The Existing Dependencies

Abstract

Eighty-five years later, things have come to be viewed differently from Chamberlain’s day and now we speak no longer of colonies but instead of dependent territories and associated states. But whatever the name, these actors are still a corporate part of the true spirit of kinship to which Chamberlain referred, a spirit which is today embodied in the Commonwealth. Along with the name by which we refer to these territorial actors, much has changed and evolved since 1897, but this basic spirit of fraternity which created the Commonwealth is as alive today as ever. These territories are no longer referred to as ‘ours’ and if anything the Commonwealth spirit has done a great deal to perpetuate itself through the rapid dismantling of Britain’s colonial possessions and the creation of the contemporary Commonwealth. But is the burgeoning membership of the Commonwealth in the best interests of the remaining dependencies?¹

As regards the self-governing colonies, we no longer talk of them as dependencies. The sense of possession has given way to the sentiment of kinship. We think and speak of them as part of ourselves, as part of the British Empire, united to us although they may be dispersed throughout the world, by ties of kindred, religion, history, and of language, joined together by the sea that formerly seemed to divide us.

(Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 31 March 1897)