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Censorship, declassification and the history of end of empire in Central Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Philip Murphy
Philip Murphy*
Affiliation:
Reader in Imperial and Commonwealth History, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AA
*
<p.v.murphy@reading.ac.uk>
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Extract

There may appear to be little point in an “outsider” attempting to write about the censorship of the historical record. Those employed to vet official records in Great Britain perform their task behind closed doors; and since even the titles of the files they continue to withhold are often kept a secret, scholars have little opportunity to question their decisions. As editor of the Central Africa volume of the British Documents on the End of Empire project (BDEEP), my own status is certainly that of an outsider. Established in 1987, BDEEP seeks to make available an edited and annotated selection of British government documents from The National Archives (TNA), formerly the Public Record Office, charting developments in colonial policy during the decolonisation era. Yet although its volumes are published by the Stationery Office, BDEEP is emphatically not an official publication.

Type
Articles
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 92 , 2003 , pp. 3 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © African Research & Documentation 2003

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References

1 Aldrich, Richard J., “Did Waldegrave work? The impact of open government upon British history”, Twentieth century British history,.9 (1) 1998, 111-126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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3 Open Government, para. 9.28.

4 See, for example, Lander, Stephen Sir , “British Intelligence in the twentieth century”, Intelligence and national security, 17 (1) 2002, 7-20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bennett, Gill, “Declassification and release policies of the UK intelligence agencies”, Intelligence and national security, 17 (1) 2002, 21-32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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9 Trend to Home, 1 June 1964, PREM 11/5048.

10 Trend to Home, 1 June 1964, CAB 21/5064.

11 Bass to Harrison, 2 July 1960, FO 371/146692, JB 1061/8.

12 This sort of problem for those vetting papers relating to British colonial policy is not, of course, restricted to Central Africa. The national archives of the former colonies themselves sometimes contain material not available in TNA. See for example Richard Rathbone, “Police intelligence in Ghana in the late 1940s and 1950s”, Journal of imperial and commonwealth history, reports, which had survived in the Ghana National Archives.

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26 Murphy, Party politics, pp. 192-3; Wood, p. 737.

27 Minute by Smedley, 1 Feb. 1955, DO 35/4597.

28 Minute by Williams, 15 April 1953, CO 1015/793.

29 Minute by Barton, 23 April 1953, CO 1015/793.

30 Wood, p. 415.

31 Commonwealth Relations Office to UK High Commission, Salisbury, 4 June 1954, CO 1015/1037.

32 Acting Governor of Northern Rhodesia to Lennox-Boyd, 15 Sept. 1956, CO 1015/931.

33 Minute by Reid, 4 Feb. 1952, CO 1015/58.

34 Colonial Office to Colby, 15 July 1953, DO 35/6851.

35 Colonial Office to Colby, 22 July 1953, DO 35/6851.

36 Watson to Armitage, 23 Dec. 1960, CO 1015/2243.

37 Parliamentary Debates (Commons), 601,3 March 1959, cols. 290 and 337.

38 Lapping, Brian, End of empire (London, Paladin, 1989), p. 563.Google Scholar

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46 De Quehen to Maclennan, 15 June 1954, DO 35/4778.

47 Minute by Bates, 28 Oct. 1955, DO 35/4778.

48 Minute by Lord Perth, 4 Aug 1959, CO 1015/1754.

49 Minutes by J C Morgan, 5 & 12 Aug. 1959, CO 1015/1754.

50 Minute by Amery, 18 Aug 1959, CO 1015/1754.

51 Minute by Moreton, 11 Sept. 1959, CO 1015/1754.

52 Minute by Lennox-Boyd, 11 Sept. 1959, CO 1015/1519.

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