1 PEACEFUL CHANGE OR WAR? 55What would be a major area of controversy at the 1937 conference
and, indeed, in the wider public arena in the same year, was addressed
in a speech at Madrid by Webster, albeit somewhat obliquely: the ques-
tion of the transfer of colonies or mandates to imperial have-not states.
Webster was a proponent of peaceful change, albeit a very cautious pro-
ponent. He was deeply concerned by the nature of the peaceful change
proposals being advocated at the time, expressing the view that there was
‘a readiness on the part of some people to adopt any measure that would
seem to postpone war or at least turn it in a direction which would not
involve themselves.’^173
Webster was also concerned by the fact that the supporters of peace-
ful change in Great Britain were heavily focused on the transfer of colo-
nial territory. Such a measure, he pointed out at the Madrid conference,
almost entirely concerned Africa: the reawakening in Asia of ‘ancient
nationalities’ which were now ‘asserting their claims to control of their
own destinies’ meant that transfers in that region were out of the ques-
tion.^174 Webster was not alone in expressing concerns about colonial
revision. As he noted, it was because of the considerable dismay that
proposals for the transfer of African colonies and mandates caused, that
proponents had tried to make the proposed transfers sound ‘palatable by
speaking of an extension of the mandate system.’^175
Webster also pointed out at that apart from three representatives of
the ‘Japanese Empire,’ the conference participants at Madrid were all
‘European of race’. He therefore advised participants that in trying to
find solutions to the question of peaceful change, they must not neglect
their responsibility for protecting the interests of those ‘millions of indi-
vidual humans’ not represented among them. Webster underscored his
point in noting that those assembled were meeting in the European
country closest to Africa and the country in which the doctrine of
also Fritz Berber to Henri Bonnet, 12 May 1936. Conférence permanente des études inter-
nationales: Peaceful Change, mars-avril 1936 jusqu’au 1er juin, 1936, AG 1-IICI-I-15.c,
UA. Berber went to Madrid via Paris where he had an appointment at the European head-
quarters of the Carnegie Dotation pour la Paix.
(^173) Charles. K. Webster, ‘What Is the Problem of Peaceful Change,’ in Manning, ed.,
Peaceful Change, 7.
(^174) Ibid., 9, 17.
(^175) Ibid., 9.