A5 Gulf of Aden

Image: Detail of ‘Aden & Protectorate of South Arabia’ map, printed in vA5 Part I, p.479

Download PDFs: East of Suez and the Commonwealth, 1964-1971, in three parts

Part One: East of Suez [2MB]

Part Two: Europe, Rhodesia, Commonwealth [1MB]

Part Three: Dependent Territories, Africa, Economics, Race [2MB]

Volume Details: Series A Volume 5. First published by The Stationary Office in 2004. Electronic version reproduced with permission of the editors under an Open Government Licence.

Editor Details: 

SR ASHTON is the General Editor of the British Documents on the End of Empire Project and was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. With SE Stockwell he edited Imperial Policy and Colonial Practice, 1925-1945 (BDEEP, 1996), and with David Killingray The West Indies (BDEEP, 1999).

Wm ROGER LOUIS is Kerr Professor of English History and Culture and Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Texas at Austin, USA, and an Honorary Fellow of St Antony’s, Oxford. His books include Imperialism at Bay (1977) and The British Empire in the Middle East (1984). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford History of the British Empire (1998-1999), and co-Editor, with Ronald Hyam, of The Conservative Government and the End of Empire, 1957-1964 (BDEEP, 2000). In 2001, Wm Roger Louis was President of the American Historical Association.

Selection from Introduction:

This is the final general volume in Series A of the British Documents on the End of Empire Project. It covers nearly six years of a Labour government elected in October 1964 and re-elected in March 1966, and extends into the first eighteen months of the Conservative government elected in June 1970. […] First, documents have been selected to illustrate how, although Britain’s formal defence role East of Suez ended in 1971, in both South-East Asia and the Persian Gulf a residual British presence remained. Secondly, there is documentation on the meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers at Singapore in January 1971, explaining why it is seen as an important landmark in the evolution of the Commonwealth. Finally, there is reference to the Immigration Act of October 1971, the first attempt by a British government not simply to restrict immigration but to define who had a right of abode in the United Kingdom.”