This paper examines British race relations policies during the so-called “liberal hours” between 1965 and 1968 when the legal and policy framework in the field was established. Thirty-five years have passed since the first Race Relations Act was enacted in 1965. A recently published report on race relations in Britain, the largest of this kind under the present Labour government, nonetheless still found that racism is prevalent. It even claimed that Britishness has unspoken, racial connotations, and thus has to be redefined in a multi-ethnic way.
My study claims that the race relations policies during the “liberal hours” contributed to today's confusion of what Britishness consists of and represents. It also argues that they reflected the then harsh international situation surrounding Britain, such as the decline of its political and economic power, decolonisation in Africa, and world-wide anti-racism movements. Given that the number of non-white immigrants to Britain increased since 1949, the pre-war Britishness, which disregarded the non-white British, was unsuitable by the 1960s.
With Britain's international status declining, the British government in the 1950s and the 60s wanted to maintain the link with the Commonwealth of its former colonies. Citizens of the Commonwealth countries had a legal right to enter into Britain freely and this arrangement signified the unity of the Commonwealth. Yet, at the same time, the government attributed a mounting social tension to the large-scale non-white immigration flows from the Commonwealth countries. In the face of a world-wide anti-racism movement, nonetheless, it had to avoid criticism of being racist and further damage Britain's international status by introducing immigration control. The promoters of the “liberal hours” thus established their race relations policies, which dealt with those non-white British already inside the country, in parallel with immigration policies, which aimed to stop non-white immigration flows.
The race relations policies then aimed at “integration”, by which both “equal opportunities” and “cultural diversity” were to be achieved. Accordingly, the ethnic minorities were allowed to maintain their own cultures in the “private” domain of the family and community as long as they observed a shared body of values and institutions in the “public” domain. Under this so-called two-domains thesis, it was unclear whether Britishness represents the public and private domains altogether or only the values and institutions in the public domain. Here, this paper points out, “cultural Englishness”, which should belong to the private domain, became confused with Britishness. The immigration act in 1968 accepted “belongers” in Britain only if they, or at least one of their parents or grandparents, were born, adopted, registered or naturalised in Britain. Since those “belongers” were predominantly white-British, however emphatically race relations policies denied the division of white and non-white British as the first and second citizens, their effects were greatly undermined.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Commonwealth has experienced enlargement and changes after the Second World War. In this attempt, particular attention is paid to South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961. The Government of the Union of South Africa under H. F. Verwoerd made an application to remain within the Commonwealth as a Republic, but eventually decided, or was virtually forced, to withdraw the application as a result of strong criticism against apartheid mainly from Afro-Asian member countries. Therefore, the Republic of South Africa was established on 31 May 1961 outside the Commonwealth. As increasing number of newly-independent states joined after 1947 (when both India and Pakistan became independent and then joined as new members), the Commonwealth which had been originally formulated by Britain and six ‘white’ Dominions was transformed into a multi-racial institution. The major character of the ‘old Commonwealth’ was that the member states maintained traditional ties among the peoples of British origin and did not regard each other as ‘foreign’, while, at the same time, the mutual recognition of internal and external autonomy was the central raison d'étre. However, as newly-independent non-white countries joined one after another and the norm of racial equality was strengthened, both the old intimacy and the conventional principle of mutual non-interference were increasingly faced with strong pressure.
In those changes which the Commonwealth has experienced, the disputes about apartheid among the Commonwealth countries and the departure of South Africa marked a crucial turning point. Firstly, the departure of white-dominated South Africa clearly demonstrated that the principle of noninterference in domestic affairs of member states was increasingly under pressure from the norm of racial equality. Secondly, the often uncontrollable and open rows over South Africa's racial policy symbolized the fact that the old intimacy had been largely curtailed as newly-independent members added ‘alien’ elements into the Commonwealth. Thirdly, the sequence of events culminated in South Africa's departure made some of the original members such as Britain and Australia feel increasingly discontent with the ‘new Commonwealth’ and therefore facilitated the centrifugal forces working in the Commonwealth relations. Britain's attempts to accede to the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Community (EC) in the 1960s and the early 1970s were noticeable examples of the centrifugal tendencies. However, at the same time, the inter-Commonwealth disputes on racial issues such as South Africa's apartheid in 1960-61 and the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by the Smith regime of Rhodesia (today's Zimbabwe) in the mid-1960s can also be considered as inevitable hurdles which the Commonwealth had to tackle in the process of becoming a truly multi-racial association.

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