The Question of Equal Treatment

Abstract

When Lord Hailey was in America in the winter of 1942–3 he visited several major universities and was invited to many important gatherings of businessmen, politicians and journalists as well as the crucial Institute of Pacific Relations conference (which is discussed in the next chapter). Arranged by the British Embassy and the Royal Institute of International Affairs, they gave Hailey the opportunity to put the case for the British Empire in America. One of his important messages, however, related to the United States rather than the British Empire. Hailey argued for conserving the status quo to prevent further instability, already increasingly apparent within America. Hailey was conscious of the black–white tension in the States when he warned his Princeton audience that: ‘it may well be found that the matters which cause unrest and unsettlement in the world arise mainly within the borders of its major powers.’¹