222 J.-A. PEMBERTON
utmost freedom to criticize the Government, and where an energetic
public opinion was not constantly playing upon colonial problems.’^479
This last point gives an indication of Perham’s overriding intention in
writing the three articles, an intention which she explained to readers in
the third article in the series. In that article, she called attention to the
political context that had determined the focus of the first two articles in
the series: the colonial claims. Perham confessed in her third article that
in the two previous articles she had laid herself open to the charge of
‘complacency,’ adding that this was a charge which foreign readers would
be especially inclined to make.^480 She stated in relation to this confession
that if she had been writing in any other context but that of the colo-
nial claims, the focus in her two previous articles would have rested on
the shortcomings of Britain’s African administration rather than on its
achievements. After having announced that she now intended to discuss
some of those shortcomings, Perham made two points which she obvi-
ously thought needed to be considered in the context of the debate con-
cerning colonial claims. The first point she made in this regard was that
it had to be admitted that Britain’s ‘somewhat altruistic’ colonial policy
did not enjoy unanimous support in the country and thus sometimes
things were said or done which gave ‘foreigners an excuse to charge us
with hypocrisy.’^481 The second point she made was that it would be well
to correct the false impression that Britain pretended that its record in
the colonial field was beyond reproach because this impression had been
exploited by Britain’s foreign critics in order to distract attention from
the main issue at stake. Perham observed that it was important not to
forget that Britain had acquired colonies by force and had ‘in the process
committed...crimes.’ At the same time, she insisted that it was equally
important to stress that the object of current British colonial policy was
that of changing the basis of British rule ‘from one of force...to that of
cooperation and ultimately partnership.’^482
(^481) Ibid.
(^482) Ibid.
(^479) Ibid.
(^480) Marjery Perham, ‘Our Task in Africa: III—The Line of Advance: Trusteeship on a
Broader Basis,’ Times, February 12, 1936.