The British commercial development industry

Academic and professional accounts of the commercial development industry often portray an implicit but false picture of homogeneity, when in reality the sector is highly diverse. This diversity has important implications for the production of the built environment, since the extent to which particular developers see themselves also as dealers or investors will colour their approach to a development project. Building on earlier work, this paper therefore presents a four-fold typology of the British commercial development industry, by distinguishing between property dealers, developer/dealers, developer/investors and investor/developers. Recent case studies are included in each case to demonstrate how the motives, operations and financial stability of each type of developer reflect this distinction.     

The transition of British Africa

At the turn of the century British literary historians and critics, such as Geikie, Sharp, and Thomas, studied the influence of environment on the works of novelists and poets. In particular, the concepts of literary geographers and a writer's country were developed. Earlier deterministic approaches have been modified and more recent studies by Drabble, O'Brien and Pocock have looked at the totality of influences of place on the work of various writers.     

On the frontier of the Western Shire,British Central Africa

Superficial deposits (residual, colluvial, alluvial) are important as environmental resources in tropical environments. An understanding of their formation through varying time periods is essential to a correct interpretation of their economic and hazard potentials. This requires an integration of process studies with a reconstruction of longer term development. Saprolite formation is considered over 10⁵‐10⁷ yr, while colluvial and alluvial sediments are commonly Late Quaternary (10³‐10⁵ yr) in age. The importance of Quaternary environmental changes in the humid tropics to an understanding of heavy mineral placer deposits in West Africa and Indonesia is illustrated. It is concluded that geomorphologists can often make their most important contributions to developing areas by offering a sound interpretation of landsurfaces and their underlying deposits for engineers, geologists and pedologists, with whom a close working relationship is essential.     

British government policy in sub-Saharan Africa under New Labour

British government policy in Africa under Labour has been motivated by a combination of humanitarianism and self-interest. The policy has been shaped principally by the Department for International Development (DFID), but also by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and by Prime Minister Tony Blair himself, as he has become more interested in Africa issues. The main focus of the policy has been on poverty reduction and development. The approach has been multi-dimensional, aiming to tackle the principal obstacles to development such as conflict, HIV, debt, governance and trade barriers. The UK has sought to increase its leverage in Africa by working multilaterally with its allies and through the UN, the World Bank and the EU. But the policy has been hampered by the inherent difficulty of promoting sound development policies in weak states, by a lack of UK leverage to affect change, and by a UK preference for statist solutions. Strategic and commercial objectives pursued by the FCO and the prime minister have sometimes appeared as being at odds with the developmental objectives of DFID. Post-9/11 concerns have reinforced the UK's motivation for dealing with Africa's problems, particularly the problems of weak and failed states. But western policies related to the war on terror may give rise to new contradictions and complicate the UK's developmental efforts in Africa.     

Graham Connah: The So Pots of Central Africa: Memories of the Past

African Archaeological Review -     

Rhodesia: Report on the Administration of Rhodesia. The British South Africa Company. Impressions of South Africa. James Bryce

EUROPE

A Geography of Europe. Edited by George W. Hoffman. 9×6. Pp. ix+775. 156 figs. London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1953. 52s 6d.

Die Landschaften der britischen Inseln. By Johann Sölch. 9 1/2×6 1/2. Erster Band. England und Wales. Pp. xii+1–850. Figs. 1–154. Zweiter Band. Schottland und Irland. Pp. 851–1350. Figs. 155–225. Wien : Springer‐Verlag. Vol. I, 1951. Vol. II, 1952. DM 232, or £19, 17s.

Scottish Industry : An Account of what Scotland makes and where she makes it. Edited by C. A. Oakley. Foreword by The Rt. Hon. Lord Bilsland, M.C., D.L., LL.D. 8 1/2×6. Pp. xvii+332. Plates. Sketch maps. Glasgow: The Scottish Council (Development and Industry). William Collins and Sons Ltd, 1953. 25s.

Orkney Miscellany. 8×6 1/2. Pp. 104. 6 illustrations. Kirkwall: Orkney Record and Antiquarian Society Papers, Vol. 1, 1953. 8s 6d.

The Glasgow Story. By Colm Brogan. 7 3/4×5. Pp. 223. Drawings by Keir. London : Frederick Muller Ltd, 1952. 15s.

Devonshire Studies. By W. G. Hoskins and H. P. R. Finberg. 8 3/4 × 5 6/8. Pp. 470. 8 plates. 11 maps and plans. London : Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1952. 36s.

In Search of Winter Sport. By Monk Gibbon. 8 3/4×5 5/8. Pp. 223. 17 illustrations. End‐paper sketch map. London: Evans Brothers Ltd, 1953. 18s.

Three Rivers of France: Dordogne, Lot, Tarn. By Freda White. 8 1/2×5 1/2. Pp. 232. 49 illustrations. Map. London : Faber and Faber Ltd, 1952. 25s. Reprinted, 1953. 15s.

ASIA

South China in the Sixteenth Century : Being the Narratives of Galeote Pereira ; Fr. Gaspar da Cruz, O.P.; Fr. Martin de Rada, O.E.S.A. (1550–1575). Edited by C. R. Boxer. 8 3/4×5 5/8. Pp. xci+388. 8 figs. 12 plates. [Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, Second Series, No. CVL] London. 1953. 40s.

AFRICA

The Suez Canal in World Affairs. By Hugh J. Schonfield. 8 1/2×5 1/2. Pp. x+174. 9 illustrations. 2 sketch maps. [Constellation Books.] London : Vallentine, Mitchell and Co. Ltd, 1952. 15s.

AMERICA

Highland Settler : A Portrait of the Scottish Gael in Nova Scotia. By Charles W. Dunn. 9×6. Pp. xii+180. Frontispiece. 2 sketch maps. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1953. $4.00. London: Geoffrey Cumberlege. 32s.

POLAR REGIONS

John Roe's Correspondence with the Hudson's Bay Company on Arctic Exploration, 1844–1855. Edited by E. E. Rich, M.A., assisted by A. M. Johnson. Introduction by J. M. Wordie, C.B.E., and R. J. Cyriax. 9 1/2×6 1/2. Pp. cvi+401+xiv. 2 illustrations. Sketch map and 2 maps. London : The Publications of The Hudson's Bay Record Society, XVI, 1953.     

British Courts Martial in North Africa, 1940-3

This article seeks to demonstrate that the exemplary aspectof military law was applied in courts martial cases in NorthAfrica between 1940 and 1943. It will show that there was aclear desire to make examples, which coincided with the preoccupationsof the High Command concerning the state of discipline and moralewithin the British Eighth Army. The article will reveal thatAuchinleck, Montgomery, and Alexander shared many common ideason discipline and morale, but that their concerns often overstatedthe scale of the supposed problem. These fears created an atmospherein which the details of individual cases were often overriddenin the name of discipline and military efficiency. Paradoxically,such an attitude only added to the High Command’s concerns,for by ensuring a high level of convictions, the outcomes ofcourts martial appeared to confirm the validity of its views.     

Reformulating Identities: British Settlers in Early Nineteenth-Century South Africa

This paper examines the formation of a colonial identity among settlers from the British Isles who were relocated to the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony in 1820. It suggests that material aspirations united certain of the settlers in a political programme, and thus began the erosion of imported class (and other) divisions. However, it argues that their establishment as a capitalist colonial class is an insufficient explanation for their construction of a shared and emotive British settler identity. The settlers modified their inherited discourses of class, race, gender and nationality in order to forge solidarity, and the imperative for solidarity derived not so much from their mutual desire for accumulation, but from a corresponding collective insecurity. Not only were settlers afraid of Khoikhoi labour rebellion and Xhosa reprisals for land loss; they also feared abandonment by a seemingly unsympathetic metropole. Their aggressive capitalist endeavour, and collective fear of its destabilizing consequences, were two sides of the same coin, informing the development of a unifying social identity. The paper goes on to consider the mechanisms through which that identity was sustained, including acts of landscape representation, the textual generation of collective memory and the practice of communally binding, quotidian, gendered routines.     

英属东非公职机构本土化初考

国内学术界对英属东非公职机构本土化问题尚无研究,国外学术界有一定的研究,但亦未见专文论述。本文在利用有关档案材料的基础上,对英属东非公职机构的本土化进行初步考察。英属东非公职机构的本土化特别是高级职位的本土化起步晚,滞后于民族独立进程,以致在殖民地独立时,仍有许多原宗主国的人员留下任职。公职机构本土化滞后的主要原因可以说是:第一,殖民地公职机构的本土化是与殖民统治者的利益相背离的,因此,他们长期以来并不热衷于推进本土化;第二,由于教育被忽视,殖民地独立时确实缺乏担任某些职位的人选,尤其是专业技术人员。殖民地公职机构的本土化进程滞后给新生国家带来了负面影响。