COLONIAL TERRITORIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23830, 9 June 1939, Page 10

COLONIAL TERRITORIES

BRITAIN’S OBJECTIVE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE f British Official Wireless) (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY, June 6. (Received June 7, at 6.30 a.m.) Mr Malcolm MacDonald, in the House of Commons, speaking on the Colonial Office vote, referred appreciatively to the work of the Bledisloe and Moyne Commissions in Rhodesia and Nyasaland and, the West Indies respectively. He also paid a tribute to the work of Lord Haley in connection with the great African survey. Mr MacDonald added: “ Our primary objective in the colonies is not the advancement of selfish interests of the people of Britain, it is the advancement of the interests of the people of the colonies themselves, lam not going to be a humbug and deny that we derive immense benefits from our association with these territories, but if it ever were our main purpose simply to exploit these territories and these peoples for our own purposes it has long ceased to be so. Our chief anxiety is that under our rule and by the aid of our unrivalled experience in Government the peoples of the colonial empire, while preserving all that is best in their hallowed customs and ancient civilisations should share in the benefits to be derived from modern scientific discoveries, social progress, and political thought so that they can become full citizens of the modern world. That is the moral basis on which our presence in the colonies must rest.” While there was no room for complacency, he concluded, much had been accomplished and in all the colonies expansion of the social services was going ahead.