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British Documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Stephen Ashton
Stephen Ashton*
Affiliation:
Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, 27-28 Russell Sq, London, WCIB 5DS
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Extract

My presentation divides into two parts. The first explains what BDEEP is in terms of how the project originated, how it is administered and financed and what it is (and what it is not) intended to achieve. The second looks more closely at the place of Africa within the project by explaining at greater length the contents of some of the volumes and by introducing a number of documents which will be included.

First then the background to the project. BDEEP has its origins in two earlier collections of published documents concerning the end of British rule in South and South-East Asia. The first is Constitutional Relations between Britain and India: The Transfer of Power, 1942-1947, which was edited by Professor Nicholas Mansergh and published in twelve volumes between 1970 and 1983 by Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO).

Type
Articles
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 54 , 1990 , pp. 24 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1990

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References

Notes

1. The minutes of the Ministerial Colonial Policy Committee 1955-1957 (PRO. CAB 134/1201) have been retained by the Cabinet Office.

2. PRO. PREM 1/247, pp 14-16, letter from Sir B.H. Bourdillon to Malcolm MacDonald, Secretary of State for the Colonies.

3. PRO. CO 967/57, memorandum by Dawe, 27 July 1942.

4. Ibid., Note by Macmillan, 15 August 1942.

5. Hyam, Ronald, ‘Africa and the Labour Government, 1945-1951’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. XVI (1988) pp 148–172CrossRefGoogle Scholar, repr. in Porter, A. and Holland, R. (eds), Theory and practice in the history of European expansion overseas: essays in honour of Ronald Robinson, (London, 1988).Google Scholar

6. PRO. CO 847/36/1.

7. PRO. DO 35/2380.

8. PRO. PREM 8/923, memorandum by Creech Jones, 9 Jan 1948.

9. David Goldsworthy, ‘Contemplating Decolonization: some policy dilemmas of the Churchill and Eden Conservative Governments, 1951-57’, unpublished seminar paper presented to the African History Seminar, School of Oriental and African Studies, 26 October 1988.

10. PRO. CO 554/400, No. 1, memorandum by M.G. Smith, CO principal, (13) March 1953.

11. Porter, Gareth (ed), Vietnam 1941-1975: the definitive documentation of human decisions, (London, 1979).Google Scholar