Making Leeway in the Leewards, 1929-51: The negotiation of colonial development

Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

Volumn 33, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 393-418

  Harris, Richard ^a  

^a MCMASTER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

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EID: 25644450301     PISSN: 03086534     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03086530500185886     Document Type: Article

References (189)

1. S.R. Ashton and S.E. Stockwell (eds.), Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice 1925-1945 (London, 1996), I, Ixxv.
2. M.M. Van Beusekan and D.L. Hodgson, 'Lessons Learned: Development Experiences in the Late Colonial Period', Journal of African History, 41, 1 (2000), 29.
3. Ibid.,
4. Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, xxiii;
5. S. Constantine, The Making of British Colonial Development Policy, 1914-1940 (London, 1984);
6. G.C. Abbott, 'A Re-examination of the 1929 Colonial Development Act', Economic History Review, 24 (1971), 68.
7. Abbott, 'A Re-examination';
8. Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, lxi;
9. Constantine, The Making of British Colonial Development Policy, 188-91.
10. Ibid., 171.
11. st August, 1929 (Revised copy)', 5, CO 970/1, The National Archives (TNA) (formerly Public Record Office), Kew, London.
12. M.A. Havinden and D.G. Meredith, Colonialism and Development: Britain and Its Tropical Colonies, 1850-1960 (London, 1993), 160.
13. Advisory Committee on Colonial Development, 'Shorthand Notes', 1.
14. Ibid., 3.
15. E. Hale [Principal, Treasury], Minute, 20 June 1935 [T 161/657/S 34609/0358, TNA],
16. reprinted in Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, II, 34-36.
17. Advisory Committee on Colonial Development, 'Shorthand Notes', 1.
18. Colonial Development Advisory Committee, First Annual Report (London, 1930), cmd.3540, 18;
19. Treasury acquiesced in this interpretation. See memorandum from J.A. Barlow [Under-Secretary, Treasury] to Sir. G. Upcott [controller and Auditor-General], 27 July 1935, T 161/657/S 34609/0358,
20. reprinted in Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, II, 36-37.
21. Sir B. Blackett, 'Colonial Development', Crown Colonist, 1 (1931), 8.
22. C.f. D. Meredith, 'The British Government and Colonial Economic Policy, 1919-1939', Economic History Review, 28 (1975), 493;
23. Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development, 164-67.
24. Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development, 162, 165-67.
25. Meredith, 'The British Government', 493-94;
26. Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development, 168-73, 255.
27. Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, lxiv;
28. L.J. Butler, 'The Ambiguities of British Colonial Development Policy, 1938-1948', in A. Gorst, L. Johnman and W.S. Lucas (eds.), Contemporary British History 1931-1961: Politics and the Limits of Policy (London, 1991), 122.
29. Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development, 161.
30. Sir B. Bourdillon [Governor, Nigeria] to Malcolm MacDonald [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 5 April 1939, CO852/214/13, no.1,
31. reprinted in Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, II, 70-86;
32. reprinted in Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, ibid., II, Ixvii;
33. H. Johnson, 'The West Indies and the Conversion of the British Official Classes to the Development Idea', Journal of Comparative and Comparative Politics, 15, 1 (1977), 55-83;
34. J.E. Flint, 'Macmillan as a Critic of Empire: The Impact of the Historian on Colonial Policy', in H. Macmillan and S. Marks (eds.), Africa and Empire: W.M. Macmillan, Historian and Social Critic (Aldershot, 1989), 213.
35. J.M. Lee, Colonial Development and Good Government: A Study of the Ideas Expressed by the British Official Classes in Planning Decolonisation 1939-1964 (Oxford, 1967), 39;
36. J.M. Lee and M. Fetter, The Colonial Office, War, and Development Policy (London, 1982).
37. C. Jeffries, The Colonial Office (London, 1956), 45.
38. Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development, 173.
39. Quoted in Constantine, The Making of British Colonial Development Policy, 17.
40. D.J. Morgan, The Official History of Colonial Development: Volume 1. The Origins of British Aid Policy 1924-1945 (London, 1980), xviii-xix.
41. C. Jeffries, The Colonial Empire and Its Civil Service (Cambridge, 1938).
42. Lee and Petter, The Colonial Office, 64, 176.
43. Colonial Office, Leeward Islands: Papers relating to the disturbances in St. Christopher (St. Kitts) (London, 1935), cmd.4956;
44. G. Richards, 'Masters and Servants: The growth of the labour movement in St. Christopher-Nevis, 1896 to 1956', unpublished Ph.D., University of Cambridge, 1989;
45. N. Bolland, The Politics of Labour in the British Caribbean: The Social Origins of Authoritarianism and Democracy in the Labour Movement (Oxford, 2001), 236. No formal enquiry was initiated into the disturbances on St Kitts;
46. c.f. Morgan, Official History, 23.
47. J.A. Harney and J.E. James, 'Memorandum of Chief Causes of Unrest and Discontent in the British West Indies', typescript, St John's, Antigua, 1938, CO 950/928, TNA. Harney was a planter and James was a retired inspector of schools.
48. N.L. Mayne [Principal, Colonial Office], Minute, 21 June 1938, CO 152/481/1.
49. H. Shand [attorney], and thirty others, to Sir J. Maffey [Permanent Under-Secretary of State], 23 Jan. 1936, CO 152/471/14.
50. F.G. Harcourt [Acting Commissioner, Montserrat] to Sir G.J. Lethem [Governor, Leeward Islands], 7 Oct. 1937, CO 152/471/14.
51. T.A. Twyman [Managing Director, Montserrat Co. Ltd.] to M. MacDonald [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 8 June 1938, CO 152/481/1.
52. The Elected Members of Montserrat Legislative Council, to Acting Commissioner, Montserrat, 24 June 1938, CO 152/481/1.
53. Colonial Office, West Indian Department, Memorandum [on social and economic conditions in the West Indies], 20 May 1938, CO 950/1,
54. reprinted in Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, II, 278.
55. Ibid.
56. H. Johnson, 'The West Indies and the Conversion of the British Official Classes to the Development Idea", 67.
57. K. Olwig (ed.), Small Islands, Large Questions: Society, Culture and Resistance in the Post-Emancipation Caribbean (London, 1995).
58. K. Burdon, Handbook of St. Kitts (London, 1920), 141-44;
59. H.A. Tempany, Agriculture in the West Indies (London, 1941), 210.
60. B.C. Richardson, Caribbean Migrants: Environment and Human Survival on St. Kitts and Nevis (Knoxville, 1983), 140-42.
61. G. Richards, 'Race, Labour and Politics in Jamaica and St. Kitts, 1909-1940', in V. Shepherd (ed.), Working Slavery, Pricing Freedom: Perspectives from the Caribbean, Africa and the African Diaspora (New York, 2002), 511-13.
62. Morgan, Official History, 76-77.
63. Colonial Office, West India Royal Commission, Report (London, 1945), cmd.6607, 174.
64. Ibid., 175.
65. Ibid.;
66. Ashton and Stockwell, Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, lxxv;
67. D.G.M. Rampersad, 'Colonial Economic Development and Social Welfare: The Case of the British West Indian Colonies, 1929-1947', Unpublished D.Phil., Oxford University, 1979.
68. He is credited with authorship of a DWO report on housing, but this was almost certainly drafted by the housing adviser, Wilfrid Woodhouse. See K.W. Blackburne, 'Housing Improvement with Limited Funds', typescript, Bridgetown, Nov. 1946, CO 1042/255.
69. K. Blackburne, Lasting Legacy: A Story of British Colonialism (London, 1976), 76, 77.
70. Ibid., 130.
71. P. Blanshard, Democracy and Empire in the Caribbean (New York, 1947), 175, 41.
72. Ibid., 181.
73. Major G.St.J. Orde Brown, Labour Conditions in the West Indies (London, 1939), Cmd.6070, 108-09.
74. Ibid., 102.
75. V.O. Alcala, 'Statistics on Housing and Disease [in the Caribbean]', in Caribbean Commission: Central Secretariat (ed.), Aspects of Housing in the Caribbean (Port of Spain, 1951), 23-38.
76. Ibid., 51.
77. Quoted in T.R. St. Johnston [Governor, Leeward Islands] to Lord Passfield [Secretary of State for the Colonies], No.487, Sept. 1929 [Application for CDA assistance], CO 152/415/4.
78. Ibid.
79. See, for example, Alan Mayne, The Imagined Slum: Newspaper Representation in Three Cities, 1870-1914 (Leicester, 1993).
80. Blanshard, Democracy and Empire, 47.
81. Richards, 'Masters and Servants', 52.
82. F.E. Stockdale [Comptroller, DWO] to Rt. Hon. Lord Moyne, 11 June 1941, 2, CO 318/ 452/9.
83. G.J. Lethem [Governor], 'The Weakness of Administration in the Leeward Islands', St John's, Antigua, 19 Dec. 1938, submission to the West India Royal Commission, CO 950/561.
84. Ibid.
85. Colonial Office, Report by Sir Sydney Armitage-Smith on a Financial Mission to the Leeward Islands and St. Lucia (London, 1932), 37.
86. Ibid., 34-35.
87. C. Malone [Senior Elected Member of the Legislative Council of St Christopher and Nevis], 'Memorandum for the West India Royal Commission from the Unofficial Members (Elected and Nominated) of the Legislative Council of the Presidency of St Christopher and Nevis, Leeward Islands', CO 950/947;
88. H.T. Jullion [Archdeacon, St Kitts-Nevis], [Memorandum to the West India Royal Commission], Bassettere, St Kitts, 1938-9, CO 950/947. Jullion's statement was also signed by nine other ministers of religion, of different denominations.
89. Blanshard, Democracy and Empire, 177.
90. Blackburne, Lasting Legacy, 130.
91. T.S. Simey, Welfare and Planning in the West Indies (Oxford, 1946), 22.
92. Gordon K. Lewis, The Growth of the Modern West Indies (London, 1968), 128.
93. Advisory Committee on Colonial Development, 'Shorthand Notes of Meeting', 7.
94. Ibid., 6, 7.
95. Lord Passfield [Secretary of State for the Colonies], Circular Despatch 20 Geo V.c5, 10 Aug. 1929, CO 323/1063/4.
96. Reginald St. Johnston, From a Colonial Governor's Note-book (London, 1936), 166.
97. Ibid., 83, 139, 149.
98. The early history of the St Kitts scheme is outlined in D.R. Stewart [Administrator, St. Kitts-Nevis], 'Memorandum: St. Kitts Housing Scheme', typescript, 19 Dec. 1932, 10 pp., CO 152/ 434/8.
99. St. Johnston to Passfield, 18 Oct. 1929, CO 152/415/9.
100. St. Johnston to Passfield, No.487, Sept. 1929, CO 152/415/4.
101. I.M.A. Brook [sp?], Minute, 9 Oct. 1929, CO 152/415/4.
102. St. Johnston, From a Colonial Governor's Note-book, 149. The name was apparently given to the estate by the local council, but at least it indicates the governor's close personal interest.
103. Colonial Office, West India Royal Commission, Report, 177;
104. Orde Browne, Labour Conditions, 23-24.
105. St. Johnston to Passfield, No.487, Sept. 1929, CO 152/415/4.
106. Ibid.
107. A.T. Stanton, Minute, 21 Oct. 1929, CO 152/415/4.
108. Advisory Committee on Colonial Development, Minutes of Meetings, 30 Oct. 1929, 9-10, CO 970/1.
109. The first, that is, to be framed specifically for the development fund. A pre-existing proposal for a project in East Africa was approved just ahead of the one for Antigua.
110. Morgan, Official History, 49.
111. G. Henzell and T.F. Burrowes, 'Housing Scheme', 3, 29 Dec. 1932, typescript, CO 152/434/8. Henzell was the builder; it is not clear what role Burrowes played.
112. T.R. St. Johnston [Governor] to Sir P. Cunliffe-Lister [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 9 April 1932, CO 152/434/8.
113. T.R. St. Johnston [Governor] to M. MacDonald [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 8 July 1935, CO 152/440/4.
114. T.R. St. Johnston [Governor] to Lord Passfield [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 28 Dec. 1929. CO152/415/9.
115. T.E.P. Baynes [Commissioner, Monsterrat] to T.R. St. Johnston [Governor], 4 March 1933, CO 152/440/2.
116. A. Stanley, 'The Hurricane in Dominica', The Times, 19 Sept. 1930, p.6 [letter to the editor].
117. The hurricane was first reported in 'Hurricane in Dominica', The Times, 4 Sept. 1930, 9.
118. T.M. Howat [Main and Co., Glasgow] to W.F. Harrison [Dominica], 11 Sept. 1930, CO 152/ 424/4.
119. C.C. Eliot [Administrator, Dominica] to St. Johnston [Governor], 10 Nov. 1930, CO 152/ 424/4.
120. E. Baynes [Colonial Secretary, Antigua] to Lord Passfield [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 20 June 1930, CO 152/419/3.
121. St. Johnston to Cunliffe-Lister, 9 April 1932 (anonymous marginal note), CO 152/434/8.
122. St. Johnston to Passfield, No.487; 18 Oct. 1929, CO 152/415/9.
123. Eliot to St. Johnston, 10 Nov. 1930, CO 152/424/4.
124. th. May 1936', typescript, CO 152/452/4.
125. St. Johnston, From a Colonial Governor's Note-book, 149;
126. D.R. Stewart [Administrator, St. Kitts-Nevis], 'Memorandum: St. Kitts Housing Scheme', typescript, 19 Dec. 1932, CO 152/434/8;
127. D.R. Stewart [Administrator, St. Kitts] to T.R. St.Johnston [Governor], 30 March 1932, 13, CO 152/434/8.
128. T.R. St. Johnston [Governor] to J.H. Thomas [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 9 Sept. 1931, CO 152/426/22.
129. George Henzell and T.F. Burrowes, 'Housing Scheme', 3, 29 Dec. 1932, typescript, CO 152/ 434/8;
130. Dr Wright, [Statement to the West India Royal Commission], typescript, Antigua, 1939;
131. W.S.G. Barnes [District Officer and Assistant to the Administrator, Antigua], Oral testimony to the West India Royal Commission, 31 Dec. 1938, CO 950/463.
132. T.R. St. Johnston [Governor] to Lord Passfield [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 27 May 1930, CO 152/419/3.
133. Stewart to St. Johnston, 30 March 1932, 7, CO 152/434/8.
134. T.A. Melville [Treasurer, Leewards], 'Memorandum on the Financial Position of the Antigua Housing Scheme on 1st July 1935', 6 July 1935, typescript, CO 152/440/4.
135. Stewart to St. Johnston, 30 March 1932, 4, CO 152/434/8;
136. St. Johnston to Cunliffe-Lister, 9 April 1932, CO 152/434/8;
137. St. Johnston to MacDonald, 8 July 1935, CO 152/440/4. It appears that all of the houses on Antigua were eventually built with verandahs.
138. St. Johnston to Passfield, 27 May 1930, CO 152/419/3.
139. Stewart, 'Memorandum: St. Kitts Housing Scheme', 3, CO 152/434/8.
140. St. Johnston to Passfield, 27 May 1930, CO 152/419/3. Colonial Office, Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of the Leeward Islands, 1933 (London, 1935), 24.
141. Stewart to St. Johnston, 30 March 1932, 6, CO 152/434/8.
142. Ibid., 7.
143. Melville, 'Memorandum on the Financial Position', Appendix D, CO 152/440/4.
144. Stewart, 'St. Kitts Housing Scheme', 6, CO 152/434/8.
145. Melville, 'Memorandum', CO/950/947.
146. Jullion, [Memorandum], 1938-9, CO 152/440/4.
147. Scribbler, 'A Thing or Two', Union Messenger, 6 Dec. 1933, CO 152/448/9.
148. 'Groans of the Working Man', ibid., 7 Dec. 1933, CO 152/448/9.
149. Dawson, 'Extract from Notes', CO 152/452/4.
150. V. O'Flaherty, e-mail, 20 Aug. 2004.
151. Henzell and Burrowes, 'Housing Scheme', 1, 4, 8, CO 152/434/8.
152. Ibid.
153. J.H. Emmens [Assistant Principal], Minute, 12 Nov. 1932;
154. H. Beckett [Assistant Secretary], Minute, 7 Dec. 1932, CO 152/434/8.
155. A. Poynton [Secretary, CDAC] to Sir P. Cunliffe-Lister [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 28 March 1933, CO 152/434/8.
156. Beckett, Minute, 7 Dec. 1932, CO 152/434/8.
157. Sir J. Campbell, Minute, 28 Feb. 1933, CO 152/434/8.
158. T.R. St. Johnston [Governor, Leeward Islands] to Sir P. Cunliffe-Lister [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 17 July 1933, CO 152/440/4.
159. 'Procedure for Dealing in Colonial Office with Applications from Colonial Governments for Assistance from the Colonial Development Fund', 7 Nov. 1929, typescript, CO 323/1065/11.
160. Colonial Office, 'Memorandum by the West Indian Department of the Colonial Office', 21 Nov. 1929, CO 152/415/9.
161. Sir T. Stanton, Minute, 11 Nov. 1929, CO 152/415/9. The critical comments were written by hand and the name is illegible.
162. A. Bevin [Principal], Minute, 22 Aug. 1933, CO 152/434/8.
163. Campbell, Minute, 28 Feb. 1933, CO 152/434/8.
164. St. Johnston to Cunliffe-Lister, 17 July 1933, CO 152/440/4.
165. Morgan, Official History, 149.
166. St. Johnston, From a Colonial Governor's Note-Book, 17.
167. Ibid.
168. Memorandum from T.E.P. Baynes [Colonial Secretary] to T.R. St. Johnston [Governor], 20 May 1933, CO 152/440/2.
169. W.B.L. Monson [Colonial Office], Minute, 12 Dec. 1939, CO 152/491/5.
170. G.G. Eastwood [Secretary, CDAC] to Sir Cosmo Parkinson [Under-Secretary of State], 5 March 1940, CO 152/495/10.
171. J. Griffiths [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 'A Programme of Technical Assistance under Bilateral Agreements', 23 Dec. 1950, Circular Despatch, CO 852/1322/4.
172. F.D. MacDonald [Deputy Governor, Leeward Islands] to J. Griffiths [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 9 Oct. 1950, CO 852/1322/4.
173. K.W. Blackburne [Governor, Leeward Islands], 'Application by the United Kingdom to the Technical Cooperation Administration of the United States of America for assistance under Point 4', included in despatch to J. Griffiths [Secretary of State for the Colonies], 10 Feb. 1951, CO 852/1322/4.
174. K.W. Blackburne [Governor, Leeward Islands] to J.L. Crane [Housing and Home Finance Agency, Washington, DC], 22 Feb. 1952, CO 852/1318/10.
175. Colonial Office, Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of the Leeward Islands, 1936 (London, 1937), 10.
176. Antigua, Merchants' Association, [Memorandum to the West India Royal Commission], St John's, 1938; Antigua Agricultural and Commercial Society, 'Memorandum submitted to the Royal Commission', St John's, 1938, CO 950/928.
177. Blackburne to Crane, 22 Feb. 1952, CO 852/1318.
178. Colonial Office, West India Royal Commission, Report, 177-78, 187. The full report was made public in 1945 but its contents were known earlier within the colonial service and its recommendations were published in 1940.
179. See 'Housing in Barbados: Report of a Committee", Aug. 1943, 1, typescript, CO 28/330/6;
180. Blackburne, 'Housing Improvement'; and the comments in note 45.
181. H. Shand, Oral Testimony of the Montserrat Taxpayers Association to the West India Royal Commission, 3 Jan. 1939, 19, CO 950/946.
182. T.A. Twyman [Managing Director, Montserrat Co. Ltd.] to Sir G. Gater [Under-Secretary of State], 14 July 1939, CO 152/491/5.
183. S.A. Hammond, 'Education in the Windward and Leeward Islands: Memorandum submitted to the Royal Commission, 1938-39', 4, 12, typescript CO 950/947.
184. Ibid., 4.
185. Ibid., 12.
186. Colonial Office, West India Royal Commission, Report, 179-80, 187.
187. Orde Browne had also endorsed some of these ideas. Orde Browne, Labour Conditions, 20-25.
188. Sir G. Lethem [Governor, Leeward Islands] to Lord Lloyd [Secretary of State for the Colonies], No.99, 25 March 1940, 1, CO 318/444/8.
189. Ibid., 3.