Cripps. Cripps' monument as a missionary arethe various crumbling churches he built abouthis district and the devastated acres of MarondaMashanu where people were allowed to ploughand cut down trees as they liked. His influenceUniversity of Rhodesianever extended beyond his own district andwithout his poetry he would probably be for-gotten. Paget on the other hand did build forthe future and finally his compromise was morecreative than Cripps' obduracy.A. J. CHENNELLSEducational Co-operation in the Commonwealth: An Historical Study By N. D. Atkinson Salisbury,Univ. of Rhodesia, 1974, Education Occasional Paper No. 1, 265 pp. RhS5,10.The author explains that his book 'is in-tended to provide an assessment of educationalco-operation in the Commonwealth, duringboth the imperial and post-imperial periods.There has been no attempt to examine theeducational policies or institutions of individualterritories, except in so far as they have affectedthe development of international co-operation'(p.[5]). Even within this limitation, Atkinsondeals with a vast subject and the chief value ofthis book is as a wide-ranging documentarysurvey rather than as a definitive assessment,especially as the author relics heavily on officialreports and accepts their statements somewhatuncritically.Atkinson begins with the general influenceof British life on the Comomnwealth. First heassesses the influence of the English langu-age and then he states that a second in-fluence, namely 'the rule of law and demo-cratic ideals of government, has had lessobvious effects in many parts of the Common-wealth. African countries, during the earlyyears of independence at any rate, have in-creasingly tended to react in favour of thetraditional norms and attitudes of Africanculture' (p.8). This judgement reflects perhapsan oversimplified view of both de-colonisationand African culture. The creation in certainAfrican countries of what Atkinson goes on todescribe as the 'autocratic framework of theone-party state' might be seen as not so much areaction as a replacement of the imperial auto-cratic framework by a centralised single-partydemocracy which aims to facilitate whatAtkinson describes as 'a transformation of thesharply defined group relationships of tribalsociety' (p.8). This introductory chapter is com-pleted with a view of the evolution of theCommonwealth concept from an adherence tothe 'holist' philosophy of General Smuts downto the 1963 Ditchley Park Conference definitionof it as 'an association of peoples rather thanan organisation of governments' (p. 12). Animportant aspect of the subsequent assessmentof events is to show how Commonwealth co-operation has grown to embrace some nationswhich were never under British rule, and ex-cludes others which were.The second chapter, entitled 'ImperialLegacy', sketches aspects of imperial educa-tion from the exclusively Anglican denomina-tionally-orientated 'mistake' of the Tudors inIreland (p. 15) down to Milner who made the'first real attempt at a thorough-going pro-gramme of development through the ColonialEmpire as a whole' (p. 23). Naturally, such abroad survey must overlook certain aspects ofimperial education but surely the origin anddevelopment of 'industrial training' at leastrequires some mention in any assessment ofCommonwealth co-operation. Similarly twen-tieth century Colonial Office policies on educa-tion in Africa, which Atkinson deals with atsome length, need to be assessed in their nine-teenth-century historical perspective, with re-ference to Kay-Shuttleworth's 'Practical Sugges-tions' of 1847 and the policies of Earl Greyand Sir George Grey in various colonies (seeA. E. du Toit, The Earliest British Document ofEducation for the Coloured Races, Pretoria,Univ. of South Africa, 1962, CommunicationNo. C34).Moving into the twentieth century, Atkinsonfirst reviews the significance of the ImperialEducation Conferences in 1911, 1923 and 1927;but it is not clearly stated whether the re-commendations of these conferences on suchthings as teacher exchanges and conditions of134service applied equally to all races in the Em-pire. Such imprecision is confusing, for Atkin-son next goes backward in time to the turn ofthe century, and with particular reference to theWest Indies, Malaya and West Africa, considerseducational difficulties which presented a 'uni-formly desolate picture' (p.30). The reader hasto assume that Atkinson is now talking aboutnon-white education. From the turn of thecentury, the author moves rather swiftly for-ward to the 1920s and assesses what he con-siders to be an initiative taken by administra-tors in Africa itself to 'lay down principles ofeducational development for the Colonial Em-pire as a whole' (p.30). In connection with the1923 White Paper on Kenya which announcedthe paramountcy of indigenous interests incolonial policy, and also the 1925 ColonialOffice memorandum 'Education Policy inBritish Tropical Africa', Atkinson dwells atsome length on the influence and ideas ofLugard and Guggisberg. Most attention is givento Guggisberg as the founder of AchimotaSchool: 'To a greater extent than Lugard, hev/as concerned with the problem of producinga responsible and capable leadership class, ina setting where British influence had alreadybeen in operation for more than a centurybefore' (p. 34). Guggisberg, Atkinson asserts,also struck 'at the central problem of educa-tional organisation in any developing country',namely, the need to ensure the 'identificationbetween the educative influences of the homeand of the school', lest pupils 'always run therisk of lacking any sure foundation in citherthe old or the new cultural traditions' (p.35).Atkinson sees the ideas of Lugard and Guggis-berg as most influential in 'a much wider move-ment of heart-searching and renewal amongstBritish colonial administrators during the yearswhich followed the end of the First WorldWar' (p. 37).Unfortunately, only superficial note is takenof the influence at this time of the Americansponsored Phelps-Stokes Commission. Itsleader, Dr Thomas Jesse Jones, is only men-tioned in a footnote and his chief supporter inAfrica, Dr C. T. Loram, is not mentioned atall (p.38). Surely the widely felt influences ofthese two men in colonial Africa and in theUnited States required critical attention in any'assessment of educational co-operation in theCommonwealth' at a time when Whites de-termined black needs and when policies oftenselfishly repressed rather than encouraged blackadvancement and aspiration (see R. D. Hey-man, 'C. T. Loram: a South African liberalin race relations', The International Journal ofAfrican Historical Studies, 1972, 5, 41-50;K. J. King, Pan-Africanism and Education,Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971). The rest of thischapter is connected chiefly with the ColonialDevelopment Acts which Atkinson sees as'essentially altruistic' expressions of colonialpolicy (p. 55). In answer to critics of colonialpolicy before 1945 who 'even went so far asto suggest that the courses being devised forAfricans were intended to keep them in a per-manent position of social and intellectual in-feriority' (p. 63), Atkinson concedes that'paternalistic ideals, no matter how sincere,could hardly fail to arouse some measure ofresentment from people who were impatient fora swift and decisive ascent to political power.Nevertheless, these considerations must not beallowed to obscure the significance of theultimate purpose which British Administratorshad in mind. They were working, as one oftheir number explained, in the light of certainclear convictions: "a belief in the potenialequality of all races of mankind"' (p. 63).Atkinson clearly has little sympathy for thoseleaders who strove for the swift emancipationof Africa from British rule and who, he sug-gests, were merely seeking political power. Itseems that Atkinson identifies himself with thepaternalists who believed in the 'potential'equality of all races. It is particularly un-fortunate that he has not considered the in-vestigations of King into Phelps-Stokeism, Pan-Africanism and British and American policieson black education between the wars, for thiswould have given him a less idealised pictureof Colonial Office policy and a more sympathe-tic appreciation of black aspirations. More-over, reference to King's work might have madeAtkinson realise that there was not a greatdeal that was 'new' about certain politicaland social aspirations in newly-independentblack African States which he considers lateron in his book (p. 66).At least half of Educational Co-operationin the Commonwealth is devoted to develop-ments since 1945. In this connection, particul-arly since the Colombo Conference in 1950,Atkinson has performed a useful service inproviding what is probably the first attempt to135gather into a single narrative all educationalschemes which have affected the Common-wealth and its world relations down to theearly seventies. In a project of such complexitysome factual errors crop up almost inevitably.Some of the slips made by Atkinson, however,suggest that he is only superficially aware ofthe historical significance of some of hismaterial. For example, in a chapter entitled'Higher Education' Atkinson states: 'In oneof the most thoughtful papers read before theCongress of 1912, Sir George Parker, Organis-ing Representative of the Rhodes ScholarshipTrust, pointed to the wide variety of knowledgeand experience available amongst universityteachers throughout the Empire' (p. 137). Here(and in the index) Atkinson is in fact referringto Sir George Parkin, Organising Secretary tothe Rhodes Trustees, who had a wide know-ledge of education all over the empire as wellas in the United States, and whose biographyAtkinson might well have consulted (see SirJohn Willison, Sir George Parkin: A Biography,London, MacMiilan, 1929). In his assessment ofthe Commonwealth Scholarship schemesAtkinson refers to Rhodes Scholarships onlyin a footnote (p. 170) and the authority cited,F. Aydelotte, is misspelt and not included inthe bibliography; also W. C. F. Plomer'sCecil Rhodes, (London, P. Davies, 1933) issomehow transformed into The Rhodes Scholar-ships. These errors lead one to suspect thatAtkinson only considered Parkin superficiallyand Rhodes Scholarships as an afterthought.Moreover, the educational activities of thateminent Rhodesian Rhodes Scholar, KingsleyFairbridge, as well as the scholarship schemewhich bears his name, are entirely ignored byUniversity of RhodesiaAtkinson.It would require more space than thatafforded here to review all aspects of Com-monwealth co-operation which Atkinsonhappens to assess. Suffice to say that studentsof Rhodesian history will find much of localinterest, particularly in the relations betweenRhodesia and the outside world as they affectour University. Also with local relevance,Atkinson considers the activities and influenceof Jeanes Teachers, Ranche House College, TheCapricorn Africa Society and special assistancegiven to Blacks from Rhodesia at universitiesand other educational institutions in foreignand Commonwealth countries. The three finalchapters of the book assess a diversity ofeducational schemes and relationships, thenature of which, as the titles of each chaptersuggest, namely 'Research', 'Methods andMedia' and 'Bridge Building', can be sum-marised as parts of a far from simple processof promoting peace and understanding in a notalways very harmonious Commonwealth andin an uneasy world. It is unfortunate, however,that when Atkinson here surveys the work ofMilner and Smuts in connection with specialisedCommonwealth studies, he singles out Smutsfor particular reference to his 'traditional Afri-kaaner [sic] belief in the intellectual and ad-ministrative superiority of the white man'(p. 178), whereas Milner revealed in his publicutterances very similar prejudices.In conclusion, then, Atkinson has conducteda broad and often very useful survey, butnumerous points make one doubt whether thehistorical assessment is entirely accurate, well-balanced and dispassionate.R. J. CHALLISS136