‘Paying the Butcher’s Bill’: Policing British Colonial Protest after 1918

Abstract

This article reconsiders the forms and functions of colonial police actions in the repression of organized dissent. In part, it is a study of changing patterns of repressive behaviour in worsening economic conditions, an approach which explains the concentration on the inter-war period, cleaved as it was by the acute economic disruptions of the Depression years. In part, it is an investigation of the connections between perception and action. Focusing on Colonial Office instructions regarding protest policing, it examines the ways in which police and military security forces in the British Empire constructed enemies of colonial state order. This, it is argued, shaped the resultant strategies of repressive restriction, riot control, and labour containment adopted. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Cet article réexamine les formes et les fonctions de l'intervention des polices coloniales dans la répression de l'opposition organisée. C'est, d'une part, une analyse de l'évolution de la répression sous l'effet de la dégradation des conditions économiques. Ceci explique la focalisation sur la période de l'entre-deux-guerres, marquée par les bouleversements intenses des années de la Depression. C'est d'autre part une étude des relations entre la perception et l'action. En se concentrant sur les instructions du Colonial Office concernant le maintien de l'ordre, l'article examine de queue manière Ia police et l'armée se représentaient les ennemis de l'ordre étatique colonial dans l'Empire britannique; son argument est que ces représentations informaient les stratégies répressives de contrôle, de maintien de I'ordre et d'encadrement du monde du travail. (French) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Crime, Histoire et Sociétés is the property of Librairie Droz Sa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)