ABSTRACT
On the following day, 16 June 1938, MacDonald requested his staff to draw up a memorandum on the operations of the Colonial Development Fund.45 This instruction shows that the Secretary of State was by no means solely concerned with conditions in the West Indies. While problems there were of pressing importance, he evidently wished to review colonial development policy more generally and to do so quickly, a month after taking office. Indeed, having achieved an initial success with a new policy for the West Indies, MacDonald seemed determined to exploit it.
