The release of thousands of documents removed from former British colonies will be overseen by a Cambridge history professor to ensure “maximum transparency,” William Hague announced last night.
Professor Tony Badger, the Paul Mellon Professor of American History and Master of Clare College, Cambridge, will be responsible for co-ordinating the declassification of thousands of files, including many relating to the bloody Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the 1950s, brought to Britain from colonial countries shortly before independence.
Last May the Foreign Secretary announced that the entire so-called “migrated archive” would be released to the National Archives, after The Times revealed that hundreds of files relating to Mau Mau had been found in Hanslope Park, the secret Foreign Office Archive in Buckinghamshire.
Historians suspect that the full cache of documents, consisting of more than 9,000 files from 37 former British administrations, may contain incriminating historical evidence relating to the last days of empire in other former colonies, including Palestine, Malaya and Aden.
“Professor Badger is a highly respected historian with a distinguished academic record,” a Foreign Office spokesman said yesterday. “He will be able to offer the academic community, as well as the public at large, independent assurance that the colonial era papers are being released as quickly as possible and in conformity with the commitment to maximum transparency.”
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The decision to release all the files has been resisted by some within the Foreign Office, but the statement noted that Professor Badger had “the knowledge and experience to challenge the FCO effectively if needed”.
Professor Badger’s latest book, FDR: The First Hundred Days, was described by Gordon Brown as “a classic example of how a work of history can illuminate the issues we’re dealing with today”.
The team assembled to review, release, and if justified redact parts of the files, faces a monumental task, with an archive containing an estimated two million pages. Mr Hague pledged to release “every part of every paper of interest...subject only to any legal exemptions set out in the Freedom of Information”.
Four elderly Kenyans are suing the FCO in the British courts over allegations of abuse dating back to Mau Mau rebellion. A ruling in that case is expected in August.
With the number of survivors and potential plaintiffs dwindling fast, the government is under pressure to release the potentially most incriminating documents, from colonies which saw rebellions, bloodshed and allegations of brutality, as fast as possible.
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Part of Professor Badger’s brief is to “ensure that the papers of greatest interest of highest significance are dealt with first and without undue delay.”