Why is it important that the boys in Lord of the Flies are British?

In the second chapter Jack says

'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.'

Which another example of Golding's dramatic irorny. As said the Enlgish are regarded to be 'proper', well behaved and generally polite and well goverened. Jack's private education should mean that he should display all these qualities. However the rules he was so excited to established, are the very ones he breaks once he realizes they do not benefit him in the ways he wishes and he ultimately degresses into the savage he said he was not.

Jack's statement in the second chapter is echoed by the naval officer when after seeing the boys he states:

'I should have thought that a pack of British boys... would have been able to put up a better show than that.'

He has the same ideology that Jack has, and Golding uses the statement to show the parallels between the two. Both Jack and the officer have been governed by the kind of society which enforces rules and 'proper' behaviour. But once they are taken away from the society that governs and are free to make decisions of their own, the rules and regulations are set aside and 'the darkness of man's heart' and the inner savagery that is masked my the veneer of civilisation is revealed. Therefore when looking at Jack, the naval officer is essentially looking at himself without the protection of of what most consider to be an extremely civilised society.