Sir William Denis Battershill

KCMG KCMG may refer to * KC Motorgroup, based in Hong Kong, China * Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, British honour * KCMG-LP, radio station in New Mexico, USA * KCMG, callsign 1997-2001 of Los Angeles radio station KKLQ (FM) ...

(29 June 1896 – 11 August 1959) was a British colonial administrator. He was

Governor of Cyprus This article lists the colonial governors and administrators of British Cyprus. Hitherto Ottoman Cyprus, a territory of the Ottoman Empire, a British protectorate under Ottoman suzerainty was established over Cyprus by the Cyprus Convention of ...

from 1939 to 1941 and Governor of Tanganyika from 1945 to 1949. He was largely known for taking land that had previously been set aside for German settlers during the era of

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozam ...

and redistributing it to indigenous Africans. He also sought to increase the role of Africans in government by increasing African participation in voting and by replacing European officials with African officials. Battershill also saw to it that it was illegal to pay Africans less than Europeans or Asians for doing the same work in Tanganyika. In the early 1950s he was given a tour of

French Algeria French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the ...

French Guinea French Guinea (french: Guinée française) was a French colonial possession in West Africa. Its borders, while changed over time, were in 1958 those of the current independent nation of Guinea. French Guinea was established by France in 1891, ...

and

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

. In all of those territories he said that based on the way France was governing he felt the French were "driving those territories into the arms of communism." He also briefly visited Britain's

Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate The Colony and Protectorate of Sierra Leone (informally British Sierra Leone) was the British colonial administration in Sierra Leone from 1808 to 1961, part of the British Empire from the abolitionism era until the decolonisation era. The Cr ...

as well as

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

the Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

and

Anguilla Anguilla ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territo ...

, which he favorably compared to France's colonies. He was of the opinion that Britain's African colonies "can and should govern themselves independently" and that he hoped they would have a positive relationship with Britain once they did, however he warned that the French were alienating people in the three French colonies of

and

and the end result of that would be those countries "both separating from France, and also having an acrimonious relationship with her once they do."France and Decolonisation, 1900-1960 By Raymond F. Betts, Maggie Grundy · 1991

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battershill, William Denis 1896 births 1959 deaths Governors of Tanganyika (territory) Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George British people in British Cyprus