This book shows how a stormy parliamentary debate over the sale of German properties in Nigeria
on 8 November 1916 began the process which brought down Asquith and made Lloyd George prime
minister. The colonial secretary Bonar Law who was also leader of the Conservative Party
wanted neutral firms to bid. Usually presented as a policy imposed on him by doctrinaire
Liberal free-traders it was in fact that of the colonial government which hoped that
encouraging foreign competition would prevent the Nigerian export economy becoming controlled
by a ring of mainly Liverpool firms. Seeing itself as the defender of Nigerian interests the
Colonial Office endorsed this. The large British companies got up an agitation which was taken
over by Sir Edward Carson the one significant opposition politician as part of his attack on
supposed German influence in high places. Law counter-attacked by arguing that a supposedly
patriotic cause masked the greed of an emergent cartel. He succeeded because smaller British
and African firms trying to break into the now profitable produce export trade had already
painted that picture. By defeating Carson in the debate Law became again an effective party
leader who hoped to re-invigorate the coalition but instead found himself working with Lloyd
George to sideline Asquith. Based on underused sources and overturning established
interpretations the book situates the debate within the context of the development of the
Nigerian economy the conflicts between the major firms the role of oils and fats in wartime
and the emergence of Nigerian nationalism.
