The Treaty of Waitangi at 175

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John Edmond: Christmas in Rhodesia

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Independence of Kenya at 50

Today 50 years ago Kenya received her independence. Kenya became a Commonwealth Realm, Her Britannic Majesty receiving the title of Queen of Kenya, a title which she unfortunately only retained for an entire year of 366 days.

Roger Whittaker sings My Land Is Kenya:

Post-colonial Africa has had its share of troubles. Its troubles with the democratic age have been more obvious than those of Europe and North America. Africa did not have as much time to evolve its democratic institutions and traditions, and Africa did not have those institutions and traditions of the West that – at least to begin with – had little or nothing to do with democracy. That being said, Kenya has gotten easier off – at least at some points – than some other countries. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe comes to mind. Kenya's southern neighbor, Tanzania, was for many years a full-fledged Marxist experiment.

Some previous posts: Kenyan Independence, The Muthaiga Country Club, Ascended into a Tree and onto the Throne

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John Edmond: Christmas in Rhodesia

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Salisbury Town

On this fifth anniversary of the passing of Ian Douglas Smith in the year of the thirtieth anniversary of the renaming of Salisbury, we bring you Salisbury Town by John Edmond:

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The War of 1812

200 years ago.

Elsewhere: Wilson Revolution Unplugged

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John Edmond: Christmas in Rhodesia

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Kenyan Independence

On December 12, 1963, Her Britannic Majesty Queen Elizabeth II attained the title Queen of Kenya – in the twelfth year of her reign. Exactly one year later, or 366 days, on December 12, 1964, Her Britannic Majesty was no longer to reign over “the land of endless sunshine.”

The Last Farewell by Anglo-Kenyan singer Roger Whittaker:

My Land Is Kenya – also by Whittaker:

Update: The Last Farewell is not in any way from Mr. Whittaker's side about Kenya.

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The Last Night

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The Republic of India

Today we mark the sad 61^st anniversary of the end of the Dominion of India and the birth of the Republic of India.

The British Raj Red Ensign

Previously: India Independence and Partition

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The Last Ruling Indian Prince and Knight of the Indian Empire

The Young Fogey, Rafal Heydel-Mankoo, eulogises the passing of an era with the recent death of His Highness Meghrajji III, Maharaja of Dhrangadhra-Halvad (1923-2010), the last Indian prince to rule his state prior to Independence of the subcontinent in 1947.

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The Architect of the British Empire

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The Entente-Cordiale

For a long time the British Empire had been on unfriendly terms with the revolutionary republic, with very good reason.

On this day, however, 106 years ago – April 8, 1904 – this would end. His Britannic Majesty entered as a party to the Entente-Cordiale with the revolutionary republic. Yes, that's the one. With the “Republic of France.”

A decade and a few months away were the fateful shots heard around the world from Sarjevo. And the British Empire was eventually to be on the same side as the revolutionary republic in that Great War that was to put an end to the Old Order that was.

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No Home Rule

Pretty prophetic isn't it? Talk about a slogan for our times - which nation can actually claim home rule will be a reality in a future filled with increased globalism, cosmopolitanism, multilateralism, economic interdependence and international governance? The British Empire was a prototype for world government, which was not necessarily a bad thing when government of the day - compared to now - was a starkly limited affair. Sure the Grand Home Fleet was huge and officialdom was stretched-thin everywhere, but men and women wherever they far flunged themselves were largely on their own and mostly survived according to their own devices.

The original "No Home Rule" was always a difficult sale, especially at the peak of Empire when Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were winning home rule for themselves in leaps and bounds, albeit under the welcome guise of British and Imperial solidarity. It's tough not to give in to Paddy, John Bull, Sandy and Taffy, at precisely the time when Mick, Johnny Canuck and Uncle Sam are flaunting their independence. Our British masters saw full national independence and self determination as counterproductive to the wider collective goals; by the time it became a fait accompli they were too late in successfully encompassing all British nations under a broader constitutional framework, and could not afford big singular centralising government to keep it altogether.

Big Imperial Government controlled and commanded from London would never have worked in the long run. We may all be fantastically similar countries, but our national perceptions and self interests were different enough to still require maximum freedom of movement. Only a grand federation of the loosest kind would have been remotely plausible, one that would effectively cede all authority to national governments except perhaps in customs and trade. Defence and foreign affairs could be cooperative arrangements, but even these would have required a large measure of local control. The monarchy would most definitely be centralised, but princes would be required to live year-round in the realms in order to promote just the right amount of loyalty, solidarity, patriotism and common purpose to keep it all sufficiently united. They did this for a while (remember the grand old Duke of Connaught?), but of course, having achieved home rule for ourselves, we have since never asked and they never offered. Loyalty dwindled, patriotism cheapened.

The incredible cheapening of patriotism we see today has somehow managed to reduce basic love of country (which requires a not so profound understanding of one's native identity) into a corporate branding exercise, where people paint their faces and party hardy. As far as brands go, Canada has an excellent one, very distinct and instantly recognisable, which will be on full display at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Naturally, the "British Queen" will not be there to officially open up the Games, since Her Majesty might place a different - even contradictory - image on Canada's obviously very cool - much cooler than Toyota - brand. The patriotism of yore has been replaced with the barely skin deep pride of place we have today.

No Home Rule sounds like a slogan that would put a smile on the face of any modern Eurocrat, who is busy taking over the fisheries and everything else by way of a thousand directives. Brussels is trying to get away with the impossible, and is succeeding where Britain failed because we live on an increasingly post-national, post-patriotic planet. Who really cares about home rule anymore when people are more concerned with accumulating their frequent flyer points? Where is home anyway? - New York, London, Paris, Stockholm, Zurich, Vancouver, Christchurch, Sydney...or is it all of the above, wherever it is I happen to be? Have we've gone all cosmopolitan all the time?

And where is the room for home rule when the buzz is all about global rule and global summits? Copenhagen, eat your heart out. 200 nations and at least as many limousines talking about controlling the environment. The environment is about as local as you can get, the very grass we walk on and the very air we breathe. Yet we give in to the global technocrat and actually talk about trading the clean air we breathe in return for pollution credits from China. The jolly green giant will not fade silently into the night.

The roles have reversed too. No Home Rule is now a left-leaning goal, and no longer a right-leaning one. The political stripe of individuals who were once the enemies of Empire, yet bask in the possibilities of world governance is one of those intuition defying paradoxes. The cosmopolitan elite who promote modern globalism are the same people who constantly remind us that conservatism is cold doctrine. But if you walk down a big urban street past the corner Starbucks, you will never hear a friendly hello or a cheery good morning, the cappuccino swillers are in fact a quite distant, self-interested and individualistic lot. For warm community you have to go rural, where all the so-called "Red Necks" live, where the guys and gals keep voting "Tory". Conservatives are warm people alright, they just like their politics cold, they only want to put the freeze on government. People put the freeze on politics a long time ago, they just haven't done much about the growth of government. That will happen soon enough, if for no other reason than the fact that governments around the world are literally bankrupting themselves.

No Home Rule is the seemingly unstoppable wave of the future. The decline of politics and patriotism, the urbanisation of civilisation, the blurring of national borders, the emergence of a technology savvy, interconnected transnational network of people all coming together of whatever ethnic background and all speaking the same language, that will not go away. I will not relinquish my armorial bearing passport for an international document that shows children holding hands under a rainbow, but I won't be around forever either. So to the monarchy doomers and the protagonists of republican inevitability, I say it is time for you to be relevant again. You need to focus on the more important and fundamental issue facing all of us: not the end of the monarchy, but the end of the nation-state.

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Ascended into a Tree and onto the Throne

For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a Princess and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience she climbed down from the tree next day a Queen — God bless her.

Edward James Corbett (1875-1955)

Plaque commemorating Accession at Aberdare Treetops Lodge, Kenya

For you are beautiful, I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell

Roger Whittaker (born 1936 in Nairobi)
bids farwell to the Land of Endless Sunshine

The current Aberdare Treetops Lodge

On the eastern shore of the great Lake Victoria of Africa, source of the mighty Nile, lies the Land of Endless Sunshine. It was in this beautiful gem of the British Empire the Duchess and Duke of Edinburgh came in the early days of 1952. Here lies the magnificent Aberdare Mountain Range. Here lies the beautiful Aberdare Forest. Here lies the mighty Mount Kenya.


The waterhole at Treetops Lodge

58 years ago, on February 5, 1952, Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess and Duke of Edinburgh ascend into a tree. On that night the Princess Elizabeth ascends the Britannic Throne. The Princess becomes Her Britannic Majesty. Unknowing of the Accession, the Royal couple descend from the tree the next morning, returning to the Royal residence of Sagana Lodge in the foothills of the mighty Mount Kenya. It is at Sagana Lodge Her Britannic Majesty receives the tragic message about her father – His Late Britannic Majesty.


Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess and Duke of Edinburgh at the grounds of Sagana Lodge before the night at Treetops

It is said that it was the first time in more than two centuries that a Sovereign succeeded the Throne whilst being abroad. George I succeeding Queen Anne was the previous time. Queen Elizabeth II was simply in another part of the British Empire. Her Majesty ascended to the Throne on firm ground where she was Sovereign, or at least in a tree that stood firmly on such ground.

During an uprising in the 1950s the original Treetops lodge was destroyed. A new and larger lodge was built at a nearby location.

Upon independence, Sagana Lodge was given to the government of Kenya. Upon independence, Her Britannic Majesty was given the title of Queen of Kenya, a title which she retained for exactly one year.


A waterfall in the Aberdares

Congratulations to Her Britannic Majesty on Accession Day!

Happy Accession Day!


Update: The Last Farewell is not in any way from Mr. Whittaker's side about Kenya.

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Happy Waitangi Day!

170 years ago today, the Treaty og Waitangi was signed.


Happy Waitangi Day!

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The 1926 Imperial Conference

A forerunner to the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Trinidad and Tobabago this weekend was the Imperial Conferences held amongst the dominion Prime Ministers of the British Empire a century earlier.

The Emperor King George V (front, centre) with his prime ministers. Standing (left to right): Walter Monroe (Newfoundland), Gordon Coates (New Zealand), Stanley Bruce (Australia), Barry Hertzog (Union of South Africa), W. T. Cosgrave (Irish Free State). Seated: Stanley Baldwin (United Kingdom), William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canada).
The 1926 Imperial Conference especially was notable as the conference that produced the Balfour Declaration, which established the principle that the dominions are all equal in status, and not subordinate to the United Kingdom.

The conference created the Inter-Imperial Relations Committee, chaired by Arthur Balfour, to look into future constitutional arrangements for the Commonwealth. In the end, the committee rejected the idea of a codified constitution, as espoused by South Africa's former Prime Minister Jan Smuts, but also fell short of endorsing the 'end of empire' espoused by Smuts's arch-rival, Barry Hertzog.

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On the Plains of Abraham

Desmond Morton takes a new look at 1759 and all that:

Were they? What about the Canadien militia, on their bellies on the battlefield? No one had told them to flee, though doubtless some did. The rest stood behind trees where they were, shooting, like Wolfe’s men, as fast as they could reload, and hitting their obvious targets. The Frasers, sent to annihilate Montcalm’s terrified regulars, were stopped, not just once but five times by the Canadiens. So were other regulars, sent under General James Murray to stop the French retreat. Thanks to the Canadiens, Montcalm’s regulars reformed their ranks at Beauport and marched to meet the Chevalier Lévis and the rest of the French army. They then withdrew to Montreal, leaving their militia comrades to fend for themselves. On Apr. 27, 1760, at the battle of Ste. Foy, they would take on Murray’s garrison in a return engagement. They would beat the British as convincingly as Wolfe had defeated Montcalm. If a French fleet had come up the St. Lawrence, the Battle on the Plains of Abraham would hardly be worth remembering. Quebec would be French.

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First Moncton, Then the World

Quot'd points to 1920s and 1930s era Canadian and American defense plans, in case either of us decided to invade the other

The main zones of operation discussed in the plan are:

Nova Scotia and New Brunswick:

Occupying Halifax, following a poison gas first strike, would deny the British a major naval base and cut links between Britain and Canada.

The plan considers several land and sea options for the attack and concludes that a landing at St. Margarets Bay, a then undeveloped bay near Halifax, would be superior to a direct assault on the longer overland route.

Failing to take Halifax, the U.S. could occupy New Brunswick by land cut Nova Scotia off from the rest of Canada at the key railway junction at Moncton.

Imagine, Moncton might have been the key to the British Empire. Though how American politicians would have explained to the public invading a country one-tenth their size, with an army smaller than the New York City Police force, is not explained. Images of anti-war protesters flooding the Mall in Washington with signs reading: "No Blood for Maple Syrup!" or "Coolidge=Kaiser" or "Make Hockey Not War."

The rationale for the plan was that Japan and Britain were allies. In event of war between the United States and Japan, Britain would be at war with America. It's highly unlikely Britain would have risked war with America over the Japanese alliance. It's even less likely the Canadian government would have allowed itself be dragged into an incredibly stupid war. The Canadian defense plan was even more outlandish, we would have launched a surprise invasion of the northern United States.

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Breaker Morant

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