“The service had to come first”: leave and ocean passages of British officials and their dependants in inter-war West Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper demonstrates how the domination of subject peoples by the imperial and colonial governments was extended to the private domain of marriage and the family life of officials. This was undertaken by means of restrictive and intrusive civil service rules, which governed the rates of ocean passages payable to colonial officers’ wives, and the conditions under which officers could go on leave, and be accompanied by their wives and children at their duty post. The resultant controversy was linked with the business rivalry between Elder Dempster and non-British liners; the inter-war economic depression, which severely incapacitated the government; and the policy divergence between the Colonial Office and most colonial governors. Though concessions were made in instalments, government maintained control of officials’ family life throughout the period. This case study illustrates the recurring incidence of paternalism in relations between senior and junior officials, and between London and the colonies.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article montre comment la domination des peuples sujets par les gouvernements impériaux et coloniaux s’est étendue au domaine privé du mariage et à la vie familiale des fonctionnaires. Cela s’est réalisé au moyen de règles restrictives et intrusives de la fonction publique qui régissaient les tarifs des passages en mer, payables aux épouses des officiers coloniaux, et les conditions dans lesquelles les officiers pouvaient partir en congé, et être accompagnés de leurs épouses et de leurs enfants à leur poste de travail. La controverse qui en a résulté était liée à la rivalité commerciale entre la compagnie Elder Dempster et les paquebots non-britanniques; à la crise économique de l’entre-deux guerres qui a gravement handicapé le gouvernement; et aux divergences politiques entre l’Office colonial et la plupart des gouverneurs coloniaux. Bien que des concessions aient été faites par tranches, le gouvernement a gardé le contrôle de la vie familiale des fonctionnaires pendant toute la période. Cette étude de cas illustre l’incidence récurrente du paternalisme dans les relations entre les hauts et les jeunes fonctionnaires, et entre Londres et les colonies.

KEYWORDS:

• West Africa
• ocean passages
• Elder Dempster
• Colonial Office
• General Orders

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Afrique de l’Ouest
• passages océaniques
• Elder Dempster
• Colonial Office
• General Orders

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Hilary Callan (in Callan and Ardener 1984, 1), who invented the concept of “incorporation,” defined it as a “condition of wifehood in a range of settings where the social character ascribed to a woman is an intimate function of her husband’s occupational identity and culture.” To clarify, officials’ wives were not the only European women in British colonial territories. There were, in addition, female employees in education, social welfare and medical services, and the occasional female scholar or explorer. The officials’ wives were known as “memsahibs” or “mems” in British India and Malaya (Brownfoot 1984; Shanmugam 2010, 81).

2. See, for example, Hyam (1986, 170–86), for a regulation prohibiting intimate relations between British officials and “native” women.

3. Mentioned in passing in Callaway (1987, 20–21) and Olukoju (1999, 36, 39).

4. Nicolson (1969, 216) quoted Sir George Fiddes in the epigraph: “You cannot have an A1 administration on a C3 budget.”

5. National Archives of the United Kingdom, Colonial Office (CO) 554/79/1, “Passages, Etc. of Officers’ Wives,” F. M. Baddeley, Officer Administering the Government (OAG), Nigeria, to Amery, 3 October 1928.

6. CO 554/79/1, Baddeley to Amery, 3 October 1928.

7. CO 554/75/2, “Passages for Officers’ Wives,” J. A. Calder, Undersecretary of State, to William Geary, 17 June 1927.

8. CO 554/75/2, Calder to Geary, 17 June 1927. Geary had cited an influential London-based weekly (West Africa, 29 November 1926) to the effect that only officers who had done eighteen months’ tours of service were entitled to the grant to bring their wives to West Africa.

9. CO 554/75/2, Calder to Geary, 17 June 1927.

10. CO 554/79/1, Baddeley to Amery, 3 October 1928.

11. A top adviser of the Secretary of State commented that he was not surprised that Heads of Departments opposed the proposal. “If it were adopted,” he explained, “recruiting would almost certainly be affected, particularly amongst medical men” (CO 554/79/1, A. B. Acheson, 6 November 1928).

12. CO554/79/1, A. B. Acheson, 6 November 1928.

13. CO 554/79/1, Amery to Baddeley, 12 November 1928.

14. CO 554/97/13, “Conditions of Service – Question of Officers’ Children Being Allowed To Accompany Their Parents To West Africa,” Minute by A. Fiddian, 1 October 1935.

15. CO554/97/13, Minute by A. Fiddian, 1 October 1935. Note the admission that the colonial service rules were “severe.”

16. CO554/97/13, Minute by A. Fiddian, 1 October 1935.

17. CO554/97/13, Minute by A. Fiddian, 1 October 1935.

18. CO554/97/13, Minute by A. Fiddian, 1 October 1935.

19. CO 554/97/13, Minute by Jeffries, 1 October 1935.

20. CO 554/97/13, Minute by R. M. I. Arundell, 15 October 1935.

21. CO 554/97/13, M. MacDonald to OAG Nigeria and Gold Coast, 21 October 1935. All the quotes in this paragraph are from this source.

22. CO 554/79/1, J. E. W. Flood, 6 November 1928. Italics added for emphasis. The reference to a 22- to 26-year-old young officer as “a lad” was paternalistic, condescending and patronising.

23. Callaway (1987, 20), quoting an oral communication from A. H. M. Kirk-Greene.

24. It is significant, as noted by Callaway (1987, 190), that though the GO made provision for passages for wives who accompanied their husbands, “no provisions were made for husbands to join working wives.”

25. CO 554/75/2, R. Slater, Governor, Sierra Leone, to Lord Amery, 11 February 1927.

26. CO554/75/2, Slater to Amery, 11 February 1927.

27. CO 554/75/2, Amery to Slater, 25 March 1927.

28. CO554/75/2, Amery to Slater, 25 March 1927.

29. CO 554/79/1, Baddeley to Amery, 3 October 1928.

30. CO 554/80/3, “Allowances, Passages, Etc. of Officers’ Wives,” Baddeley to Amery, 25 December 1928.

31. CO 554/80/3, Minute by Flood, 24 January 1929.

32. CO 554/80/3, Minute by Flood, 24 January 1929. This opposition to “birth control” harks back to the imperial conscription of motherhood and procreation in its strategic competition with rival imperial powers as detailed in Davin (1997).

33. CO 554/80/3, Amery to Baddeley, 22 February 1929.

34. CO 554/88/14, “Allowances, Passages, Etc. of Officers’ Wives,” Crown Agents (CA) to CO, 10 September 1931.

35. CO 554/88/14, CA to CO, 10 September 1931, enc. 2: Telegram from Chief Secretary to Government to CA, 12 September 1931.

36. CO 554/88/14, Hemmant to J. H. Thomas, 18 September 1931.

37. CO 554/88/14, Telegram, Governor, Gambia, to Secretary of State, 8 October 1931; Governor, Accra, to J. H. Thomas, 13 October 1931.

38. CO 554/88/14, Governor, Accra, to Thomas, 13 October 1931.

39. CO 554/88/14, Hodson to Thomas, 6 November 1931.

40. CO 554/88/14, C. J. Jeffries, 10 October 1931.

41. CO 554/88/14, A. Fiddian, 14 October 1931.

42. CO 554/88/14, Jeffries, 17 October 1931.

43. CO 554/88/14, Cunliffe-Lister to West African Governors, 26 November 1931. All the quotes in this paragraph are from this source.

44. CO 554/89/13, “Allowances, Passages Etc. of Officers’ Wives,” Governor, Gold Coast, to Cunliffe-Lister, 9 January 1932.

45. CO 554/89/13, Cameron to Cunliffe-Lister, 7 January 1932.

46. CO554/89/13, Cameron to Cunliffe-Lister, 7 January 1932.

47. Olukoju (1999, 34, 36–38) shows how the association on its own secured concessions from Elder Dempster for its members.

48. CO 554/89/13, Governor, Gambia, to Cunliffe-Lister, 20 January 1932.

49. CO 554/89/13, P. C. L[ister], 15 April 1932.

50. CO554/89/13, P.C. L[ister], 15 April 1932.

51. CO 554/89/13, A. Fiddian, 25 April 1932.

52. CO 554/89/13, Cunliffe-Lister to Cameron, 19 April 1932.

53. However, a secret agreement of July 1933 granted rebates of 10% for first and second class passengers, and 5% for third class passengers, which were not extended to the fares of officials’ wives. See Olukoju (1999, 39).

54. CO 554/96/12, “Allowances, Passages Etc. of Officers’ Wives,” J. C. Lamont (CA) to Undersecretary of State, 19 November 1934.

55. CO 554/96/12, Cunliffe-Lister to Governor, Sierra Leone, 22 January 1935.

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Ayodeji Olukoju

Ayodeji Olukoju is Distinguished Professor of history, University of Lagos, Nigeria. A visiting research fellow of the Japan Foundation, IDE (Tokyo), the British Academy, the Chapman and Leventis Foundations and DAAD, he has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of African History, African Economic History, History in Africa and Afrika Zamani. His publications include The Liverpool of West Africa (2004) and Culture and Customs of Liberia (2006), as well as numerous book chapters and journal articles.