This volume covers the first part of the 20th-century processes of decolonisation within the British Empire, concluding with the independence of Ceylon, the first of the non-European-settled colonies. An introductory section demonstrates changes in attitude to colonial rule.

The penultimate volume in this documentary series covers the first part of the 20th century processes of decolonization within the British Empire, concluding with the independence of Ceylon, the first of the non-European-settled colonies. It also illustrates constitutional developments in the West Indies (particularly Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana), Mauritius and Seychelles, Hong Kong, Fiji, the Western Pacific, Gibraltar, the Falklands, and West, East, and Central-Southern Africa, as well as advance and retreat in Malta and Cyprus. There is a section on Egypt and on the mandates of Palestine, Transjordania, and Mesopotamia.

An introductory section demonstrates the changes both in attitudes to and the dimensions of colonial rule during the period from the deep freeze of trusteeship to partnership. The concluding date saw, in addition to Ceylon's full membership in the Commonwealth, the speedy replacement of an abortive union of Malaya by a federation, a failed initiative in Cyprus, and what proved to be abortive reform in Hong Kong and Fiji, treaty revision in Egypt, a policy change in the Sudan, the surrender of the Palestine mandate, and the establishment of Israel. By 1948, though doubts remained about a closer association of the colonies, protectorates, and mandates in West, East, and Central Africa, there was optimism about a possible federation of the Caribbean.