Arthur Creech Jones - Colonial Secretary

Colonial Secretary

In October 1946, the Secretary of State for the Colonies George Henry Hall was moved in a Government reshuffle and Creech Jones was promoted to head the Department, with a seat in the Cabinet and membership of the Privy Council. Creech Jones took over at a time when the tensions in Palestine were increasing, and he frequently appealed to moderate Jewish leaders to restrain the more violent. He was again a delegate to the United Nations during its debate on the subject, and informed the UN of the British government's determination to give up the mandate and withdraw British forces.

In September 1947, Creech Jones chaired the British West Indies conference at Montego Bay discussing closer association and possible federation of the British colonies in the area. The conference produced a preliminary agreement on federation and dominion status. He was later forced to recall Oliver Baldwin as Governor of the Leeward Islands, who had made outspoken comments which local opinion had taken badly.

In Africa, Creech Jones presided over a conference at Lancaster House for the African colonies in 1948. He was able to issue a memorandum on local government in the Colonies, which confirmed the intention to bring in responsible government. He was able to make progress in the colony of Ceylon where he introduced a Government Bill to give the colony Dominion status and eventual independence. He thus presided over the Colonial Office's first granting of independence to a 'non-white' colony. (Independence for India and Pakistan a year earlier had been the responsibility of the India Office.) Internally he reorganised the Colonial Office and its associated civil service to make it more appropriate for the changed role he foresaw for it.