The Announcement of August 20th, 1917

1968 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Danzig
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Single Event ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
The Third ◽  
Responsible Government ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Governing Institutions

On August 20th, 1917, Edwin Montagu declared in the House of Commons that: “the policy of His Majesty's Government … is that of the … gradual development of self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire.” This announcement, more than any other single event, may properly be described as signalling the creation of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms and the breakup of the third British Empire. It affirmed that a nonwhite portion of the empire could aspire to the same goal of self-government as the white colonies of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa had successively achieved.

Curzon and Indian Reform

1993 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin J. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Parliamentary Government ◽  
Parliamentary System ◽  
Responsible Government ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
The Many ◽  
Indian Reform ◽  
Governing Institutions ◽  
The Way

Lord Curzon was the imperial gatekeeper who opened the way to parliamentary government in India by composing Edwin Montagu's declaration of 20 August 1917. He defined British policy as ‘the increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions, with a view to the progressive realization of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire’. Curzon himself acknowledged his authorship in an endorsement on his own printed copy of the declaration. On the eve of the War Cabinet's agreement to the declaration he included his proposed key words in a letter to Montagu, a document strangely overlooked in all of the many accounts of the matter. The only Cabinet departure from Curzon's key words was the substitution of ‘progressive’ for ‘fuller’. Montagu questioned the latter term and Curzon proposed the former. There was nothing impromptu about the drafting. For months variations on it had been floated in correspondence between the authorities in India and London. The use and meaning of ‘self-government’ had been widely canvassed. It is generally understood that ‘responsible government’ went beyond ‘self-government’, for in constitutional parlance it must mean a parliamentary system (with a responsible executive), whereas ‘self-government’ might be achievable in non-Westminster forms. The justification for dyarchy, the essence of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, lay in its apparent satisfaction of the declaration's espousal of the principle of responsiblity.

Ein föderales Imperium?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Rummel
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
British Empire ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Military Personnel ◽  
The Other ◽  
The 19Th Century

The previously ignored model of Greek colonisation attracted numerous actors from the 19th century British empire: historians, politicians, administrators, military personnel, journalists or anonymous commentators used the ancient paradigm to advocate a global federation exclusively encompassing Great Britain and the settler colonies in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Unlike other historical templates, Greek colonisation could be viewed as innovative and unspent: innovative because of the possibility of combining empire and liberty and unspent due to its very novelty, which did not contain the ‘imperial vice’ the other models had so often shown and which had always led to their political and cultural decline.

The Rise of Colonial Federation as an Object of British Policy, 1850-1870

1971 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce A. Knox
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
North America ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
British North America ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Commitments ◽  
Colonial Office ◽  
At Home

When the third Earl Grey attempted, between 1846 and 1851, to promote federations in Australasia, South Africa, and British North America, he found scant support either at home or in the colonies concerned. He failed (except, in a sense, in New Zealand) partly because his schemes were more visionary than practically suited to existing colonial conditions, and partly because measures “imposed by the imperial authority” were apt to encounter difficulties abroad and, therefore, political trouble at home. Following Grey's departure from the Colonial Office, imperial policy makers refrained from prescribing federal systems for the settlement colonies. His abortive plans, however, had consequences during the next twenty years which, though different from Grey's intentions, amply vindicated the ability of the imperial government to exert its authority, and established, in the end, the desirability of colonial federations. For a decade and a half after 1850, the home government repeatedly and successfully frustrated local proposals for federation in the three continental groups of colonies. Then, between 1864 and 1870, it hurried to completion the union of British North America, and set about promoting that of South Africa. At the same time, it refrained from pressing any such development upon Australia, and actually arranged the dismantling of New Zealand's federal/provincial system.No inconsistency was involved. Britain's policy towards all these colonies was designed in favor of its own interests, tempered by a remarkable consideration of those of the colonies. The chief imperial object during the period in question (c. 1850-1870) was to reduce the country's military and political commitments; and the chosen device for the purpose was encouragement of colonial self-government, in various forms, including republican independence in the Boer states of South Africa.

The Administration of Mandates by the British Dominions

1934 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucretia L. Ilsley
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
West Africa ◽  
British Empire ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
South West ◽  
Large Island ◽  
Western Samoa ◽  
South West Africa

The former German colonies occupied by the Dominions in 1914 were entrusted to them, as mandatories under the League of Nations, at the Peace Conference of 1919. Of these territories, administered as C mandates since December, 1920, three are located in the South Seas. Western Samoa, now a mandate1 of New Zealand, is the larger part of a small group of islands; New Guinea, a mandate of Australia, consists of the northwestern portion of the large island of New Guinea and numerous smaller islands; while Nauru, a British Empire mandate administered by Australia, is a tiny phosphate island. The fourth Dominion mandate, South-West Africa, is a large and somewhat arid territory adjoining the Union of South Africa, which acts as mandatory.

scholarly journals African Biochemists Plan More Collaboration

2000 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 21-21
Author(s):  
Peter N. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
American Association ◽  
The Third ◽  
Pan American ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Regional Organisation ◽  
Similar Organisation ◽  
The Way

The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) was the first regional organisation of biochemists, holding its first congress in London in 1964. There followed the creation of the Pan American Association of Biochemical Societies (PAABS) and then the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Biochemists (FAOB). An obvious development was the formation of a similar organisation to take care of Africa, but this proved impossible so long as apartheid survived in South Africa. With the removal of the latter, the way was clear for the foundation of the Federation of African Societies of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (FASBMB). The first congress of the new federation was held in Nairobi in September 1996 under the Presidency of Prof. Dominic Makawiti of Nairobi University. Among the 300 participants were representatives from 19 countries in Africa. The second congress was held at Potchefstroom in South Africa in 1998 and the third was just held in Cairo.

scholarly journals “The Statute of Westminster, 1931: An Irish Perspective”

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 749-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Mohr
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
British Empire ◽  
The Self ◽  
Free State ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
History Of ◽  
Irish Free State ◽  
White Settlement

The enactment of the Statute of Westminster in 1931 represents one of the most significant events in the history of the British Empire. The very name of this historic piece of legislation, with its medieval antecedents, epitomizes a sense of enduring grandeur and dignity. The Statute of Westminster recognized significant advances in the evolution of the self-governing Dominions into fully sovereign states. The term “Dominion” was initially adopted in relation to Canada, but was extended in 1907 to refer to all self-governing colonies of white settlement that had been evolving in the direction of greater autonomy since the middle of the nineteenth century. By the early 1930s, the Dominions included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland, and the Irish Free State.

The Union of South Africa

1910 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 498-507
Author(s):  
Stephen Leacock
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Sharp Contrast ◽  
The Other ◽  
Free State ◽  
Central Nucleus ◽  
Ground Plan ◽  
State Rights

On May 31, 1910, the Union of South Africa became an accomplished fact. The four provinces of Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State (which bears again its old time name) and the Transvaal are henceforth joined, one might almost say amalgamated, under a single government. They will bear to the central government of the British empire the same relation as the other self-governing colonies—Canada, Newfoundland, Australia and New Zealand. The Empire will thus assume the appearance of a central nucleus with four outlying parts corresponding to geographical and racial divisions, and forming in all a ground plan that seems to invite a renewal of the efforts of the Imperial Federationist. To the scientific student of government the Union of South Africa is chiefly of interest for the sharp contrast it offers to the federal structure of the American, Canadian and other systems of similar historical ground. It represents a reversion from the idea of State rights, and balanced indestructible powers and an attempt at organic union by which the constituent parts are to be more and more merged in the consolidated political unit which they combine to form.

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