¹ The South Africa Act 1909 of the British parliament created the Union of South Africa.

² J.B.M. Hertzog, Boer general; Prime Minister of South Africa, 1924–1939. As Prime Minister he had always argued that South Africa had political independence and that the 1926 Balfour Declaration confirmed this. The 1929 general election increased his majority against the South Africa Party under the more empire-minded Jan Smuts.

³ It received the royal assent in 1960.

⁴ Burma actually became independent of the United Kingdom on 4 January 1948.

⁵ Between the 1922 Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 (which took effect on 18 April 1949), Ireland functioned as a quasi-Dominion within the Commonwealth. Republican status, unlike the case of India in 1950, ended membership of the Commonwealth.

⁶ India became a republic on 26 January 1950.

⁷ Sir Stafford Cripps, British Labour minister; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1947–1950. He also led the ‘Cripps Mission’ to India in 1942 to secure Indian co-operation in the war with the promise of self-government.

⁸ ‘We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign [“socialist secular” added in 1976] democratic republic . . .’.

⁹ In March 1960, the South African Police killed an estimated sixty-seven people among a large crowd in the township of Sharpeville who were protesting against restrictions on the movement of African people.

¹⁰ Geoffrey Bing QC, British Labour MP; Attorney-General of independent Ghana, 1957–1961.

¹¹ Three protestors were killed and several injured in protests in the Langa Township echoing those in Sharpeville (see p. 201, n. 9) at the same time in March 1960.

¹² Eric Louw, South African diplomat and minister; Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1955–1964.

¹³ 1899–1902.

¹⁴ Muhammad Amin Didi.

¹⁵ Seat of British rule in Ireland.

¹⁶ For more detail, see documents H1 and H2.

¹⁷ The idealized female symbol of republican France.

¹⁸ That is, Pakistan.