THE BRITISH EMPIRE AS A SUPERPOWER, 1919-39

By the same author

GOVERNMENT AND LABOUR IN KENYA, 1895-1963 (with Donald C. Savage) THE ZANZIBAR REVOLUTION AND ITS AFTERMATH

THE BRITISH EMPIRE AS A SUPERPOWER,

1919-39

Anthony Clayton Senior Lecturer in Modern History Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst

M

MACMILLAN

© Anthony Clayton 1986 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1986 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1986 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world Typeset in Great Britain by Acorn Bookwork, Salisbury, Wiltshire

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Clayton, Anthony The British Empire as a superpower, 1919-39. 1. Great Britain-Armed forces-Colonial forces -History 2. Great Britain-History, Military -20th century I. Title UA647 909' .09712410822 ISBN 978-1-349-08611-5 ISBN 978-1-349-08609-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-08609-2

In memory ofmy parents, Irene and Emilius Clayton

Contents ix xi

List of Maps Author's Note 1 THE EMPIRE: ITS NATURE AND THE CONCEPT OF POWER Introduction The Imperial Structure Sea Power The Concept of Power on Land

1 3 9 11

2 STRATEGIC POLICY AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORCES, 1919-29 Economy and Disarmament The British Armed Services Dominion, Indian and Colonial Forces

17 19 30

3 MILITARY COMMITMENTS IN THE 1919-29 PERIOD (1) INTERVENTIONS Russia Iran Turkey Germany, Austria and the Danube The Mediterranean, 1923-29

45 60 63 71 74

4 MILITARY COMMITMENTS IN THE 1919-29 PERIOD (2) SECURITY Introduction Ireland British Domestic Commitments The Middle East The Indian Empire; Burma China The Colonial Empire: The Caribbean, Africa, the Far East

77 82 98 112 152 189 212

Vll

Contents

viii

The Dominions Britain Beyond the Imperial Frontiers

229 247

5 STRATEGIC POLICY 1930-39 Introduction Rearmament: General Policy Rearmament: the Armed Services, Intelligence Rearmament: India, the Dominions, the Colonial Empire

250 254 259 294

6 MILITARY COMMITMENTS IN THE 1930-39 PERIOD (1) RESPONSES TO AGGRESSION Introduction The Far East, 1931-39 The Saar The Ethiopian Crisis The Rhineland The Spanish Civil War Austria and Munich The Last Year of Peace

322 323 335 335 346 348 362 3 70

7 MILITARY COMMITMENTS IN THE 1930-39 PERIOD (2) SECURITY 380 Introduction 386 The Indian Empire 415 Burma 420 The Colonial Empire 435 The Dominions 447 Britain Beyond the Imperial Frontiers 449 British Domestic Commitments 460 Eire 465 The Middle East 487 Palestine 1936-39 8 CONCLUSION Discipline and Morale A Balance Sheet Bibliography and Sources Index

508 513 519 538

List of Maps Map 1 Map 2 Map 3 Map 4 Map 5 Map6 Map 7 Map 8 Map 9 Map 10 Map 11 Map 12 Map 13 Map 14 Map 15

Murmansk and Archangel South Russia and North Persia The Baltic, 1919-20 Western Turkey The Island of Ireland Egypt The Middle East Palestine Aden India The North-West Frontier of India The River Y angtse-Kiang The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan East Africa Burma

47 49 57

65 83 115 118 139 149 153 159 195 215 221 417

The place-names shown on the maps are those in use at the time of the events described.

NOTE

IX

Author's Note Any reader of a work of history is entitled to know, and should indeed ascertain, the background and nature of the author of that work. He will then learn what formative processes have led the author to his research and cast the mould into which the author has poured his facts for selection as to their significance. This note will provide the reader with some illustration of the author; the reader must excuse, therefore, a certain subjectivity. Above my father's writing desk used to hang a calendar with a colour photograph of King George v in Army uniform. Each year the calendar tag was changed, the King remained. In an adjoining bookcase lay Sir George MacMunn's Armies of India, with as its frontispiece a plate of Major A. C. Lovett's water-colour painting of the King-Emperor, in full ceremonial uniform, mounted on horseback. My parents were both gifted. My father was exceptionally so, combining a career as a Regular Army artillery officer with a gentle scholarly linguistic and academic ability which extended to archaeology, fluency in a number of languages and to the reading of the New Testament in Greek each night. My mother had a delightful wit that was never unkind. The family beliefs were clear: the values of God, Sovereign, Empire and Army were self-evident, service in these causes never needed to be questioned. Raised in this climate I served in a British cololl'i.al government, that of Kenya, for the first fourteen years of my working life. My actual duties, however, reflected the post-1945 world; my first appointment involved helping a fledgling African trade union movement, my second and last was concerned with higher education and training schemes for our Kenyan successors. Both were far from pro-consular but were infinitely rewarding. I then had the fortune to become an academic at the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst where, near the Grand Entrance of the Old Building, hangs the original of Lovett's equestrian painting of the King-Emperor. The academic world outside Sandhurst was, however, very different, analysing the imperial experience in increasingly critical terms. It xi

xii

Author's Note

seemed, and still seems to me that the three main areas on which assessments should be centred were first the legacy inherited by the new states in terms of political stability and economic viability, second the measure of economic exploitation by Britain as an imperial power, and third the measure of the erosion of self-respect, of coercion or of overt political oppression, and for what ends, that were contained in British rule or protection. One of the aims of this book is to assess the latter measure in the context of Britain's wider deployments and uses of force in the years of empire at its greatest extent. I believe such a study must also include events in the self-governing Dominions and in Britain herself, so accordingly they are also discussed. In examining the concepts of power and uses of force in the imperial interest it increasingly appeared to me that a simplistic explanation, an imperial-scale version of Professor E. P. Thompson's 'concession, theatre and skill' (skill in the remoter regions of empire often being that of military technology) although containing much truth, was not entirely adequate for these inter-war years. Despite some exceedingly unpleasant events clear moral dimensions existed. In the containing of colonial unrest Britain was a Christian nation and Parliament could be and on several occasions was, effectively critical over issues of human life and death. A second and wider morality was also present. The preservation of Empire unity and caution over any undermining of that unity was seen as essential, and fully justifiable, in view of the aggressive uncertainties in the world at the time, a world from which Britain could not retreat into isolation. Also some challenges to the British Empire such as Hitler and Mussolini were obviously glaringly immoral. The British record if far from unsullied can overall be defended. Further, stripped of formal colonial or other flag relationships Britain as a superpower was facing in these inter-war years many of the same problems as her post-1945 successors as superpowers- how to maintain friendly regimes in vital strategic areas, how to secure crucial raw materials and fuel, how to fight an insurgency movement without over-reaction, the role of intelligence organisations, the dilemma of the friendly but corrupt and oppressive regime clearly riding for a fall, and how to strike the balance between the weaponry required for a world strategy and that needed for world policing. The British 1919-39 achievement may perhaps also be compared not unfavourably with that of Britain's successors. A number of people have helped me with this work and I am much

Author's Note

X Ill

indebted to them for this help and comments. Mr Jim Dixon gave me continuous advice on naval matters, and Mr Keith Hart spared no pains to advise me on events in Canada; with both I have enjoyed a most lively and rewarding correspondence. Dr C. M. Andrew, Dr K. Jeffrey, Dr J. Lonsdale, Dr D. Killingray and Mr P. Towle very kindly placed some of their work at my disposal and offered me much in exchanges of views. Mr H. P. Willmott gave me especially useful advice on grand strategy as well as much encouragement at all times. Further afield Professor B. D. Beddie and ProfessorS. Moss, of the Royal Military College, Duntroon and M. J. Pariseau, Historian en chef of the Canadian National Defence Headquarters Directorate of History most generously supplied me with the product of their researches into military aid to the civil power in Australia and Canada; Mr J. Speer offered a first-hand recollection of such military aid in New Zealand. I have also learnt much from conversations with colleagues here at Sandhurst, especially with Captain A. Danchev and Group-Captain J. Walsh, BEM, of the Department of Political and Social Studies, with Mr N. de Lee, Dr P. G. Griffith, and Lieutenant Commander A. Thomas of the Department of War Studies, and with Dr A. Heathcote, Curator of the Academy's small museum. Others who have offered helpful advice include Brigadier M. d' A. Blackman, OBE, MC, Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly, KBE, CB, Wing Commander M. Thurbon and Brigadier J. 0. E. Vandeleur, DSO. I am particularly grateful to Oberstleutnant E. Dinter of the Bundeswehr for reading the whole of this manuscript and commenting upon it, and for the comments of Major-General B. P. Hughes, CB, CBE, Brigadier E. Hughes, Lieut-Colonel A. A. Mains, MBE, and Lieut-Colonel A. G. Shepperd on the sections that they read. Without the help and patience of two Librarians and their staffs, Mr J. Hunt of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and Dr D. C. Simpson of the Royal Commonwealth Society, London, this work could never have been attempted. The Librarians of the Police College, Bramshill, the Naval Historical Library of the Ministry of Defence, the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and the Staff College, Camberley, have all also been very helpful to me. Miss Monica Alexander, MBE and Mrs Nan Blackstone have carried the burden of converting my manuscript into type, and fully deserve my lasting gratitude. I am also most grateful to Mr F. Nicklinson for his careful preparation of the maps. I should also like to thank Keith Povey and his staff for their very careful editing of a complex task.

xiv

Author's Note

Finally I can only inadequately express my thanks to my wife, Judith, and my children, Robert and Penelope, for so much family support and tolerance while this book was being written. A book is indeed a family venture. ANTHONY CLAYTON