Administering the Empire, 1801-1968

Front matter

=| UNIVERSITY Eom OF LONDON wy PRESS

A Guide to the Records of the Colonial Office in The National Archives of the UK

Mandy Banton Cw *

Preface to second edition

Glossary

‘Informal’ empire "Miscellaneous islands Decolonisation

Colonies, dominions, protectorates and mandated territories Colonies Dominions Protectorates Mandated territories The colonial government The governor The legislature ‘The executive Judicial establishment Defence Ecclesiastical establishment The relationship between the Colonial Office and the colonies

3. Records of colonial governments Locally created records in Colonial Office series

FCO 141, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and predecessors:

Records of Former Colonial Administrations: Migrated Archives

4. Administration of British colonial affairs before 1801: the organisation in London The Privy Council and the Board of Trade

29 29

The secretaries of state 30 Records of the secretaries of state and the Board of Trade 30 Published finding aids 31 Original finding aids 33 s. Administration of the colonies from 1801 39 War and Colonial Department 39 Establishment of the Colonial Office 40 1907: Dominions Division and Crown Colonies Division 42 Mandated territories 43 Subject departments 43 Specialist advisers and advisory committees 45

The Colonial Office Journal 47

The Dominions Office 48 The Commonwealth Relations Office 48 Department of Technical Co-operation and successors 49 Central African Office 50 Commonwealth Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office 50 6. ‘The records of the Colonial Office 53 Original correspondence 54 What does the original correspondence contain? 57

How the correspondence is arranged 59

‘Case volumes 76

Entry books 76 Finding aids 77 Registration of correspondence before 1849 77

Indexes 78

Précis books 82

Registration of original correspondence 1849-1925 92

Indexed registers 93

Registers of non-registered letters 93

How to find the ‘original correspondence’ 93

Cross-references in the registers of correspondence 97

Confidential and secret correspondence IOI Printing of correspondence IOI Destroyed papers 104 Circular despatches 104 Original correspondence 1927—51 and its registration 105

File numbers 106 Arrangement of files 106

File covers 106 vi

Registers of correspondence When do you need to use the registers?

Secret registers Re-organisation of the Colonial Office in the 20th century and its effects on the arrangement of the records The Dominions Division Subject departments Advisory committees Advisers Geographically arranged correspondence series after 1951 Some abbreviations used in the registers of correspondence Printed and statistical material provided by the colonial governments Acts, ordinances and proclamations UK legislation enacted for the colonies or including the colonies Sessional papers Government gazettes ‘Miscellanea’

Blue books of statistics Shipping returns Newspapers Returns of stipendiary magistrates

7. Records of the Dominions Office and Commonwealth Relations Office

8. Records of the Commonwealth Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

9. Private papers and private office papers relating to colonial affairs held in the records of the Colonial Office and of other government departments

1o. Maps and plans International boundaries Directorate of Overseas Surveys 1I. Photographs 12. Records of other government departments Admiralty Board of Trade British Council The Cabinet Office Central Office of Information vii

Contents

109 III II2Z

II2 II2 II2 II3 II3 IIS IIS 116 118

159 160

Civil Service Commission

Crown agents

Empire Marketing Board

Foreign Office

Home Office

Intelligence agencies Special Branch Security Service (MIs)

Ministry of Defence

Prime Minister's Office

Privy Council

Treasury

War Office

Appendix 2: Records arranged by subject Appendix 3: Newspapers Appendix 4: The Colonial Office List

Appendix 5: Rules for the conduct of correspondence between governors and the Colonial Office

Appendix 6: File registration numbers Appendix 7: Specimen search Appendix 8: Sources for biography and family history

Appendix 9: Access to the records and use of online catalogues

Bibliography Index viii

179 311 337 343

347 357 363 374 382

388 396

Cover:

List of figures and tables

Map of the world on Mercator’s projection showing the British empire, 1926 (with submarine cable routes shown in red), The Dominions Office and Colonial Office List for 1926, by Sir W H Mercer, AJ Harding, and G E J Gent (Waterloo & Sons Limited, London, Dunstable & Watford, 1926)

Back cover & The General Registry of the Colonial Office [1942]: Miss Heritage, a member of Frontispiece: the registry staff, consults a register of correspondence now in CO 378 (With thanks to Pictorial Press)

Figures

I

CO 326/3, subject index to Trade papers, 1696-1714, fo. 169. Entry of 14 May 1700 for ‘a Paper about Pestilential Feavors in Barbados’ giving references to Board of Trade journal, entry book, and original correspondence (bundle). 34

CO 391/13, Board of Trade journal, volume E, 1700-1, p. 41 (fo. 22). Entry reporting the receipt of ‘a Paper of Considerations concerning the causes of Pestilential Feavours in Barbadoes’. 35

CO 29/7, Barbados entry book, volume B, 1699—1792, p. 51. Copy of a paper concerning the causes of 'Pestilential Feavers and great Mortality in Barbados’. 35

CO 28/4, Barbados original correspondence, bundles C and D, 1699-1701, number 46, fo. 170. Original paper concerning causes of ‘Pestelentiall fevours' in Barbados. 36

‘Line chart of geographical department development’. Source: A. Thurston,

Sources for Colonial Studies in the Public Record Office, vol. 1: Records of the

Colonial Office, Dominions Office, Commonwealth Relations Office and

Commonwealth Office (HMSO, 1995), p. 161. 41

‘Line chart of subject department development’. Source: A. Thurston,

Sources for Colonial Studies in the Public Record Office, vol. 1: Records of the

Colonial Office, Dominions Office, Commonwealth Relations Office and

Commonwealth Office (HMSO, 1995), p. 313. 46

CO 28/122, fo. 306. Despatch with bottom right-hand corner folded back to record Colonial Office minutes on the reverse. Minutes are continued, written diagonally, on the following folio. 60

IO.

II

wes

CO 28/135, fo. 40v. Docket sheet recording name of writer, date and subject of despatch and annotated with Colonial Office minutes.

CO 318/135. Colonial Office minutes written on the face of an incoming letter from Durant St Andre, the French consul-general in London.

CO 137/528, fo. 618. A minute sheet recording details of a despatch which reports the result of a piracy trial [see figure 11] and comments on that report.

CO 137/528, fo. 619. The first page of a despatch from the governor of Jamaica, 21 December 1886, covering a report of a recent piracy trial received from the commissioner of the Turks Islands.

CO 137/528, fo. 625. The first page of a draft reply to the despatch shown at figure 11; with names of officials approving the draft.

CO 295/546. Telegram from the governor of Trinidad sent in code, with the decoding added in manuscript.

CO 295/546. Typescript copy of the text of the decoded telegram shown in figure 13.

CO 295/546. Draft telegraphic instruction to the governor of Grenada with coding added.

CO 583/74, fo. 691. Minute sheet showing referral of report on an outbreak of influenza to Flood, Harding and Ellis, Colonial Office officials, with Flood's comments and the dated initials of all three.

Extract from Colonial Office List of 1887 showing membership of the West Indian Department and the Colonial Office hierarchy above that department.

CO 37/249, fo. 125v. Minute sheet showing initialled comments by Lord Lucas, parliamentary under-secretary of state, and Lewis Harcourt, secretary of state.

CO 583/74, fo. 275. Draft reply to an incoming despatch showing the difficulty of reading some amended drafts.

CO 326/118, General Register: Offices and Individuals, West Indies, 1826. Showing the arrangement of the volume in ‘cuts’ for government departments and other organisations and officials.

CO 326/118, General Register: Offices and Individuals, West Indies, 1826. ‘Cut’ for the Admiralty including entry (no. 556) referring to ‘Refusal of Capt. Gambier to deliver up a Slave to Mr Tyne’.

CO 28/99, fo. 3. Letter from the Admiralty forwarding and commenting on copies of correspondence from Captain Robert Gambier, Royal Navy, reporting his refusal to hand over an ordinary seaman, John Williams, claimed as an escaped slave.

23:

List of figures and tables

CO 714/89, Jamaica: alphabetical index, 1815—70. Contents page showing subjects included under the letters ‘A’ to ‘F.

CO 714/89, Jamaica: alphabetical index, 1815—70, p. 39. Entries under the heading ‘Distress’ including reference to a despatch on the “Reimbursement of relief to 5 distressed Natives’ dated 20 January 1855.

CO 714/87, Jamaica, Governor's correspondence, 1849-59. ‘Précis of the item concerning relief granted to five ‘distressed Natives of Jamaica’ as referred to in figures 24 and 26.

CO 137/326. Despatch concerning relief granted by the acting British consul at Panama to five "distressed Natives of Jamaica as referred to in figures 24 and 25.

CO 382/73. Layout of a page from the daily register, or register of daily correspondence, for 1919.

CO 382/73. Extract from the 1919 daily register showing items of correspondence received from Nigeria but subsequently registered under “West Africa’ and ‘General’.

CO 763/7, Nigeria register of correspondence, 1919. Showing double-page layout in the type of register of correspondence used from 1849/50 to 1926.

CO 763/7, Nigeria register of correspondence, 1919. Including entry for correspondence concerning a Mr Westlake which was initially registered in the Nigeria register, but subsequently re-registered under ‘Cameroon.

. CO 763/7, Nigeria register of correspondence, 1919. Showing the way in which the ‘individuals’ section of the registers of correspondence was sometimes used as an index to other entries within the same register.

A compilation of entries from the Nigeria register of correspondence for 1919, CO 763/7, selected to illustrate particular points in using the registers.

Extract from TNAS catalogue showing volumes (pieces) of CO 583, Nigeria original correspondence, for 1919.

CO 583/74, Nigeria original correspondence, despatches, March to April 1919. Part of the contents list including reference to the despatch on the influenza outbreak referred to in figure 35.

CO 583/74, fo. 692. Despatch from the acting governor of Nigeria covering report of an influenza outbreak.

CO 879/118. Title page of Confidential Print African no. 1061, Medical and Sanitary Matters in Tropical Africa, which includes the despatch and report on influenza referred to in figure 35.

CO 323/1105/6. Opened file showing typical arrangement of correspondence on the right-hand side and minutes on the left.

xi

$1.

CO 129/535/3. Minute sheet noting destruction of individual items previously included in the file.

CO 792/26, Palestine register of correspondence, 1936. Example of a page of the type of register used from 1927-51.

CO 1045/718. Sir Christopher Cox’s invitation to the opening of the Nigerian Parliament; an example of the ephemera found among his papers. (By kind permission of the Federal Ministry of Information, Federal Republic of Nigeria.)

. CO 212/1. Title page of the Supplement to the New Zealand Government

Gazette of 15 December 1841.

CO 206/63. Extract from a New South Wales ‘blue book’ listing senior officials.

ADM 123/121, The expedition against the Congo pirates, 1875—6. Extract from the report of a punitive naval expedition against alleged pirates on the River Congo describing the destruction of villages and crops.

ADM 123/121. The expedition against the Congo pirates, 1875-6. Map of part of the River Congo showing villages destroyed during a naval expedition against alleged pirates.

ADM 123/121. The expedition against the Congo pirates, 1875-6. Enlargement of part of the map shown in figure 44 showing the location of the ‘picturesque’ village described in figure 43.

BW 90/1384, 1972, Inter-University Council: Makerere University and the present Uganda situation. Extract from correspondence and papers outlining events under the regime of Idi Amin.

CO 956/537A. Empire Marketing Board poster “Highways of Empire’; artist: Macdonald Gill

MPK 1/422(1). Sketch map, drawn by David Livingstone, of the area (now in Malawi) southwards from about 13° 20’ S as far as the Tete area, the Zambezi delta and Quelimane (now in Mozambique).

FO 881/657, 1856. Foreign Office ‘confidential print’ reproducing a report from David Livingstone.

MEPO 38/181, 1949-1991. Extract from a Special Branch file on Kwame Nkrumah detailing his activities in London.

MEPO 38/181, 1949-1991. Memorandum from an MIs officer concerning the possible arrival of Kwame Nkrumah in the United Kingdom.

PREM 4/43A/3, Application of Atlantic Charter to coloured races, 1941. Letter from the Colonial Office to the Prime Minister’s Office.

xii

IIO

II4

List of figures and tables

53. T 70/1467, 1750: Journal of palaver at Dixcove (with letters). Extract from a journal written by an agent of the Royal African Company. 174

$4. T 70/1467, 1750: Journal of palaver at Dixcove (with letters). Extracts of a letter from Edward Gregory, an agent of the Royal African Company, reporting skirmishes with local people and requesting a ‘Small Supply of Brandy or Rum’. 175

55. WO 1/352, War Department in-letters and papers, 1800—7. Extract from a list of ‘Nova Scotians’ at Sierra Leone. 176

56. CO 417/110, High Commission for South Africa: Original Correspondence, 1893, fo. 154. Cartoon by Edward Fairfield, a Colonial Office official, appended to his note to a colleague. 371

57. Colonial Office List, 1935. Biographical note on Sir Arnold Hodson. 375

58. CN 3/21, Farewell Durbar at Kumasi, Asante (Ashanti), September 1941. Sir Arnold Hodson, retiring governor of the Gold Coast, returns Crown lands in Kumasi to the Asantehene. 376 Tables

1. Allocation of Colonial Office file registration numbers, 1927—34 358

2. Allocation of file registration numbers, 1935—51 360

3. Economic Division breakdown of file registration numbers by principal subjects, 1935-51 361 xiii

Foreword to first edition

The handbook on colonial records at The National Archives prepared by Mandy Banton serves at least three important and useful purposes. First and foremost it is a new and extensively revised guide that takes fully into account records that have become accessible in recent decades, together with corrected and expanded lists of earlier eras. It covers the Colonial Offices relations with other government departments, including the Admiralty, the Cabinet Office, the Foreign Office, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Treasury and the War Office. In view of the complexity of the classification systems at The National Archives, researchers may wish to visit the Colonial Office handbook as their first port of call in clarifying other destinations, whether academic or genealogical.

A second function of the guide is historical perspective and comprehensive coverage of complicated and extensive lists of documents. Those using the handbook will be able to trace records on the evolution of the War and Colonial Office of the early 19th century and the creation of the geographical departments. The Colonial Office came into its own in 1854, and a half century later the creation of the Dominions Division in 1907 marked another major development. In 1925 the Dominions Office became a separate department, though relations remained close. The most recent era in the Colonial Office's history, as summarised in the handbook, is the period of decolonisation leading to the closing down of the Colonial Office in 1966 by its merger with the Commonwealth Relations Office, eventually becoming what we know today as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The third useful aspect of the handbook is its range and depth of historical detail. It is a historical work in its own right. It comments usefully on the ‘informal’ as well as the formal British empire and reveals the extent to which the Colonial Office was involved in the affairs of China, Argentina and Egypt, even listing, in Foreign Office records, the papers of Lord Cromer. It defines as well as guides. Readers will find helpful the distinctions in the nomenclature of British dependencies, the legal as well as the conventional meanings of such categories as colony, protectorate and mandate, and the nuances of meaning from decade to decade.

As one who has used the documents at the Public Record Office, now The National Archives, since 1960, and thus approaching my soth year of archival experience, I can testify to the utility of the new handbook. It contains useful guidance on the registration of original correspondence, file numbers, arrangements of files, secret registers, confidential prints and other more mysterious matters such as the purpose and methods of minuting. The handbook also discusses rather arcane sets of records such as the private office papers, as well as more well-known series of secret correspondence such as the indispensable CO 537 files. Seasoned historians and genealogists as well as those using The National Archives for the first time will find the handbook an indispensable guide and source of invaluable historical detail.

Wm. Roger Louis 17 November 2007 xvi