The 1924 Empire Cruise and the Imagining of an Imperial Community

Abstract

This article examines the cultural contours of the Royal Navy's postwar ‘Empire Cruise’. In late 1923, the British government dispatched a ‘Special Service Squadron’ of powerful battlecruisers on a massive public relations tour. But the popular response to this carefully orchestrated propaganda stunt varied widely. Settler populations in the Dominions often embraced the navy as a ‘bond of empire’ that reconciled Britishness with their own emerging national identities. They celebrated the navy as evidence of a shared maritime heritage handed down over the course of centuries. Meanwhile, non-white populations often responded in ways that ran counter to the intentions of the event organizers. Zulu villages in Natal hosted athletic competitions and indigenous women in Fiji organized a dance for the visiting Jack Tars – unsanctioned gatherings that offered alternative points of contact to the existing arrangements. In other locations, anti-colonial nationalists took advantage of the publicity surrounding the navy to mobilise against colonial policies. Ultimately the appearance of the navy in the far-flung ports of the empire stimulated widespread public debates about race, identity, and colonialism, and challenged the intended narrative of imperial unity.