Colonial Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 17 July 1952.

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Photo of Mr John Dugdale Mr John Dugdale , West Bromwich 12:00, 17 July 1952

I am sure I am voicing the opinions of hon. Members on both sides of the Commitee in saying how sorry we are not to have had a further five, 10 or 15 minutes of my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley (Mr. Wigg). No doubt both we and posterity have lost a great deal.

As the hon. Member from this side of the Committee to wind up the debate, I want to say what is always said on these occasions—that although there have been regrettably few people present, it has been a remarkably interesting debate and we have had contributions of very great value from both sides of the Committee. I want, in particular, to mention the admirable speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby (Mr. J. Johnson) and the speech delivered under very great difficulties by the hon. Member for Croydon, North (Mr. F. Harris). I did not agree with all the hon. Member for Croydon, North said, but I wish that if I were feeling as ill as he was I could still make as good a speech.

I will deal first, and briefly, with the political problems and then pass to the economic problems of the Colonies and deal with them at greater length. During the past few years there has been rapid political progress. Many Colonies have had new constitutions granted to them and have had an opportunity for the first time of beginning to run their own affairs. In particular, I would mention the Gold Coast, because that has been the most striking experiment of all, and it has been an outstanding success.

Frankly, I do not know whether the present Government would have introduced the Gold Coast constitution had they been in power at the time. I doubt very much whether they would, but, once it has been introduced, I am very glad that the Secretary of State has said he has no intention of changing it and, in fact, has gone a step further by making Mr. Nkrumah not only leader of Government business but Prime Minister in name as well as in fact. Mr. Nkrumah has shown a very remarkable sense of responsibility in his handling of the problems connected with cocoa disease. He has shown a much greater sense of responsibility than the Lord President of the Council here has shown in his handling of problems connected with other foodstuffs. I think the Lord President might well take a lesson from Mr. Nkrumah in this respect.

I would add only one caveat. The Secretary of State—and I am not sure of his exact words, although we shall see them tomorrow—said there should be no political freedom without racial agreement, or words to that effect, when speaking about Malaya. I would add this: they do not apply only to Malaya but also to East and Central Africa, and I hope that he will remember them when questions connected with these countries are under review.

The right hon. Gentleman, in his speech about Malaya, made, I thought, some very remarkable statements. His speech, if I may sum it up briefly, was on the same lines as that of a famous Roman general and Emperor many years ago who said, "Veni, vidi, vici." He went to Malaya, he found things quite appalling, he looked at Malaya, he spent 10 days there—maybe it was less—he came back and everything has gone all right since. I would certainly congratulate him on a very remarkable achievement, but I think he exaggerated some of the problems that were there before and equally exaggerated some of the achievements that have been accomplished since his visit.

I would turn to the economic problems. The Secretary of State said that much might be done now that could not be done because of lack of capital and of materials. How right he is. But what a tragedy it is that those things were not done when both capital and materials were available in the years before the wars.

At the risk of being accused of making what, I think, he called a "parrot cry," I would say—and I think it cannot be too often repeated—that the years before the wars showed a grievous neglect of the Colonies. Let us take the expenditure made from this country. There was, indeed, a Colonial Development and Welfare Bill—I think in the late 'twenties or early 'thirties—but what did it allow? It allowed an expenditure of about £1 million a year, and that was all that was given. What a difference today.

I would make one exception in criticising previous Conservative Colonial Secretaries. I think all of us do agree that very great work was done by the late Mr. Oliver Stanley—very great work indeed. But in what conditions did he do that work? Not as a Member of a purely Conservative Government, for the greater amount of his work was done in a Coalition Government when he had the backing of my right hon. Friends at every turn for the improvements that he made.

Today, instead of just an odd million or two being spent, no less than £250 million has been committed to Colonial Development and Welfare and the Colonial Development Corporation—£250 million at a time when this country is very hard pressed for finance. I think it is a great achievement—an achievement which shows that we have faith in our Colonial Empire.

The Secretary of State referred at some length to the Colonial Development Corporation. One of the remarks that he made was, I understand, that it was not the role of the Colonial Development Corporation to risk the taxpayers' money where private enterprise is willing to take the risk. That is all very well at first glance. But what does it amount to in fact? What it is apt to mean is that where private enterprise thinks there are some good pieces of business the Colonial Development Corporation will not step in. In other words, it will only go in when private enterprise thinks the business is not good enough. How is the Corporation possibly to make a profit in those circumstances? How can it begin to make a profit if it is to deal only with marginal cases—with the leftovers of private enterprise?

The right hon. Gentleman said in connection with the Colonial Development Corporation that what matters in cases such as the Gambia poultry scheme is not the loss of money but the loss of confidence. Who is responsible for that loss of confidence when day in and day out the party opposite spent their time running down the Colonial Development Corporation? Its difficulties were enough—heaven knows they were enough—without it being constantly attacked by the Opposition of that day, many of whom—this does not apply, of course, to the right hon. Gentleman—appeared to want it to fail.

The right hon. Gentleman has said that there are to be many changes made. Very many changes; but the four that he gave are all changes that were in process of being made when the present Government came in. They are nothing to do with this Government. If they are due to any one factor they must be due to the change in the chairmanship of the Board rather than to a change of Government.

He said it was proposed that there should be greater regional devolution, but that was already started before this Government came in. I think everybody in the Committee is in favour of it. I will go further. There should be not only regional devolution but functional devolution. I would go still further. It might be worth while considering whether there should not be two separate corporations, one to look after agriculture and the other after industry, mining and any other work that there was. The present Colonial Development Corporation is covering too wide a field, and it would be for the benefit of the Corporation and of the Colonies if its work were divided functionally as I have suggested.

The right hon. Gentleman said, and I agree with every word, that whatever the Colonial Development Corporation may do, or any other large enterprise whether Government or private, the basis of Colonial wealth today is peasant agriculture. Agriculture in the Colonies, whatever it may be in this country, is certainly not feather-bedded; very far from it. Imagine a farmer without adequate buildings, without fertilisers, without even a plough. Some farmers have scarcely got a scythe. Such conditions of farming are appallingly difficult. Imagine, above all, a position in which the farmers not only have not the implements but have not the knowledge of how to farm. That is the most serious aspect of the whole question.

I would therefore echo what the right hon. Gentleman has said about the immense importance of getting enough agricultural instructors, and I would add instructors in the co-operative movement who will show farmers how to co-operate to buy what they need and to sell their produce. If a sufficient number of these officers go out they will perform service of as great a value as any that could be performed by an Englishman today.

I would add a brief word on Kenya. The hon. Member for Croydon, North said that the highlands occupied only 5 per cent. of the land of Kenya. Of course, that is true, but they occupy a great deal more than 5 per cent. of the cultivable land of Kenya, and that is the great thing. Until I went to that country I did not realise how much land in Kenya was incapable of any cultivation at all, how much of it was virtually desolate. I think I am not far wrong in saying that between two-thirds and three-quarters of the whole country is practically desert. What we are dealing with is the remaining one-third or one-quarter of the country.

I agree that the settlers who have come to Kenya have done fine work. They have developed the land with great toil and often with great success. They have made their homes there and they have a right to some protection. But have they the right to the exclusive use of this land for ever without another African coming and having another farm upon it? In view of the fact that there are surrounding the highlands large numbers of people crowded into comparatively small spaces, each with a very small acreage, we think that the Africans have a right to be able to come in and use that land in the highlands if—and only if—agreement can be reached. That is what we say in our Motion. We think it is in the interests not only of the Africans but of the Europeans as well to reach that agreement. Only if it is reached can we get a satisfactory settlement, not alone of economic and agricultural conditions, but of political conditions in Kenya.