James Bowden, at the last minute, was unable to present his paper at our recent Research Symposium. We are very pleased to note that the paper has now been published by the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal.
ABSTRACT
In 1917, the Privy Council Office of Canada produced a memorandum arguing that London should transfer the British West Indies to Canada as compensation for the Dominion’s efforts in the First World War; Canadian Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and other officials discussed the Canadian proposal for the next two years at the Imperial War Cabinet and up until the Versailles Conference. This plan never came to fruition. But exploring why the British West Indies remained under London’s tutelage instead of Ottawa’s provides a fascinating case study on how the British Empire evolved into the Commonwealth, how the various Dominions accreted their own international legal personalities in the Inter-War Years, and how all this culminated in the Imperial Crown branching out into a personal union of Crowns. Canadian officials in the 1910s did not appreciate the difference between internal, incorporated territories versus external, overseas territories, and their conceptual misunderstandings of how the British Empire operated outside of North America contributed to Canada’s decision to abandon its own proposal of assuming the administration of the British West Indies. The Constitution Act, 1982 now prevents Canada from taking on overseas territories altogether.
Source: Canadian Foreign Policy Journal
This is the link to the full paper.
You can also visit James Bowden’s blog which contains very interesting content on Canadian and Commonwealth political history and institutions. Visit Parliamentum.