Orders of the Day — Dominion and Colonial Affairs.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 29 Gorffennaf 1926.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Viscount  Sandon Viscount Sandon , Shrewsbury

Then, perhaps, that compensates for the fact of there being only one Member of the Liberal party at present in this House. We have a great responsibility in connection with the development of our Empire estates, and we are not taking it, and nowhere is it more visible than where our Colonies lie side by side with colonies belonging to other countries. I have seen it myself in the West Indies. I think it is most deplorable when you see the British flag flying over an island which is retrograde and backward, and when next door the flag of the United States is flying over territories where progressive methods are adopted, and where there has been vast development. Take the big sugar factories in Cuba; there the whole thing is conducted on the most up-to-date lines with garden cities analogous to Port Sunlight, and they are teeming with money, but when you go to Jamaica, you see machinery tied up with old bits of string and corrugated iron, and any improvisation available, and that is not the sort of thing over which the British flag should fly. My knowledge is certainly not very up-to-date, but the difference to the non-British territories was so great, that six years could not possibly have remedied it. It is not sufficient for us to say, "J'y suis; j'y reste." That is not an adequate mandate for the maintenance of the British Empire. We have to see to it that if we have control of these territories we utilise that control to the utmost possible value from the point of view of those whom we control, and as to exploiting the natural potentialities. It is most dangerous when you have these foreign colonies where money is teeming side by side with British Colonies that are squeezed in regard to the spending of money, and it loses us the right of possession. Another glaring example is that of the Zambesi Bridge. How can we justify our occupation of a place like Nyasaland if we do not give the inhabitants an adequate outlet to the sea? I ask the Colonial Secretary if he is going to allow Nyasaland to carry on its present state, and whether, if so, we should not honourably hand it over to someone else? It is not creditable that we should simply be prepared to stand by and not look after the welfare of these Colonies.

It seems to me that you will never get a satisfactory Colonial regime within the Empire until you get a complete interchange, and a unified service, as you have already in the Foreign Office and the diplomatic services, between the Colonial Office, and the Colonial services in general. So long as you are running the risk of the Colonial Office being dominated by people whose lives are circumscribed by a radius of 15 miles from Charing Cross it does not seem to me that, with the best intentions in the world and with all the hard work as to which no one knows better than I do what it is that they do, the Colonies can be carried on in a manner satisfactory to the needs of the Empire. Also it does not make for true liaison and understanding between the Colonial Office and their servants who work for them in different parts of the Empire. It does not make for the best interests of the Empire. It was the same, as many of us know, with the staff during the War. Then a wide gulf separated the British soldier and the British regimental officer from the staff, and the same gulf separates the Colonial Civil Services, and the Colonial Office. That is one reason why Australia was so successful in the War. They had easy access to their staff which we never had. I was in the Australian Corps for five months in France, so I speak of what I know. Surely a constant interchange of the whole of the staff of the Colonial Office might well take place; a man from the Colonial Office might go to Hongkong and later to Uganda, on promotion, and so forth.

The same thing applies within the Colonial Services. It is not in the interests of the Service that any man should go to Nigeria or anywhere else and stay there until he is an old man. That is not in the best interest of the country as a whole. I know that there are difficulties and that it is said to be extremely difficult when a man has learned the local dialect that somebody else should come along and not knowing these things should take his place. But I think that the advantages outweigh any objections which might be put forward, and the objections could be met by having a permanent staff of experts such as used to exist in the Levantine Service, who would be in close touch with all the local customs, know the language, and who would be able to fill these gaps satisfactorily. There is, I think, a very grave danger of the Colonial Services getting into a groove. In normal circumstances a man stays, say, 93 years in Nigeria ox elsewhere. He is then, say, moved off to East Africa, as a Colonial Secretary, and naturally his ideas are based on his Nigerian experience, and on every question he says, "This is not the Nigerian way," alters it, though local conditions are different. That does not make for the good running of the community to which he has gone, and only offends people, and it does seem to me that it would be far more in the interests of that place if he had had a wide experience, ideas gained in different parts of the Empire to draw upon, and the place would be far better governed in consequence.

I know that there are obstacles to carrying out this plan, and these obstacles are mainly in the direction of salaries and pensions. But it does seem to me absolutely wrong that, because one Colony happens to be more wealthy, no change can be effected. A man cannot afford to leave, say, the Nigerian Civil Service and risk losing his pension rights, or in some cases getting only a smaller one, on going to another Colony. I suggest that there should be a general pool, under the control of the Colonial Office, to which all these Colonies should contribute their quota of a certain amount of money, and that it should be distributed equally at the discretion of the Colonial Office, for pensions and salaries, to all the Colonies. It seems to me that until you do that, you will not be able to get men of ability for the work, and our Colonial Empire will not be run on the best lines. I had a glaring example of the present system when travelling to the West Indies, with a doctor from Ceylon. He had been second in command at Ceylon, and was being promoted to be head of the medical service in Jamaica. Jamaica being a poor Colony, he found that, not only had he to pay the expenses of his journey there, but that he was to receive far less salary—and this was by way of promotion! If you are going to give promotion and "dock" the pay at the same time, it is not the way of getting the best men for the job It is simply making it certain that the wealthier Colonies will get the best men, while the poorer Colonies will still be kept back by getting a less satisfactory personnel in the Service. In order to get the proper people you must offer an adequate reward, and the reward should be increased with each promotion in status. Only this will make proper interchange possible. The working of the present system seems to be very unfair, both to man and place.

I expect many hon. Members saw a play last year called "White Cargo." This is a point which, I assure the Under-Secretary, needs very much to be brought forward. That play was no doubt a gross libel on West Africa, but there are spots of that kind elsewhere. Owing to the progress of civilisation, and the pioneering instincts of Britishers in the past, who have made and are making the British Empire, those spots are quickly disappearing, but some still exist. They exist in the Western Pacific and in places like the Solomon Islands. It is not right nor just that we should tolerate the practice of young fellows being sent out as Eastern cadets and in other positions of that kind to these islands where in many eases they are separated, not only from the nearest white woman, but from the nearest white man, by nearly 100 miles; where they get a post only once a month., often far less often, and where they have practically no communication with the outside world, and where each one is a sort of Pooh Bah, a "lord high everything else," in charge of everything, and cut off from the rest of the world. Is it just, or does it add to our good name, to send young fellows to such places in these circumstances? I think if the Under-Secretary investigates the matter he will find that, apart from other tragedies, there has been an appalling amount of insanity among white people in places such as I have described, and I think it is a grave responsibility for us to undertake.

Even if it costs money, we ought to give every facility to young men in these cases. When we are dealing with State servants our obligation is of a special character, and, wherever it is possible, we ought to provide facilities for these officials to enable them to take out their wives with them, and they ought to get plenty of leave and extra pay, and ought not to be kept in places of this sort for long periods of time. It is not creditable to the Empire that we should allow the conditions to continue which exist in some places in the Western Pacific and the Solomon Islands. We have a particular obligation in this matter, and I beg that the Secretary of State on high moral grounds will take the subject into consideration and give these young men better pay, better conditions, and longer leave, and only short periods of service there.

The same need for consideration applies to the conditions throughout the service. There are other places not so bad as those which I have indicated, but which none the less call for attention. I have known many cases of people being sent out to unhealthy spots and although these men were quite healthy when they went out, their health deteriorated when they were still quite young—perhaps in their thirties or early forties. They contribute to a pensions' and orphans' fund, but if they are invalided out, and that money has to be called upon early, the provision is not much use to keep them as they ought to be kept for for the prestige of the service. When such men are invalided in the thirties or forties, they ought to receive special consideration. Some of them are married and have children, and it is up to the Secretary of State to persuade the Treasury to institute a system of marriage and children allowances in the Service, to meet these cases, in order that the children of such men should not be let down and should be properly educated. Provision ought to be made to meet the cases of men, whose health has been ruined at a comparatively early age in the service of the Colonies, and who thought, quite reasonably, that they might look forward to retiring at 50 or 60 on a pension which would be adequate to keep them and their families ha a reasonable way. It is not to the credit of the service and is morally indefensible that people should be turned out of it, broken in health, when they are still quite young, without proper provision, and I think it is for the Secretary of State and for the Colonial Office to take a personal interest in them and to see that they are fixed up in some other employment and that their children are safeguarded.

We should not have men of thirty or forty whose health has been broken by service in our Colonies and dependencies looking for work and finding it difficult to obtain work, owing to their age and to their lack of business training and the Colonial Office doing nothing to help. These are the people we ought to encourage. They are the people who ought to have children; they are the ones we want to propagate from; they are the people who have made the British Empire, who are making it and who will make it in the future, and we do not want to put any difficulty in their way as regards marrying and having children and to make it a gamble for them. I would impress on the Secretary of State that it is important to give this matter his earnest consideration. I know the high regard which the right hon. Gentleman has for the Colonial Service, and I believe he is not the man to allow these men to be let down.