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Espionage in Africa: the Case of the Duchess
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
The effects of the Second World War on British colonial Africa were far-reaching and unexpected. Colonial governments, hitherto concerned with establishing and preserving law and order, with administration, the collection of taxation, and with slow economic development, had perforce to divert their energies into more varied and unorthodox channels. Troops were recruited from the colonies and in addition local Home Guards were formed. African colonies acquired a new strategic importance and became the scene for new intelligence and counter-espionage activities: this was especially so after the French government signed the armistice with Germany on 22 June 1940. On the following day the British government promised that if French overseas territories continued the war against the Nazis Britain would guarantee their integrity and economic stability, as well as providing funds to pay the salaries and pensions of French colonial officials. The governor of Nigeria, Sir Bernard Bourdillon, did much to encourage the rallitmcnt of neighbouring Vichy colonies to the Free French cause of General de Gaulle. It was part of French propaganda to exaggerate British involvement in the French colonies and to paint de Gaulle as simply a tool of British imperialism; and it was part of Britain's propaganda to minimize her own role and to stress that the British were simply supporting the initiatives of the Free French. As a result we have not yet been presented with a balanced and scholarly assessment of the contribution which the British in Nigeria made to the ralliement of French Equatorial Africa and the Cameroons in August 1940.
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References
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15 CO 323/1800/13112/42. Governor's deputy to secretary of state, 27 Apr. 1940.
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17 FO 371/28257/z 8085. Bourdillon to secretary of state, 21 Sept.: 1941.
18 W. Newington to the author, 9 Oct. 1979.
19 C. Michie to the author, 19 Sept. 1979.
20 Ibid.
21 C. Michie to the author, 27 Oct. 1979.
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33 Memoirs, p. 109 (unpublished). I am grateful to Sir Rex Niven for access.
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36 Sweet-Escott, Baker Street irregular, p. 59.
37 R. H. Wright (former private secretary to Bourdillon) to the author, 8 Apr. 1979.
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43 London Gazette, 10 Oct. 1944: the awards for the civilians were announced at this time but were antedated to 4 Dec. 1942. For the military see ‘J.E.A.’, Geoffrey, p. 109, and London Gazette, 28 July 1942.
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45 Ibid. Richards to secretary of state, 20 June 1947.
46 Sweet-Escott, Baker Street irregular, p. 59.
47 Newington to the author, 9 Oct. 1979; Michie to the author, 19 Sept. 1979.