The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
Page 78
Another moral issue emerged during the debates over the future of Hong Kong. This was the question of whether large numbers of Hong Kong Chinese should be admitted to Britain. The 1948 British Nationality Act had extended British citizenship to subjects in all the colonies. As it passed through the Commons, the steamer Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury and four-hundred West Indian immigrants came ashore. Like the English, Scots and Irish who had crossed the Atlantic in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they had left poverty behind them and come in search of prosperity.
The years which saw the dissolution of the empire witnessed the last of the great migrations it had made possible. From 1948 onwards large numbers of West Indians, Indians and Pakistanis and smaller numbers of West Africans, Maltese and Cypriots settled in Britain. The flow of immigrants gathered pace in the late 1950s and early 1960s and continued after two acts of 1962 and 1968 which were designed to restrict it. This is not the place to discuss the consequences of this shift of populations for Britain, which, by the 1970s had become a multi-racial society, even though the bulk of the new arrivals had settled in London, the Midlands and the decayed industrial towns of northern England. Reactions to this demographic change have been mixed and often, as they had been towards the Irish in the nineteenth century, violent. Old imperial attitudes played their part in determining how the immigrants were received. Imperial ideas of racial superiority led to condescension or even contempt, but at the same time benevolent imperial paternalism dictated that blacks and Asians should be treated decently and fairly. How the immigrants, their children and grandchildren fare will depend ultimately on the moral sense and flexibility of the British people.
The story of the rise and yet-to-be-completed fall of the British empire suggests that they once had both qualities in abundance, as well as ruthlessness and rapacity. A superficial glance at Britain’s imperial past can lead to the conclusion that the last two were always in the forefront, but this is misleading. Britain’s empire was a moral force and one for the good. The last word should lie with Nelson Mandela, recalling his schooldays in Natal in the 1920s:
You must remember I was brought up in a British school, and at the time Britain was the home of everything that was best in the world. I have not discarded the influence which Britain and British history and culture exercised on us. We regarded it as the capital of the world and visiting the place therefore had this excitement because I was visiting the country that was my pride … You must also remember that Britain is the home of parliamentary democracy and, as people fighting against a form of tyranny in this country, we look upon Britain to take an active interest to support us in our fight against apartheid.
Few empires have equipped their subjects with the intellectual wherewithal to overthrow their rulers. None has been survived by so much affection and moral respect.
Bibliography
Abbreviations
AHR
American Historical Review
AHS
Australian Historical Studies
AJ
Asiatic Journal
AJPH
Australian Journal of Politics and History
BIHR
Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research
CHR
Canadian History Review
CSP
Calendars of State Papers
EHR
English Historical Review
EcHR
Economic History Review
HJ
Historical Journal
HMC
Historic Manuscripts Commission
IHR
Irish Historical Review
IHS
Irish Historical Studies
Int. HR
International History Review
IJMES
International Journal of Middle East Studies
IOL
India Office Library
IWM
Imperial War Museum
JAH
Journal of African History
JCH
Journal of Canadian History
JCont.H
Journal of Contemporary History
JICH
Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
JMAS
Journal of Modern African Studies
JMH
Journal of Modern History
JRAHS
Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society
JRCAS
Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society
JSAHR
Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research
JSH
Journal of Social History
JTH
Journal of Transport History
LHC
Liddell Hart Centre
MES
Middle East Studies
MM
Mariner’s Mirror
NAM
National Army Museum
NLS
National Library of Scotland
NZJH
New Zealand Journal of History
PP
Past and Present
PRO
Public Record Office
RHL
Rhodes House Library
RUSI
Royal United Services Institute Journal
SRO
Scottish Record Office
WMQ
William and Mary Quarterly
WS
War and Society
Sources
Unpublished
India Office Library
Letters and Papers Military and Political
Imperial War Museum
Papers of Air-Marshal Sir Harold Lydford
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
Papers of Brigadier-General Sir James Edmonds
National Army Museum:
Anon (Private of 5th Dragoon Guards and 11th Light Dragoons), Memoirs
Brigadier-General Sir Archibald Eden, Diary
Lieutenant William Fleming, 45th Regiment, Letters
Private John Mitchell, 58th Regiment, Memoirs
Surgeon Pine, Diary
Private J.C. Rose, 2nd Rifle Brigade, Papers and Diary
Major Stockwell, Diary and Papers
National Library of Scotland:
Papers of General Sir George Brown
Colin Campbell, ‘Voyage of the Unicorn’
Papers of Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane
Papers of Admiral Charles Graham
Papers and Diary of Field-Marshal Lord Haig
Papers of Major Alexander Murray
Papers of George Murray
Letters of Charles Cochrane, 4th Regiment (in Stuart-Stevenson Papers)
Papers of the Marquess of Tweeddale
Public Record Office:
Admiralty:
Adm 1; Adm 53; Adm 116; Adm 123; Adm 125
Air Ministry:
Air 5; Air 8; Air 9; Air 20; Air 24
Colonial Office:
CO 23; CO 123; CO 201; CO 227; CO 318; CO 773; CO 856; CO 874; CO 968; CO 1015; CO 1027; CO 1037
Home Office:
HO 51
Foreign Office:
FO 141; FO 195; FO 371; FO 406; FO 413; FO 848
War Office:
WO 1; WO 3; WO 32; WO 33; WO 86; WO 90; WO 92; WO 95; WO 208; WO 216
Rhodes House Library, Oxford
Papers of Captain Abadie
Scottish Record Office:
Clerk of Penycuik Papers
Dalrymple Papers
Dundonald Papers (Sudan Diary and Letters of Captain Lord Cochrane)
Logan Hume Papers
Lord Loch Papers
Lieutenant Colin MacKenzie, Letters
Lieutenant Stewart Mackenzie, Letters
Captain John Peebles, 42nd Regiment, Diary
General Robertson, Letters and Papers
Published
Magazines and Newspapers:
Africa; The A
nti-Jacobin; Asiatic Journal; Blackwoods Magazine; British and Foreign Review; Coburn’s United Service Magazine; Contemporary Review; Daily Express; Daily Graphic; Daily Herald; Daily Mail; Daily Telegraph; Edinburgh Review; Foreign Affairs; Fortnightly Review; The Graphic; Harpers; Illustrated London News; Imperial Commerce and Affairs; The Independent; Journal of the Royal Africa Society; The Listener; London Magazine; Manchester Guardian; Morning Post; National Geographic Magazine; National Review; New Statesman; Nineteenth Century; Nineteenth Century and After; The Observer; Picture Post; Private Eye; Quarterly Review; Review of Politics; Round Table; Saturday Review; Spectator; Sphere; Standard; Sun; Sunday Times; Time; The Times.
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