ABSTRACT
As a result of the 1929 Colonial Development Act, British colonial aid was intended to be more systematic in the 1930s. In August 1929, the Colonial Development Advisory Committee (CDAC), established under the Act to administer the Colonial Development Fund, determined the procedure to be followed for applications for assistance. It decided that a colonial government must first submit the project to the Colonial Office which would then either pass it on to the committee (with or without a recommendation that it be assisted), or return it to the colony for revision. If revised and resubmitted by the colony, the Colonial Office would pass the scheme to the CDAC, though an application without the secretary of state’s recommendation stood little chance of success. From January 1930 the financial adviser to the secretary of state, Sir John Campbell, attended the CDAC meetings and presented the Colonial Office view. If the governor, or another senior official of the colony making the application was in London at the time it came before the committee, he generally appeared and explained the case, but there was no formal provision for a direct submission from the colony to the committee and the CDAC had no power to initiate schemes itself.
