Conrad Black Quotes
No one could seriously dispute that almost all of sub-Saharan Africa, all of North Africa except Morocco, all of the Middle East except Israel and Jordan and most of the oil-rich states, and the entire former British Indian Empire were better governed by Europeans.
Black, Conrad. "In Defense of the British Empire." National Review, 10 May 2012.
The chance was the fact that war—the War of 1812—had been declared between Britain and America. Tecumseh allied himself with General Isaac Brock, the British Commander of the Western Forces. Tecumseh himself was put in charge of all Indian forces and given the rank of a British Brigadier General. However, Brock was killed shortly thereafter, and his replacement, General Procter, was not as skilled at working with Indian Allies and the British-Indian alliance was defeated bringing to an end the notion of “one great Indian nation.”
The planners of this particular war effort involved many ideologically correct supporters of a neo conservative agenda from the United States and the other Allies more knowledgeable diplomats and military people were kept our of the effort lest they disagree with administration ideology or policy. The result was a very badly mismanaged occupation phase of the war after a very well managed invasion effort.
In 1942 it was clear that India would be given its independence soon. There were a number of sticky problems in doing so. One was the fact that when the British came to India, all the states were ruled by Maharajas (Princes, Kings, etc.). The British signed treaties with almost all of them guaranteeing to protect and preserve their local powers in exchange for acceding to British Rule of the national government. But when it came time for independence, democracy was the mode—even in England. The Maharajas insisted that the British leave them with their control of their states as they had agreed, as opposed to creating democratic government at the state level. In the final analysis, the Maharajas lost all their governmental functions and privileges but were able to retain much of their wealth.
This Government Instruction to British North African Consular Personnel summarized the policies of the British government with regard to British citizens who run afoul of the law while in Morocco and other North African countries. Essentially, the British almost always insisted on a treaty with the foreign governments that gave jurisdiction to the British Counsul to try any Englishman who was accused of a crime. The national government could not put a British Subject on trial of punish him regardless of the crime. Where local people were the victim of the alleged crime, the national government could send an observer to the trial that the British consul held. To many, this was arrogant and insulting to the host governments. As high handed as it seems, there were and still are great problems with differing concepts of justice, different rights protected and different levels of corruption. In many countries “important” local officials can control or influence the decisions of courts, witnesses can be easily bribed lie, and even judges can readily be bought. Even today, the issue of criminal jurisdiction is one of the most important subjects of negotiations between nations. The United States has similar agreements with Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, Germany, Japan and other nations where we have armed forces. Generally, the better and more sophisticated and honest the host government justice system is, the more willing modern nations are to allow them jurisdiction over criminal matters. But generally, in the world today, these treaties are the exception. Most criminal jurisdiction is with the national government where the alleged crime takes place.
Although both of his historical African successes have been successful, most of the leaders argue that the vestige of colonialism was the biggest obstacle and but for the colonial history, they would be much further ahead than they are.
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, KCSG, is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, convicted criminal, and writer. His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadian manufacturing, retail and media businesses through part-ownership of the holding company Ravelston Corporation. In 1978, two years after their father's death, Conrad and his older brother Montegu took majority control of Ravelston. Over the next seven years, Conrad Black sold off most of their non-media holdings in order to focus on newspaper publishing. Black controlled Hollinger International, once the world's third-largest English-language newspaper empire, which published The Daily Telegraph (UK), Chicago Sun-Times (U.S.), The Jerusalem Post (Israel), National Post (Canada), and hundreds of community newspapers in North America, before controversy erupted over the sale of some of the company's assets.
