“The service had to come first”: leave and ocean passages of British officials and their dependants in inter-war West Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper demonstrates how the domination of subject peoples by the imperial and colonial governments was extended to the private domain of marriage and the family life of officials. This was undertaken by means of restrictive and intrusive civil service rules, which governed the rates of ocean passages payable to colonial officers’ wives, and the conditions under which officers could go on leave, and be accompanied by their wives and children at their duty post. The resultant controversy was linked with the business rivalry between Elder Dempster and non-British liners; the inter-war economic depression, which severely incapacitated the government; and the policy divergence between the Colonial Office and most colonial governors. Though concessions were made in instalments, government maintained control of officials’ family life throughout the period. This case study illustrates the recurring incidence of paternalism in relations between senior and junior officials, and between London and the colonies.