Welfare In The British Colonies

Welfare in the British Colonies L. P. MAIR London THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS CONTENTS I. THE BACKGROUND TO SOCIAL POLICY 7 AFRICA 7 MALAYA 14 HONG KONG 18 CEYLON 19 FIJI AND THE WESTERN PACIFIC ISLANDS 20 THE WEST INDIES 21 II. EDUCATION 24 THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 24 ORGANIZATION OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES 25 PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY 26 RELATIONS BETWEEN GOVERNMENTS AND PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS 30 PARTICIPATION OF THE COLONIAL PEOPLES 31 EDUCATION FOR RURAL LIFE . 33 THE EDUCATION OF GIRLS 37 THE LANGUAGE OF EDUCATION 40 ADULT EDUCATION 42 EDUCATION AT LABOUR CENTRES 44 ADVANCED EDUCATION 44 Bibliography 47 III. LABOUR 47 1. GENERAL QUESTIONS 47 The Organization of Labour Services International Labour Legislation. 2. DEVELOPMENTS IN THE DIFFERENT COLONIES 53 East Africa West Africa Malaya Ceylon the West Indies the Pacific Island Colonies. Bibliography 71 IV. HEALTH 72 1. THE ORGANIZATION OF HEALTH SERVICES 73 British Organizations International Bodies Health Services within the Colonies. 2. THE CONTROL OF TRANSMISSIBLE DISEASES 79 Malaria Yaws Hookworm Sleeping Sickness Leprosy Venereal Diseases Yellow Fever. 3. THE PROMOTION OF GOOD HEALTH 90 Africa Malaya the West Indies Fiji and the Western Pacific Islands. 4. NUTRITION 95 Bibliography 100 V. SOCIAL WELFARE 101 ORGANIZATION OF SOCIAL WELFARE SERVICES 101 THE WEST INDIES 103 THE AFRICAN DEPENDENCIES 109 CEYLON 113 THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT 114 Bibliography 115 NOTE IN a study intended merely to outline the work of the various colonial services concerned with social welfare, it is not possible to enumerate all the activities of these services in every colony instead, examples have been given to illustrate the main lines of development in the principal colonial areas in the tropics Africa, Malaya, Hong Kong, Ceylon, the West Indies and the Pacific Island Colonies. Limitations of space make it impossible to cover the Mediterranean Colonies, which in many ways present different problems from those of the dependencies in the tropics. December 1943. I. THE BACKGROUND TO SOCIAL POLICY IT is the object of this book to describe how the varied aims of modern social policy are put into practice. Fundamentally all welfare measures are directed towards raising the general level of the community whether by improving standards of health and nutrition in the villages and towns, by education to increase the individuals capacity for adjustment to the needs of modern times and make wider opportunities open to him, or by developing a sense of community and social obligation in the new urban popu lations. The work done in one sphere reacts upon that in every other, so that neither problems nor measures of policy can be divided into watertight compartments but for purposes of ex position, separate chapters will deal with education, labour, and health, the three subjects for which colonial Governments employ specialist departments, and with the various activities comprised under the heading of social welfare. AFRICA Africa at the present day is a land of striking contrasts. There is no remote corner to which some European influence has not pene trated, be it no more than the ubiquitous petrol tin, and in some places, such as the coastal towns of West Africa, large numbers of Africans lead a life which at least in its externals is completely European. Between this and the opposite extreme of the village where the petrol tin seems at first sight to be the only evidence of contact with the European, the old and the new Africa are to be seen side by side in every sort of juxtaposition. In Kenya one may meet a group of Masai, led by a stark naked elder, watering their cattle at a trough filled from an artesian well by a wind pump, of whose mechanics they have not the faintest comprehension...