ABSTRACT
After the war, novel and expensive colonial development proposals were rejected and policy reverted to its limited pre-war mould. The Imperial government became preoccupied with its immediate financial problems. Beyond this primary consideration, they left the development of colonial resources substantially to the joint endeavours of colonial governments and private enterprise and the maintenance of the nation’s economic interests to the normal operation of market forces. But the Imperial government faced a new worry from the end of 1920 when those market forces created high levels of unemployment in Britain. Attempts to alleviate the depression were to have a profound effect on the Colonial Office’s efforts to obtain financial support for colonial governments from the Imperial Treasury. The unemployment problem seriously modified colonial development policy.
