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Empire Migration in Post-War Reconstruction: The Role of the Oversea Settlement Committee, 1919–1922*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Dane Kennedy
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Extract

World War One and its aftermath restored the empire to a central place in the considerations of Whitehall. Not only did the war open new vistas for imperial ambitions and drive home the benefits to be drawn from the established dominions, notably in terms of manpower and materiel: it also brought into seats of power the likes of Lords Milner and Curzon, men whose careers had been devoted to the maintenance and expansion of Britain's imperial realm. Though their autocratic style ill-suited democratic politics, it did serve the needs of a modern state at war, where all sectors of society were subordinated to central command. It can be argued that these imperial bureaucrats had a more sophisticated appreciation for the power of the state than their domestic counterparts, who still labored under the lingering constraints of laissez-faire doctrine. They understood from colonial experience the state's potential for engineering social change. And they saw change as vital to Britain's future. Deeply imbued with a social Darwinist world-view, they regarded the war as evidence that national survival would require a more integrated, self-contained, harmonious imperial system, directed with greater deliberation and rigor from above. They were, in effect, social imperialists. Although this doctrine had taken shape in the Edwardian years, it was the war that eroded much of the resistance to its implementation. Yet how far could these gains be extended into the critical post-war period?

As Keith Williams has argued in his valuable dissertation, an important feature of social imperialist doctrine concerned migration: here the bonds between Britain and the empire were those of culture and blood.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , Fall 1988 , pp. 403 - 419
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1988

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Professors John Schultz and Brian Blakeley as well as Mr. Kent Fedorowich for their suggestions and comments. I am grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for providing funds to make this research possible.

References

1 Porter, Bernard observes in The Lion's Share (London, 1975), pp. 237–8Google Scholar, that the war “spirited into the government” prominent imperialists whose influence had been on the wane since 1906. On British social imperialist doctrine and politics, see Semmel, Bernard, Imperialism and Social Reform (New York, 1968)Google Scholar; Searle, Geoffrey, The Quest for National Efficiency (Berkeley, 1971)Google Scholar; Field, H. John, Towards a Programme of Imperial Life (Westport, Conn., 1982)Google Scholar; and Scally, Robert J., The Origins of the Lloyd George Coalition (Princeton, 1975)Google Scholar.

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3 See Booth, General, “Our Emigration Plans,” Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute 37 (1905–1906): 137–54Google Scholar.

4 See Schultz, John A., “Finding Homes Fit For Heroes: The Great War and Empire Settlement,” Canadian Journal of History 18, 1 (April 1983), pp. 99–110CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Drummond, Ian M., Imperial Economic Policy 1917–1939 (Toronto, 1974), ch. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Williams, “The British State, Social Imperialism and Emigration …,” chs. 5, 6; Duder, C. J. D., “Soldier and Empire Settlement: An Imperial Perspective” (1975)Google Scholar, unpublished manuscript in Royal Commonwealth Society library; and Plant, G. F., Oversea Settlement: Migration From the United Kingdom to the Dominions (London, 1951)Google Scholar.

5 See Empire Land Settlement and Migration Committees, minute books, Royal Colonial Institute papers, Royal Commonwealth Society library.

6 Memorandum by Vaughan Nash, 11 August 1916, PRO. RECO1/685; SirHaggard, Rider, The After-War Settlement and Employment of Ex-Service Men in the Overseas Dominions (London, 1916)Google Scholar; Parliamentary Papers, Cd.8672, Empire Settlement Committee Report (1917), and Cd.8462, Dominions Royal Commission Report (1917).

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9 Empire Land Settlement Committee, minute book, 30 July 1919.

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11 Confidential memorandum by Amery, 10 February 1919, PRO, CO721/3.

12 The estimate comes from the minutes of a meeting of the OSC and the Women's Emigration Society, 17 February 1919, CO721/4. Marwick, Arthur, Women at War 1914–1918 (London, 1977), pp. 166–68Google Scholar, cites figures that 947,000 women had entered munitions work by November 1918, while the QMAAC had 40,000 members, the Women's Land Army over 100,000 by the same date. Braybon, Gail, Women Workers in the First World War (London, 1981), ch. 7Google Scholar, examines the impact of demobilization on women war workers.

13 Women's branch of Employment Dept., memorandum, rec. 22 December 1919, CO721/1. Also see remarks in Empire Land Settlement Committee, minute book, 9 January 1917.

14 Minutes of meeting of CO and Women's Emigration Societies, 17 February 1919, CO721/4. The Ministry of Labour voiced the same views in a June 1921 memorandum, CO721/23.

15 See Mrs.Colquhoun, Archibald R., “Women and the Colonies,” Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute, 35 (1903–1904), pp. 326–44Google Scholar; Plant, G. F., A Survey of Voluntary Effort in Women's Empire Migration (London, 1950)Google Scholar; Hammerton, A. J., Emigrant Gentlewomen (London, 1979)Google Scholar.

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17 Joint Council of Women's Emigration Societies, minute book, Society for the Oversea Settlement of British Women papers, Fawcett Library, London. One such circular declares: “The time has come when women who have earned their own living should consider what their position will be when their present work, undertaken for patriotic motives, ceases…. Protected Emigration … may afford to many the best means of turning their newly acquired qualifications to the most advantageous and permanent uses” (CO721/1).

18 Blakeley, Brian L., “The Society for the Oversea Settlement of British Women and the Problems of Empire Settlement, 1917–1926,” Albion 20, 4 (Winter 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. SOSBW annual reports, 1920–22, Fawcett Library.

19 “Women Enquirers at the Oversea Settlement Office,” 24 June 1919, CO721/1. The Salvation Army made similar observations about female applicants to its emigration department (The Times, 24 June 1919).

20 Mrs. Simms to Macnaghten, 23 June 1919, CO721/6. Mrs. Simms, who received this telegram, remarked, “Quite a happy error?”

21 Jean Robson to Mrs. G. Pott, 5 June 1920, CO721/21.

22 SOSBW minute books, 29 October 1919, Fawcett Library.

23 Gell to Macnaghten, 7 March 1919, with enclosure of Gell memorandum, “Emigration after the War,” CO721/4.

24 Milner to Duke of Devonshire, April 1919, CO721/6.

25 See Parliamentary Papers, Cd.403 (1919), Report … of the Delegates Appointed to Enquire as to Openings in Canada for Women from the United Kingdom; Cd.745 (1920), Report … of the Delegates Appointed to Enquire as to Openings in Australia for Women from the United Kingdom; Cd.933 (1920), Report … of the Delegates Appointed to Enquire as to Openings in New Zealand for Women from the United Kingdom.

26 Amery memorandum, p. 4, CO721/3. The same argument was offered by Macnaghten, 26 December 1918, CO721/1.

27 Barnes, John and Nicholson, David, eds., The Leo Amery Diaries, 2 vols. (London, 1980–1988), 1:257Google Scholar; Drummond, , Imperial Economic Policy, p. 60Google Scholar.

28 Duder, , “Soldier and Empire Settlement,” p. 18Google Scholar; Ministry of Labour memorandum, 30 January 1919, and General Federation of Trade Unions memorandum, 13 January 1919, CO721/1; Leo Amery Diaries, p. 256.

29 See Rothstein, Andrew, The Soldiers' Strikes of 1919 (London, 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Graubard, Stephen, “Military Demobilization in Great Britain Following the First World War,” The Journal of Modern History 19, 4 (December 1947): 297–311CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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31 Report on Revolutionary Organizations, 6 November 1919, p. 7, 23 December 1919, pp. 4 & 5, and 9 January 1920, p. 8, PRO, CAB24/92, 95, 96.

32 Memorandum on unemployment, 16 August 1920, CAB27/115.

33 Amery to Worthington Evans, 1 October 1920, CAB27/115; and Cabinet unemployment committee minutes, 15 October 1920, CO721/17.

34 Drummond, , Imperial Economic Policy, pp. 62, 64Google Scholar; Milner to Sir G. H. Murray, 11 August 1920, CO721/13.

35 His remarks stirred rebuke from various quarters, including The Times, 23, 24 December 1920.

36 Ministry of Labour to CO, 12 October 1921; Ministry of Health to CO, 20 October 1921; Ministry of Agriculture to CO, 16 November 1921; Board of Trade to CO, 28 November 1921, CO721/24.

37 “Oversea Settlement and Unemployment,” 29 September 1921, CAB24/131.

38 153H. C. Deb. 5s., cols. 576–636. Also see Drummond, , Imperial Economic Policy, pp. 64–85Google Scholar; and Williams, “The British State,” ch. 7.

39 Memoranda, no dates, CO721/30/254, 705.

40 Jeffrey, Keith, The British Army and the Crisis of Empire 1918–22 (Manchester, 1984)Google Scholar.

41 153 H. C. Deb. 5s., col. 600.

42 “Memorandum on Empire Settlement and Defense,” c. September 1921, CO721/31.

43 Early in the OSC's deliberations, Amery recommended “comrade settlements” in the colonies where soldiers' “love for comradeship” could be sustained in agricultural communities drawn from demobilized regiments and organized along military lines. Confidential memorandum, 10 February 1919, CO721/3.

44 Williams, “The British State,” ch. 1.

45 Memorandum, September 1921, CO721/23.

46 Drummond, , Imperial Economic Policy, p. 43Google Scholar.

47 “Notes on the Cost of the Proposals Contained in the Memorandum of the Emigration Committee,” no date, CO721/1; Parliamentary Papers, Cd.1804, Report of the Oversea Settlement Committee for 1922 (1923); Report of the Oversea Settlement Committee for 1921 (1922), p. 6Google Scholar.

48 Marion Lindley, Director, Women's Industrial Dept., Gov't of Ontario, to Miss Lefroy, 30 December 1918, CO721/1. In the same file, see E. M. Murray, Secretary, Canadian Manufacturer's Association, to Miss Vernon, 18 December 1918.

49 See, for instance, “Conference of Canadian Council of Immigration of Women for Household Service,” 9–10 September 1919; minutes of OSC meeting, 9 March 1920; and Imperial Veterans in Canada to Sir Henry Wilson, 25 June 1920, all CO721/12, 13, 20. Schultz, J. A. surveys “Canadian Attitudes toward Empire Settlement, 1919–1930,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 1, 2 (January 1973): 237–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 See the comments of the Canadian Minister of Trade and Commerce and the ex-President of the Canadian Privy Council, quoted in The Times, 24 December 1920.

51 Duder, , “Soldier and Empire Settlement,” p. 57Google Scholar; “Deportation of Approved Settlers from Canada,” 9 August 1921, CO721/26.

52 Studies of the soldier settlement schemes include Turnor, Christopher, Land Settlement for Ex-Service Men in the Oversea Dominions (London, 1920)Google Scholar; Lake, Marilyn, The Limits of Hope: Soldier Settlement in Victoria 1915–38 (Melbourne, 1987)Google Scholar; Powell, J. M., “The Debt of Honour: Soldier Settlement in the Dominions, 1915–1940,” Journal of Australian Studies 5 (1980)Google Scholar, idem, “Soldier Settlement in New Zealand, 1915–1923,” Australian Geographical Studies 9 (1971); and the regrettably unpublished works of Duder, C. J. D., “Soldier and Empire Settlement,” and “The Soldier Settlement Scheme of 1919 in Kenya” (Ph.D. thesis, Aberdeen University, 1978)Google Scholar.

53 Newbury, Colin, “The March of Everyman: Mobility and the Imperial Census of 1901,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 12, 2 (January 1984): 80–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 See Holland, R. F., Britain and the Commonwealth Alliance 1918–1939 (London, 1981), pp. 27, 103–9, 135CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 See The Times, 10 March 1920, 23 December 1920, 20–24 December 1921.

56 The Times, 27 April 1922.

57 106 H. C. Deb. 5s., col. 1187; 127 H. C. Deb. 5.s., col. 1036.

58 147 H. C. Deb. 5s., cols. 2008–10.

59 153 H. C. Deb. 5s., cols. 575–656. The sole exception to this praise was Colonel Josiah Wedgewood, who reiterated the earlier critique of empire migration as “a confession of failure on the part of the Government” (col. 628).