Chp 7 Part III
Location changes to the Locarno Suite in the Foreign Office Main Building [KCS Building].
Camera takes in the views of the richly decorated suite.
<VO: Lord Yaxley became the Leader of the Liberal Party in 1936, in the wake of the Abdication Crisis when Lord Samuel resigned citing ill-health.
(Picture of Lord Yaxley being announced as the new leader of the Liberal Party in the party gazetteer)
In the subsequent elections held in December, Lord Yaxley’s vast popularity won him wide acclaim and Sir Neville Chamberlain, the new Leader of the Conservative Party after Stanley Baldwin’s resignation, negotiated the formation of a new coalition with his Liberal Party. The Conservatives were the largest party in Parliament, but they couldn’t govern by themselves and they needed the Liberals more than the Liberals needed them.
(The Times reading – “New Coalition! Wooster and Chamberlain join hands!”)
So, a Liberal-Conservative coalition emerged, one in which Lord Yaxley returned to government as Foreign, Commonwealth and Colonial Secretary, merging the disparate positions and another carte-blanche, which would result in the Statute.>
SF: Now, we’ll have some words with an active member of the current government, i.e., the Foreign Secretary, and an expert, our very own Danish dame, a.k.a Sandi Toksvig, over this ‘Statute of Wellington’ of 1937, “re”-passed much later after a furibund debate by Parliament as ‘The Colonial Reorganisation Act’ of 1944.
Sir Edward Miliband (Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs): A pleasure to assist, of course. Especially when it comes to my personal idol. You don’t serve as PM for 20 years without being a man of some substance, after all. To be a part of the exploration of the evolution of the Commonwealth does sound rather fun!
Dame Sandi Toksvig (Author of “Moving Borders Around!” and host of the trivia panel show QI): Nice to see you again too, Stephen. I solemnly swear, cross my heart and all that, not to take this job away from you as well, even if it looks Quite Interesting.
(Everyone Laughs).
SF: So, Lord Yaxley’s Liberals won a massive victory, enough to force a coalition in December 1936. Why choose the Tories over Labour?
EM: Well, the rule of thumb for coalitions, when you’re the second largest party, is generally to aim for a coalition with the largest party, they have the most to lose if they fail your confidence.
The Liberals under Lord Yaxley lay in between the Tories and Labour, and it was more likely that a stable government, especially needed with the Foreign Office and Military Intelligence ringing the alarm bells about war, would result from coalition with the Tories.
Also to be perfectly honest, Labour was going through some factionalist turmoil at the at time, no thanks to some unsavoury characters who called for a violent revolution, and the majority they would have secured together would not have been that great – only a razor thin one of 14. Such a fickle number doesn’t bode well for the stability of any government.
And don’t forget that the Tories were more solidly centrist, still under the ‘Safety First’ umbrella that Baldwin had engineered and had the people’s sympathy with the Abdication Crisis.
So, it was a rather shrewd political move, in my opinion, tempering the Tories with his Liberal views – producing a more assertive centre-left government, to a less stable, if a more left leaning one.
ST: I must agree. As you know, and you would of course, my thesis for my master’s degree was on the government’s foreign policy before, during, and after the war and I wrote an entire book about colonisation and wars, too! You can find it in all reputable booksellers and libraries near you! (Smiles)
SF: Yes, quite an interesting read (Smiles). I believe Chapter 33 of your book is where you deal with this Statute?
ST: That is very well remembered!
I believe the Foreign Secretary will show us a map of some sort to help the visualising of the restructuring. So, on January 21st, 1937, the Government issued the Statute of Wellington, essentially granting the FCDO the right to alter, change, move or redraw borders across the Empire without Parliamentary consultation, or to say more precisely, to be subjected to Parliamentary scrutiny at some later date of the government’s choosing.
<VO: The Colonial Reorganisation Act, or the Statute of Wellington, was the government’s answer to the financial strain that the government was acutely aware that Britain was under. It was also necessary, that such a bill be passed through an Order-in-Council, to sidestep imperialists pervading the halls of Parliament from waylaying Britain from its goals of fulfilling the Wooster Declaration.
As we would discover later in his memoirs, Lord Yaxley and Lord Easeby firmly believed that it was better to ask forgiveness, than to ask permission, when you were doing the right thing.
In government itself, it had no greater opponent that Sir Winston Churchill. Though he was conflicted over it might be more an apt thing to say. As His Majesty’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Churchill had been intimately aware of the fiscal stretch, but as an avid and outspoken imperialist, the solution offered was most certainly not to his liking.
With the backing of the rest of the Cabinet, and especially the Prime Minister, however, this Statute entered the books and was used quite extensively.>
(Zoomed text of the Statute of Wellington plays across the screen).
EM: Yes, it was one of the most important Statutes when it comes to our evolution from Empire to Commonwealth (unrolls large map).
Lord Yaxley had made no secret of it, however, that his 2nd term would ensure that Britain evolved and adapted where other powers had failed. His first speech in the House outlined clearly and succinctly the budgetary predicament with relation to the colonies and territories. And he had the promise of Wooster Declaration to deliver on. Britain needed to honour its commitments if it wished to enjoy the continued favour and prestige in the world at large, after all.
The coalition may have disagreed in many angry rumbles, shouts, and rants in the House, but the strain on the Treasury was quite visible. Churchill had aged twelve years in two, that’s the amount of strain he was in to make sure that the Treasury was able to meet all its annual obligations while maintaining only a minimal deficit, and without raising taxes to being eye-wateringly extortionate.
SF: So, Lord Yaxley was 100% correct in stating that we were spending far more than we could afford colonially and it needed to be brought under some semblance of control? That we needed to “shrink our colonial encumbrance to curb our debit runaway”?
EM: Oh absolutely! I’m certain Sandi might have some information I’m unaware of to contribute there, but the whole palaver of the Order-in-Council was employed to avoid the fruitless debates which would undoubtedly happen in the House and force Britain closer to bankruptcy, a stain our growing prestige could not handle. Our financial outlay, with colonial purchases to redraw borders, the Boer Wars, with the promised aid to the French and our purchase of the share in the Panama Canal - we had made the already enormous national debt highly extensive. Any more, considering nearly 50% of the Annual Budget was taken up in servicing debts, and it would become impossible to service, forcing us into default.
Churchill, or more likely the Civil Servant that the task would’ve been pawned off to as Churchill claimed he had no head for numbers, did an excellent job of clawing down the deficit, without increasing the burden on the common man, after the spending spree under Chamberlain that saved us from the Depression threw us in the deep end. Lord Yaxley’s many deals had exacerbated the problem once more, however, and it needed to be fixed quick sticks.
ST: The Tories have always been very parsimonious and frugal, but their policies were sensible for the time, and they did reduce the debt by quite a margin, but it was the Philadelphia Memorandum that carved the lion’s share away, so we have to thank Lord Yaxley for that. His foreign policy, pseudo-Palmerstonian the experts call it (rolls her eyes dramatically), was very dear, prohibitive even, that is absolutely true. So naturally, this bright idea, Jeeves’s of course, was necessary to reverse the downward trend in our finances, by sidling off the cost of maintaining the Empire, on the Empire itself, rather than on Britain’s lacking Treasury.
(Pathe reel plays – “Earlier this morning, Parliament furiously reprimanded the Foreign Secretary was using an Order-in-Council to pass what is known as the Statute of Wellington. This Statute allows His Majesty’s government to delay debates of self-rule in our territories overseas and grant them the right to redraw maps and borders to better reflect the demographic presence, and eventually, grant the newly created states, limited and then full self-government under the Crown’s benevolent purview. It is believed from sources in Parliament that this drastic action was absolutely essential to ensure a smooth running of the Public Purse. The Parliamentary Gazetteer has declared the redrawal and extension of self-rule will be announced over the next sitting of the House on the 26th of January. God Save the King!)
ST: So, the first thing the Prime Minister did was that in the name of King and Country, Lawrence of Arabia was to abandon his drunken, depression and stupor and the slow descent into oblivion and to serve his country by taking the Army of Mesopotamia, along with regiments requisitioned from Muscat and the Trucial States and bring Arabia to heel. All the unpleasantness with the House of Saud made certain that Arabia needed a strong hand to restore order.
EM: To garner support from the Hashemite loyalists, he was also given the Letters Patent for his ennoblement as the 1st Viscount Aden, and for the formation of an Arab Federation in the Crown’s name.
While that was happening, Lord Yaxley began his grand design of redrawing the maps elsewhere.
<VO: The flurry of activity began with an offer that the Prime Minister of India could scarce refuse – all the islands of the Indian Ocean, for India to project its might and power, in return for basing rights and the City of Bombay and a princely sum of £500,000 in building infrastructure throughout India parsed out over the course of the next five years. When Prime Minister Sir Jawaharlal Nehru hesitated, an official Writ from His Majesty the King, in his capacity as Emperor of India, delegating the full suzerainty of the Princely States to the Government of the Union of India was added to the offer. A peerless offer indeed, and something that the then Home Secretary of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, could not let pass. This was the first change. (Animated map showing the changes is displayed).
(IBC reel plays - “In the first Delhi Durbar since our accession to echelon of a Dominion of the Crown, the Governor-General, Lady Pankurben Sarabhai, the Viscountess Riverdale, has read out the Writ of Entrustment, issued by His Majesty the Emperor George VI.
In this Writ, His Majesty the Emperor declares that all the rights of the Princely States as guaranteed by His Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom in Westminster are now entrusted wholly and completely to the Government of the Union of India in perpetuity, and, therefore, all Residents-Plenipotentiary, representing Westminster in their courts, would be replaced by officiaries of the Government of India’s choosing. While met with some warm indignation in Afghanistan, Hyderabad, Junagadh, Bhopal, and Kashmir, most Princely States have reacted most positively to this development.
This issue from His Majesty signifies the final transfer of any remaining constitutional responsibility of the British Government to the Princely States of India, to His Majesty’s Government of the Union of India and ends the Second Jeeves Compromise of 1933 that was essential for our acquisition of imperium from Westminster.
While it remains to be seen if this will result in a souring of relations between the three Houses of our Parliament, the Prime Minister has declared this as India having achieved her full and final sovereignty, of having met her tryst with destiny.
This gift comes along with the far-flung islands of the Indian Ocean and Ceylon, in exchange for the City of Bombay to return to British hands. Parliament is likely to debate and approve this Act of Settlement in the coming weeks.
This is IBC News. God Save the King and Jai Hind!”)
While the full transfer of suzerainty took some time, with the long-winded and eloquent legal challenges brought about by the disgruntled Princely States, represented by Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the Inns of Court, by 1939, the Lord Appellant had ruled in favour of the government and this final link between Westminster and New Delhi was ended, bringing a close to British influence in India.
Much of the Empire was shocked there wasn’t an armed insurrection resulting from this in India, but then life is a wonderful source of ironies, and Mr Jinnah believed the rule of law was a better shield should they be ruled against. There were of course, small and mostly peaceful protests, but remarkably for the time, very little violence actually took the streets. It also resulted in the Concordat of Simla in 1940, something we shall discuss in the final episode of this series.
(Pictures flash of the “Hyderabad Trials” in the House of Lords and then pictures flash of the signing of the Concordat of Simla).
India, however, continues to remain an independent kingdom in personal union with us, sharing our glorious Queen.>
SF: Next on the chopping block was Newfoundland, I believe? It was in default and impotent to carry out its duties to administer, I gather, but to dissolve the Commission and Assembly so wantonly, I’m sure it would rankle, no?
EM: It was most certainly unorthodox, but in 1934, the Assembly had voted itself into dissolution and invited for Crown rule to be imposed because of the defaulting and the inability to govern.
ST: We also have to remember that the Canadians, after the Indians, contributed the greatest to our war effort. And they were always the loyalist Dominion. Many in Parliament itself had thought the lack of reward for such fidelity to the King was a callous misstep. There were murmurs of how the Prime Minister was asking for another Boston Tea Party!
EM: So, in 1938, Lord Yaxley used the now rather famous seaplane, “Spirit of Endeavour” to go in person to Canada, to issue the Writ of Dissolution for the Dominion of Newfoundland and as the seniormost representative of the British Government, signed the Instrument of Accession, for Newfoundland, its adjutant territories, and St. Pierre & Miquelon to join the Dominion of Canada as its newest provinces.
(CBC newsreel plays – “Yesterday, after the final conclusion of all the negotiations ongoing since February of the year past, the Prime Minister and Lord Yaxley, the British Foreign Secretary, signed the Instrument of Accession for Newfoundland, Labrador, and its outlying island territories to join our happy union, once and for all.
This is the culmination of the Halifax Agreement signed between the British Ambassador and our own Foreign Secretary at the beginning of the same negotiations last year. Throughout the negotiations much of the details of this Agreement have been revealed to us, though the full terms shall only come to light when the House of Commons debates and ratifies it as an Act of Parliament early next week.
We have been told that the His Majesty’s Government of the Dominion of Canada has agreed to the accession of Newfoundland, Labrador, and the outlying islands, into the union in return for negotiated rights, for the nationalised companies from the United Kingdom, for the exploitation of the vast resources of our Great White North.
This has met lukewarm reactions in Parliament who believe such rights, which by law should belong to the Canadian people, should not be bargained away for barren rocks and fishing hamlets. CBC News will keep abreast of the debates.
This is CBC News, God Save the King, and God Defend Canada!”)
SF: Shall we return to Arabia?
ST: Yes, we can, January 1938, on the 15th to be exact, Faisal I was proclaimed King of all Arabia, and Lord Aden, as the 1st Lord Resident of Arabia, symbolically handed over the treaties that the emirates had signed with Britain to King Faisal.
EM: And you might wonder, why was Lord Yaxley being so generous with Arabia, after Sykes-Picot and the Balfour Declaration, and that is justified. However, since 1931, and the discovery of the black gold in several places in Arabia, the Treaty of Jerusalem was in full effect, and 75% of all revenues through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company belonged to Britain. So, in essence, it was costing us more to maintain our presence there than necessary.
SF: And so, we have the Treaty of Antioch from June 1938, of course!
(BBC Reel plays – “June 26th, 1938. The newly crowned King of the Arabs, Faisal I, signs the Treaty of Antiochea-on-the-Orontes, and a more consequential treaty for the Middle-East could not exist! This treaty is also signed by all his subordinate monarchs and Emirs and the Lord Governor of Mandatory Palestine, marking a true union, much akin to the German Empire of memory, of the Arab peoples under one crown.
The British Empire, in exchange for resource rights, preference for the AIOC in oil exploration and exploitation, full autonomy for Palestine and basing rights for the British Fleet and Army at Basrah, Hormuz, Aden, Aqaba and any port of our choosing on the Mediterranean coast, relinquishes all claims to lands, titles and tithes in the Arabian Peninsula to Faisal al-Hashimi, King of the Arabs, and Co-monarch of the newly formed Federation of Arabia, along with His Majesty, King George VI
This true union of Arabia under the Hashemite dynasty marks the first time in three decades that the disparate peoples of this place, torn by conflicting interests, are united under one banner again. Thomas Edward Lawrence, 1st Viscount of Aden, will represent the interests of His Majesty as his plenipotentiary Resident in Damascus.
While consternation in Parliament is grave, this union has brought acclaim for Lord Yaxley’s Foreign Policy throughout the Peninsula, the Commonwealth and abroad in general. We wish the new nation a warm welcome into the Commonwealth and happy success for the future! God Save the King!”).
EM: Then, we have the two transfers from August 1937 – the Transfer of Christchurch and the Transfer of Windhoek. They’re easily pointed out.
(Points out on the maps)
Bechuanaland, Swaziland, and Basutoland, the High Commissioner Territories, had been a bone of contention between Westminster and Cape Town since the South Africa Act. Cape Town demanded annexation of those territories several times throughout the years and was denied by Westminster every time, even though, looking at it with the colonial mindset, Cape Town was more than justified in making those demands. Now, though, for South Africa’s continued good behaviour since the Fifth and Sixth War and to pass off the costs of managing the territories, all of which were essentially landlocked, the Instrument of Transfer was signed, in exchange for minority rights being maintained, protected, and expanded, and autonomies being preserved and respected.
ST: And all the Polynesian islands, stretching us thin, and requiring more capital spending that the Treasury didn’t truly have, and stretching our naval capacity too, were handed over to New Zealand.
Now, New Zealand was already undergoing a rapid sea-change since its passing of the Equality Act of 1934, renaming itself Polynesia and the like, so Lord Yaxley simply jumped on that bandwagon and traded in those islands for legitimacy and brownie points in the Commonwealth. And, of course, it passed off the maintenance and budgetary concerns to the Government of Polynesia.
SF: Didn’t Lord Yaxley promise both South Africa and Polynesia £300,000 in aid until their budgets could find the money and fund the maintenance themselves?
EM: So he did, but those were to be paid out over a decade, something that the Treasury could handle well enough really. And even then, the funds could be found right away from contingency if it was deemed absolutely essential, after all, the longer-term costs were no longer the Treasury’s concern.
<VO: Of all the territorial transfers and exchanges, the Two Transfers were by far met with the most approbation from the MPs in the Commons. Territories of little significance to them, far away and mere prestige projects to them, their transfer out to Commonwealth hands was felt to be ideal and right. Though the methods used were questioned and some MPs were genuinely concerned for the rights of the peoples that the shield of British law could no longer defend nor the sword of British Justice avenge, as easily, at least. However, soon, they had other things to occupy their minds.>
(Pictures of the handovers of the territories to South Africa and Polynesia flash past.)
SF: Last, but certainly not least, we have the Two Federations. On August 21st, 1938, the federating of Rhodesia and the Caribbean, the last Foreign Policy action before the 2nd Great War, was carried out.
EM: And it changed the map of the British Empire completely. Save for Malaya, The Chinese Concessions, West, and East Africa, most of the Empire had proceeded to native self-rule. And even Malaya was by and large a patchwork of Princely States with some British territories, like the British Raj.
ST: And the Treasury was certainly better for it, so much of the burden taken from them. There were, of course, angry protestation at the loss of revenues, but they were in a far better position, so the protestations never turned to intrigue.
SF: Was it wise with Rhodesia, though? When I met with Sir Simon, he called Rhodesia a hornet’s nest.
EM: In a way, I would say that it was counter-productive to award Rhodesia more territory. Their limited time with self-government had demonstrated quite clearly that they were leaning just as keenly towards a herrenvolk, white-minority regime as South Africa was before the Fifth and Sixth War. In their case, the idea that Britain would intervene for the rights of the African population had not truly sunk in, even with the war for the very same happening just five years past.
ST: So they had their rude awakening, with the coup in 1941 led by General Evelyn Baring, though sources agree he had a lot of aid from the Foreign Office. Yes, the very same Baring who daringly issued the ultimatum to Portugal and won.
EM: When Lord Yaxley blocked the Native Representation Act of 1941 from being enforced through the Statute of Whitehall, and the Prime Minister of Rhodesia wanted to go further than South Africa and issue a Unilateral Declaration of Independence for this affront, much like Napoleon invaded the National Assembly, Baring stormed the Parliament with a full company of grenadiers in Salisbury and forced Parliament to dissolve.
After much haggling and negotiations with the Foreign Office over Baring wanting to return Rhodesia to full Crown Rule, an election with universal franchise was held under the Army’s watchful eye and the result is as we see.
SF: I didn’t know that the Lion of the Zambesi wanted Crown Rule imposed. Though I do remember reading he was ennobled as the 1st Baron Bulwayo for it.
ST: We digress to far away from the era that we should be discussing, Stephen!
(Everyone laughs).
But yes, there was no greater monarchist in the whole of Africa, who could hold a candle to the leanings of General Evelyn Baring.
EM: The Caribbean was much smoother. Cayenne was a simmering pot that needed to be dealt with, and for that, three companies of the King’s Own were dispatched there, but otherwise? It was fairly graceful. The Duke of Windsor was named Governor-General, and a Representative Assembly was to meet in Kingston.
(Pathe Reel plays – “As God Save the King plays today at the Government House in Kingston, His Royal Highness, the Duke of Windsor, is inaugurated as the first Governor-General of the newly formed Caribbean Federation. While not entirely to be self-ruled just now, much of the domestic policy has been delegated from Westminster to Kingston, with their performance on these matters setting the timescale for full self-rule. Defence, Foreign and Judicial matters will continue to remain in the hands of our noble colleagues in the House of Commons until a later date when the new Representative Assembly is found worthy of taking on this burden. We hope, in Kingston, Georgetown, Hamilton, and many other places, that this comes soon and with much fanfare. God Save the King!”).
ST: Many people considered the Caribbean a sleepy, slow-paced part of the Empire and there was perhaps some truth to that. Overall, however, it was the smoothest to start with. We know now of all the internal problems that were bound to come in the 40s with the representatives being very nationalistic about their abodes and causing much gridlock. That, however, is for Stephen to deal with in the next few episodes!
(Everyone laughs)
Location changes back to the House of Commons.
On September 1st, 1938, Hitler brough War to Europe, bring the predictions of Marshal Foche to M. Poincaire and M. Clemenceau true. With that, the British Empire entered a new period, one which, we will discuss next time!
(Promo Clips play of the next episode of the series).
All that remains now, is for me to thank all the experts for their time, thank you for joining me and thank the Governments whose monumental effort brought this all together.
See you next time!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A/N: Wooh! Finally done this! It's taken so long I thought I'd never finish! I don't now if and when we shall revisit Mr Fry's series but let me know how you guys like it! YOUR REVIEWS DO HELP!
I'll take a short break and be back with the Suez Crisis of 1958 or the Congress of Vienna in 1943-44, we'll see which inspiration comes first!
See you soon!
Camera takes in the views of the richly decorated suite.
<VO: Lord Yaxley became the Leader of the Liberal Party in 1936, in the wake of the Abdication Crisis when Lord Samuel resigned citing ill-health.
(Picture of Lord Yaxley being announced as the new leader of the Liberal Party in the party gazetteer)
In the subsequent elections held in December, Lord Yaxley’s vast popularity won him wide acclaim and Sir Neville Chamberlain, the new Leader of the Conservative Party after Stanley Baldwin’s resignation, negotiated the formation of a new coalition with his Liberal Party. The Conservatives were the largest party in Parliament, but they couldn’t govern by themselves and they needed the Liberals more than the Liberals needed them.
(The Times reading – “New Coalition! Wooster and Chamberlain join hands!”)
So, a Liberal-Conservative coalition emerged, one in which Lord Yaxley returned to government as Foreign, Commonwealth and Colonial Secretary, merging the disparate positions and another carte-blanche, which would result in the Statute.>
SF: Now, we’ll have some words with an active member of the current government, i.e., the Foreign Secretary, and an expert, our very own Danish dame, a.k.a Sandi Toksvig, over this ‘Statute of Wellington’ of 1937, “re”-passed much later after a furibund debate by Parliament as ‘The Colonial Reorganisation Act’ of 1944.
Sir Edward Miliband (Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs): A pleasure to assist, of course. Especially when it comes to my personal idol. You don’t serve as PM for 20 years without being a man of some substance, after all. To be a part of the exploration of the evolution of the Commonwealth does sound rather fun!
Dame Sandi Toksvig (Author of “Moving Borders Around!” and host of the trivia panel show QI): Nice to see you again too, Stephen. I solemnly swear, cross my heart and all that, not to take this job away from you as well, even if it looks Quite Interesting.
(Everyone Laughs).
SF: So, Lord Yaxley’s Liberals won a massive victory, enough to force a coalition in December 1936. Why choose the Tories over Labour?
EM: Well, the rule of thumb for coalitions, when you’re the second largest party, is generally to aim for a coalition with the largest party, they have the most to lose if they fail your confidence.
The Liberals under Lord Yaxley lay in between the Tories and Labour, and it was more likely that a stable government, especially needed with the Foreign Office and Military Intelligence ringing the alarm bells about war, would result from coalition with the Tories.
Also to be perfectly honest, Labour was going through some factionalist turmoil at the at time, no thanks to some unsavoury characters who called for a violent revolution, and the majority they would have secured together would not have been that great – only a razor thin one of 14. Such a fickle number doesn’t bode well for the stability of any government.
And don’t forget that the Tories were more solidly centrist, still under the ‘Safety First’ umbrella that Baldwin had engineered and had the people’s sympathy with the Abdication Crisis.
So, it was a rather shrewd political move, in my opinion, tempering the Tories with his Liberal views – producing a more assertive centre-left government, to a less stable, if a more left leaning one.
ST: I must agree. As you know, and you would of course, my thesis for my master’s degree was on the government’s foreign policy before, during, and after the war and I wrote an entire book about colonisation and wars, too! You can find it in all reputable booksellers and libraries near you! (Smiles)
SF: Yes, quite an interesting read (Smiles). I believe Chapter 33 of your book is where you deal with this Statute?
ST: That is very well remembered!
I believe the Foreign Secretary will show us a map of some sort to help the visualising of the restructuring. So, on January 21st, 1937, the Government issued the Statute of Wellington, essentially granting the FCDO the right to alter, change, move or redraw borders across the Empire without Parliamentary consultation, or to say more precisely, to be subjected to Parliamentary scrutiny at some later date of the government’s choosing.
<VO: The Colonial Reorganisation Act, or the Statute of Wellington, was the government’s answer to the financial strain that the government was acutely aware that Britain was under. It was also necessary, that such a bill be passed through an Order-in-Council, to sidestep imperialists pervading the halls of Parliament from waylaying Britain from its goals of fulfilling the Wooster Declaration.
As we would discover later in his memoirs, Lord Yaxley and Lord Easeby firmly believed that it was better to ask forgiveness, than to ask permission, when you were doing the right thing.
In government itself, it had no greater opponent that Sir Winston Churchill. Though he was conflicted over it might be more an apt thing to say. As His Majesty’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Churchill had been intimately aware of the fiscal stretch, but as an avid and outspoken imperialist, the solution offered was most certainly not to his liking.
With the backing of the rest of the Cabinet, and especially the Prime Minister, however, this Statute entered the books and was used quite extensively.>
(Zoomed text of the Statute of Wellington plays across the screen).
EM: Yes, it was one of the most important Statutes when it comes to our evolution from Empire to Commonwealth (unrolls large map).
Lord Yaxley had made no secret of it, however, that his 2nd term would ensure that Britain evolved and adapted where other powers had failed. His first speech in the House outlined clearly and succinctly the budgetary predicament with relation to the colonies and territories. And he had the promise of Wooster Declaration to deliver on. Britain needed to honour its commitments if it wished to enjoy the continued favour and prestige in the world at large, after all.
The coalition may have disagreed in many angry rumbles, shouts, and rants in the House, but the strain on the Treasury was quite visible. Churchill had aged twelve years in two, that’s the amount of strain he was in to make sure that the Treasury was able to meet all its annual obligations while maintaining only a minimal deficit, and without raising taxes to being eye-wateringly extortionate.
SF: So, Lord Yaxley was 100% correct in stating that we were spending far more than we could afford colonially and it needed to be brought under some semblance of control? That we needed to “shrink our colonial encumbrance to curb our debit runaway”?
EM: Oh absolutely! I’m certain Sandi might have some information I’m unaware of to contribute there, but the whole palaver of the Order-in-Council was employed to avoid the fruitless debates which would undoubtedly happen in the House and force Britain closer to bankruptcy, a stain our growing prestige could not handle. Our financial outlay, with colonial purchases to redraw borders, the Boer Wars, with the promised aid to the French and our purchase of the share in the Panama Canal - we had made the already enormous national debt highly extensive. Any more, considering nearly 50% of the Annual Budget was taken up in servicing debts, and it would become impossible to service, forcing us into default.
Churchill, or more likely the Civil Servant that the task would’ve been pawned off to as Churchill claimed he had no head for numbers, did an excellent job of clawing down the deficit, without increasing the burden on the common man, after the spending spree under Chamberlain that saved us from the Depression threw us in the deep end. Lord Yaxley’s many deals had exacerbated the problem once more, however, and it needed to be fixed quick sticks.
ST: The Tories have always been very parsimonious and frugal, but their policies were sensible for the time, and they did reduce the debt by quite a margin, but it was the Philadelphia Memorandum that carved the lion’s share away, so we have to thank Lord Yaxley for that. His foreign policy, pseudo-Palmerstonian the experts call it (rolls her eyes dramatically), was very dear, prohibitive even, that is absolutely true. So naturally, this bright idea, Jeeves’s of course, was necessary to reverse the downward trend in our finances, by sidling off the cost of maintaining the Empire, on the Empire itself, rather than on Britain’s lacking Treasury.
(Pathe reel plays – “Earlier this morning, Parliament furiously reprimanded the Foreign Secretary was using an Order-in-Council to pass what is known as the Statute of Wellington. This Statute allows His Majesty’s government to delay debates of self-rule in our territories overseas and grant them the right to redraw maps and borders to better reflect the demographic presence, and eventually, grant the newly created states, limited and then full self-government under the Crown’s benevolent purview. It is believed from sources in Parliament that this drastic action was absolutely essential to ensure a smooth running of the Public Purse. The Parliamentary Gazetteer has declared the redrawal and extension of self-rule will be announced over the next sitting of the House on the 26th of January. God Save the King!)
ST: So, the first thing the Prime Minister did was that in the name of King and Country, Lawrence of Arabia was to abandon his drunken, depression and stupor and the slow descent into oblivion and to serve his country by taking the Army of Mesopotamia, along with regiments requisitioned from Muscat and the Trucial States and bring Arabia to heel. All the unpleasantness with the House of Saud made certain that Arabia needed a strong hand to restore order.
EM: To garner support from the Hashemite loyalists, he was also given the Letters Patent for his ennoblement as the 1st Viscount Aden, and for the formation of an Arab Federation in the Crown’s name.
While that was happening, Lord Yaxley began his grand design of redrawing the maps elsewhere.
<VO: The flurry of activity began with an offer that the Prime Minister of India could scarce refuse – all the islands of the Indian Ocean, for India to project its might and power, in return for basing rights and the City of Bombay and a princely sum of £500,000 in building infrastructure throughout India parsed out over the course of the next five years. When Prime Minister Sir Jawaharlal Nehru hesitated, an official Writ from His Majesty the King, in his capacity as Emperor of India, delegating the full suzerainty of the Princely States to the Government of the Union of India was added to the offer. A peerless offer indeed, and something that the then Home Secretary of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, could not let pass. This was the first change. (Animated map showing the changes is displayed).
(IBC reel plays - “In the first Delhi Durbar since our accession to echelon of a Dominion of the Crown, the Governor-General, Lady Pankurben Sarabhai, the Viscountess Riverdale, has read out the Writ of Entrustment, issued by His Majesty the Emperor George VI.
In this Writ, His Majesty the Emperor declares that all the rights of the Princely States as guaranteed by His Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom in Westminster are now entrusted wholly and completely to the Government of the Union of India in perpetuity, and, therefore, all Residents-Plenipotentiary, representing Westminster in their courts, would be replaced by officiaries of the Government of India’s choosing. While met with some warm indignation in Afghanistan, Hyderabad, Junagadh, Bhopal, and Kashmir, most Princely States have reacted most positively to this development.
This issue from His Majesty signifies the final transfer of any remaining constitutional responsibility of the British Government to the Princely States of India, to His Majesty’s Government of the Union of India and ends the Second Jeeves Compromise of 1933 that was essential for our acquisition of imperium from Westminster.
While it remains to be seen if this will result in a souring of relations between the three Houses of our Parliament, the Prime Minister has declared this as India having achieved her full and final sovereignty, of having met her tryst with destiny.
This gift comes along with the far-flung islands of the Indian Ocean and Ceylon, in exchange for the City of Bombay to return to British hands. Parliament is likely to debate and approve this Act of Settlement in the coming weeks.
This is IBC News. God Save the King and Jai Hind!”)
While the full transfer of suzerainty took some time, with the long-winded and eloquent legal challenges brought about by the disgruntled Princely States, represented by Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the Inns of Court, by 1939, the Lord Appellant had ruled in favour of the government and this final link between Westminster and New Delhi was ended, bringing a close to British influence in India.
Much of the Empire was shocked there wasn’t an armed insurrection resulting from this in India, but then life is a wonderful source of ironies, and Mr Jinnah believed the rule of law was a better shield should they be ruled against. There were of course, small and mostly peaceful protests, but remarkably for the time, very little violence actually took the streets. It also resulted in the Concordat of Simla in 1940, something we shall discuss in the final episode of this series.
(Pictures flash of the “Hyderabad Trials” in the House of Lords and then pictures flash of the signing of the Concordat of Simla).
India, however, continues to remain an independent kingdom in personal union with us, sharing our glorious Queen.>
SF: Next on the chopping block was Newfoundland, I believe? It was in default and impotent to carry out its duties to administer, I gather, but to dissolve the Commission and Assembly so wantonly, I’m sure it would rankle, no?
EM: It was most certainly unorthodox, but in 1934, the Assembly had voted itself into dissolution and invited for Crown rule to be imposed because of the defaulting and the inability to govern.
ST: We also have to remember that the Canadians, after the Indians, contributed the greatest to our war effort. And they were always the loyalist Dominion. Many in Parliament itself had thought the lack of reward for such fidelity to the King was a callous misstep. There were murmurs of how the Prime Minister was asking for another Boston Tea Party!
EM: So, in 1938, Lord Yaxley used the now rather famous seaplane, “Spirit of Endeavour” to go in person to Canada, to issue the Writ of Dissolution for the Dominion of Newfoundland and as the seniormost representative of the British Government, signed the Instrument of Accession, for Newfoundland, its adjutant territories, and St. Pierre & Miquelon to join the Dominion of Canada as its newest provinces.
(CBC newsreel plays – “Yesterday, after the final conclusion of all the negotiations ongoing since February of the year past, the Prime Minister and Lord Yaxley, the British Foreign Secretary, signed the Instrument of Accession for Newfoundland, Labrador, and its outlying island territories to join our happy union, once and for all.
This is the culmination of the Halifax Agreement signed between the British Ambassador and our own Foreign Secretary at the beginning of the same negotiations last year. Throughout the negotiations much of the details of this Agreement have been revealed to us, though the full terms shall only come to light when the House of Commons debates and ratifies it as an Act of Parliament early next week.
We have been told that the His Majesty’s Government of the Dominion of Canada has agreed to the accession of Newfoundland, Labrador, and the outlying islands, into the union in return for negotiated rights, for the nationalised companies from the United Kingdom, for the exploitation of the vast resources of our Great White North.
This has met lukewarm reactions in Parliament who believe such rights, which by law should belong to the Canadian people, should not be bargained away for barren rocks and fishing hamlets. CBC News will keep abreast of the debates.
This is CBC News, God Save the King, and God Defend Canada!”)
SF: Shall we return to Arabia?
ST: Yes, we can, January 1938, on the 15th to be exact, Faisal I was proclaimed King of all Arabia, and Lord Aden, as the 1st Lord Resident of Arabia, symbolically handed over the treaties that the emirates had signed with Britain to King Faisal.
EM: And you might wonder, why was Lord Yaxley being so generous with Arabia, after Sykes-Picot and the Balfour Declaration, and that is justified. However, since 1931, and the discovery of the black gold in several places in Arabia, the Treaty of Jerusalem was in full effect, and 75% of all revenues through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company belonged to Britain. So, in essence, it was costing us more to maintain our presence there than necessary.
SF: And so, we have the Treaty of Antioch from June 1938, of course!
(BBC Reel plays – “June 26th, 1938. The newly crowned King of the Arabs, Faisal I, signs the Treaty of Antiochea-on-the-Orontes, and a more consequential treaty for the Middle-East could not exist! This treaty is also signed by all his subordinate monarchs and Emirs and the Lord Governor of Mandatory Palestine, marking a true union, much akin to the German Empire of memory, of the Arab peoples under one crown.
The British Empire, in exchange for resource rights, preference for the AIOC in oil exploration and exploitation, full autonomy for Palestine and basing rights for the British Fleet and Army at Basrah, Hormuz, Aden, Aqaba and any port of our choosing on the Mediterranean coast, relinquishes all claims to lands, titles and tithes in the Arabian Peninsula to Faisal al-Hashimi, King of the Arabs, and Co-monarch of the newly formed Federation of Arabia, along with His Majesty, King George VI
This true union of Arabia under the Hashemite dynasty marks the first time in three decades that the disparate peoples of this place, torn by conflicting interests, are united under one banner again. Thomas Edward Lawrence, 1st Viscount of Aden, will represent the interests of His Majesty as his plenipotentiary Resident in Damascus.
While consternation in Parliament is grave, this union has brought acclaim for Lord Yaxley’s Foreign Policy throughout the Peninsula, the Commonwealth and abroad in general. We wish the new nation a warm welcome into the Commonwealth and happy success for the future! God Save the King!”).
EM: Then, we have the two transfers from August 1937 – the Transfer of Christchurch and the Transfer of Windhoek. They’re easily pointed out.
(Points out on the maps)
Bechuanaland, Swaziland, and Basutoland, the High Commissioner Territories, had been a bone of contention between Westminster and Cape Town since the South Africa Act. Cape Town demanded annexation of those territories several times throughout the years and was denied by Westminster every time, even though, looking at it with the colonial mindset, Cape Town was more than justified in making those demands. Now, though, for South Africa’s continued good behaviour since the Fifth and Sixth War and to pass off the costs of managing the territories, all of which were essentially landlocked, the Instrument of Transfer was signed, in exchange for minority rights being maintained, protected, and expanded, and autonomies being preserved and respected.
ST: And all the Polynesian islands, stretching us thin, and requiring more capital spending that the Treasury didn’t truly have, and stretching our naval capacity too, were handed over to New Zealand.
Now, New Zealand was already undergoing a rapid sea-change since its passing of the Equality Act of 1934, renaming itself Polynesia and the like, so Lord Yaxley simply jumped on that bandwagon and traded in those islands for legitimacy and brownie points in the Commonwealth. And, of course, it passed off the maintenance and budgetary concerns to the Government of Polynesia.
SF: Didn’t Lord Yaxley promise both South Africa and Polynesia £300,000 in aid until their budgets could find the money and fund the maintenance themselves?
EM: So he did, but those were to be paid out over a decade, something that the Treasury could handle well enough really. And even then, the funds could be found right away from contingency if it was deemed absolutely essential, after all, the longer-term costs were no longer the Treasury’s concern.
<VO: Of all the territorial transfers and exchanges, the Two Transfers were by far met with the most approbation from the MPs in the Commons. Territories of little significance to them, far away and mere prestige projects to them, their transfer out to Commonwealth hands was felt to be ideal and right. Though the methods used were questioned and some MPs were genuinely concerned for the rights of the peoples that the shield of British law could no longer defend nor the sword of British Justice avenge, as easily, at least. However, soon, they had other things to occupy their minds.>
(Pictures of the handovers of the territories to South Africa and Polynesia flash past.)
SF: Last, but certainly not least, we have the Two Federations. On August 21st, 1938, the federating of Rhodesia and the Caribbean, the last Foreign Policy action before the 2nd Great War, was carried out.
EM: And it changed the map of the British Empire completely. Save for Malaya, The Chinese Concessions, West, and East Africa, most of the Empire had proceeded to native self-rule. And even Malaya was by and large a patchwork of Princely States with some British territories, like the British Raj.
ST: And the Treasury was certainly better for it, so much of the burden taken from them. There were, of course, angry protestation at the loss of revenues, but they were in a far better position, so the protestations never turned to intrigue.
SF: Was it wise with Rhodesia, though? When I met with Sir Simon, he called Rhodesia a hornet’s nest.
EM: In a way, I would say that it was counter-productive to award Rhodesia more territory. Their limited time with self-government had demonstrated quite clearly that they were leaning just as keenly towards a herrenvolk, white-minority regime as South Africa was before the Fifth and Sixth War. In their case, the idea that Britain would intervene for the rights of the African population had not truly sunk in, even with the war for the very same happening just five years past.
ST: So they had their rude awakening, with the coup in 1941 led by General Evelyn Baring, though sources agree he had a lot of aid from the Foreign Office. Yes, the very same Baring who daringly issued the ultimatum to Portugal and won.
EM: When Lord Yaxley blocked the Native Representation Act of 1941 from being enforced through the Statute of Whitehall, and the Prime Minister of Rhodesia wanted to go further than South Africa and issue a Unilateral Declaration of Independence for this affront, much like Napoleon invaded the National Assembly, Baring stormed the Parliament with a full company of grenadiers in Salisbury and forced Parliament to dissolve.
After much haggling and negotiations with the Foreign Office over Baring wanting to return Rhodesia to full Crown Rule, an election with universal franchise was held under the Army’s watchful eye and the result is as we see.
SF: I didn’t know that the Lion of the Zambesi wanted Crown Rule imposed. Though I do remember reading he was ennobled as the 1st Baron Bulwayo for it.
ST: We digress to far away from the era that we should be discussing, Stephen!
(Everyone laughs).
But yes, there was no greater monarchist in the whole of Africa, who could hold a candle to the leanings of General Evelyn Baring.
EM: The Caribbean was much smoother. Cayenne was a simmering pot that needed to be dealt with, and for that, three companies of the King’s Own were dispatched there, but otherwise? It was fairly graceful. The Duke of Windsor was named Governor-General, and a Representative Assembly was to meet in Kingston.
(Pathe Reel plays – “As God Save the King plays today at the Government House in Kingston, His Royal Highness, the Duke of Windsor, is inaugurated as the first Governor-General of the newly formed Caribbean Federation. While not entirely to be self-ruled just now, much of the domestic policy has been delegated from Westminster to Kingston, with their performance on these matters setting the timescale for full self-rule. Defence, Foreign and Judicial matters will continue to remain in the hands of our noble colleagues in the House of Commons until a later date when the new Representative Assembly is found worthy of taking on this burden. We hope, in Kingston, Georgetown, Hamilton, and many other places, that this comes soon and with much fanfare. God Save the King!”).
ST: Many people considered the Caribbean a sleepy, slow-paced part of the Empire and there was perhaps some truth to that. Overall, however, it was the smoothest to start with. We know now of all the internal problems that were bound to come in the 40s with the representatives being very nationalistic about their abodes and causing much gridlock. That, however, is for Stephen to deal with in the next few episodes!
(Everyone laughs)
Location changes back to the House of Commons.
On September 1st, 1938, Hitler brough War to Europe, bring the predictions of Marshal Foche to M. Poincaire and M. Clemenceau true. With that, the British Empire entered a new period, one which, we will discuss next time!
(Promo Clips play of the next episode of the series).
All that remains now, is for me to thank all the experts for their time, thank you for joining me and thank the Governments whose monumental effort brought this all together.
See you next time!
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A/N: Wooh! Finally done this! It's taken so long I thought I'd never finish! I don't now if and when we shall revisit Mr Fry's series but let me know how you guys like it! YOUR REVIEWS DO HELP!
I'll take a short break and be back with the Suez Crisis of 1958 or the Congress of Vienna in 1943-44, we'll see which inspiration comes first!
See you soon!
