Clement Richard Attlee

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The Dominions Secretary, Clement Attlee, visited Newfoundland in 1942, and he was followed the next year by a "goodwill mission" of three British members of parliament. These soundings showed that while very few people seemed to support confederation, there was widespread unease about an immediate and unconditional return to responsible government status.
That there had been no democratic government since 1934 was of particular concern to Attlee, who thought that a process of political education had to take place before Newfoundlanders decided on their future. Another factor worried the British. They were concerned that once the wartime boom ended the Newfoundland economic situation could rapidly deteriorate. If the colony was independent, might it collapse again, as it had in the early 1930s? Would Britain once again be called upon to help out?

Eventually, the Dominions Office in London made two linked decisions, based on the assumption that confederation was extremely ...

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