Book Review: Commonwealth of Nations: Essays in Imperial Government
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000123 |
| Author | Robert V. Kubicek |
| Published date | 01 March 1965 |
| Date | 01 March 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
128
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
cordingly.
Home
became
Leader
of
the
Conservative
Party
more
be-
cause
external
circumstances
suited
his
character
than
because
of
anything
he
had
done
to
shape those
circumstances,
and
the
external
circumstances
of
1963
are
probably
more
interesting
than
his previous
career.
Some
day
a
political
scientist
will
explain
Macmillan's
Con-
servative
Party,
and
in
any
case
The
Making
of
the
Prime
Minister
is
on
its
way.
Nevertheless
Home's
career
is
important
in
its
own
right;
it
is
useful
to
be
reminded
not
only
that
Cyril
Connolly
called
him
"honourably ineligible
for
the
struggle
of
life"
but
also
that
he
fought
five
parliamentary
elections,
one
in
a
strong
Labour
seat
and
four
in
a
marginal
constituency.
He
was
not
conspicuous
during
his
years
in
the
Commons,
partly
because
his
position
as
Chamberlain's
Parliamentary Private
Secretary
required
him
to
be
a silent
observer
of
parliamentary
opinion
and
partly
because
of
his
serious
illness
in
the early
'forties.
His
first ten
years
in
office
after
1951
were also
inconspicuous:
as
Secretary
of
State for
Scotland
he
could
have
attracted
attention
only by
dramatic
planning
for
economic
development, and
his
own
attitude
to
economics
and
his
party's
traditions
combined
to
make
that
impracticable.
At
the
Commonwealth
Relations
Office
he
was
always
overshadowed
on
important
questions by
the
foreign
secretary
or
the
colonial
secretary,
and
in
any
case
his
position
looked
more
like
that
of
an
ambassador
than
that
of
a
minister.
He
emerged
into
the
limelight
only when
he
became
Foreign
Secretary,
and
the
light
was
sometimes
harsh.
Mr. Dickie
clearly
disapproves
of
his
Katanga
policy,
and,
torn
between
this
moral
attitude
and
his
desire
to
defend
Home,
he
presents
the
Foreign
Secretary
as
helpless
in
the
grip
of
circumstance.
This
does
not
do
justice
to
Home:
his
attitude
to
the
United
Nations
has
been
clearly
stated,
it
is
characteristic
of
the
attitude
of
permanent
members
of
the
Security
Council
in
its
emphasis
on
national
interests,
and
it
can
be
ignored only
by those
who
think
nationalism
is
a
dying force.
Mr. Dickie
has
not
often fallen
into
the
popular
misconception
of
Home.
Nevertheless,
it
may
be
as
well
to
state
clearly:
Sir
Alec
is
not
just
a
"nice
chap"-he
may
not
be
nice
at
all-and
there
are
no
recorded
examples
of
his
being
pushed
into
doing
anything
he dislikes.
University
of
Toronto
TREVOR
0.
LLOYD
ESSAYS
IN
IMPERIAL
GOVERNMENT.
By
Kenneth
Robinson.
1963.
(Oxford:
Basil Blackwell.
Toronto:
Copp
Clark.
viii,
287pp.
$7.70)
The editors
of
this
tribute
to
Miss
Perham,
on
the
occasion of her
retirement
as
a
fellow
of
Nuffield
College,
have sought
to
recognize
her
long-standing
interest
in
British
imperial
studies
as
well
as
her
unique
contribution
to
African
scholarship.
Ten of
her
associates and
colleagues
(including
the
editors)
in
Nuffield
and
the
Institute
of
Commonwealth
Studies-"two
Oxford
institutes
in
each
of
which she
has
been
a
major
figure"-have
contributed
articles
which
are
his-
torical,
legal,
political
or
philosophical
in
nature.
For
the
most
part
these,
like
Miss
Perham's
own
work,
are
soundly based
on
scholarship
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