ADEN COLONY (AMENDMENT) ORDER (Hansard, 20 October 1944)

§ The Secretary of State for the Colonies (Colonel Oliver Stanley)
I beg to move, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, in pursuance of the provisions of Section 309 of the Government of India Act, 1935, praying that the Aden Colony (Amendment) Order, 1944, he made in the form of the draft laid before Parliament. I think I can explain in a very few words the purpose of this Order. As hon. Members know, until 1936 the Colony of Aden was administered by India during that time, and for a great part of that time was administered the same way as a town in Bombay Province. The result is that the machine which we took over is not really suitable for Colonial administration. The main administrative body, apart of course from the pure machinery of the 2790 Central Government, was the Aden Settlement Executive Committee, and it was on that body above all that any unofficial opinion was represented. That Settlement Committee was really neither one thing nor the other. It was partly the municipality of Aden, partly a sort of legislative council, but its boundaries went beyond the town of Aden and yet did not go as far as the boundaries of the Colony. Its powers went beyond the ordinary powers of municipalities but not as far as those of legislative or executive councils. We have therefore tried to tidy up this system, and this Order is part of the tidying-up process. We are proposing to abolish this Settlement Executive Committee and in place of it to set up two municipalities for the township of Aden and the township of Sheikh Ottoman, which will be municipalities in the ordinary sense of the word, their boundaries limited to municipal boundaries, their powers limited to the ordinary powers of municipalities. In addition, we shall set up a legislative council whose functions will cover the Colony as a whole, and will have the ordinary functions of a legislative council in Colonial administration. The new municipalities can be and will be set up under the law of the Colony itself. It is only the institution of this legislative council which requires the sanction of this House, and it is to obtain the sanction of this House, that I now present this Order.

§ Mr. Creech Jones (Shipley)
I want first to express my appreciation of the general policy of the Colonial Secretary and His Majesty's Government in making adjustments in all parts of the Empire of existing political institutions in order to meet new needs. The Order we have before us to-day is consistent, it seems to me, with that general policy of improving and altering constitutions, in order that there should ultimately be a wider basis of representative and responsible government. But there are one or two doubts in my mind with regard to the present Order which I hope the Secretary of State will clear up for me. The Colony of Aden is a very small one. It comprises no more than 21 square miles, and if you include Little Aden it is no more than 36 square miles.
Its population is no more than 35,000. Yet this very small area enjoys the status 2791 and dignity of a Crown Colony, with a Governor, an Executive of a sort, a Chief Justice, a Commissioner of Police, a Finance Minister, and all the rest of the usual bureaucratic arrangements—using the word "bureaucratic" in its best sense—associated with a Crown Colony. It is proposed that this Crown Colony, so small, with this limited population, should be given a Legislative Council. I quite agree that that is the British historical and traditional way of building-up political institutions in our Colonies. That method of establishing Legislative Councils has, in the past, proved of very great importance in the political development of these Colonies. It has, I think, a great deal to commend it. But, at the same time, there are certain very real disadvantages, which ought to be mentioned before we continue further along this way.
The Secretary of State mentioned that it was his purpose that two municipalities should be created, or reformed, inside the Colony. Thus in this very small Colony, with only 35,000 people, which geographically is of very small area, there are to be no fewer than three political bodies concerned with administrative and important functions. I am not quite clear whether development in this form is as desirable as superficially appears to be the case. I would have thought that, rather than give such an area all the paraphernalia of a Crown Colony, with legislative machinery and all the rest, it would be better to build up from the base, by developing local government through the municipalities and strengthening their powers, in order that responsibilities might be exercised, and responsible government learned. In the past, perhaps, political development inside the Empire has suffered quite a lot because the attention of the people in the Colonies has been directed to the central authority, the Legislative Council. People have not learned how to use local government or to appreciate the importance of local government so far as their social services are concerned. Too often political thought and energy in the Colony have, as a result, been directed into wrong directions. Those are my doubts in this case. I hope that, when we come to consider these problems of constitutional development, although it has been our traditional habit of setting up Legislative Councils, we may, in view of the experience we have 2792 had, consider whether some other forms of government institution cannot be devised, so that people may more rapidly learn the work of responsibility in government and learn how democratic machinery ought to operate. Having expressed those doubts, there are one or two questions which I would like to put to the Secretary of State.
First, am I to understand that the Order is strictly limited to the Colony, that the new Legislative Council will not function in respect of the Protectorate, which stretches out behind it into Arabia? Secondly, under the new arrangement, is Aden to continue as a free port? Thirdly, will the old link with India continue in regard to the reference of cases of appeal to the Indian courts, and will the currencies continue to be linked up with India? Those are a few points on which I should like to be satisfied.
I have expressed my doubts as to whether it is not wiser to build up local government, as against the creation of a Legislative Courted. I have done this with some hesitancy, but I think that all of us who have seen the political development in some of our Colonies feel rather perturbed that too little effort is given to local government development, and, consequently, too much emphasis placed upon the authority and powers reposed in the central Legislative Council. In any case, I am not happy that in so small an area, with so small a population, all the paraphernalia of a Crown Colony should be established, with a Governor and all the machinery involved.

§ Colonel Stanley
With the permission of the House, I would like to answer the questions put by my hon. Friend. May I say that I agree entirely with the general thesis of his speech, which, I think, cannot be too often emphasised. We have in the past—and I think Colonial opinion is still prone to it—attached much too much importance to the central Legislature, in comparison with the municipality and opportunities of work of that kind, and anything that can be said in this House to stress the importance of local government, and make them realise that, in this country, on the whole, we have built up our Constitution through the local government and that the function of the central institution is to set the seal upon things already worked out by local government, I think would be extremely valuable. 2793 Passing from the general to the particular, I do not think I made quite clear to the hon. Gentleman the peculiar circumstances of this case. The hon. Gentleman asks why we do not build up small municipalities. I remember that there was in existence for many years a body which had wider powers than the ordinary municipality, and therefore, in this case, merely to set up these two municipalities, and have nothing in the way of a central body, would be to leave unofficial members of the community with less say in the affairs of the Colony than they have had for many years. I do not think that would have been supported, but would have appeared to be a retrogressive act.
I should like to make this other point. The hon. Gentleman has said how small this Colony is and how few is the population, and he talks about all the paraphernalia of a governor, but he will realise that a governor and all the paraphernalia of local government are responsible, not only for this small Colony, but for a very great area and the difficult problem of the Protectorate. With regard to the particular questions on the free port and currency, I would say that the Order does not alter the situation in any of those respects.

§ Mr. Creech Jones
May I ask if the Order is limited to the Colony and is not applicable to the Protectorate?

§ Colonel Stanley
Oh, yes, Sir.
Question put, and agreed to.
Resolved: That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, in pursuance of the provisions of Section 309 of the Government of India Act, 1935, praying that the Aden Colony (Amendment) Order, 1944, be made in the form of the draft laid before Parliament.