Empire Lost - Andrew Stewart [110]
monitored in the British Embassy had included 'a certain amount of talk about "glittering phrases of which people have begun to grow tired"'.4 MacDonald in the High Commission in Ottawa therefore took it upon himself to double his efforts to better explain to the North American audience what the Empire stood for or at very least his interpretation. He had produced a series of rough notes in the spring of 1943, later titled as 'Some Thoughts on the Post-War Position of the British Commonwealth of Nations', which had been distributed throughout Britain's overseas posts.5 Following Lord Halifax's Toronto speech he had promised London that he would provide a more detailed study of Imperial cooperation and his new treatise, which covered 22 tightly typed pages, was delivered in April 1944 with apologies for the long delay in its production.6 This new document had generated scant praise in Whitehall, but it did not appear to deter him from his self-appointed role. Taking the message directly to the target, he told an audience in Boston in October 1944, it would be best for everybody if the ignorance which existed could be overcome and both Americans and Britons could be better informed about each other. The main purpose of British Imperial rule, as it now stood, was to extend freedom 'to all the peoples of the British Colonies, Burma, India and the Dominions, whatever their race, colour or creed'. It might have been more akin to propaganda than education but it was considered to be of stalwart value by those reviewing it—and no doubt helping prepare it—within the High Commission who extolled London to read these excellent speeches being made by MacDonald. Examining the speeches in the DO, what was noted was the undesirable tone and content and Emrys-Evans was clearly upset. This most recent speech was 'altogether too apologetic about the British Empire. It is not good from a historical point of view and merely confirms the Americans in the view held among a large part of the population that the United States introduced constitutional government into this country and the Commonwealth.' He believed that such speeches did not help to improve Anglo-American relations or 'bring any light into the darkness of American ignorance of our Imperial developments'. Cranborne was less scathing but he also could not agree with MacDonald's almost sycophantic praise of American political institutions. In the Dominions secretary's view, the reality was that 'they learned almost all they know on this subject from us, and if they had modelled their constitution more closely on ours, they would be in a much happier situation today'.7
The quest for unity dominated discussions and debate throughout what was to prove to be the penultimate year of the war and a commonly heard theme was the danger that the rest of the world faced if the alliance collapsed. A speaker at the Empire Club in Toronto—where Halifax had ignited a crisis—believed at least one of the causes of the two great conflicts of the century had been that Britain's enemies had believed the Dominions were 'so unconcerned for her interests, so remote if not actually hostile in purpose, as to be negligible in a forecast of comparative fighting strength'. The challenge would be to ensure that this never happened again.8 Elsewhere a contributor to Empire Review was convinced that a united Commonwealth would 'save the world future torture', all that was needed to secure this was realistic diplomacy and straight-speaking.9 Mackenzie King's address to the combined House of Commons and Lords in May 1944 was pored over in the FO for clues as to his thoughts on the subject. As a result of this analysis, it seemed the only way to maintain the Commonwealth was the successful establishment of an international authority, one in which unity could be preserved in so much as the Dominions, although associated with other powers, would likely act together. Were there to be no organization, the Whitehall reviewers feared that the Commonwealth 'would gradually cease to exist', or it would 'exist only in part'.