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The colonies contributed more than just manpower to the army. In many colonies, the pre-war naval volunteer forces were expanded. In addition, seamen from the Empire also crewed British merchant ships.
These ships were usually the oldest, slowest ones, in which the men shovelled coal below decks at rates of pay far below that of white sailors doing the same work. Their death toll was high. Of the approximately 15,000 colonial merchant seamen who brought food and raw materials to Britain and transported war materiel to various battlefronts, 5,000 perished. Some are buried in Commonwealth War Graves as far away as Murmansk.
'One could ask: without the colonial contributions, could the Allies have won the war?'
The colonies also helped with funds for the Allied war effort. For example, the Bechuana (total pop. c.250,000) sent £10,400 to purchase two Spitfires for the RAF, and collected thousands of pounds for the many war charities. They also paid extra taxes, and their government sent £50,000 as a free gift to Britain.
The 25 million people of Nigeria sent a quarter of a million pounds to the war charities. This, and other such contributions, have to be seen in the context of local wages. In Nigeria, it was only two shillings (10p) per day. The West African colonies sent a total of one and a half million pounds to the charities, and their governments granted Britain £1 million in interest-free loans.
Such loans must also be seen in context. In no British colony were there sufficient numbers of schools or hospitals, for example. The total contribution of the colonial empire was £23.3 million in gifts and £10.7 million in interest-free loans, as well as £14 million low-interest loans. India also had to pay for its two and a half million citizens in uniform, as well as for the highly paid white British officers.
One could ask: without the colonial contributions, could the Allies have won the war?
Published: 2001-06-01
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