britain was not the sole
originator of the ideas of liberalism and

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