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ABSTRACT
In the age of decolonisation, Whitehall generally accepted the case for political advancement even in small British colonies like St Helena judged too lacking in resources to become independent states, provided this could be granted without risk to good government. The previous experience of Sir John Field in West Africa and his sensitivity to UN expectations lay behind the democratic reforms he introduced, which by 1968 had established an elected Legislative Council and an Executive Council made up mainly of LegCo members. But the steps he took owed little to sustained popular demand for self-government, as was common elsewhere, and much to his determination to make islanders politically more responsible. Public engagement was inhibited by practical constraints, local culture and a discouraging financial dependence on the UK government.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The governor’s responsibilities also included supervision of the separate administrations in Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.
2. Little has been written about, especially, the modern history of St Helena, but see Gosse, St Helena; Cross, St Helena; Smallman, Quincentenary. Unreferenced quotations from primary sources are from Field’s journal, Field Papers, Mss.Brit.Emp.s.566, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Referenced sources include Lady Margaret Field’s unpublished Memoirs and Diaries also in Field Papers (hereafter, MF), records in St Helena Government Archives (hereafter SHGA), Cabinet, Colonial Office, Dominions Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Overseas Development and Treasury papers in the National Archives, Kew (hereafter CAB, CO, DO, FCO, OD, T, TNA); TUC Archive, Modern Records Centre, Warwick University (hereafter MRC); TUC Library, London Metropolitan University (hereafter LMU); Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos Papers, National Library of Wales (hereafter NLW).
3. ‘St Helena Order in Council 1956’, ‘St Helena Royal Instructions 1956’, CO1024/326, TNA.
4. ‘St Helena (Constitution) Order 1966’, St Helena Government Gazette, 6 Jan, 1967, CO1058/32, TNA.
5. Among the considerable scholarly literature see, for succinct assessments, Darwin, End of the British Empire; McIntyre, British Decolonization; Holland, European Decolonization; plus Hyam, Britain’s Declining Empire, based substantially on UK government sources.
6. McIntyre, ‘The Admission of Small States to the Commonwealth’.
7. Morgan, Colonial Development, vol. 5; McIntyre, Winding Up the British Empire. For a selection from the immense documentation, see the British Documents on the End of Empire series, covering the years 1945–71: Hyam, ed., The Labour Government; Goldsworthy, ed., The Conservative Government 1951–1957; Hyam and Louis, eds, The Conservative Government 1957–1964; Ashton and Louis, eds, East of Suez. Particularly important documents in National Archives include CAB134/56, CA1(49), 19 Jan. 1949; CO967/146, March 1951; CAB129/77/133, CP(55)133, 27 Sept. 1955; CAB134/1556, CPC(57)30, 6 Sept. 1957; CO1032/234, Oct. 1962; CO1032/400, 10 April and 20 June 1963; CO1032/404, 26 May 1965; CAB148/22, OPD(65)127, 14 Sept. 1965.
8. See, for example, references in CAB129/33/2, CP(49)62, 10 March 1949; CAB129/77/33, CP(55)133, 27 Sept. 1955; minute by Chadwick, 11 Dec. 1958, DO35/7873; memo 27 Sept. 1963, CO1032/400; memo 3 Feb. 1965, CO1032/403, TNA. For case studies of constitutional change in other ‘small colonies’ and of the remaining legacies of empire see Aldrich and Connell, Last Colonies; Drower, Britain’s Dependent Territories; McIntyre, Winding up the British Empire; Constantine, Community and Identity.
9. Foreign and Commonwealth Office, The Overseas Territories, Cm 8374, Parliamentary Paper, 2012.
10. Governor Davis to CO, 5 May, 12 Dec. and Confidential Dispatch, 5 May 1933; Governor Joy to CO, 20 Jan. 1949, 16 Sept. 1953; Governor Harford to CO, 23 Jan. 1954, SHGA; Joy to Committee of Enquiry into Constitutional Development in Smaller Colonial Territories, 23 Nov. 1949, CO537/4389, TNA.
11. Joy to CO, 11 Oct. 1949, SHGA; paper by Joy, Nov. 1949, CO537/4391; Joy to Sidebotham, 8 Aug 1952, CO1024/67, TNA.
12. Correspondence and minutes, 12 Feb. 1954–28 May 1956, CO1024/188 and /189, TNA; Harford’s speeches to joint meeting of Executive and Advisory Councils, 22 July 1955, 27 Aug. 1956, 29 Nov. 1957, SHGA.
13. Constantine, ‘Cledwyn Hughes’; Callaghan to Hughes, 27 March 1958, enclosing Wells to Labour Party, 27 Jan. 1958, NLW; Hughes, Report of an Enquiry; for governor’s indignant response, CO1024/276, TNA; Hughes, parliamentary questions, 16 Feb. 1960–4 Dec. 1962, Hansard, House of Commons.
14. Schulenburg, ‘Transient Observations’, 275–77; Nicholson, 19 March 1959, Ward to Secretary of State, 26 Aug. 1960, Mss292/966.9/1, MRC; Ward letters, The St Helena Wirebird (hereafter Wirebird), 1954–8, SHGA.
15. St Helena News Review (hereafter SHNR), 26 July–16 Aug., 27 Sept., 18 Oct., 20 Dec. 1958, SHGA; Alford to CO, 16 Aug. 1958, CO1024/276, TNA; Ward to TUC, 5 May and to Hughes 13 July 1959, Mss 292/ 966.9/1, MRC; correspondence and minutes, 22 June–6 Nov 1959, CO1023/275; report by government secretary, with Alford to CO, 23 Sept. 1959, CO1024/275, TNA; GWU photographs in Schulenburg, ‘Transient Observations’, 276, and St Helena Museum.
16. Ward to CO, 17 April 1959, CO1024/277; Emanuel to Alford, 1 Dec. 1959, CO1024/275, TNA; Wirebird, April 1959; Voice of the Union, 1961–62, copies in SHGA, MRC, LMU.
17. For connections between colonial trade unionism and political activism, see near contemporary accounts in Meynaud and Bey, Trade Unionism, 49–80; Roberts, Labour in the Tropical Territories, 85–121, 123, including membership numbers in 1958 and 1960; see also Cohen, Labour and Politics; Constantine, Community and Identity, 321–31, 346–49, 381–84.
18. Alford to CO, 25 April 1958, minutes and subsequent correspondence, CO1024/233; CO-Treasury correspondence concerning low wages and poor nutrition, 7 Oct. 1958–5 Aug. 1959, T220/552, TNA.
19. Emanuel to CO, 28 March–8 April 1959, CO1024/233; ‘Report on a Visit to St Helena, March–April 1959’, CO1024/260, TNA.
20. Correspondence and minutes, 7 April 1959–4 Jan 1960, and 22 Jan. 1960–25 Oct. 1962, esp. Macleod to Fenner Brockway, 15 Feb., and Fraser to Hughes, 27 April 1961, CO1024/252, and /326, TNA; Macleod, 13 June 1961, Hansard, House of Commons; Alford’s Address to the Advisory Council, 7 Oct. 1959, CO1024/244, TNA; correspondence, including with Ward, Hughes and CO, May 1959–March 1962, especially Ward to Secretary of State, 26 Aug. 1960, ‘Note on Telephone Conversation’ with Pettitt in CO, 8 Sept., and Ward to Woodcock, 9 Oct. 1961, Mss 292/966.9/1 and 292B/966.7/2, MRC; SHNR, 29 Aug. 1959; Wirebird, editorial, Jan. 1961.
21. Minute by Emanuel, 11 Aug. 1961, OD8/110, TNA.
22. Details of Field’s career are derived from Colonial Office Lists; Who Was Who 1981–90; The Times, 27 Feb. 1962 and 18 March 1985; Memoirs and Diaries, MF. For the politics of change in Nigeria and the Cameroons, see introduction and documents in Lynn, Nigeria.
23. Report of Field meeting at TUC, 26 March 1962, Mss 292B/966.7/2, MRC; CO meeting with Field and Alford, 30 March 1962, CO1024/326, TNA.
24. Voice of the Union, 10 Feb. 1962, MRC and LMU; Acting Governor to CO, 17 March 1962, CO1024/326, TNA.
25. Alford to Eastwood, 21 March 1962, CO1024/326, TNA.
26. Minute by Browning, 15 Nov., Emanuel to Alford, 17 Nov., Fraser to Hughes, 17 Nov. 1960, Hughes to CO, 2 May 1961 and 18 April 1962, CO1024/326; background note on Hughes Parliamentary Question, 12 April 1962, CO1024/328, TNA; Ward to Hughes, 6 June 1961, NLW; Woodcock to Ward, 11 Sept. 1961, Mss 292B/966.7/2, MRC.
27. Emanuel to Alford, 10 Jan. and Alford to CO, 17 Oct. 1961, CO 1024/326; background note for reply to Hughes Parliamentary question, 13 June 1961, CO1024/355, TNA; Alford to CO, 23 June 1961, and Alford to Executive and Advisory Councils, 22 Nov. 1961, SHGA.
28. Acting Governor to CO, 17 March, CO to Acting Governor, 27 March, minute by Pettitt, 30 March, and Hughes to Fraser, 18 April 1962, CO1024/326, TNA; Ward to Woodcock, 30 April 1962, Mss 292B/966.7/2, MRC; Voice of the Union, 10 Feb 1962, MRC and LMU, and, 7 April 1962, in SHGA; SHNR, 14 April 1962.
29. Field to Poynton, 17 Dec. 1962, CO1024/473, TNA.
30. Field to Eastwood, 30 April 1963, CO1024/497; Field to CO, 23 Sept. 1963, CO1024/561, TNA.
31. SHNR, 3 Aug. 1963; Field to Eastwood, 26 Aug. 1963, CO1024/497, TNA.
32. SHNR, 7 Sept. 1963; Wirebird, Aug. 1963.
33. SHNR, 14 Sept. 1963; Wirebird, Sept. 1963.
34. Wirebird, Oct. 1963.
35. SHNR, 4, 11 Sept., 20 Nov. 1965.
36. Wirebird, Oct. 1963.
37. Calculated from Field’s journals.
38. Wirebird, Oct 1963; ‘Report of the Advisory Committee on the Improvement of the Housing Population, 17 Jan 1964’, SHGA; Field to Eastwood, 31 Jan. 1964, CO1024/497, TNA.
39. Field to Eastwood, 30 Sept., 4 Oct. 1965, minutes, Eastwood to Field, 1 Dec. 1965, CO1024/472, TNA.
40. Field to Eastwood, 9 March 1966, CO1024/598, TNA.
41. Eastwood to Field, 23 May 1966, CO1024/598; correspondence and minutes, Sept.–Nov. 1966, CO1058/32, TNA.
42. Field to Staveley, 21 Nov. 1967, FCO42/273, TNA.
43. SHNR, 28 Oct. 1967–13 Jan. 1968.
44. SHNR, 17 Feb. 1968.
45. SHNR, 30 March 1968.
46. ‘Record of Talks with Sir John Field’, 26–27 June 1968, FCO42/275, TNA. The Colonial Office and the Commonwealth Relations Office had been merged to form the Commonwealth Office on 1 August 1966, prior to its own absorption into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 17 Oct 1968.
47. Smallman, Quincentenary, for constitutional changes to 2002.
48. SHNR reports; Haselhurst report, 1972, FCO44/945; Guy to FCO, 5 Dec, 1980, FCO44/2200, TNA.
49. Field to Kisch, 31 Aug. 1962, CO1024/326; Field to Eastwood, 28 Sept. 1962, CO1024/336, TNA; Weston to Field, 1962, Mss Atlan.s.9, Bodleian Library, Oxford; Ward to Hughes, 29 April 1965, CO1024/572, TNA.
50. Voice of the Union, 30 Nov. 1962, 21 Nov. 1964, and Ward ‘Circular’, 3 Oct. 1964, SHGA and LMU; Ward to TUC, 20 Oct. 1964, Mss292B/966.7/2, MRC; report on GWU meeting with Armstrong and Harrison, 23 July, and their reports, Sept. and Oct. 1965, CO1024/530, TNA.
51. ‘Political parties in St Helena’, 1973, FCO44/933; Guy to CRO, 10 Feb. 1977, FCO44/1546, TNA; author's interview with Mr Eric Benjamin, former GWU general secretary, St Helena, 1 Dec 2012.
52. Field to Eastwood, 30 April 1963, CO1024/497, TNA. Still an unresolved issue in 1987, when around 75 per cent of those in employment were thereby excluded: W.W. Wallace, ‘Review of the Constitution of St Helena’, Senate House Library, London University.
53. Field to Commonwealth Office, 22 Nov. 1966, CO1058/32; ‘Record of Talks with Sir John Field’, 26–27 June 1968, FCO42/275, TNA. Councillors were not paid until 1997.
54. Census of the Population of St Helena and Ascension Island 1966; Armstrong report, Sept. 1965, CO1024/530, TNA; reports of the Bishop of St Helena’s Commission on Citizenship, St Helena: The Lost County of England, 1994, Senate House Library, London University, and St Helena: a British Island, 1997, Bodleian Library, Oxford; Moore, ‘Debris of Empire’.
55. Wallace, ‘Review of the Constitution of St Helena’.
56. Among many critical comments on standards of education, emigration of teaching staff, staff shortages, effects on aspirations and implications for political engagement, see St Helena Annual Reports, almost every year 1948–57. See also Harford, 20 July and Sidebotham 16 Sept 1954, CO1024/188, TNA, and reports referenced above by Hughes, 1958 (note 13), Emanuel, 1959 (note 19), and Harrison and Armstrong, 1965 (note 50); plus Cohen, ‘Education for Dependence', 1983, and John Marek M.P. and especially reports by Hughes, 1958, Emanuel, 1959, Harrison and Armstrong, 1965; Harford, 20 July 1954, minute, 16 Sept. 1954, CO1024/188, TNA; Cohen, ‘Education for Dependence’; John Marek MP and Jonathan Sayeed MP, St Helena The Isolated Island, 1984 (copy in St Helena Public Library). See also Evans, Schooling, 120–1, 137–40 and, for recent scholarships awarded for university study abroad, 186, 206.
57. On politics in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, see Field’s journals; the memoirs of his successor Smith, An Island; Macdonald, Cinderellas; McIntyre, Winding up the British Empire.
58. Wirebird, Ward letter, June 1958; Voice of the Union, [June 1961?] SHGA, LMU; report by Lewis, CO1024/275, TNA.
59. Field to Poynton, 17 Dec. 1962, CO1024/473, TNA.
60. See, among much else, Hughes, Report, 1958; Field to Poynton, 17 Dec. 1962, CO1024/473, TNA; Ward to Woodcock, 29 June 1963, Mss292B/966.7/2, MRC; report by Harrison, 7 Sept. 1965, CO1024/530; Guy to FCO, 5 Aug. 1980, FCO44/2198, TNA.
61. Nothing to the contrary is suggested in Cannan, Churches.
62. Summarised in St Helena Annual Reports.
63. Forcefully criticised by Cohen, ‘Welfare Colonialism’.
64. For lively examples, see Constantine, Community and Identity, chs 9–10.
65. St Helena Annual Reports; Table 1.2, ‘UK Aid to St Helena’ http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/2012.13-Statistical-Yearbook-completed-PDF.pdf, accessed 19 March 2015; Royle, Geography of Islands, 217–18; Morgan, Official History, especially vol. 3, 271–317.
66. Argued in 1965 by visiting MPs Armstrong and Harrison, C01024/530; in 1983 by Gillett, ‘Developing St Helena’ (he had been government treasurer and development secretary, 1978–81), and in 2012 by Benjamin, interview. A diffidence was said to inhibit elected councillors for similar reasons, even in the post-1982 Falkland Islands: Cawkell, History of the Falkland Islands, 150.
67. http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/vision/sustainable-development-plan-sdp-2014-17/, accessed 19 March 2015.