Colonial Affairs.

Part of Orders of the Day — Civil Estimates, 1942. – in the House of Commons at on 24 June 1942.

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Photo of Sir Patrick Donner Sir Patrick Donner , Basingstoke

Together with the last two speakers, I should like to offer my congratulations to the right hon. Gentleman, not only for the matter of his speech, but for the spirit which animated it. War brings changes of circumstance and of outlook; but it does more: it speeds up tendencies already in existence, and brings them to quicker fruition. In the midst of the sorrows, privations, and sufferings of war, it is possible to foster and stimulate the best of what we may call the inevitable developments of this world. It is as a signatory of the Motion on the Order Paper, asking for the establishment of a Colonial Development Board, that I rise to plead for it. I believe it is necessary to create such a Board to coordinate policy and foster the enthusiasm which animated the speech of the right hon. Gentleman.

But let me first deal with two other matters. There has been criticism, as the hon. Member for the Isle of Ely (Mr. de Rothschild) said, about the compulsory powers taken in Nigeria over manpower. I agree that these powers must be taken. We should bear in mind that similar legislation governs labour in this country in war. When we judge these we must do so to judge them justly against the background of the loss of our Far Eastern possessions, particularly Malaya, and realise the extent to which we must replace the loss of natural resources and supplies. Before the war the Nigerian mines supplied 6,000 tons of tin per annum under the International Tin Agreement, compared with 37,000 tons supplied by Malaya—in other words, approximately 15 per cent. It follows from that, in view of the existence of the International Tin Agreement, that the Nigerian production, freed from any restriction, is capable of a great excess of production over and above that figure. If one mentions these figures one realises how important the Nigerian tin production is to us to-day.

My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for the Isle of Wight (Captain Macdonald mentioned the gallantry of the West African Regiments in this war. If we remember that gallantry, surely, then, we cannot believe that their brothers, friends and cousins in Nigeria will misunderstand the compulsory powers we have been forced to take. When we think of the German massacres of the Herreros in South-West Africa before the last war, those of us who have travelled in Tanganyika and know the German record towards the natives in that territory and the treatment of the natives in the former German Cameroons surely must realise what treatment the Africans could expect if Hitler were to win this war. The Germans of to-day regard them as sub-humans. If we realise it, surely it is in our power to make the Africans of Nigeria realise it too. It was because we know what that German attitude has been in the past and is to-day that some of us before the war, in addition to other considerations, both moral and military, were fortified in our resolution in opposing the propaganda which was widely disseminated at that time of transferring part of the Colonial Empire to Germany. If those in authority in Nigeria have done their job properly, there will be no misunderstanding of what we have done in that Colony, and there will be no grievance. If the people of the West African territories come through the convulsion of this war without any greater inconvenience than that surely they will be more fortunate than many Europeans. What a hue and cry would there not have been, if the right hon. Gentleman and His Majesty's Government had failed to mobilise the potential resources in men and material which we need. It is not difficult to imagine the perfervid protestations made by certain hon. and right hon. Gentlemen in this House. The same arguments apply to what has been done by the Government in the East African territories in order to save shipping and to produce the greatest amount of food and so feed our armies in the Middle East. That position has been gone into in great detail in another place and I will only, therefore, remind the Committee that what has been done in East Africa was unanimously agreed to by a committee, the members of which included the Labour Commissioner and Archdeacon Owen, who is so well known as the champion of the native cause.

The right hon. Gentleman, and my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for the Isle of Wight, spoke of the need of greater State investment in the Colonial Empire, and my hon. and gallant Friend said that we must consider future State investment not in terms of a few millions but in terms of hundreds of millions. I believe that that is so. Lord Moyne has said in another place that we shall have to replan Colonial economics in production and commodities. But can you do that unless you have an instrument through which to work out plans and carry through such ideas? I do not believe that that is possible without the establishment of a Colonial Development Board. This is no new idea. The Royal Commission which reported in 1917, under the chairmanship of Lord D' Abernon, on the natural resources of the Empire and which, I admit, deals largely with the Dominions and Dominion territory, put forward a more ambitious suggestion, but, nevertheless, a similar suggestion. That Commission emphasised the influence a wise investment of British capital could have on the development of natural resources. The right hon. Gentleman spoke of private investment publicly guided. I hope that in future measures will be taken to ensure that private investment in the British Empire rather than in speculations in foreign countries will be encouraged. But to-day British capital will have to be directed, and should be directed, towards the multiplication of resources, in particular, raw materials both of economic and military importance. The right hon. Gentleman said that we can devise new mechanisms of administration and new instruments of government, and here is an opportunity to devise such an instrument. How can you fulfil these ideas and take the action which you desire unless you are provided with accurate information and have a medium through which you can act?

The Royal Commission of 1917 suggested that the Imperial Development Board, which I am not now proposing, but a Colonial Development Board, should have four principal functions. The Commissions suggested, firstly, that it should promote new sources of supply, secondly, that it should promote measures for the prevention of waste, thirdly, that it should investigate the possibility of finding substitutes, and fourthly, it mentioned scientific research. Such a Board should and could survey the relations between our requirements and our production. It would stimulate the production of those commodities which we most needed in time of war. It would advise and guide the Colonial Office in this matter. The war only emphasises and underlines our needs of a permanent institution which will smooth the path of development, remove causes of delay and will result in speedy and effective action. It is for these reasons that I urge the establishment of a Colonial Development Board.

Criticism of the past is perhaps too easy to be of any advantage or of any avail, but I welcomed the statement of the right hon. Gentleman when he said that Malayan planters were to-day investigating the possibilities of increasing rubber production in West Africa. A case came to my notice a few days ago. It is a plantation at Tiko, near Mount Victoria, in the British Cameroons, of some 5,000 acres where there are mature rubber trees in the third year of bearing to-day. This was German-owned property before the war, and to-day a civil servant-with no practical knowledge and no previous experience of either the planting of rubber or of the planting of bananas keeps an eye not only upon this particular plantation, but upon all the confiscated German plantations in the British Cameroons. This particular plantation has a turnover of £200,000 a year. With rubber scarcer: than gold such a plantation should be looked after not by a civil servant without experience, but by men who could manage it expertly. I suggest, therefore, for the consideration of the Government that, if they have not already done so, Malayan planters should be sent out there to see what they can do and see how far they can replace the banana plantations by the planting of rubber. That is only a single instance, but I think it shows that there is both scope and need for the establishment of the Colonial Development Board, for which I am pleading to-day and which, in the words of the Royal Commission of 1917, would "Watch for every opportunity and be alive to every possibility." It is impossible to exaggerate the influence and significance which such a board would have. It would be concerned with economics, and, that being so, I would like to put forward one other suggestion, namely, that there should be Dominion representation upon it.

Again, upon this matter and in connection with the problem of research the Royal Commission of 1917 states: The technical departments of the Dominions are better equipped than those of the Crown Colonies and Protectorates for investigation and research. They have officers for assaying minerals, analysing substances and testing material and their equipment in this respect is being constantly strengthened. Those of us who have travelled in the Dominions, Colonies and Protectorates know that that is true. Such a Board and the establishment of Dominion representation upon it would have many advantages. May I briefly enumerate some of them? We know that in many parts of the Dominions the climate approximates more closely to that of the Colonies. Dominion minds are, therefore, more accustomed to deal with the kind of problems that arise as a result of that analogy. They are familiar with the problems which are connected with the opening up of new territories and new countries. They know the importance of building roads and understand perhaps more fully than we do the connection between building roads and the growth of new trades. The staff of such a Board, in my submission, should be not so much civil servants as men of public responsibility and particularly men with intimate knowedge of the Colonial Empire. In another place Lord Hailey and a former Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Harlech, have both emphasised what we in this Committee know only too well—that the civil servants of the Colonial Empire have very often considered that their job of administration is their sole duty, or at any rate their main function. The weakest sign of our Colonial administration has been that much has had to deal with economics and development.

I believe, therefore, that a Colonial Development Board would not only assist the Government materially, but would electrify development, not only after the war but now, in the middle of the war. Dominion representation upon it would increase Dominion interest in the Colonies which would be beneficial to the Colonies after the war since it would increase the trade between the Dominions and Colonies and so give the Colonies what they need—a steady market and greater security. That tendency has already begun. I believe that if we could invite Dominion participation and interest, particularly in the economic side of the Colonial Empire, the Colonies would benefit immeasurably. Let me give a single instance. Someone mentioned in the Debate the dependence of the Gold Coast on cocoa. But Gambia is dependent on ground nuts, and we know how dependent the West Indies are on sugar. How many of us really believe that that over-dependence on a single market could ever have taken place if the Dominions had had any say whatever in the development of these Colonies? The most noticeable thing about the Dominions' use of tariffs in the past has been the very ingenious way in which they have created secondary industries and used them to diversify trade. It is the lack of diversity which is the fault in many Colonies. My right hon. Friend the Member for Sparkbrook (Mr. Amery) once said that the future direction of trade lies in the marriage of the products of the temperate and the tropical zones. If we could foster Dominion interest in the Colonies, great benefit would ensue. I believe that this is an inevitable if at present slow development, and that unless the Dominions are invited to participate in the economic side of the Colonial Empire the result must be misunderstanding of our actions, aims and purposes in the Colonies and must lead to friction whereas, if we invite co-operation in the economic field, it will give us the benefit of that co-operation and at the same time remove misunderstanding. Finally it would encourage Dominion capital to go into the Colonies for the development of their natural resources rather than into foreign countries.

I wish to congratulate my right hon. Friend the Under-Secretary on what he said on the subject of permanent partnership between ourselves and the Colonial Empire and on the subject of the unification of the Civil Service. Partnership, to be a happy-one, must depend upon knowledge, and that brings me to education upon which. I should like to say a few words. Like the hon. Member for Shipley (Mr. Creech Jones), I had the privilege of serving on the Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies for three years. Unfortunately, during the last two years, I was unable to attend, as I volunteered for service in the Royal Air Force, but during the year I did attend it became perfectly clear to me that what was said in another place last month is only too true—that our education, particularly in African Colonies, is too literary and too classical. In the Gold Coast, I think it was, Africans were taught to act the great Greek tragedies if not the comedies of Aristophanes but not so much hygiene or how to grow crops. I submit that much greater stress should be laid on the practical scientific and agricultural side of education. Our teaching should include not only the ethical, spiritual and moral side, but we should do our utmost to develop secondary industries and the ancient traditional craftsmanship of West Africa. We should teach Africans to develop to their utmost their natural resources. Nothing could be more deplorable than to see what many of us have seen with our own eyes, even in Uganda, the ideal gradually growing up in the minds of the natives that the finest possible life is to become a typist in a country where there is very little to type. Such a policy, whether in Uganda or Sierra Leone, must lead to the creation of discontented and redundant Africans. By teaching that, we are doing them no service. Surely our aim must be to try and teach the West African to be a good African, and not a bad European, to teach him to develop along his own traditional lines rather than to become a poor imitation of the European.

Most Members have read "New Imperial Ideals," that great constructive work by Robert Stokes, who develops in it the noble future that could be built up in West African territories. Finally, I would like to add that I think there should be teaching of English on a far greater scale than at present and that we should try to identify the natives not only with the country in which they were born, bred and live but with this Empire of ours. If we could make them feel that they are citizens of our Empire we would not get an article such as that which appeared in "The Times" yesterday written by a West African who speaks of the need to remove the misconception that this is a white man's war.