Story of International Relations

2 PARIS, 1937: COLONIAL QUESTIONS AND PEACE 225

trust of the world, and especially that of the coloured people upon whose

loyalty our Empire stands. Finally, in the event of the League breaking

down over this issue, it is important that Britain should be clear of respon-

sibility for that failure. Otherwise she will have disqualified herself for the

task that must be hers in another generation, that of helping Europe to

rebuild a more effective international order.^491

In insisting on the Britain’s recent colonial policy in Africa was at the
very least somewhat altruistic, Perham’s principal target would seem
to have been those whom the Times described in applauding Perham’s
efforts and after having noted that hers was an authoritative voice on
the subject, as ‘hasty and ill-informed enthusiasts’ who were so eager
to believe ‘international unrest might be appeased by a redistribution of
Colonial possessions’ that they disregarded the interests of subjects peo-
ples.^492 Lord David Cecil was seemingly one such enthusiast. He wrote
in a letter to the Times appearing in May 1936, that although it may well
be that the peoples in ceded African territories would be ‘less happy’
under German rule than under British rule, he could ‘not think that
in order to avoid such hypothetical sufferings we ought to bring upon
mankind the certain and catastrophic sufferings involved in a European
war.’^493
Perham’s first observation in the discussion following Nicholson’s
address was that the limited attention given to the interests of subject
peoples in discussions of the colonial claims caused her to fear they
would be disregarded in any final settlement. She stated that she thought
it odd that in discussions of these claims in the British context, the point
that from perspective of principle the interests of subject peoples was
paramount had been so overlooked. Perham then went on to state that
those who adopted the view ‘that it would be preferable to give away
one, two, or even three colonies rather than have bombs dropping on
London, did not stop to consider...[the interests of subject peoples]...at

(^491) Ibid.
(^492) ‘White and Black in Africa,’ Times, February 12, 1937.
(^493) Lord David Cecil, letter to the editor, Times, May 14, 1936. See also Wood, Peaceful
Change and the Colonial Problem, 90.