200 J.-A. PEMBERTON
the conference. Shiels well illustrated the nexus between the colonial
propaganda and the changed attitude towards colonies in a contribu-
tion to the conference which closed with a statement that one reviewer
of the conference described as one of the many wise observations strewn
throughout the proceedings and on which the review in question placed
a particular emphasis.^393 Shiels stated the following:
The desire for equality of status with certain other Powers which underlies
and largely explains the cry of dissatisfied countries for colonial possessions
can be more satisfactorily met by preparing to make an end of all Imperial
domination rather than sharing its privileges and cares with those who at
present have neither....In the meantime we must at least be discharging
our responsibility of trusteeship. In so far as we are doing that, we are to a
very great extent meeting the criticisms which are based mainly on the fact
that certain Powers possess possibilities for the domination and exploita-
tion of Native peoples which non-colonial Powers are desirous of having
for themselves. If we do not exploit there can be no grievance.^394It is worth noting here that at the conference, Schrieke sought to shift
the focus of the discussion of peaceful change: he urged that rather than
focus on changes aimed at preventing war in Europe, the conference
should focus on the ‘peaceful change...[that was]...actually taking place
in colonies.’^395 In a similar vein, Shiels and others urged that the kind of
change that should be favoured was that of the ‘the gradual emancipa-
tion of subject peoples’ with a view to the ‘eventual termination of colo-
nial status.’^396 Shiels considered that a policy of colonial transfers was
the antithesis of a policy of aimed at the emancipation of subject peoples
given its implied premise that such peoples were property to be traded.
(^393) S. Herbert Frankel, review of Peaceful Change: Proceedings of the Tenth International
Studies Conference, Paris, June 28th–July 3rd, 1939, by the International Studies
Conference, South African Journal of Economics 7, no. 2 (1939): 222–25, 225.
(^394) International Studies Conference, Peaceful Change: Procedures, Population, Raw
Materials, Colonies, 451, 453.
(^395) Ibid., 462–63.
(^396) Ibid., 450. Note the following observation by J. Henry Richardson, another British
delegate to the conference on peaceful change: ‘The change of sovereignty that I favour
most is the one which would lead to the complete sovereignty of the native peoples them-
selves and I would regard that as the first objective of policy.’ The conference’s proceed-
ings noted that Bertram J. O. Schrieke ‘also spoke on the education of the natives towards
self-government’ (ibid., 450, 516, 518).