Catalogue description Colonial Office: East Africa Royal Commission (Dow Commission): Correspondence and Papers

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Details of CO 892
Reference: CO 892
Title: Colonial Office: East Africa Royal Commission (Dow Commission): Correspondence and Papers
Description:

This series contains correspondence and papers relating to the appointment, financing and methods of operation of the East Africa Royal Commission, which examined measures necessary to achieve economic and social development in the region. It includes material on the preparation of the Commissioner's Report, and evidence submitted by interested parties in Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda, together with background information on these territories on questions such as agriculture, industry, water supplies, social services and population.
Date: 1953-1955
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

East Africa Royal Commission, 1953-1955
Physical description: 17 file(s)
Access conditions: Open
Publication note:

The Commission's report was published in 1955 as Parliamentary Papers (Cmnd 9475, 1955-1956, XIII, 397)
Unpublished finding aids:

For an index to these papers see CO 892/17

Administrative / biographical background:

The East Africa Royal Commission was appointed, and met for the first time in 1953. The chairman was Sir Hugh Dow and its members were drawn from among British and African experts on East African conditions. Its terms of reference were:

  • Having regard to the rapid rate of increase of the African population of East Africa and the congestion of population on the land in certain localities, to examine the measures necessary to be taken to achieve an improved standard of living, including the introduction of capital to enable peasant farming to develop and expand production; and to frame recommendations thereon with particular reference to -
  • (1) The economic development of the land already in occupation by the introduction of better farming methods;
  • (2) the adaptations or modifications in traditional tribal systems of tenure necessary for the full development of the land;
  • (3) the opening for cultivation and settlement of land at present not fully used;
  • (4) the development and siting of industrial activities;
  • (5) conditions of employment in industry, commerce, mining and plantation agriculture, with special reference to social conditions and the growth of large urban populations;
  • (6) the social problems which arise from the growth of permanent urban and industrial populations.
The Commission drew on evidence, supplied by Kenya, Tanganyika and Uganda, from written submissions, oral evidence, visits by some members of the Commission, and research.

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