Away From Colonialism

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30960, 17 January 1966, Page 10

Away From Colonialism

The Caribbean islands which are now being offered a new form of association with Britain will have to consider, more realistically than they have hitherto been disposed to do, the advantages of closer economic union among themselves. Their size, population, and limited resources might seem to put their emergence as a cluster of independent entities outside the sphere of practical politics. Yet Britain is anxious to guide them towards a new and freer status, leading possibly to complete independence, though necessarily short of it in the meantime. The original Federation of the West Indies, set up at the beginning of 1958, came to an end in 1962, when Jamaica, Trinidad, and Tobago all became independent. The West Indies Act of 1962 empowered the United Kingdom Government to provide for the administration of the remaining island colonies; and in May of that year a conference in London agreed on the formation of a second federation of eight members —Barbados, the Leeward Islands of Antigua, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, and Montserrat, and the Windward Islands (Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent). The Federal capital was to be in Barbados.

The creation of this “Little Eight”, however, was not realised. Grenada and Antigua were the first to withdraw; and then Barbados decided to follow the example of Trinidad and Jamaica by opting for sovereign status. What to do with the remaining islands, incapable of managing their own affairs without continued reliance on Britain, is the problem the current White Paper is attempting to resolve. To this end political representatives of the six islands have been invited to take part in talks in London some time before Easter. It is proposed that each island should assume full control of its domestic affairs but should continue to be “ associated ” with Britain by reserving, for the time being at any rate, defence and external relations as a British responsibility. Britain would continue to give budgetary support as needed. This formula, it was thought, should remove the stigma of colonialism and give the islands a sense of genuine participation in the world-wide movement towards the political emancipation of the coloured races. The new constitutions, moreover, would enable the island governments to sever the British link finally by legal processes within their own competence. That is to say, full independence, involving abrogation of the entrenched clauses, could be achieved without reference to the British Parliament. The liberality of these proposals should appeal to all shades of political opinion in the islands. They should prove workable, moreover, provided there are safeguards against any abuse of power, as, for example, an attempt anywhere to set up a dictatorship. The right of Britain to intervene in an emergency of that kind will no doubt be one of the matters raised during the proposed talks at the Colonial Office.