Amulree commission report (1933)

By 1931, with a debt load made worse by the devastating impact of the Great Depression, Newfoundland faced a fiscal crisis. Canadian banks extended credit, but under harsh terms. Political machinations and a riot at the Colonial Building in St John’s on 5 April 1932 precipitated the collapse of the government. In November 1932 Frederick Charles Munro Alderdice, Newfoundland’s prime minister, informed the British government that he planned to unilaterally reduce the interest payments on government bonds. Such action was unacceptable to the British authorities, who persuaded him to take an Anglo-Canadian loan in exchange for an imperial investigation of Newfoundland’s finances. The resulting body, set up in February 1933, was known as the Amulree commission after its chairman, William Warrender Mackenzie, Baron Amulree. Unknown to Alderdice, the British had decided to allow no default, to reschedule the debt, and to edge Newfoundland into accepting a commission of government. In the end he accepted the British plan. With Alderdice’s compliance a certainty, the Amulree commission recommended the indefinite suspension of democratic government in Newfoundland.