All language subtitles for The.British.Empire.in.Colour.3of3.The.Legacy.of.the.British.Empire-en

1945.

The Empire has united behind Britain to
fight and win a Second World War.

But when the heady haze of victory has
cleared, the British people are left

exhausted.

The nation shattered by austerity and
debt.

the prestige and ideals of empire are
fading.

As the empire crumbles, imperial
attitudes live on.

Britain and her empire must confront the
legacy of intolerance, paternalism

and prejudice.

Most of us are white in the head, but
feel black inside.

We are black or white.

We are a lonely, lost, sad, and
displaced group of people.

Come and integrate, you say.

But how can I?

What is there in my culture you value?

We were told England was the greatest
country in the world.

We came here.

And to our surprise, found you wouldn't
accept us.

The old idea of

empire is repugnant to us today.

But the colonies are a legacy which we
inherited

and which cannot just be thrown off.

1953, the coronation of Elizabeth II.

Her Majesty coming now under the
Admiralty Arch, coming into the square,

crowd receives them as only a British
crowd in London could.

Although imperial in its symbols and
splendour, the event heralds a new

multiracial Commonwealth of Nations.

In 1949,

India had become the first non -white
republic within the Commonwealth.

Amidst the coronation procession,
India's Prime Minister, Jawaharlal

I think the development of the
Commonwealth is of great significance.

This kind of free association of
countries with different interests,

outlooks, trying to understand each
other is a very great thing.

But life in post -war Britain is hard.

People are struggling to rebuild their
lives.

Housing and jobs are scarce.

Wartime rationing continues.

In a letter to the Daily Worker, Mary
Mullinder.

I am fed right up to the teeth when I do
my shopping.

I've got just enough money to get my
bare rations. We should cut down on

coronation spending.

and on the armed forces why should
working people suffer

will

you solemnly promise and swear to govern
the people of the United Kingdom of

Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand,

Pakistan, and Ceylon, according to their
respective laws and customs.

I solemnly promise so to do.

No longer Empress, the Queen is crowned
Head of the Commonwealth of Nations.

From around the Commonwealth, people
send radio messages to the new queen.

I am Haji Jamil from Singapore.

From Nigeria, I do congratulate you on
the session of your coronation.

In the West Indies. On behalf of the
youth of India, I beg to bestow my

heartiest congratulations. On behalf of
the entire seven million Africans of

Tanganyika. Felicitations and good
wishes of the people of Pakistan. This

country from which Spain you sing.

But the coronation celebrations are
short -lived.

The British people have had enough of
post -war hardship.

They want a better life.

And Britain's white Commonwealth can
offer it.

He says that's the best place for me to
get on in life.

You too can go to Australia for only ten
pounds.

Australian advertisement tempt Britain's
workers to emigrate.

I want to talk to you about immigration.

An underpopulated Australia fears
encroachment from its Asian neighbours.

British workers are offered passage for
just ten pounds.

Australian Minister for Immigration,
Arthur Caldwell.

It is my hope that for every foreign
migrant there will be ten from the

Kingdom. These millions of new citizens
will push back our frontiers, expand our

industries and build us into a powerful
nation.

Thousands of disillusioned Britons apply
for the £10 scheme.

A foundry worker in Wales.

I've decided to make a move.

I'm only working a 44 -hour week just
now, with no overtime or bonus.

Really, it's a hand -to -mouth
existence.

I'm a young man yet, and good for
another 20 years' work out there.

A young mother from Newcastle.

The children will have a better chance.

There's no class distinction.

Accent had nothing to do with it.

What their mother and father were will
not stop them getting on out there.

If they've got a brain.

In just ten years following the war,
over 500 ,000 Britons emigrate to

and New Zealand.

More than 400 ,000 to Canada.

On board the liner, Astorius, a ship's
steward.

It's always distressing watching the
final farewell.

They often play old songs over the
tannoy, and everyone weeps.

A lot of them feel they won't ever see
their loved ones again.

Australia really is a long way away.

From Chesterfield, Albert Walker, bound
for Melbourne.

I took my last view of England and tears
were very near.

I thought of all its beauty and all
those lovely times I'd had.

I suddenly realised that I may never see
it again.

And then I thought of all the advantages
I was going to.

A new country.

A new job.

New people.

A new life.

How did we, a young family from
Northumberland, come to be on board this

liner, en route to a distant continent
to start a new life?

The decision to emigrate from England to
Australia is not an easy one to make.

It means leaving friends and family.

and leaving the country in which you
were born?

Do I think I've done a wise thing?

Ask me in ten years' time, when the
Bairns are leaving school, and I'll tell

you.

Matt Dickinson, en route for Melbourne.

Many of the migrant ships are luxury
liners.

With everything free except drinks at
the bar, the five -week voyage to

Australia is like a holiday cruise.

At the equator, Matt Dickinson and his
family enjoy the traditional crossing

-the -line ceremony.

The children were amazed by the sight of
Neptune's Court and the antics of the

crew and the normally staid passengers.

The sight of big -built Scotchmen in
brassiers and small -built lasses in

oversized men's pants is really quite
funny.

All the band got a real ducking by
Neptune's helpers.

And I got my share.

After

five long

weeks, they arrive in their new home.

Entering Sydney Harbour, Marjorie Black.

Everyone held their breath.

My first view of Australia.

The sun was brilliant and warm. Blue sky
and sparkling water.

Most people were impatient to get
ashore.

But I was a little frightened.

A ship's welfare officer calms the
growing fear.

We had to tell them that kangaroos
wouldn't be jumping down the streets.

A couple of elderly ladies were scared
to death that there would be nothing but

hordes of aborigines to greet them.

I felt a pang of despair that I could
never cope in this strange place and

the whole trip was a mistake.

On arrival, families are sent to
government hostels.

From London, 17 -year -old Susan Jenkin.

When we got out of the bus at the hostel
and saw all these huts, we felt like

we'd arrived at some sort of
concentration camp.

Our first reception in Australia.

Then there were these people talking in
really strong Australian accents.

I didn't like it at all.

It was a dreadful place.

I began to think I'd spend the rest of
my days in this tin hut thing.

But most migrant families soon find
homes in the suburbs and begin the

for work.

Manual jobs are plentiful.

Matt Dickinson was a grocer in
Northumberland.

In Australia, he finds work with a
railway gang.

You have no idea what a relief this new
start is.

I drew my first pay on the 24th of
January.

It was £19 .06 for the week.

My last pay in England was £7 .06.

19 -year -old Duncan Fisher works in a
foundry.

in Western Australia.

There's a certain amount of hostility at
work towards poms.

They say things like, the only good pom
is a bloody dead pom, that sort of

thing.

It's taken me a long time to work out
how the Australian mind works.

The word bastard is a term of
endearment.

For instance, bloody pom or bloody pommy
is an insult.

But pommy bastard is okay.

Australia welcomes 100 ,000 European
immigrants a year, but refuses entry to

almost all non -white applicants.

The government imposes a policy known as
White Australia, which even

discriminates against those of
Commonwealth origin.

Australian Secretary of Immigration
Peter Hayden.

Only those applicants who can be
regarded as being of European origin may

permitted to settle in Australia.

Australians are nervous about minorities
who form ethnic colonies in our cities.

The white Australia policy provokes
strong opposition from Britain and the

Commonwealth.

In a letter to the Times,

It's all wrong for Australia to bar
immigrants from coloured Commonwealth

countries.

India is overpopulated and starving, and
yet when Australia needs immigrants, it

goes to Germany and Greece.

A few years ago, the Germans were hated
all over the world.

Now they're welcomed in Australia.

But it isn't just would -be immigrants
who are affected by the concept of a

white Australia.

For decades, Australia's indigenous
population, the Aborigines, have

racial discrimination, the removal of
their homeland, and the destruction of

their traditional way of life.

Auburn Neville, Commissioner for Native
Affairs, 1937.

The problem is one that will eventually
solve itself.

There are a great many full -blooded
Aborigines.

They are not getting enough food and
they're being decimated by their own

practices.

In my opinion, no matter what we do,
they will die out.

The population of so -called full -blood
Aborigines is rapidly being outnumbered

by those of mixed descent.

It is planned that eventually all will
be absorbed into white society.

For 40 years, the government follows a
policy of assimilation.

Many children identified as of mixed
descent are removed from their families.

and placed with white foster parents or
in church missions and orphanages run by

whites.

We have the power to take any child from
its mother at any stage of its life.

I have no wish to break up families, but
other aspects must be considered

besides sentiment.

We must weed out the light -coloured
children.

In 1949, Millicent is taken from her
family.

I was so afraid and unhappy.

I didn't understand what was happening.

I was four years old.

That night we would cry ourselves to
sleep.

It was the last time I was to see my
parents.

Tens of thousands of children, both
those identified as full -blood and

mixed descent, have been sent to
institutions for assimilation.

Many are subjected to brutal treatment.

Philip Prosser.

Every little thing you did was a sin and
you were punished.

They hit you with anything they could
get hold of.

I was accused of something I hadn't done
and was given sex across my arms and

flogged from my shoulders down to my
legs.

All they contributed to our future was
an unrepairable scar of loneliness,

mistrust and hatred.

Fears that have been with me all my
life.

Many Aborigines suffer from
unemployment, depression, addiction.

Welfare authorities will take many of
their children away from them.

1926.

Stony Indians parade in the streets of
Banff in the Rocky Mountains.

Canada's indigenous peoples are also
victims of discrimination.

Stony Indian, Isaac Rolling in the Mud.

When we gave up the land, we gave up our
right.

That is why we feel as if we're in
confinement.

With all the white people's laws and
regulations,

we were brought up. free.

Now we feel the imprisonment.

Canada has become independent from
Britain.

But, like Australia, it inherits the
prejudices of empire.

By the 1940s, large numbers of white
Canadians are moving further north.

The Canadian government encourages the
nomadic Eskimos, the Inuit, to live in

small, fixed settlements.

In a report on settlement life, Henry
Larson.

Conditions are appalling.

Destitution, filth and squalor are
gradually undermining the health of

people and, if not checked, will result
in their extermination.

Inuit Abe Ukpik There are only very few
of us Eskimos,

but millions of whites, just like
mosquitoes.

It is something very special and very
wonderful to be an Eskimo.

We are like snow geese.

If an Eskimo forgets his Eskimo ways, he
will be nothing but just another

mosquito.

A white resident in Frobisher Bay.

This may be a doomed culture, but we're
not replacing it with anything

worthwhile.

We've made every mistake in the British
colonies.

And then some.

Many native people throughout Canada
struggle to survive.

One third are dependent on welfare.

The infant mortality rate is double the
national average.

Life expectancy is one of the lowest in
the world.

Over the next 30 years, the indigenous
peoples of the empire will struggle

to overturn the legacy of racism.

Chief Dan George of the Coast Salish
People.

Do you know what it's like to have your
race belittled?

What it's like to be without pride in
your race?

It's like not caring about tomorrow.

For what does tomorrow matter?

It's like having a reserve that looks
like a junkyard.

Because the beauty in the soul is dead.

Come and integrate your faith.

But how can I?

What is there in my culture you value?

By the end of the 1950s, black
nationalism is weakening Britain's hold

African colonies.

In southern Rhodesia, power lies with
the white settlers.

They are determined to maintain the
heritage of their founding father, Cecil

Rhodes.

The white farmer, Hamish Usher.

Cecil Rhodes was a man with a vision. An
inner voice beckoned him to build a

great country here, in a land once
abandoned to savagery.

My great -grandfather helped carve a
living out of the virgin forest.

The silence of centuries was broken at
last by the sound of civilization, by

ring of axe and hammer, and the beat of
steam engines.

220 ,000 white Rhodesians rule over 4
million Africans.

White farmers control 70 % of the best
land, leaving most Africans with small,

infertile holdings.

In Guelo, George Endente.

The way in which the blacks are being
treated by the whites is the cause of

the unrest today.

The Europeans have cheap native labor,
which they exploit at the expense of

African advancement.

The white man has deprived us of all our
rights in the land of our birth.

Our state is pitiable.

Throughout the 1960s, a wave of
nationalism sweeps across Africa.

But fearful of South Africa's racist
influence, Britain refuses to grant

southern Rhodesia her independence.

Until Ian Smith's white government
yields to black majority rule.

Smith's supporters are incensed.

I most certainly think the British
government is...

Let us down, and personally, I think
they stink.

I think it's a disgrace, and I'm
terribly ashamed of the fact that I was

born in England. They could have really
built up the empire, instead of which

they seem to have gone out of their way
to destroy their empire.

The basic African definitely is not in a
position to take over government.

The African, in no other sphere, have
proved themselves capable of anything.

Why is it that in Britain they seem to
think the one thing the African is

capable of doing is governing?

In a letter to the Rhodesian Herald,
Harry Hart, July 1964.

I don't know what Mr Smith is waiting
for.

England has continually shown itself to
be treacherous to deal with.

If Mr Smith decides to take
independence...

then we are all behind him.

This is the Rhodesia Broadcasting
Corporation.

Here is the Prime Minister of Rhodesia.
November 1965.

Ian Smith seizes power.

A unilateral declaration of
independence.

We are the first Western nation in the
last two decades to have the

determination to say so far and no
further.

God bless you all.

Rhodesia embarks on a path to South
African -style apartheid.

Britain has lost control to white
nationalists in her last remaining

colony.

Over the next 15 years, Rhodesia is
engulfed by violent civil war.

Ian Smith's Rhodesian army fights
against two African guerrilla factions.

1972.

Protesters riot against the government's
racist policy.

Leader of the communist -backed ZANU
guerrillas, Robert Mugabe.

Our objective is the liquidation of
imperialism.

and colonialism through armed struggle
we will

set up a democratic state as

the battle rages in the countryside

african civilians are caught in the
middle

An African village.

If we report the terrorists, they come
and kill us.

If we do not report them, the soldiers
come to torture us.

We just don't know what to do.

A soldier in the Rhodesian army patrols
a village suspected of harboring

guerrillas.

You go into a village.

after one of your mates has been killed
and you feel bad.

And they say they've never seen or heard
of a terrorist.

And you beat the hell out of them.

We're going to take this man with us for
questioning, but he won't be harmed,

you're right.

Atrocities are committed by both sides.

30 ,000 African civilians are killed.

White Rhodesians are also victims.

48 ,000 decide to leave.

Many move to South Africa.

April 1980.

The war in Rhodesia is over.

Robert Mugabe's ZANU -PF party has won
the country's first free election.

Britain's empire in Africa has gone.

As leader of independent Zimbabwe,
Mugabe extends a hand of friendship to

100 ,000 whites who choose to stay.

Oppression and racism must never again
find scope in our political and social

system.

It could never be a correct
justification.

But because the whites oppressed us
yesterday, when they had power, the

must oppress them today.

Long live our independence.

As thousands leave Britain for the white
Commonwealth, the British government

calls for workers from the Caribbean to
help build the post -war economy.

By 1962, over 250 ,000 West Indians have
arrived in Britain, tempted by

the promise of work and a better life.

Jamaican poet, Louise Bennett.

What a joyful news, Miss Matty. I feel
like my heart going burst.

Jamaica people colonizing England in
reverse.

They're my poor old Jamaica.

Everybody's future plan is to get a big
-time job and settle in the motherland.

To live in London, you are rarely
comfortable.

Because the English people are very much
closer.

But the government's open -door policy
awakens prejudice within many Britons.

Reporting for the Kingston Star, Richard
West.

At Waterloo Station on Saturday
afternoon, a policeman watched the

West Indians who had just come off the
boat train.

Well, that's the last of them, he said
with a pleased smile.

But his taxi driver friend replied, Too
bloody late, mate. The country's been

overrun already.

Arriving in London from Barbados, Colin
Jemmott.

The English are clever. They ran their
empire by a confidence trick.

We were given an English education.

We were told England was the greatest
country in the world.

We came here, and to our surprise, found
you wouldn't accept us.

Many British people have struggled to
rebuild their lives since the war.

They resent the growing influx of black
immigrants.

The British working class fought for 70
years and more to drag itself up to a

decent standard of living.

Now they come in and reap all the
benefit.

A landlady in Salford.

I don't take blacks.

I'm sorry for the darkies, but I am.

But I know what the neighbours would
say.

Look at Mrs So -and -so.

He really has come down in the world.

Most immigrants are offered menial jobs,
regardless of their training and skill.

They want us to work.

But not anywhere.

Look at all the West Indians in London
transport.

When I look around the city of London, I
do not find educated, coloured men

working in banks or as policemen.

You can't get a good job, the sort of
job you are capable of doing. You have

take what you can get, what other people
don't want.

West Indian activist.

campaign against the growing racism.

From Trinidad, Claudia Jones.

If all the coloured people were thrown
into the sea, it wouldn't solve the

housing problems or provide enough jobs.

One reason behind the race prejudice is
that Britain is an imperial country.

But coloured people are now demanding
their freedom and expect to be treated

equals.

But in 1962, the Conservative government
passes the Commonwealth Immigrants Act,

restricting entry to Britain from within
the empire.

West Indians dub it the Colour Bar Bill.

Many white Britons are appalled.

Is this really the best way to integrate
people?

How do immigrants already here feel to
be told, Yes, you can stay, but we don't

want any more of your thought.

These policies will lead to exactly the
social disaster they want to avoid.

But racial hostility towards black
Britons continues to grow.

By 1968, the entry of thousands of
Asians into Britain, many expelled from

former colony of Kenya, prompted the
Labour government to pass a second

Commonwealth Immigrants Act.

For some, however, the controls are not
enough.

In a speech in Birmingham, Conservative
MP Enoch Powell.

In 15 or 20 years, There will be, in
this country, three and a half million

Commonwealth immigrants.

Whole areas will be occupied by the
immigrant population.

It is like watching a nation busily
engaged in heaping up its own funeral

I am filled with foreboding.

Like the Roman, I seem to see the river
Tiber foaming with much blood.

Powell is thrown out of the shadow
cabinet the day after his rivers of

speech.

But a national poll shows that 74 % of
the population agree with him.

I think it is monstrous that the man has
been sacked from the shadow cabinet for

telling the truth.

We want a complete ban on immigration,
or we want all post -war immigrants sent

back to their homelands.

Oscar Hahn of the West Midlands Race
Relations Board.

If Mr Powell wants to tell more than one
million citizens of this country that

because they're coloured, they're
unwanted here... This is an act of

from which this country could never
morally recover.

Throughout the 1970s, many Commonwealth
immigrants become increasingly isolated

within British society.

Indian -born factory worker, Rampal.

I often wonder in my heart, why English
people do not think well of colored

people.

My children will think of themselves as
Indian and will live as Indian

because so long as their color is not
white, English people will not regard

as British.

1997.

After 155 years, Britain hands over the
rule of Hong Kong to China.

Now, Hong Kong people are to run Hong
Kong.

That is the promise, and that is the
unshakable destiny.

At the stroke of midnight, the Union
Jack is lowered for the last time.

In the Daily Mail, Alan Mattis.

Now it really is the end.

A few islands too small and poor to
manage on their own may still be

pink on the world's map.

But with the return of Hong Kong to
China, the lights of the Empire have

extinguished.

What then is the legacy?

The 20th century saw the British Empire
reach its greatest extent and might.

But two world wars weakened Britain's
power.

In just 20 years, most of the Empire was
handed back to its people.

Many of those who served the Empire are
proud of the legacy they left behind.

Diplomat's wife, Joan Alexander, was in
Africa for ten years.

I know the popular image of old
colonials is gin -swilling so -and -sos,

wasn't like that at all.

I honestly feel that we were doing
something.

We felt we were making a contribution to
the country.

The growing generation should seek out
those colonial men and women who have a

tale to tell, because whether they liked
it or not, they followed the flag and

did their duty.

Education, technology, sport, law and
democracy, all are positive

legacies of empire.

Commonwealth countries which once
oppressed their indigenous peoples are

striving to redress the wrongs of the
past.

In 1992, Australia's Prime Minister,
Paul Keating, acknowledged the suffering

of the aborigines.

We took the traditional land and smashed
the traditional way of life.

We brought the diseases.

and the alcohol.

We committed the murders.

We took the children from their mothers.

We practiced discrimination and
exclusion.

It was our ignorance and our prejudice.

But the negative legacy of the British
Empire still blights the lives of many

the former colonies.

In 1947, Britain lost its greatest
possession, India.

Amitabh Pav.

As their final act before relinquishing
colonial control, the British decided to

divide India.

The result was a human catastrophe

Independent India and Pakistan have

to deal with this legacy of partition

In January 2002 people

flee across the border once again as
India and Pakistan fight over the

possession of Kashmir

British journalist Peter Preston. New
Delhi and Islamabad are locked in the

warp of half a century ago.

Only the nuclear warheads in their
arsenals are new.

Kashmir is the world's most punishingly
futile crisis.

Fifty years on, the mess that we Brits
left behind returns to haunt us all.

Twenty years after Rhodesia's
independence, Robert Mugabe had the

regime in Zimbabwe.

His war veterans, some former guerrillas
from the 70s War of Independence, are

seething land from white farmers.

The land is ours. We are not part of the
British Empire.

We are not an extension of Britain.

So, Mr Blair,

Farmer Cathy Buckle, March 2000.

Dozens of farms have been invaded by
huge crowds wielding accidents, shouting

and singing and demanding land.

My initial reaction was to get out,
evacuate the farm.

But how do you make the decision to walk
out on your life, your home, everything

you've worked for, all the people that
depend on you?

By 2002, 95 % of white farms had been
seized by Mugabe's forces.

But the legacy of empire is most evident
in Britain itself.

In 50 years, the face of Britain has
been transformed.

Britain's multicultural society embraces
people, cultures and religions from all

over the former empire.

But sometimes this diversity ignites
racial tension.

In the summer of 2001, violent race
riots between whites and Asians flared

Britain's northern towns and cities.

In Bradford, Manohar Jan Khan.

The empire has faded from the
subcontinent.

But within our streets, the white sahibs
still make the decision.

We are the new generation of Asian young
people, British citizens born and bred,

free from the shackles of empire,
yearning to be given fair and equal

Today, white, black and Asian Britain
search for a new national identity

within Europe.

The prejudices of empire are finally
fading.

Oxford Professor Papan Rai Chowdhury.

Of course there are problems when people
from very different cultures come to

live together.

The picture 50 years ago was very
different.

But the problem today owes more to
deprivation than to intolerance and

bigotry.

In my experience,

This is the most tolerant society in the
world.

I am deeply optimistic about the future
of multicultural Britain.