Papers and correspondence concerning service in Nigeria; as Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society; with the Fabian Colonial Bureau and Labour Party committees; and the British Honduras/British Guiana Settlement Commission.

The bulk of his papers deposited with the Oxford University Colonial Records Project dates from 1941: there are, however, a few somewhat miscellaneous papers from the Nigerian period (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/1), which show his interest in judicial and legal reform, and in refugee resettlement, with which he hoped to help after retirement.

Greenidge's work as Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society can best be seen against the background of the Society's papers deposited at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 19-25), which the correspondence and papers in box 2 of this collection supplement. This also applies to much of the material in MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/3-7, a heterogeneous collection of papers and correspondence arranged on a territorial basis, some related to the work of the Society some to Greenidge's work with other organisations, and all illustrating his personal involvement with liberal and humanitarian causes. Of this material, only that in MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/3-4 and 6 (dealing with South Africa, South West Africa (Namibia), the Protectorates (Lesotho, Botswana, and Eswatini), and the Seychelles) is at all comprehensive.

What can be seen most clearly from MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/2 is the way in which Greenidge's work as Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society widened after 1946, when wartime restrictions on travel ended and he embarked on the first of his trips to the United Nations Organisation on behalf of the Society. In 1946, his objects were '...(1) to get a Committee established within the framework of the United Nations to take the place of the Committee on Slavery of the League of Nations and (2) to secure the transfer of the Mandate of South West Africa to the United Nations and prevent its incorporation as part of the Union of South Africa' (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/2, folder 4, fols. 1-8).

MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/6-16 show the progress of the first part of this campaign. In the earlier sessions, he could only gain admission to the meetings of the Commission on Human Rights as an observer, but was able to make many useful contacts, particularly through Wilfred Benson of the International Labour Organisation, subsequently Director of the United Nations Division on Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories. When, in 1949, an Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Slavery was set up, Greenidge became a member and assisted with the drafting of its report. In 1950, he achieved recognition of the Society as a body having consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, on the subject of human freedom - an achievement described by the Society's Chairman, H.J. Tapscott, as 'a very wonderful attainment'. (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 19 / D7 / 12, 12 Apr 1950: Tapscott to Greenidge) Greenidge continued to represent the Society at the United Nations until 1957, although he had retired from the Secretaryship in 1955.

MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/17-20 show another aspect of Greenidge's work for the Society. From 1933 to 1940 his predecessor, John Harris, with Lady Simon, Richard Wilberforce, and others, had pressed for the reapportionment of the incomes from various charitable trusts whose original purpose had lapsed with time, to help finance the Society's work. This campaign was taken up by Greenidge with a persistence reflected not only in these files but throughout his correspondence, where the Smith Charity is a constant topic. In 1955, Margery Perham, thanking him for information about this charity, wrote 'I admire your pertinacity, and hope it will bring its due reward' (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/2, folder 16, fol. 50).

Another involvement at this time was the fight to prevent South West Africa (Namibia) and the Protectorates (Lesotho, Botswana, and Eswatini) from being absorbed by South Africa. In this, Greenidge was engaged not only as a propagandist in England but as an adviser of Michael Scott, who represented the indigenous communities at the United Nations and the International Court of Justice (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/4). However, it is MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/8-12 that illustrate most fully the range of Greenidge's preoccupations and activities at this time. In Jan 1949, he wrote to the Secretary of the National Council of Civil Liberties, regretting that he could not accept an invitation to join the committee as he was 'Already a member of eight committees, most of which meet monthly' (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/9, folder 8, fol. 1). Between 1941 and 1958, he seems, in fact, to have served on the committees of at least thirteen organisations, and to have been associated, directly or indirectly, with the activities of nearly fifty other such groups, conferences or ad hoc undertakings, dealing mainly with the reorganisation of the post-war world, with race relations, human rights, legal reforms, colonial policy, and the welfare of overseas peoples. This total does not include two major involvements, his membership of the Fabian Colonial Bureau (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/11) and of the Labour Party Advisory Committee on Imperial Questions (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/12), into which he was drawn through his work with the Society. This brought him into contact with individuals of sympathetic political leanings and, through them, into the inner councils that were framing Labour's future colonial policy. As early as the autumn of 1941, Arthur Creech Jones was writing to thank him for offers of practical help to the newly established Colonial Bureau (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/21, folder 2, fols. 1-16), which were welcomed by the Bureau's Secretary, Rita Hinden. (Papers of the Fabian Colonial Bureau also deposited at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford; MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 365/16, folder 3, fols. 153 and 171.)

By Oct, Greenidge seems to have been functioning as a member of the Bureau's Advisory Committee: from 1941 to 1943 alone, he served on four of its sub-committees, represented it on four deputations, contributed to its pamphlets and essays, and in 1946, represented it at the British Guiana Labour Union's International Labour Conference. At the same time he was producing a steady stream of memoranda for the Labour Party Advisory Committee on Imperial Questions, to which he acted as Hon. Secretary from 1947 until its dissolution in 1949. While there are some gaps in the sequence, the papers and correspondence in both these files provide a more or less continuous record for those interested in the formulation of Labour's colonial policy in the post-war period. MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/11, in particular, fills a number of lacunae in the Fabian Colonial Bureau's papers, while MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/8 to 12, taken as a whole reveal, much overlapping and many individual links between the organisations promoting liberal causes at this period.

The contacts made during these years, and the variety of experience gained, made it natural that Greenidge should be thought of in 1947, when the Secretary of State for the Colonies was appointing the members of a Commission to 're-examine the economic potentialities of British Guiana and British Honduras and to enquire into the possibilities of settlement in both territories' (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/14, folder 1, fol. 3). Greenidge regarded the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies as responsible for putting his name forward (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/21, folder 7, fols. 10-15). The appointment seems also to have been influenced by West Indian pressure for representation on the Commission (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/14, folder 1, fol. 2). As the papers in MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/13 make clear, Greenidge was already interested in the possibility of resettlement in the Caribbean area as a solution not only for refugees and displaced persons from Europe, but also for unemployment and overpopulation in the West Indies, problems that had been refreshed in his memory by his 1946 tour (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/2, folder 4, fols. 1-8; MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/22, folder 1, fols. 1-13; MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 19 / D7 / 12, 3 Apr 1947 – Greenidge to Tapscott). He was then commissioned to officially examine problems already familiar to him.

The papers in MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/14 to 19 show how the Commission went about its work and (in draft form) what it reported; and from those in MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/19, it is possible to make some inferences about the part Greenidge played in the drafting of its Report (Cmd. 7533). However, as the correspondence in MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/21-23 makes clear, Greenidge did not feel that his responsibility for the problems dealt with by the Commission ended with the presentation of its report. From 1948 onwards, he engaged in persistent correspondence with Colonial Office officials, from the Secretary of State downwards; with officials from the Ministry of Food, the Overseas Food Corporation, and the Colonial Development Corporation, and with Members of Parliament and others with special colonial interests (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/21; also, MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/13, folder 1, fols. 34-41).

At the same time, he was encouraging English and West Indian businessmen to invest in Caribbean development (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/23) and acting as an adviser and go-between for politicians from every part of the West Indies - functioning, on an unofficial basis, as West Indian commissioner in London (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/22). During this period, he was consulted, and gave advice, on the whole spectrum of West Indian problems, including the political, constitutional, and economic aspects of Federation; and his London contacts and experience were of use to successive delegations from the West Indies. Topics discussed with his correspondents, in particular Grantley Adams, range from the minutiae of local problems, especially those of Barbados (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/22, folder 1 and MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/25, folder 1), to problems of wider significance, such as the need to reorganise the Colonial Office and reconstruct the Empire on federal lines, or Labour's colonial planning and its effectiveness when translated into action.

At the same time, Greenidge was advising and assisting his friends and acquaintances on personal matters (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/28), while writing articles and memoranda on many subjects, and lecturing to organisations ranging from the Haldane Society, Chatham House, the Royal Empire Society, the Friends' International Centre, to local branches of the Labour Party, and the Fabian Society (MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/26).

MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/27, 29, and 30 contain an assortment of printed material and personal papers. MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 285/31-33 contain the papers of Sydney Olivier 1st. Baron Ramsden, and consist mainly of alternative draft versions of an incomplete unpublished work, The Dual Ethic of Empire, with related material for appendices, sent to Greenidge by Lady Olivier after her husband's death with a view to possible publication. The collection ends in 1959, when Greenidge left England for the West Indies.