Content deleted Content added
Willthorpe (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
The sentence was missing a word. |
||
Line 29:
==History==
[[File:Marlborough House.jpg|thumb|[[Marlborough House]], London, the headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth's principal intergovernmental institution]]
The Secretariat was established by Heads of Government in 1965, taking over many of the functions of the United Kingdom Government's [[Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations|Commonwealth Relations Office]], as part of a major shake-up of the organisation of the Commonwealth. At the same time, the United Kingdom succeeded in advocating the creation of the Secretariat's sister organisation, the [[Commonwealth Foundation]], which was founded to foster non-governmental relations and the promotion of the [[Commonwealth Family]] network of civil societies.<ref name="Canada and the creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat">{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/40203725 |last=McIntyre |first=W. David |author-link=W. David McIntyre |date=October 1998 |title=Canada and the creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat |jstor=40203725 |journal=International Journal |volume=53 |issue=4 |pages=753–777 }}</ref> Other attempts by members to create similar central bodies, such as a medical conference (proposed by [[New Zealand]]), a development bank ([[Jamaica]]), and an institution for satellite communications ([[Canada]]) failed.<ref name="Canada and the creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat" />
The creation of the Secretariat itself was a contentious issue. The United Kingdom and other long-established countries had hoped to slow the tide of expansion of Commonwealth membership to prevent the dilution of their traditional power within the Commonwealth (particularly after the admission of [[Cyprus]]).<ref name="Canada and the creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat" /> This may have involved a dual-tiered Commonwealth, requiring the continuation of the organisation of Commonwealth co-operation by meetings, rather than a central administration. However, the new African members were keener to create an independent inter-governmental 'central clearing house' (as [[Ghana]]'s [[Kwame Nkrumah]] described it) to remove power from the older dominions.<ref name="Canada and the creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat" /> [[Milton Obote]] of [[Uganda]] was the first to propose a specifically titled 'secretariat', which was then formally proposed by [[Eric Williams]] of [[Trinidad and Tobago]], who wished to see it based upon the secretariats of the [[Organization of American States|OAS]], [[European Economic Community|EEC]], and [[Organisation of African Unity|OAU]].<ref name="Canada and the creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat" />
| |||