ABSTRACT
Between 1951 and 1957, Churchill and Eden presided over Conservative governments which, while broadly following these precedents, certainly did not seek to accelerate the pace of change and in some ways seemed more interested in holding the line. Keeping change within bounds meant, broadly, two things. The first was that Britain must remain always in full control of colonial events, and demonstrably so. The second and more basic meaning of keeping change within bounds was that Britain's international interests – strategic, diplomatic, economic – must on no account be compromised by movements in colonial policy, especially movements designed to accommodate nationalism. There is now a substantial literature devoted to explaining these movements in policy. Churchill's telegram of February 1952, noted above, was never sent, but successive Commonwealth Relations Secretaries invested diplomatic effort in explaining Britain's West African policy to Pretoria.
