The Rise, Decline and Future of the British Commonwealth PDF
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The Rise, Decline and Future of the British Commonwealth The Rise, Decline and Future of the British Commonwealth Krishnan Srinivasan * Foreword © Peter Lyon 2005; all remaining material © Krishnan Srinivasan 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-8715-0 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Totten ham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-20367-9 ISBN 978-0-230-24843-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230248434 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Srinivasan, Krishnan, 1937- The rise, decline and future of the British Commonwealth I Krishnan Srinivasan. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Commonwealth countries-History. I. Title. DA 16.574 2005 909' .0971241-dc22 2005051552 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 OS Transferred to Digital Printing 2006 I come to talk of Commonwealth affairs. Shakespeare Henry VI Part 2, Act I, Scene 3 My purpose is ... to speak about the little-mentioned or noticed, to consider subjects which are neglected; to be critical, not for the sake of casting stones or scoring points but because universities must test from one generation to the next, ideas which may once have been accepted but are no longer in their full vigour, or which may be derided by fashion but worthy of a kinder fate. Dilks, Communications, the Commonwealth and the Future p. 3 India's decision [to remain associated with Britain by joining the Commonwealth] strengthened the Whiggish view of the Empire's progress and purpose including the belief that British rule had been designed originally to allow dependent peoples to advance towards self-government and to reach fulfilment in the Commonwealth ... the Commonwealth according to [the] counter-interpretation was not intended to end the Empire, but to continue it by other means. Brown and Louis, The Twentieth Century p. xii The rise and fall of the British Empire has often been chronicled: its aftermath less so. Perhaps the main reason for this relative neglect lies in an almost natural aversion to anticlimax. Mayall and Payne, The Fallacies of Hope p. 1 What is the Commonwealth but the ghost of the British Empire come to haunt the present troubled state of international relations? Austin, The Round Table, vol. 75 (297) ]an. 1986, p. 16 Contents List ofA bbreviations ix Acknowledgements xi Foreword xii Introduction 1 1 The Nehru Commonwealth 5 The immediate post-war period 5 India and Pakistan 9 Burma 13 Ceylon 14 Malaya 15 Britain, the Commonwealth and Asian independence 16 Defence 26 The United States of America and Empire 32 The West Indies Federation 37 The Suez crisis and its aftermath 38 The Middle East and Cyprus 41 2 The African Commonwealth 43 British Africa 43 South Africa 48 The Central African Federation and Rhodesia 51 Britain, the Commonwealth and Independent Africa 57 Economic matters 63 Britain's entry to the EEC 71 Immigration and citizenship 74 3 Some Other 'Commonwealths' 83 The OIF, the CPLP, the OEI and the Dutch 83 4 Nobody's Commonwealth? 107 The position of the Crown 107 vii viii Contents Domestic and public opinion 111 Media comments through the years 121 Knowledge of the modern Commonwealth 126 The House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Report, 1995-96 132 The 'Commonwealth factor' in trade and economic relations 136 A new agenda for the old Commonwealth 138 The Commonwealth today - and tomorrow 143 Notes 162 Bibliography 173 Index 177 List of Abbreviations ACCT Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique AIF Agence Intergouvernmentale de la Francophonie ANZAM Australia, New Zealand and Malaya ANZUS Australia, New Zealand and the United States APODOTI Timorese Popular Democratic Association BBC British Broadcasting Corporation CBC Commonwealth Business Council CENTO Central Treaty Organization aka The Baghdad Pact CFTC Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation CPLP Comunidade dos Paises de Lingua Portuguesa CPP Convention People's Party CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union CRO Commonwealth Relations Office ECOSOC United Nations Economic and Social Council EEC European Economic and Community Enosis Union of Cyprus with Greece sought by Greek Cypriots EU European Union FCO Foreign and Commonwealth Office FLNA Frente Nacional de Liberta.;ao de Angola FRELIMO Frente de Liberta.;ao de Mo.;ambique FRETILIN Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor G7 Group of Seven major industrial democracies G8 Group of Eight major industrial democracies (G? plus Russia) GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GDP Gross Domestic Product IMF International Monetary Fund MFN Most Favoured Nation MPLA Movimento Popular de Liberta.;ao de Angola NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NGO Non-Governmental Organization NIB MAR No independence before majority African rule OAS Organisation Armee Secrete OCAM Organization of the African and Malagasy Community ODA Official Development Assistance OEI Organizaci6n de Estados Iberoamericanos ix x List ofA bbreviations OIF International Organization de la Francophonie SEATO South East Asian Treaty Organization UDI Unilateral Declaration of Independence UDT Timor Democratic Union UK United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland UN United Nations UNEF United Nations Emergency Force UNITA Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola USA United States of America USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics aka The Soviet Union WTO World Trade Organization ZANU-PF Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front Acknowledgements The author's grateful thanks are due to The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Wassenaar The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London The Centre of International Studies, Cambridge Wolfson College, Cambridge xi
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