‘The Wind has been Gathering Force’: Iain Macleod and his Policy Change on Tanganyika

ABSTRACT

This article examines the decision in May 1960 by the British colonial secretary, Iain Macleod, to accelerate dramatically the independence timetable for Tanganyika. Making extensive use of recently released archive material, it looks at the key factors behind this largely neglected but nevertheless significant episode, seeking to demonstrate that, despite Macleod's subsequent recollection of events, there was a clear policy change in May 1960; that it was for the main part external nationalist and internationalist pressures which led to the policy change; that, importantly, newly identified short-term factors of a change of heart by nationalist leader Julius Nyerere, events in Somaliland and the need to demonstrate positive Commonwealth credentials were the immediate and decisive reasons behind the acceleration; and that, in explaining the advancement, it is valuable to understand why and how individual factors contributed to the policy change and how they worked together.

KEYWORDS:

• Tanganiyka
• Iain Macleod
• Harold Macmillan
• Julius Nyerere
• Wind of Change
• TANU

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Dr Hilary Sapire of Birkbeck, University of London for her input to my dissertation for a master's degree from which this article is derived, as well as Professor Sarah Stockwell of King's College, University of London, and the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this work

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Baker, Exit from Empire, 256.

2 Hyam, Britain's Declining Empire, 278.

3 See Article 46 of the UN Charter, www.un.org/len/documents/charter, accessed 8 June 2015.

4 Lohrmann, Voices from Tanganyika, 26.

5 Ibid., 67.

6 Ibid., 368.

7 Iliffe, Modern History of Tanganyika,.508, 511.

8 Telegram from Macpherson to the Governors, 9 Jan. 1959, CO822/1819, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA).

9 Telegram from Lennox Boyd to Turnbull, 8 May 1959, CO822/1449, TNA; Blundell, So Rough a Wind, 262. Douglas Home, Evelyn Baring, 283. Fletcher-Cooke has suggested that the date was 1974, Lloyd Phillips, n.d., Transcript of a Tape Recorded interview with Sir John Fletcher Cooke, 25, held at Special Collections, the Bodleian Library, Oxford (hereafter BL).

10 Blundell, So Rough a Wind. 262; Douglas Home, Evelyn Baring, 283.

11 Governor's Address to Legco, 17 March 1959, FCO141/17852, TNA.

12 CPC Minutes, 17 April 1959, CAB144/1558, TNA.

13 Fisher, Iain Macleod, 141; Shepherd, Iain Macleod 159.

14 Hyam, Britain's Declining Empire, 283, 278.

15 Ward, ‘Whirlwind, Hurricane, Howling Tempest’.

16 Record of a Meeting held between Macleod , Blundell and others, 14 Dec. 1969, FCO141/6661, TNA; Letter from Blundell to Elspeth Huxley, 8 May 1962, Papers of Michael Blundell, MSS. Afr. 746; Telegram from Renison to Coutts, 15 Feb. 1960, CO822/2354, TNA.

17 Hansard, HC Debate. 10 March 1960. Vol. 609, cc 618–19.

18 Future Policy Study, 1960–1970, C (60)35, para. 48, CAB129/100, TNA.

19 Heinlein, British Government Policy, 245.

20 Murphy, Alan Lennox-Boyd, 232.

21 12 Nov. 1959, CPC (59)20, CAB 134/1558, TNA.

22 20 Nov. 1959, CPC(59), CAB 134/1558, TNA.

23 17 Nov. 1959, CPC (59)22, CAB 134/1558, TNA.

24 Minutes of CPC Meeting, 23 Nov. 1959, CAB 134/1558, TNA.

25 Telegram from the Secretary of State to Turnbull, 3 April 1959, FCO 141/17779, TNA.

26 Telegram from Secretary of State to Turnbull, 1 April 1960, CO822/2304, TNA.

27 10 April 1959, CPC (59)2, CAB 134/1558, TNA.

28 CPC Meeting, 17 April 1959, CAB 134/1558, TNA.

29 File note, 2 Feb. 1959, CO822/1819, TNA.

30 Note of Meeting, 25 April 1960, FCO141/17750, TNA.

31 Iliffe, Modern History of Tanganyika, 567.

32 Lohrmann, Voices from Tanganyika, 372; Pratt, Critical Phase, 23.

33 Listowel, Making of Tanganyika, 262, 290.

34 Geiger, TANU Women, 204.

35 Lohrmann, Voices from Tanganyika, 60.

36 Geiger, TANU Women, 8.

37 Note of a meeting, 16 Nov. 1959, CO822/1451, TNA.

38 Letter from Fletcher-Cooke to Cohen, 17 Sept. 1959, CO822/1454, TNA; Letter from Turnbull to Gorell Barnes 3 July 1959; Fletcher-Cooke's note of a Meeting with Nyerere, 15 Aug. 1959, FCO141/17757, TNA.

39 Telegram from Turnbull to Monson, 9 Sept. 1959, FCO141/17757, TNA.

40 Murphy, Alan Lennox-Boyd, 230.

41 Baker, Exit from Empire, 424.

42 Ibid., 252–53.

43 Listowel, Making of Tanganyika, 293.

44 Report by Tanganyika Special Branch on a Study of Pan-Africanism and its effect on Tanganyika, 2 Jan. 1959, FCO141/17923, TNA;Tanganyikan Standard, 20 Sept. 1958, excerpt contained in FCO141/17923, TNA.

45 Macmillan, Pointing the Way, 156.

46 See, for example, Letter from Scott to Lintott, 14 March 1960, DO35/7595, TNA, and Telegram from Nyasaland Information Department to the office of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 6 April 1960, DO35/7595, TNA.

47 Extract of note of meeting between Secretary of State for the Commonwealth Relations Office, Secretary of State for the Colonies and Brook, 14 April 60, DO35/7595, TNA.

48 Low, Eclipse of Empire, 225; Note for the record of a meeting between Macmillan, Home, Macleod and Brook, 14 April 1960, CO1015/2315, TNA.

49 Report 2 Jan. 1959, FCO141/17923, TNA; see also interview with Julius Nyerere with Ikaweba Bunting, New Internationalist, 309, Jan./Feb. 1999, 14; Nyerere in C. C. Harris and J. Nyerere, ‘Tanganyika Today’, International Affairs 36, no.1 (1960), Tanganyika Intelligence Summary, March 1960, 44, CO822/2061, TNA.

50 Report to Territorial Intelligence Committee, 29 Sept. 1959, FCO141/17924, TNA.

51 Review of Security Situation in East and Central African Territories, 12 March 1959, CO822/1322, TNA.

52 Hargreaves, Decolonization in Africa, 169.

53 Lohrmann, Voices from Tanganyika, 559.

54 Low, Eclipse of Empire, 217.

55 Stengers, ‘Precipitous Decolonization’, 305, 326.

56 Darwin, Britain and Decolonization, 252; Butler and Stockwell, ‘Introduction’, 7.

57 Fisher, Iain Macleod, 167.

58 Note from Foreign Office to certain HMG Representatives, 2 Feb. 1960, PREM11/2883, TNA.

59 Note of a meeting, 16 Nov. 1959, CO822/1451, TNA; Note of meeting between Fletcher-Cooke and four TANU elected ministers, 19 March 1960, FCO141/17779, TNA.

60 Note of a meeting between Macleod and Sears, 25 April 1960, FCO 141/ 17750, TNA.

61 Lohrmann, Voices from Tanganyika, 566.

62 Poynton, ‘View from the Colonial Office’, 23.

63 Fletcher-Cooke, ‘Governor as Man in the Middle’, 46.

64 Lohrmann, Voices from Tanganyika, 1.

65 Ibid., 545.

66 Letter from Cohen to Eastwood, 7 Nov. 1959, CO936/416, TNA; Letter from Cohen to Poynton, 26 Nov. 1959, CO936/416, TNA.

67 Telegram from Turnbull to Macleod, 14 Jan. 1960, CO822/1819, TNA.

68 Tanganyika Intelligence Appreciation for April 1960, CO822/2061, TNA.

69 John Darwin, End of Empire, 71, 73.

70 Africa: the Next Ten Years, 8 July 1959, para. 103, C(59) 109, TNA.

71 29 Feb. 1960, paras 26,27, C(60)35, CAB129/100, TNA.

72 10 April 1959, CPC(59)2, CAB134/1558, TNA.

73 Letter from Turnbull to Gorell Barnes, 13 June 1959, FCO141/17747, TNA;10 April 1959, CPC(59)2, CAB134/1558, TNA.

74 Ibid.

75 Letter from Turnbull to Gorell Barnes, 13 June 1959, FCO141/17747, TNA.

76 Minutes of meeting, 20 Nov. 1959, CPC (59), CAB134/1558, TNA.

77 White, Decolonisation, 31.

78 Hubbard, The United States, 259.

79 Kirkman, Transcript of a tape recorded interview, 29 Dec. 1967, with Iain Macleod, Special Collections, 5, BL; Hubbard, The United States, 257.

80 10 April 1959, CPC 59(2), CAB134/1557, TNA.

81 19 April 1959, CPC 59(2), CAB134/1557, TNA.

82 Turnbull to Monson, 1 Nov. 1960, CO822/2882, TNA; Macmillan to Foreign Secretary, 3 July 1959, PREM11/2587, TNA.

83 Appendix to a note sent by Macmillan to Diefenbaker, Menzies and Nash, 5 May 1960, PREM11/2909, TNA.

84 Heinlein, British Government Policy, 246.

85 Webber to Gorell Barnes, 10 June 1959, FCO822/1449, TNA; Telegram from Macleod to Turnbull, 3 June 1960, CO141/17779, TNA.

86 Minutes of Meeting 22 Nov. 1959, CPC (59), CAB134/1558, TNA; American Time Magazine, 22 Sept. 1958, excerpt in FCO141/17800, TNA. Julius Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, 59, Transcript of BBC Panorama interview, 4 Jan. 1960, accessed through FCO141/17767, TNA; Listowel, Making of Tanganyika, 367; Fletcher-Cooke's note of meeting with Nyerere, 15 Aug. 1959, FCO141/17767, TNA.

87 Tanganyika Standard, 12 March 1960, accessed through CO822/2040, TNA; Note from Perth to Webber, 18 March 1960, CO822/2304, TNA; Report on Nyerere and the East Afrika [sic] Convention, 31 March 1960, KV2/3892, TNA.

88 See Julius Kambarage Nyerere, KV2/3892, TNA.

89 Iain Macleod, Transcript of a tape-recorded interview, 29 December 1967, held at Special Collections. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 60. Memorandum from Macleod to Macmillan, 22 Nov. 1960, PREM11/3550, TNA; Report from Macleod to Macmillan, 31 May 1960, PREM11/3240, TNA; Note from Macleod to Macmillan, 22 Nov. 1960, CO822/2300, TNA.

90 Iain Macleod, Transcript of a tape-recorded interview, 29 December 1967, held at Special Collections. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 10.

91 Fletcher-Cooke, ‘Governor as Man in the Middle’, 47.

92 Report from I. V. Carrel, 16 Feb. 1960, FCO141/17768, TNA.

93 Telegram from Turnbull to Gorell Barnes, 11 March 1959, CO822/1322, TNA.

94 Letter from Gratan-Bellow to Mathieson, 26 Feb. 1958, FCO141/17918, TNA.

95 Telegram from Turnbull to Macleod, 20 Aug. 1959, FCO141/17757, TNA.

96 Telegram from Monson to Turnbull, 2 Aug. 1960, CO822/2040, TNA.

97 Letter from Turnbull to Webber, 14 Feb. 1959, CO822/1322, TNA.

98 Telegram from Turnbull to Macleod, 28 Aug. 1959, FCO141/17757, TNA.

99 Report from Macleod to Macmillan, 29 Dec. 1959, PREM11/2586, TNA.

100 Telegram Turnbull to Gorell Barnes, 10 May 1959, CO822/1449, TNA;Memo from ‘NDW’ to Gorell Barnes, 1 May 1959, CO822/1322, TNA.

101 Note by Rolfe, 27 Oct. 1959, CO822/1450, TNA.

102 Note from Bligh to Macmillan, 18 Nov. 1959, PREM11/3550, TNA.

103 Fletcher-Cooke's note of meeting with Nyerere, 15 Aug. 1959, FCO141/17757, TNA.

104 Memorandum by Macleod to the Colonial Policy Committee, 12 Nov. 1959, CAB134/1558, TNA.

105 Telegram Fletcher-Cooke to Macleod, 26 Oct. 1959, FCO141/17757, TNA;Note from Webber to Monson, 21 March 1960, CO822/2304, TNA.

106 Letter Fletcher-Cooke to Monson, 28 Jan. 1960, FCO141/17779, TNA;Tanganyika Intelligence Summary, March 1960, CO822/20161, TNA.

107 Letter Fletcher-Cooke to Monson, 28 Jan. 1960, FCO141/17779,TNA;Telegram Turnbull to Monson, 21 March 1960, FCO141/17779, TNA.

108 Transcript of news item by Tanganyika Broadcasting Corporation, 5 March 1960, contained in CO822/2040, TNA.

109 Telegram from Macleod to Turnbull, 14 April 1960, FCO141/17750, TNA;Tanganyika Intelligence Summary, March 1960, CO822/2061, TNA.

110 Telegram Turnbull to Monson, 21 March 1960, FCO141/17779, TNA;Report from Director of Tanganyikan Police, 14 March 1960, FCO141/17768, TNA.

111 Tanganyika Standard, 19 Feb. 1960, excerpt in FCO141/17779, TNA.

112 Listowel, Making of Tanganyika, 307.

113 Telegram Turnbull to Macleod, 28 March 1960, FCO141/17779, TNA.

114 Tanganyika Intelligence Summary, March 1960, CO822/2061, TNA.

115 Fletcher-Cooke note of a meeting with Mason Sears, 19 April 1960, FCO141/17750, TNA.

116 Telegram Fletcher-Cooke to Monson, 21 April 1960, FCO141/17750, TNA.

117 Ibid.

118 Tanganyika Intelligence Summary, March 1960, CO822/2061, TNA.

119 Note of a Meeting between Macleod and the UN Visiting Mission, 25 April 1960, FCO141/17750, TNA.

120 Note of a Meeting between Macleod and Sears, 25 April 1960, FCO141/17750, TNA.

121 Shepherd, Iain Macleod, 256.

122 Memorandum of Monson, 21 July 1960, CO822/ 2299, TNA.

123 Memorandum of Martin, 22 July 1960, CO822/2299, TNA;see also Baker, Exit from Empire, 254–55.

124 Note for Macmillan prepared by RBM King, 4 April 1960, PREM11/2893, TNA.

125 Millman, British Somaliland, 263.

126 Ibid., 284.

127 Note for Macmillan prepared by RBM King, 4 April 1960, PREM11/2893, TNA.

128 Note from Macleod to Macmillan, 3 May 1960, PREM11/2893, TNA.

129 Telegram from Robertson to Webber, 12 Dec. 1959, Telegram from Crawford to Webber, 10 Dec. 1959, Telegram from Turnbull to Webber, 8 Dec. 1959, CO1015/1922, TNA.

130 Telegram from Coutts to Webber, 11 Dec. 1959, CO1015, TNA.

131 Letter from Turnbull to Macleod, 7 April 1960, FCO141/17779, TNA.

132 Nyerere, Freedom and Unity, 45.

133 Note for Macmillan prepared by RBM King, 4 April 1960, PREM/2893, TNA.

134 Note Macleod to Macmillan, 3 May 1960, PREM11/2893, TNA;Note for Macmillan prepared by RBM King, 4 April 1960, PREM11/2893, TNA.

135 Butler, Britain and Empire, 136.

136 Minutes of Colonial Policy Committee, 27 April 1960, CAB134/1559, TNA.

137 Brown and Louis, Oxford History, vol. 4, 698; Constitutional Development of the Commonwealth, 23 July 1960, CAB133/200, TNA.

138 Report of Macmillan's speech to the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, The Times, 19 March 1960.

139 29 Feb. 1960, para. 13 (e), C(60) 35, CAB129/100, TNA.

140 Darwin, Britain and Decolonisation, 298.

141 Macmillan note to Diefenbaker, Menzies and Nash, 5 May 1960, and appended report, PREM11/2909, TNA;29 Feb. 1960, paras 13 (a),31, C(60) 35, CAB129/100, TNA.

142 Hemming, ‘Macmillan and End of British Empire’, 101.

143 Macmillan note to Diefenbaker, Menzies and Nash, 5 May 1960, and appended report, PREM11/2909, TNA.

144 Miller, Survey of Commonwealth Affairs, 112.

145 Wind of Change speech. document 32 in Hyam and Louis, The Conservative Government; Heinlein, British Government Policy, 246.

146 29 Feb. 1960, para.14 (b), C(60), CAB 129/100, TNA.

147 Cordier and Foote, Public Papers, 573.

148 Telegram from British Embassy Kuala Lumpur to CRO, 27 April 1960, PREM11/3112, TNA.

149 Macmillan's note of telephone conversation with Diefenbaker, 7 May 1960, PREM11/ 3112, TNA.

150 Butler, Britain and Empire, 136.

151 Macmillan, Pointing the Way, 170.

152 Manuscript Diary of Harold Macmillan, 6 May 2015, BL.

153 Ibid., 169.

154 The Times, 9 May 1960.

155 Telegram from Macleod to Commonwealth leaders, 6 May 1960, CO822/1919, TNA.

156 Hansard HC Debate, 10 May 1960, vol. 623 cc 200-3.

157 Minutes of meeting, 11 May 1960, CAB133/249, TNA.

158 Minute of Lord Perth, 26 July 1960, CO822/2299, TNA.

159 Fisher, Iain Macleod, 46.

160 Iain Macleod, Transcript of a tape-recorded interview, 29 December 1967, held at Special Collections. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 16.

161 Lloyd Phillips I., Transcript of a tape recorded interview with Sir John Fletcher-Cooke, 38, Special Collections, BL.

162 Cohen ‘“A Difficult, Tedious and Unwanted Task”’, 119.

163 Cf. ‘it has been our aim in the countries for which we have borne responsibility … to create a society that respects the rights of individuals … in which individual merit and individual merit alone is the criterion for man's advancement … In countries inhabited by several different races it has been our aim to find means by which the community can become more of a community’. Wind of Change speech, document 32 in Hyam and Louis, The Conservative Government .

164 Minutes of 11 May 1960 meeting, CAB133/249, TNA.

165 Letter from Cohen to Eastwood, 22 June 1960, CO822/2299, TNA.

166 Iain Macleod, Transcript of a tape-recorded interview, 29 December 1967, held at Special Collections. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 11; Macpherson, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, 313.

167 Iain Macleod, Transcript of a tape-recorded interview, 29 December 1967, held at Special Collections. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 11.

168 17 Nov. 1959, CPC (59) 22, CAB134/1558, TNA.

169 Minute of Macleod, 28 July 1960, CO822/2299, TNA.

170 Ross, Colonialism to Cabinet Crisis, 200. Hargreaves, Decolonisation in Africa, 196.

171 Heinlein, British Government Policy, 237.

172 Shepherd, Iain Macleod, 180.

173 Stockwell, ‘Ends of Empire’, 281.

174 Low, Eclipse of Empire, 263.

175 Darwin, Britain and Decolonisation, 25.

176 Miller, Survey of Commonwealth Affairs, 112.