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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2022
If there was a Damascene conversion in this story, it happened on the 08.15 train from Euston to Colwyn Bay on Friday 27 September, 1946. And it happened to John Strachey.
Strachey had been Minister for four months. He had moved swiftly to transfer the Permanent Secretary, Sir Frank Tribe, to the National Audit Office, and was travelling with the man he had appointed to replace him, Sir Percival Liesching, and his Private Secretary, George Bishop. They were on their way to visit the Administrative Executive of the Ministry in north Wales. Like a good Private Secretary, Bishop leafed through the papers he had brought for the journey, including a bulky foolscap document bound in a black binding – a copy of the Wakefield Report, received in the Ministry that morning. A casual look became an engrossed read, and by the time they reached Crewe, he handed it to Strachey saying he must look at it. By the time they got back to London, Strachey was hooked.
The Minister's wholesale support would prove critical. But the report nevertheless still had to run the gauntlet of inter-departmental discussion and Cabinet approval before any resources would be committed to it. Wakefield and Rosa spent the next three months pressing the case for their proposals and defending it from departmental criticisms until Strachey could put it to Cabinet. These discussions reveal much about the state of Britain's economy, its attitudes to Africa, agriculture and colonial development, and the interaction between ministers and civil servants on politically contentious issues. They are therefore worth examining in detail.
Whitehall
The Ministry of Food stood four-square behind the scheme. Not just the Unilever secondees in the Oils and Fats division, but senior officials throughout the Ministry were caught up in the enthusiasm. Eric Roll, who had joined the Ministry from academia during the war and risen to a senior role, regarded it as ‘a most important project which has been very thoroughly thought out and which should be given the utmost possible support … I think our function should be to help overcome any inertia or scepticism there may be in other Departments.’
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