Given in the House of Lords on March 12th, 1979
"My Lords, when following a speaker
in your Lordships' House, it is customary to comment
on the statements that he has made. I have the greatest
respect for the noble Lord, Lord Brockway, but I
disagree fundamentally with the statement he made
that there has ever been what he has termed a colonial
revolution. For some 30 years I served as a colonial
overseas officer. I went out from this country about
50 years ago, not in the belief that I and those who
served with me were the most superior beings on this
earth, but in the belief that we had a duty to serve. When
I travelled over that long distance this was borne in
upon me by the fact that we had a British Navy in the
Mediterranean, in the Far East and in the Atlantic
Ocean, and when I arrived it seemed to me that that
Navy was keeping the peace of the world, which all
peoples of the world enjoyed.
Following on from that, I remember meeting Mr.
Ormsby-Gore, as he then was -- a Secretary of State
some 50 years ago -- when I, as a young man of 20
years of age, had a conversation with him. He turned
to me and said "Do you know why you are here?"
Young as I was, I was completely overcome by his
words to me. However, he went on to say "You are
here to lead these people to self-government" . That was
50 years ago; and that was what we were involved in.
In following up my reasoning behind all this, I know
from my personal experience that it is always an
anxious time for Her Majesty's Government when
deciding at any one moment when a particular country
is ready for self-government. We had a responsibility
for those people whom we were endeavouring to serve.
This country had a responsibility to ensure that when
it was handing over government to independent nations,
they were fully equipped and able to carry out that
task to the benefit of their own people in those
territories. That is my answer to the speech of the
noble Lord, Lord Brockway.
This evening, I am immensely grateful to the noble
Lord, Lord Greenwood of Rossendale, for introducing
this debate. It is most timely. When we consider that
our former colonial empire -- now devolved to
independent nationhood -- extends to over one quarter
of the earth's surface, it is of immense importance --
and this underlines the remarks that I have just made --
that what independent nations believe of us and
we of them should be accurate and true. It is because I
value the continuance of the Commonwealth that it is
most important to underline that precept: accurate and
true -- for, in the years following victory in the last
war, we have come to doubt some of the principles
which governed our colonies and to place tradition
under the microscope. This tearing up of the roots for minute examination and scrutiny of the fundamental
beliefs of our forefathers which gave us a stable society
has extended over the whole of our political spectrum,
and has not escaped the distortions spoken and
written about our colonial policy.
If we want the concept of the Commonwealth to
succeed -- and I want it to succeed -- let those in this
country who must one day (when we are no longer
alive) by the natural progress of affairs succeed to the
positions that we hold, know the truth of our past.
Otherwise, our young people will lose any interest in
the Commonwealth and it will die. Let me quote an
example of what I mean. In our British schools where
African and British boys study together, among many
of the emotive statements in a book on Africa there is
this -- and what conceivable good can it do to the
fostering of good Commonwealth relations for African
boys and British boys to read this about Africa in our
schools?:--
"European interests always came before the
interests of those people overseas" .
That is entirely false, and that I know from my
experience.
I can say to your Lordships that remarks of the kind
that I have depicted appear in the books written by some
of our academics, whose grey matter is vastly superior
to mine, and that in isolated cases statements of this
kind fall from the lips of some of our politicians.
I cannot believe that in either category these gentlemen
have had my experience as a colonial officer in
Malaysia for some 30 years when it was my duty to give
effect to your colonial policies. That applied to all
territories under the administration of the Colonial
Office. Therefore, I am in a position categorically to
deny that it was ever the policy of the Colonial Office to
place the interests of this country before those of any
overseas territories, or to carry out a policy to their
detriment.
Let me face squarely the charge of exploitation.
Yes, this country benefited by its association with our
overseas territories, and so did they. That is a fact.
Let me illustrate that statement from my own
experience. As a former Commissioner of
Customs and Excise in Malaysia, I am in a position to
state that every dollar and cent of the huge revenues
that we collected from the export of rubber and tin, the
import duties and the Excise duties was ploughed back
into the construction of roads, ports, electrical
installations, hospitals, schools, et cetera. All those
were handed over by Britain as going concerns at the
time of independence and, under an independent
government -- I have taken the trouble to research this
-- they have, to their eternal credit, greatly extended
those facilities. That is the position today.
I believe that there is a dire need for an international
public relations officer for the Commonwealth, or a
need for an historian, to comment on the Commonwealth's
affairs. The part played by Britain in the past has been entirely honourable. In this country our
children should know that. So should the children in
the independent nations of the Commonwealth. Only
then can they look each other straight in the face.
We are now removed from close contact with our
overseas friends for, by virtue of their independence,
we no longer live among them. That makes it more important
than ever for us and for future generations,
accurately and faithfully to record these overseas people
who helped us. I believe that the future of the
Commonwealth depends upon this. Given that our
record is faithfully kept, the Commonwealth can be
strengthened by its young people, for boundaries are
coming down and the isolation of distance will be
removed by the speed of travel. The truth about our
past will fortify them and us in the years ahead in
a Commonwealth association with one another which
I hope will continue.
It has been my privilege to be a colonial officer in
Malaysia when Colonial Secretaries of some standing
visited that country. To mention only a few whom
one remembers with affection, there were the late Jim
Griffths and Oliver Lyttleton. I remember the visit of
the noble Earl, Lord Listowel. I remember too on this
Commonwealth Day the joy of the Malaysian people
at the appointment of Sir Hugh Clifford as
Governor and High Commissioner for the Malay
States. That was many years ago when I was a
young cadet in Malaya. At that time, the Malays were
thrilled because when Sir Hugh was appointed he had,
some years prior to that date, endeared himself to the
peoples of Pahang as a young cadet and district
officer. There are many books about Sir Hugh, and
many books about Malaya which are worth reading and
which could possibly be studied in our schools and
certainly by the young people of this country.
I remember too Sir Frank Swettenham and also Sir
Shenton Thomas, Governor and High Commissioner
in 1940, who, when it was obvious that the Japanese
attack on Malaysia in December 1941 and February
1942 would succeed, stated that it was the duty of every
colonial officer to remain and share the sufferings
of the Malaysian people-- those people whom we had
endeavoured to serve. So far as I am aware, every
colonial officer followed the Governor's advice. This
was in the highest traditions of the Service. I am most
grateful for the tributes which have been paid to the
Colonial Service this evening by noble Lords and
particularly by the noble Lord, Lord Greenwood, who
introduced this debate.
It is not my purpose to mention what happened
afterwards during imprisonment in Changi Jail, but it is
appropriate to remember with gratitude and even affection
on this Commonwealth Day those Malayan
people who died so that some of us in Changi might live.
They were discovered sending in to the jail food and
drugs to help us when we were desperately short of
both. For this many of them suffered torture; some of
them suffered execution. But does not this act underwrite
the strong bonds which existed between us and
those people who were the recipients of our service?
It is nonsense to say that we were not wanted
anywhere. At the granting of independence some of
these people expressed regret to me personally at our
impending departure. In conclusion, I remember one
incident which I think is appropriate to what we are
thinking about tonight. As a young officer many years
ago when wireless communication first became possible,
it was a great thrill for us to listen to England some
12,000 miles away, and I remember the occasion when
Her Majesty's grandfather, who seemed to be very tired
at that time, went down to receive the congratulations
of both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall at
the end of a long reign. As we were listening to this
many miles from anywhere a young Malay turned to me
and said, "You know, having heard him speak, I feel
it makes me want to do something better with my
own life."
My Lords, that is my feeling about the Commonwealth.
I am grateful to the noble Lord for introducing
this debate. It is most timely. I believe in the
Commonwealth's future. I am most grateful for some
of the speeches I have heard this evening. They give me
hope, and I hope that they will be of assistance to Her
Majesty's Government."
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