They Won't End Colonial Rule

The Colonial Office has denied reports that Britain intends to end Colonial rule soon. It made an official statement on the matter in February, in which it said that no pattern had yet emerged regarding the future of the smaller Colonial territories.

THE problem of what should be the future of the smaller territories was one which successive Governments had been concerning themselves with for some time, but solutions might have to be thought out Territory by Territory, the statement added.

The statement ref erred particularly to a report in the American magazine Newsweek (mentioned in PIM, January, p 31), quoting the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. lain Macleod, as saying it was planned to end Colonial rule in four years. It said the report was wrong In Sydney, in March, at the end of a two months’ holiday tour in

the Pacific, the former Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. A.

Lennox Boyd, said he was pleased to see the Colonial Office come out with a prompt statement on the matter. It was nonsense to say there could be an end to colonies in four years, he said. Naturally, commit ments would grow less, but that sort of thing couldn’t be done sud denly.

Mr. Lennox Boyd discounted the rumour of a possible New Hebrides take over, mentioned in Noumea (see p. 23) : “What everyone should remember is that these days you can’t just start handing territories over to anybody. The people in them have to have a say!”