Alex
Constantine
Alex Constantine open
index
Digitalized Text
Report of the Commission of
Inquiry into the
Disturbances in British Guiana in February
1962
Edited by
Odeen Ishmael
[Notes by Editor in the
text are indicated by double asterisks (**)]
GNI
Publications
2003
GENERAL CONTENTS
Preface -- 3
Part 1 – The Report of the Commission of
Inquiry – 4
Part II – The PPP Memorandum to the
Commission of Inquiry – 96
Part III – Comments on the Wynn Parry Report
– 125
PREFACE
In Guyana during February 1962, opposition political parties and
the Trades Union
Council (TUC) mounted street demonstrations against the Budget
introduced by the People’s
Progressive Party (P.P.P.) Government led by Dr. Cheddi Jagan.
These culminated in riots, arson
and looting on Friday,16 February. At that time Guyana (then known
as British Guiana) was still
a colony of Great Britain. Subsequently, on the request of the
Government of Guyana, a
Commission of Inquiry was appointed by the British Government to
investigate the causes of the
disturbances.
The February 1962 disturbances were part of a series of politically
inspired activities
which continued in 1963 and 1964 aimed at destabilising the PPP
Government which was
labelled as being “communist”. This was during the
period of the Cold War and US anticommunist
trade unions and other organisations were overtly and covertly
involved in providing
financial and propaganda assistance to the TUC and the opposition
political parties. The United
States Government itself was deeply involved in the effort to
replace the PPP Government, and
at the highest level, it encouraged the British Government to
change the electoral system which
eventually in 1964 resulted in what it wanted. The declassified
documents of the State
Department on British Guiana released in 1995 provides interesting
reading in this respect.
The Report by the Commission is reproduced in full in the first
part of this publication. In
the second part, two related documents are reproduced. These are
the memorandum of the P.P.P.
which was presented to the Commission; and a review of the findings
of the Commission, which
was originally published in Thunder, the weekly newspaper of the
PPP, on 6 October 1962.
PART I
REPORT
of a Commission of Inquiry
into Disturbances in British Guiana
in February 1962
London
Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
COLONIAL 354
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION … 6
Chapter I GENERAL CONDITIONS … 10
Geographical Features – Natural Resources and
Communications – Population
Chapter II RECENT POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
… 14
Financial Difficulties – Measures Adopted –
Opposition
to the Budget Proposals
Chapter III ECONOMIC DISCONTENT
… 24
Civil Servants – Other Government Servants – Trade
Employees and Factory Workers
Chapter IV THE DISTURBANCES …
31
Opposition Manoeuvres: People’s National Congress –
Opposition Manoeuvres: United Force
Chapter V SUMMING UP … 56
Chapter VI OTHER MATTERS RELATING TO THE DISTURBANCES 59
Declaration of General Strike – Houston By-election –
Part
taken by the Police – Arms in the Attorney-General’s
House
Chapter VII CONCLUSIONS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
… 66
* * *
Appendix I Text of Warrant appointing the Commission …
68
Appendix II Rules of Procedure … 71
Appendix III List of Witnesses Examined … 73
Appendix IV List of Exhibits … 78
Appendix V Extracts from speeches, etc., by Dr. Jagan and
Members of the P.P.P. showing Communist leanings… 80
Appendix VI Extracts from local press containing
anti-Government
Propaganda … 81
Appendix VII The Budget … 85
Appendix VIII Chronological record of events leading up to the
disturbances … 88
Appendix IX Brief notes on Persons who figured in the Inquiry
… 91
Appendix X Statement on troop movements … 92
Appendix XI Statement of Casualties and damage sustained;
claims
made on insurance companies; and tear gas used … 94
INTRODUCTION
To the Right Honourable DUNCAN SANDYS, P.C., M.P.
Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Sir,
The appointment of this Commission was made under a Warrant signed
and issued by your predecessor on
May 11th, l962, in pursuance of the provisions contained in Section
2 of The British Guiana( Commissions of
Inquiry) Order in Council 1962.(*) The Warrant set out the terms of
reference as follows:
.For the purpose of inquiring into the recent disturbances in
British Guiana and the events leading up to
them and to report thereon.. [* S.I. 1962 No. 632]
2. The members of the Commission held their first meeting in London
on May 7th, 1962, at which some
preliminary matters were discussed and certain details of procedure
settled. On May 11th, all three members of the
Commission met your predecessor and received the warrant of
appointment. On the same day a second meeting of
the Commission was held and some further matters of procedure were
discussed and specified. Mr. D. A. Skinner
was formally appointed Administrative Secretary of the Commission,
and a direction was given that appropriate
steps be taken in British Guiana to publicise the warrant relating
to the appointment of the Commission and to invite
oral or written statements and other evidence concerning the
subject matter of our inquiry. The Commission learnt
that Mr. Kenneth Potter would act as Counsel to the Commission
during the course of the inquiry, and assist us in
the matter of calling witnesses, marshalling the evidence produced
and presenting the relevant facts and
circumstances before us.
3. All three members of the Commission left London by air on May
17th, 1962, and reached Georgetown on
the evening of the following day. Mr. Skinner, the Administrative
Secretary, and Mr. Potter were already in British
Guiana, having arrived there a day or two earlier and entered upon
their respective duties.
4. May 18th, the day of our arrival was a Friday, and Monday the
21st May had been fixed for our first sitting.
We had therefore two days in which to recover from the fatigue of
the extremely long and tiring journey, to review
the material which had been made available to us in London and to
pay a visit to the premises where the
Commission was to sit and hold the inquiry. This visit, it may be
mentioned in passing, was very necessary as
certain minor but essential changes had to be made upon a careful
inspection of the premises and the arrangements
made by the official in charge. We would like to commend the manner
in which the entire matter of the
accommodation of the Commission and its staff and for the members
of the public was handled. We particularly
mention the public as the hearing of the inquiry was for the most
part public and our arrival had evinced a great deal
of interest among the people of British Guiana who seemed to think
that the entire future of the country depended
upon our deliberations, and for all the open sessions every
available seat in the body of the hall was occupied.
5. On May 21st, 1962 the Commissions held its first session. After
some brief preliminaries the members of
the Commission were conducted to view the various places where
damage to and destruction of property had been
caused during the course of the disturbances of February 16th,
1962. On May 22nd, the hearing of the evidence
began and the sittings continued till June 28th.
6. At the very outset the Commissions was informed that a number of
political parties, and Insurance
Company, and the Mayor and Town Council of Georgetown were
interested in the inquiry and wished therefore to
put in appearance through Counsel. The Government was represented
by the Attorney-General and, as already
observed, Mr. Kenneth Potter appeared as Counsel for the
Commission. There was also the question of procedure
regarding the manner in which evidence was to be produced,
witnesses examined, cross-examined and re-examined.
Upon all these matters complete unanimity was achieved and it was
agreed that the Governor of British Guiana, four
political parties, the Mayor and Town Council of Georgetown and the
Hand-in-Hand Mutual Fire Insurance
Company, would be deemed interested parties and allowed to put in
appearance through Counsel. It was also agreed
that in the matter of calling the evidence the following rules
would be observed:
(1) All witnesses= statements and documents shall be submitted to
Counsel for the Commission who
shall adduce what he considers material.
(2) Any person or his representative may apply to the Commission if
not satisfied with the decision of
Counsel for the Commission not to present to the Commission the
evidence offered by that person.
(3) After examination by Counsel for the Commission, Counsel
representing the witness shall be
allowed to examine the witness and so shall representatives of
interested parties as satisfy the
Commission that they have an interest in examining the particular
witness.
(4) Counsel for the Commission shall re-examine the witnesses after
other examinations by
representatives of interested parties.
7. These rules governed the procedure at the public sessions.
Towards the end of the enquiry, it was found
necessary to investigate a matter the discussion of which in public
was considered both unnecessary and inadvisable,
because the evidence bearing upon it related to intimate
constitutional relations between the Head of State and the
Council of Ministers. The issue involved was whether the assistance
of the army to deal with the disturbances was
sought and made available at the appropriate moment. Under the
constitution internal law and order is the exclusive
concern of the Government, i.e., the Premier and his Council of
Ministers, whereas the unit of the British Army
stationed in British Guiana could only be called upon to support
the civil power on the authority of the Governor.
The details of the discussions which took place between the
Ministers and the Governor were in our view of a nature
which ought not to be made the subject matter of public comment so
soon after the event, thought to the future
historian they might be of considerable interest. We were therefore
disposed to accept the submission made by our
Counsel, Mr. Potter, in this respect:
.It is, in my submission, not in the public interest in this, or in
any other country where parliamentary and
ministerial government exists, that affairs of state should be
publicly investigated a matter of months after
the event. The actions of governments are publicly known and may be
criticised or defended, but the
deliberations of Ministers and their deliberations with a
constitutional Head of State and differences of
opinion which may or may not have occurred are not a fit subject
for public debate, but only for the
researches of the historian long after the event. It is so
established by wise tradition and sound practice in
all countries enjoying parliamentary institutions and, in my
submission, it must be so, for otherwise,
Ministers and Heads of State would be fatally handicapped in the
exercise of their functions if their every
word and thought could be made the subject of public trial within
months of the event..
8. We accordingly excluded the public from two sittings at which
the Governor of British Guiana, the former
Minister for Home Affairs and three other witnesses were examined
in camera. The rules of procedure relating to
these private sessions are set out in Appendix II.
9. It is convenient here to refer to a circumstance which, though
it concerned a mere matter of procedure, was
in the light of subsequent events, germane to the issue raised
before us. The first witness to be called was Mr.
Weber, the Commission of Police, British Guiana, and he
immediately
craved leave to make a personal submission. On being allowed to do
so, he complained that he and, indeed, the
entire Police Force suffered from the serious handicap of not being
represented at the Inquiry. He apprehended that
his conduct and the conduct of his subordinates in dealing with the
disturbances would be subject to criticism by
some of the parties who had been conceded the right of appearance
before us. Anticipating this state of affairs he
had made a prayer to the government department concerned for the
appropriate relief, following the precedent of the
1948 inquiry into the Enmore Riots when Mr. Cabral, K.C., was
engaged to represent the Police. His prayer,
however, had not been granted on the present occasion. In the
course of Mr. Weber=s examination it became quite
clear to us that is apprehensions were amply justified, for his
manner of handling the situation which arose on
February 16th was subjected, it might almost be said, to hostile
questioning. Even before Mr. Weber=s examination
was concluded we felt the compelling necessity of giving expression
to our misgivings that the if the Police were to
14
remain unrepresented and without legal assistance we might have
presented before us only a partial picture of the
part played by its personnel, and of the reasons which impelled it
to play that part. That being so, we might on the
basis of an incomplete picture be persuaded to comment adversely
and perhaps unjustly upon the conduct of the
Police, an eventuality which should, according to all canons of
natural justice, be avoided. We therefore deemed it
just and proper to make the following statement at the commencement
of the resumption of the hearing upon the
following day:
.We are gravely concerned at the circumstances that the Police as a
body are not legally represented in this
case. It is already apparent to us, after only one day=s hearing
that the Police are and are to be subject to
attack. It may well be right that this should be so. On this aspect
of the matter we make no comment.
10
What concerns us as a matter of natural justice is that despite
representations of the Commissioner of
Police, no provision for the Police to be legally represented has
been made. In our view, as a matter of
principle, this is wrong and the attitude of the Government becomes
all the more strange when the
precedent of 1947 cited by the Commissioner is borne in mind when a
King=s Counsel was briefed to
represent the Police. We as a Commission have no power to order
that the provision for the legal
representation of the Police should be made. If we had that power,
we should exercise it. It follows that if,
event at this late hour, no such provision is made, we may well
think it necessary to make this omission the
subject of adverse comment in our report..
10. We are happy to record that Mr. Persram was briefed to watch
the interest of the Police and he continued to
appear before us throughout the subsequent proceedings.
11. At later stages of the inquiry prayers were made for permission
to put in appearance on behalf of the
Georgetown Chamber of Commerce, the Electricity Corporation and the
British Guiana Trades Union Council.
These prayers were granted and the final appearances were as
follows:.
Dr. Fenton Ramsahoye, Attorney-General, instructed by Mr David
Singh, for the Government.
Mr. Forbes Burnham, Q.C., with Mr. John Carter, Mr. Neville
Bissember, Mr. C. J. B. Harris, instructed by
Mr. C. M. Llewellyn John for the People=s National Congress.
Mr. Ashton Chase, with Mr. Miles Fitzpatrick and Mr. Derek Jagan,
instructed by Mr. Sase Narine, for the
People=s Progressive Party.
Mr. Gilbert Farnum, for the United Force.
Mr. Jai Narine Singh, with Mr. E. A. Triumph, for the National
Democratic Party.
Mr. Desmond Hoyte, instructed by Mr. Vivian Dias, for the
Georgetown Town Council.
Mr. J. A. King, for the Hand-in-Hand Mutual Fire Insurance Company,
Limited.
Mr. Walter Persram, Legal Adviser for the Police.
Mr. Lionel Luckhoo, Q.C., associated with Mr. E. V. Luckhoo, and
instructed by Miss Ena Luckhoo, for
the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Hubert Jack, for the Electricity Corporation.
Mr. J. I. Ramphal, associated with Mr. R. H. Luckhoo, instructed by
Mr. Dabi Dyal, for the Trades Union
Congress.
12. 147 witnesses in all were examined by the Commission. Of these,
142 made their statements at the public
sessions and 5 were examined at the two private sessions. In
addition to the oral evidence laid before us, a vast
quantity of other relevant material in the form of statements,
statistics, newspaper cuttings, transcripts of broadcasts
and speeches was produced all this was carefully examined.
13. The members of the Commission travelled back to England and had
detailed discussions on July 9th and
subsequent dates, when all matters arising out of the inquiry were
brought under review.
14. The Report is now complete and we, Sir, submit it for your
consideration.
CHAPTER I
GENERAL CONDITIONS
15. We begin by giving a few broad facts about British Guiana and
outlining the social, political and economic
background against which the events of February 1962 must be viewed
in order fully to appreciate their nature and
import
Geographical Features
16. The most significant feature of British Guiana is a small
population comprised of several ethnic groups striving
to maintain itself upon the insufficient resources of a large
undeveloped, or at any rate greatly underdeveloped,
country. The size of British Guiana (83,000 square miles) is a
little bigger than that of Great Britain, but its total
population is only a little more than half a million (590,140 on
December 31st, 1961).
17. There are three distinct geographical divisions in the
country:
(i) A narrow coastal belt, most of which lies below the high tide
level of the sea and is protected by a costly
system of sea defences and canals.
(ii) Dense forest lands which cover nearly four-fifths of the
entire country.
These have, for the most part, the appearance and characteristics
of a
primeval, impenetrable jungle, offering resistance to intrusion by
man.
(iii) The Savannas, lying behind the North Eastern coastal belt and
beyond the forest lands.
There are three main rivers, the Essequibo, the Berbice and the
Demerara, which are navigable for a few
miles only in their lower reaches, as further progress of water
craft is impeded by frequent rapids.
18. It is in the narrow coastal belt that most of the population is
concentrated. Georgetown and New Amsterdam, the
only two towns in the country, are also situated in this region.
The land for the most part lies below the high tide
level, and the traveller who has the hardihood to motor over the
bumpy, unmetalled road to Skeldon, the farthermost
habitation on the northern coast, will see large areas of land
completely covered by water in which stand houses
resting on wooden or concrete stilts. These present a dismal though
strangely picturesque appearance. The soil of
this region is alluvial and, therefore, rich. Most of the
agriculture is undertaken in this belt, the main crops being
sugar cane and rice. The cane crop feeds a number of sugar
factories and is also responsible for the allied industry of
rum, which is very popular commodity in the country, particularly
among the labourers and working class people.
The quality of rice produced is not very good, but the labours of
the present Government have resulted in finding a
ready market for almost all the grain produced. The planning
efforts of the Government to develop agriculture further are
confined to the coastal belt, though it must be borne in
mind that the fight against the forces of nature is somewhat
unequal, as was admirably pointed out in Rodway=s
History of British Guiana:
.Every acre at present under cultivation has been the scene of a
struggle with the sea in front and the flood
behind. As a result of this arduous labour through two centuries a
narrow strip of land along the coast has
been rescued from the mangrove swamp by an elaborate system of dams
and dykes. Centred along the
rivers and creeks lie a thousand abandoned plantations most of them
indistinguishable from the surrounding
forest; these represent the failures of the early settlers. At
first sight the narrow line of sugar estates seems
but a poor showing for such a long struggle with nature, but when
all the circumstances are taken into
consideration, it is almost a wonder that the Colony has not been
abandoned altogether..
19. The cost of maintaining the sea defences and drainage works is
very considerable, amounting approximately to
ten per cent of the total revenues of the State.
Natural Resources and Communications
20. The forest lands are almost entirely uninhabited. There are
bauxite mines which are being exploited by a
Canadian and an American firm. Gold and diamonds are also recovered
but these make a very negligible
contribution to the wealth and economy of the country, and no great
attempt is being made at present to extend the
efforts to recover these two commodities. There is some hope of
finding oil in the country and a team of Russian oil
experts was recently called in by the Government to make a
preliminary reconnaissance of the possibilities of
finding oil.
21. The Savannahs are not productive of any wealth, and as far as
we know no serious attempt has yet been made to
explore the possibility of agriculture or any other industry in the
region.
22. The means of communication in the country are extremely
inadequate. There are two single-track railway lines,
one along the northern coast belt running for a distance of sixty
miles and the other along the west coast of the
Demerara River, which is only eighteen miles long. There is only
one good motor road, which connects the
Atkinson airfield with the capital town of Georgetown, while the
other roads are for the most part long and
exhausting sequences of potholes, surfaced with burnt earth. The
interior of the country is approached by amphibian
six-seaters and aeroplanes for which a number of landing strips
have been constructed. The amphibians use natural
lakes and rivers.
23.The natural resources of British Guiana, therefore, produce very
little wealth. It is clear, even to a casual visitor,
that a great deal of money and human effort are needed before the
land can be persuaded to yield whatever riches lie
buried in its bosom. It is thus with a feeling of sad
disillusionment that one reads George Chapman’s verses on
Guiana:
“Guiana, whose rich feete are mines of golde,
Whose forehead knockes against the roofe of starres,
Stands on her tip-toes at faire England looking,
Kissing her hand, bowing her mightie breast,
And every signe of all submission making,
Tobe her sister and the daughter both
Of our most sacred maide . . . .”
There seems very little doubt that the poet’s eye was roving
in a fine frenzy rather than observing with the
accuracy of a camera lens.
Population
24. The two largest ethnic groups of the population of British
Guiana are the East Indians and Africans. At the end
of 1961 the East Indians formed 49 per cent of the total population
and Africans 32.7 per cent. The East Indians it
may be mentioned are the descendants of the indentured labour
originally imported from India to work on the sugar
cane farms. More than a quarter of a million of them were brought
over between 1844 and 1914, and of these 65,000
were repatriated to India, while the rest remained to make a
permanent home for themselves in British Guiana. The
Africans are the descendants of the slaves who were brought by
European settlers to work on the land and were later
emancipated. They and their descendants adopted British Guiana as
their homeland. In addition to these two ethnic
groups, there are some Chinese, Portuguese and Amerindians, who are
the descendants of the original Red Indian
residents. As is inevitable in a country of several races, there is
a substantial element of what is now known as
“mixed population”'. The East Indians are for the most
part agriculturalists and, therefore, residents of villages.
They
work on the sugar cane and rice farms. The Africans, for the most
part, are factory workers and, therefore, town
dwellers. Thus we find that according to tire Census of 1946 the
Africans comprised 53.6 per cent of the population
of Georgetown and East Indians numbered only 15.5 per cent. it
would appear that a similar state of affairs also
obtains in New Amsterdam. The Portuguese are mostly town dwellers
and are employed in commerce, and almost
all the Chinese and Europeans live in the towns. The Amerindians
are to be found in the Savannahs.
25. The initial aloofness of the Indians, springing, perhaps, from
a nostalgic attachment to their native land, is no
longer observable and the present generation of East Indians have
not only accepted British Guiana as the country
which they inhabit and to which they owe allegiance, but they have
without qualification or reservation identified
themselves with every aspect of its life. Their inherent habits of
hard work and thrift have enabled many of them to
rise above the humble status of manual workers and enter the
professions of law, medicine, commerce, and the civil
service.
26. The Indians now take a prominent part in the social and
political life of the country. There are several able
lawyers. including more than one Queen’s Counsel, and a
number of highly qualified doctors. Dr. Jagan, the Premier
and several of the Ministers in his Cabinet are East Indians.
27. With regard to the political affiliations of the various ethnic
groups, although there is no sharply defined
classification, the Indians, for the most part, support the People
s Progressive Party, of which Dr. Jagan, the present
Premier, is the leader. The Africans support, for the most part,
the People’s National Congress, which was
inaugurated comparatively recently. Mr. Burnham, a local barrister,
is the leader of this party. Until a few years ago
he was a colleague and supporter of Dr. Jagan. The Portuguese, for
the most part, support the party known as the
United Force, of which Mr. d’Aguiar, and important
businessman of Georgetown is the leader. It is difficult to
escape the hypothesis that considerations of race are to some
extent responsible for political affiliations and
loyalties, although it must be stated that many East Indians
support Mr. Burnham’s party and many Africans owe
allegiance to Dr. Jagan’s party. The various political
parties are of recent birth and, being still in the formative
period, the convictions and loyalties of their members are somewhat
superficial and personal.
28. We found little evidence of any racial segregation in the
social life of the country and in Georgetown, East
Indians and Africans seemed to mix and associate with one another
on terms of the greatest cordiality, though it was
clear that the recent disturbances and the racial twist given to
them by some of the unprincipled and self-seeking
politicians had introduced slight, but it is hoped, transient
over-tones of doubt and reserve. Among the inhabitants of
Georgetown there is, of course, always present the danger that
hostile and anti-racial sentiments may be aroused by
a clash of the hopes and ambitions of rival politicians. We draw
attention to this possibility because there have been
indications of such friction in the past, although, as will appear
in the course of this report, the disturbances of
February 16th did not originate in a racial conflict, nor did they
develop into a trial of strength between the East
Indians and the Africans.
CHAPTER II
RECENT POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
29. The political history of British Guiana and a narrative of the
constitutional development of the country are fully
and admirably set out in the Report of the Constitution Commission
1950-51, presided over by Sir E. J.
Waddington,* and we need only refer to a few recent events are
relevant to the subject matter and purpose of the
present inquiry. [* Colonial No. 280]
30. The emergence of political consciousness in British Guiana
dates from 1947, when in the post war period the
colonial territories elsewhere were invested with a substantial
measure of self-government, and it was not unnatural
for the British Guianese to hope for a share of the responsibility
and fruition of government power. Dr. Jagan
entered the field of politics at this time, with all the enthusiasm
of a young man of 29, freshly returned from America
where he had qualified as a dentist. While there he had married
Janet Rosenburg, an American citizen of Czech
extraction who was believed to be a confirmed communist. A few
years later he formed the People’s Progressive
Party, popularly known as P.P.P. The party professed a leftist
ideology, and to make as extensive an appeal as
possible, it declared its aims to be self-government for the
country and raising the standard of living of the common
people. Dr. Jagan sought the support of all racial groups, and in
this respect he was largely successful. One of his
staunch supporters, at that time, was Mr. Burnham, a Guianese of
African extraction, who is now the leader of the
largest party in opposition, known as the People’s National
Congress. Universal adult suffrage was one of the
demands made by the P.P.P.. and the Waddington Commission
recognised the justness of this claim. While dealing
with this matter the Commission observed:.
.Since the report of the Royal West India Commission was presented,
universal adult suffrage has been in
the minds of the majority of the population of the British
Caribbean territories and it has indeed been
introduced into many. In British Guiana, therefore, where the
standards off intelligence and of articulation
are in no way below those obtaining in these other territories, an
indefinite deferment of its introduction
would cause dissatisfaction and the arguments which could justify
its being now withheld must be cogent
and based upon conditions which are not to be found elsewhere."
and summed up their conclusions as follows: .
.We therefore recognised the introduction in British Guiana of
universal adult suffrage at the age of 21
years for all persons who are not subject to the customary
disabilities of civic or mental incapacity."
31.This recommendation was accepted, and the general election of
April, 1953, took place on the basis of a
universal adult suffrage. There was, at that time, a bi-cameral
legislature consisting of:
(a) a house of Assembly composed of 24 elected representatives and
3 ex officio members;
(b) a State Council composed of 9 members of whom 6 were appointed
by the Governor in his
discretion, 2 on the recommendation of the Ministers elected from
the House of Assembly and 1
appointed after consultation with the independent and minority
party members of the House of
Assembly.
There was an Executive Council in which were vested all the
essential powers under the Constitution. This
Council consisted of the Governor as President, with a casting vote
only, the 3 ex officio members of the House of
Assembly, 6 Ministers chosen by ballot from among the elected
members of the House of Assembly and a member
of the State Council.
32. The P.P.P obtained a clear majority in the House of Assembly,
and, owing to the peculiar composition of the
Executive Council, Dr. Jagan and his council of ministers were able
to dominate the proceedings and decide every
issue as they wished. This is how the Robertson Commission of 1954*
described the situation: .
.In executive matters such decisions were final and the enactment
of any legislative measure decided upon
in Council could be checked finally only by the interposition of
the Governor’s veto after passage through
both houses. Thus, unless the Governor used the powers reserved to
him, the Ministers were in control of
the effective policy-making body and were virtually the Government.
Under the Constitution Ministers
could be removed from the Executive Council only by resolution of
the Council itself upon the proposal of
the Governor, or by resolution of the House of Assembly supported
by at least two-thirds of the members.
The elected Ministers were, therefore, in an impregnable position
so long as party solidarity continued.. [*
Cmd. 9274]
33.A series of events which are set out in detail in the Report of
the Robertson Commission necessitated the
suspension of the Constitution on October 9th, 1953, and an interim
Government wholly composed of ex officio and
nominated members was formed. This continued until 1957, when
elections were again held under the new
Constitution which by an Order in Council of December, 1956
provided for:.
(a) a Legislative Council consisting of 14 elected and 11 nominated
members (instead of 24 elected as
previously) and 3 ex officio members (as before);
(b) an Executive Council consisting of 3 ex officio members and 7
elected members of the Legislative
council nominated by the Governor.
It was originally hoped that by reducing the strength of elected
members in the Legislative Council the risk
of mischievous and irresponsible trends becoming too assertive or
assuming dangerous proportions would be
minimised. In fact, after the elections the Governor announced that
he would nominate only 6 members to the
Legislative Council and 5 to the Executive Council, all of whom
would be elected members. The effect was
therefore to place the elected members in an overall majority in
both Councils. There had, in the meantime, been a
split in the P.P.P. and Mr. Burnham, who had been Dr. Jagan’s
colleague and supporter since the inception of the
party, separated from him in 1955, and formed his own party. He was
content in the beginning to let his party carry
the old designation of P.P.P. though later this name was altered to
People’s National Congress or P.N.C. as it is
commonly referred to.
34. In the election held in 1957, Dr. Jagan’s party secured 9
of the 14 elective seats, so that again it was the largest
political party in the Legislature, though owing to the
constitutional changes introduced by the above mentioned
Order in Council of December, 1956, the party was no longer in a
position effectively to carry out its programme. A
constitutional conference was held in London in 1960, and it was
agreed that a new constitution should be
introduced in August 1961, giving British Guiana full internal
self-government. The British Guiana (Constitution)
Order in Council, 1961, was accordingly issued. The broad features
of the new constitution promulgated under this
Order and which are now in force are a bi-cameral Legislature, and
almost complete autonomy in internal affairs.
The two chambers are styled respectively, the Senate and the
Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly
consists of 35 elected members, the Senate or the Upper House
consists of 13 Senators of whom 8 are appointed by
the Governor in accordance with the advice of the Premier and 3 are
.appointed by the Governor acting after
consultation with such persons as, in his discretion, he considers
can speak for the political points of view of groups
represented in the Legislative Assembly by members constituting the
minority in the Assembly ., and the remaining
2 are appointed by the Governor acting in his discretion. The
executive power effectively vests in the Council of
Ministers consisting of a Premier and not more than 9 other
Ministers.
35. The Order in Council provided that .the Council of Ministers
shall have the general direction and control of the
government of British Guiana and shall be collectively responsible
therefore to the Legislature..
36. Elections under the new Constitution were held in August, 1961,
and Dr. Jagan’s party won 20 out of the 35
seats. The P.N.C. led by Mr. Burnham won 11 and the United Force, a
new party inaugurated in November 1960,
and led by Mr. d=Aguiar, a prominent businessman of Georgetown, won
4. There can be no doubt at all that Dr.
Jagan looked upon the result of the election as incontrovertible
proof of his personal triumph and a complete
approval of his policies by the electorate. He had, however, not
forgotten the events of 1953 when the Government
of the United Kingdom had suspended the constitution because it was
feared that the party in power in British
Guiana was pursuing a course which would lead to a dangerous crisis
both in public order and in the economic field
by the wholesale imposition of Marxist ideology on the affairs of
the country. He, therefore, proceeded cautiously,
limiting his activity to the seeking of foreign aid for his
country’s development plans. He was fully cognisant of
the
economic needs of British Guiana and of the inadequacy of his
country s internal resources to meet them. The
situation which faced him was somewhat as follows.
Financial Difficulties
37. In 1956 an International Labour Office survey had revealed that
18 per cent of the labour force in the country
was unemployed and 9 per cent was under-employed. A remarkable and
not unnatural feature was that of the
unemployed 41 per cent lived in urban areas. A development plan
costing $91 million had been prepared, but this
was not considered sufficient to meet all the needs of the country;
so in the summer of 1958, Dr. Jagan had
suggested increasing the figure of $91 million to $200 million. He
began to make attempts to secure the necessary
funds from foreign countries. He approached a Swiss hank and
obtained an offer of a loan of 6 million [pounds]
sterling, provided the British Government were prepared to
guarantee the loan. Unfortunately, the British
Government declined to entertain the suggestion as it was against
their policy to guarantee such loans for Colonial
governments. Dr. Jagan was advised to go to Washington and make an
application to the World Bank. To avoid
delay he drafted an application while he was still in London and
sent it to Washington. He made another application
the same year to the United States Government for a loan from what
is called the Development Loan Fund. The
object of this loan was irrigation and road projects. Dr. Jagan
discussed the matter with officials of the State
Department in Washington, but he was told that the machinery for
advancing this loan “had not yet got into full
gear”.
38. Towards the end of 1958 Mr. John Adler, an economist from the
World Bank, visited British Guiana. In his
report he approved of the steps Dr.. Jagan was proposing to take
for developing his country and said, .It is clear to
me that the top priorities have been correctly selected. There is
no question in my mind that the provision of more
agricultural land through drainage and irrigation and
the improvement and expansion of the transportation system,
particularly through better and more roads, deserve
top billing..
39. Early in 1959, United States Government officials visited
British Guiana and held further discussions about the
economy of the country. In the summer of 1959 the United Kingdom
Government approved of a five-year plan of
the order of $110 million for 1960-64 on the advice of Mr. Berrill,
a Cambridge economist, who had visited British
Guiana early in 1959. Mr. Berrill=s opinion was that, though the
suggested plan of somewhat modest proportions
could scarcely meet all the needs of the country, a bigger project
necessitating the expenditure of a higher order
would impose too heavy a burden upon the finances of the country
and stultify itself. The United Kingdom
Government also conceded that a more ambitious plan was no doubt
needed, but was not practicable
because:
(a) the Government of the United Kingdom had other commitments,
and
(b) a bigger loan would become too onerous when the time for
repayment came.
Dr. Jagan enquired whether a lower rate of interest to make the
transaction less onerous was permissible, but was
informed, he told us, that an Act of the British Parliament had
fixed the rate at 6 per cent per annum, leaving no
discretion in the matter to the executive authority. We are
assured, however, that in this respect Dr. Jagan must have
been under a misapprehension. The British Government’s view
was in fact that a lower rate of interest was not
practicable because it would simply involve the United Kingdom
Exchequer in a greater burden and would in effect
be the same as increasing the amount of the grant. In any case,
what was done for British Guiana would have to he
done for the other territories for which Her Majesty s Government
was responsible, and this could not be accepted.
In the summer of 1959 there were further talks with the World Bank
in the United States of America and a loan of
about U.S.$6 to U.S.$8 million was mentioned for road construction.
The amount, however, was not advanced. Dr.
Jagan requested the United States Government for the supply of food
commodities such as grain, wheat flour, stock
feeds, etc., on a credit basis. But this, too, was not agreed to
.because., according to Dr. Jagan, .the Government
officials expressed a point of view which was called
>additionality=, that is, that they would only give you grains
or
whatever surpluses of food you required based on any additional
amount which you are importing.. In other words,
any assistance given would have to be over and above the existing
volume of imports. Dr. Jagan next sounded the
Export and Import Bank for aid to equip a flour mill and a feed
mill. The response was not encouraging. The answer
given was that congressional interests and United States flour
millers were likely to be critical of such assistance. He
hoped that some economic assistance might be forthcoming for a
drainage and irrigation project which he had under
contemplation, but in this matter too his hopes were not realised.
In 1959, the Federal Republic of Germany was also
approached and there were also discussions in Italy. No substantial
results followed these discussions, and all that
Dr. Jagan was able to obtain was a loan of $2.25 million which was
approved by the World Bank in 1961. This
amount, however, was restricted to credit in the private sector in
the fields of agricultural, fishery and forestry
development. In 1961, Dr. Jagan and the Minister of Trade and
Industry visited Canada and the United States of
America, while the Minister of National Resources visited Germany,
Italy and France in search of economic aid.
40. The internal resources of the country were extremely small and
wholly inadequate to meet the increasing needs
of the development programmes. Foreign aid, as is obvious from the
distressing narrative given above, was not
forthcoming. The growing suspicion that Dr. Jagan’s failure
to arouse international sympathy was due to his
communist leanings, made the commercial classes of British Guiana
apprehensive of the country’s future and of
their own prospects. They began to look elsewhere for opportunities
to set up and expand their businesses. Thus, a
flight of capital from British Guiana started. At first, this was
gradual, but soon more and more financiers were
transferring their money and assets to other countries. Dr. Jagan,
in the course of his statement before us, could not
give the exact figure of the assets which were removed from the
country. He was himself not in British Guiana at the
time, but he was informed that the flight of capital was
substantial, and his Government was faced with the prospect
of a country depleted of its present resources and unable either to
replenish its losses or to restore its economy by
external aid.
Measures adopted
41. So, in December, 1961, the Government introduced stringent
currency restrictions, prohibiting the export of
liquid assets from the country. British Guiana forms part of the
sterling area and is also a member of the Eastern
Caribbean Currency Board. The currency is therefore a regional one
and up to December, 1961, the holders of
Eastern Caribbean dollars in British Guiana could only change them
into foreign currencies in accordance with the
exchange control regulations then in force in the Colony. The new
regulations suspended their convertibility into
sterling. Financial restrictions have been imposed and do indeed
exist in many other countries, and have come to be
accepted as a necessary feature of the present-day complexity of
international economics. Nevertheless, the action of
Dr. Jagan’s Government in suspending convertibility into
sterling without, it may be added, prior consultation with
the Eastern Caribbean Currency Board, gave rise to considerable
alarm and resentment.
42. In addition to these difficulties, the Finance Minister was
faced with the immediate need for $15 million for
certain extraordinary expenses and to meet increases in the cost of
certain services. The Government had agreed to
increase the salaries for civil servants and for this purpose an
additional sum of $3.5 million was required. The
Government also needed $2.5 million for the repayment of certain
loans, and $1.5 million for extra expenditure on
sea defences, the maintenance of roads and improvements to the
aerodrome which were long overdue.
43. Provision had to made for this money in some manner during the
year 1962. At Dr. Jagan=s invitation, Mr.
Kaldor, a well known economist of considerable experience who had
served on the United Kingdom Tax
Commission and had advised the Governments of India, Ceylon, Mexico
and Ghana, was invited to consider the
problem and suggest ways and means of raising additional revenue.
The budget for 1962 was prepared upon the
basis of his recommendations and on January 31st, 1962, this budget
was presented to the Legislative Assembly by
Dr. Jacob, Minister of Finance, who opened his speech by observing
that the ground was .being laid to strengthen
our economic position and raise living standards by accelerating
the rate of economic growth through our own
efforts.. He pointed out that, though for a poor and underdeveloped
country external aid was an absolute necessity,
self-help was even more important because foreign aid was no
substitute for self-determination. He drew attention to
the fact that the prevailing tax structure was biased in favour of
the richer and propertied classes, therefore .an
impartial system of progressive taxation which distributes the
burden equitably between those who derive income
from property and those who get their incomes from work is an
urgent necessity.. He, accordingly, proposed some
new taxes, the burden of which was to fall on the higher income
groups only. He proposed a capital gains tax, an
annual tax on property and a tax on gifts. In addition to these, he
proposed certain measures for preventing the
evasion and avoidance of taxes. He also proposed a new mode of
assessing the minimum measure of income tax in
respect of commercial transactions. He proposed that the minimum
income of a businessman should be deemed to
be 2 per cent of his annual turnover irrespective of whether his
business had shown a profit or a loss, but wherever
there was a loss it was to be set off against profits in the
subsequent years. It will be seen, at once, that this measure
was aimed at dishonest businessmen who reported a loss year after
year although their business continued to
flourish. Another unusual provision in the Bill was a reduction of
the advertising allowance to one-quarter of one per
cent of the total turnover. This was intended to prevent
unnecessary waste on prestige advertising and the
consequent reduction in the income tax payable. In order to
increase the flow of resources for development
purposes, a scheme of compulsory savings was also to be introduced.
This scheme contemplated a deduction at
source equivalent to a contribution of five per cent of wage and
salary income in excess of $100 a month and 10 per
cent of other income in lieu of Government bonds redeemable after a
period of seven years. These measures were
not calculated to yield the full additional amount of $15 million
required and the balance had still to be raised. The
Minister of Finance therefore proposed an increase in the import
duty on certain goods which he considered were
not necessities of life, e.g., alcoholic drinks, tobacco,
concentrates for non-alcoholic drinks, tea, motor spirit,
perfumes, cosmetics, the more expensive dress fabrics, footwear,
glassware, chinaware, jewellery, radios,
refrigerators and motor cars. He also proposed some increases on
certain types of food for which adequate
substitutes were available in the country, e.g., meat, fish,
butter, cheese, fruit, fruit juices, jams, etc There was also
an increase in the excise duties on rum and other spirits, and on
beer.
44. The Minister for Finance pointed out that these duties and
taxes would not impose any hardship on the people of
the lower income groups and that the increase in the urban consumer
price index would be only one per cent. He
hoped, in this manner, to increase the country’s revenues by
about $8 million. He also scaled down the figure of $15
million which in his original estimate was necessary to meet the
increase in the recurrent expenditure.
Opposition to the Budget Proposals
45. The budget provoked fierce opposition from several quarters and
was made the excuse for sustained and
increasingly hostile demonstrations against Dr. Jagan and his
Government. It will be seen that there was nothing
deeply vicious or destructive of economic security in the budget.
It had been drawn up on the advice of an
experienced economist, who could not be said to have any Communist
prepossessions. The budget won immediate
approval from many persons. The New York Times said in an editorial
that the budget was courageous and
economically sound. The London Times in a leading article, observed
.The immediate problem for the Prime
Minister, Dr. Jagan, is how to win some acceptance for his economic
proposals which are courageous and certainly
not far from what Guiana must have”. Sir Jock Campbell,
Chairman of Booker Bros., said .It clearly was in
intention a serious attempt by the Government to get to grips with
the formidable economic problems of the country
by a hard programme of self-help. It was radical. what have the
people of British Guiana got to be conservative
about. but not confiscatory”. Senator Tasker of Bookers in
British Guiana gave his own opinion about the budget
by saying "We assessed it as a realistic attempt to grapple with
the economic problems of British Guiana”. But there
was a section of the press in British Guiana itself, which was
strongly, almost viciously, critical of the budget. The
Daily Chronicle, which is under the effective control of Mr.
d=Aguiar, leader of the U.F., and Argosy, which is also
hostile to Dr. Jagan, opened their assault on the day following the
introduction of the budget. The Chronicle said that
the Government was going to squeeze dollars from the workers, and a
few days later it carried a headline .Tax
Avalanche will Crush Working Classes.. Another headline stated
.Slave Whip Budget. and went on to say
.Budget is >Marxist= . A vindictive and malicious spirit prowls
through the Budget.. A week after the introduction
of the budget, The Chronicle printed a letter on the .Iniquitous
Budget. which contained the exhortation "Stir
yourselves, down with this shameful budget, down with the
Government.. Two days later there was another letter
proclaiming .Budget will bring misery to country. and ending .This
is a trodden democracy. Let=s unite and fight
for our rights..
46. It is unnecessary to multiply quotations, and it will be
sufficient to say that in the course of the days which
followed the introduction of the budget in the Assembly, the volume
of opposition in a section of the press
continued to increase. What was the reason and basis of this
opposition? If Dr. Jagan’s budget was a realistic attempt
to grapple with the economic problems of his country and if it was
not confiscatory, there was really no reason for
such strong hostility on the part of the press and the two
political parties which were arrayed against Dr. Jagan. In
our view, the reason is be sought in political rivalries and a
feeling that Dr. Jagan had strong communist tendencies
and that if he were left in power his Government would proceed to
enact measures injurious to the proprietary rights
of the upper classes and businessmen. Dr. Jagan had, with
increasing vigour, dominated the political stage of British
Guiana since his entry upon it in 1947. There was a certain glamour
about him, emanating from his youthful
exuberance and a zeal which is characteristic of dedicated men. He
seemed to possess a sense of purpose and a
determination to work for his countrymen’s freedom and their
material progress. The people voted for him and
every time he stood for election, he and his party secured the
largest number of seats in the Legislative Assembly.
But with all his energy and his honesty of purpose he lacked the
experience of a practical politician. He failed to
understand that some at any rate of his supporters were not content
to remain as mere adjuncts to him, they wanted
the recognition of their own individual merits and longed for the
fruition of political rewards. This, they must have
felt, was well-nigh impossible so long as they remained Dr.
Jagan’s satellites. In 1953 the constitution was
suspended and all political parties were obliged to take a
compulsory holiday. The Interim Government, however,
could not continue for ever, and sooner or later a time would come
when political parties would once more be called
upon to play their respective parts. It was, therefore, important
to make adequate provision for that eventuality. Dr.
Jagan’s politics and his line of conduct had brought the
country’s progress to an ignominious halt and yet the
P.P.P.
had undoubtedly a hold upon the people. The Robertson Commission
had commented upon this aspect of British
Guianese politics and said .the implications of communist influence
in the present leadership of the party are not
yet fully understood by the ordinary people in British Guiana, and
although some of the more discerning may have
withdrawn their support, it is the general belief that
the P.P.P. could retain all the characteristics which make it
incapable of intelligent government and yet still rely on
securing a majority if elections were held in the near future on a
similar franchise..
47. Some people undoubtedly thought that a less ruthless type of
freedom and equality might be more desirable, or
at any rate, more practicable.
48. Mr. Burnham left Dr. Jagan in 1955, as the result, he told us,
of a crude interpretation of ideological differences
.between him and Dr. Jagan and, as far as his party is concerned,
since his separation from Dr. Jagan, signs of
racial awareness have been observable, though happily so far this
awareness has not developed into conscious or
active hostility between the East Indians and the Africans. At the
general election of 1957, the phrase Appan Jhaat
meaning .support your own people was heard for the first time, and
in November, 1960, a new party, the United
Force, or U.F. as it is usually referred to, was inaugurated and
Mr. d=Aguiar was chosen as its leader. The political
differences between the U.F. and the P.P.P. have been stated by Mr.
d=Aguiar and Senator Ann Jardim. The list of
their grievances against the P.P.P. is little more than a narrative
of personal frustration. The U.F. was not opposed to
independence, although when the proposal for appointing a
Constitution Committee was mooted in the Legislative
Assembly, Mr. d=Aguiar and his party staged a dramatic walk out.
The U.F. wanted a referendum to he held on the
question of independence. They objected to the words .Freedom Year.
being stamped on all letters sent through
the Post Office and to 1962 being described as Freedom Year in many
letters and documents issued from
government offices. They also objected to the
Attorney-General’s seemingly arrogant attitude in reference
to the
draft Constitution which he had been asked to draw up. He had, on
one occasion, been credited with the statement
that if people did not like his Constitution they could leave the
country. What he had said, in fact, was somewhat
different, and much less provocative. Then again Mr. Jack Kelshall,
a resident of Trinidad, who had been engaged
by Dr. Jagan as his private secretary, was a source of considerable
irritation because he was an outsider and also
because he appears to have behaved in a somewhat arrogant manner.
Another basis of the opposition to Dr. Jagan s
party was a fear, indeed a conviction, that Dr. Jagan was a
Communist and that the entire ideology of his party was
Communist. Dr. Jagan himself had not confessed to his political
beliefs in unequivocal terms but Dr. Jacob, the
Minister for Finance, had in the course of his speech in the
Legislative Assembly on 9th October, 1961, expressed
his own beliefs in a manner which clearly indicated that he not
only believed in the Communist creed but had the
same aims as the Communist Party. In the course of his speech he
had said .My honourable friend, who is a
member for Georgetown Central (Mr. d=Aguiar) has attempted on the
floor of this House to refute Marxism. This is
a futile attempt. Learned university professors, of course of the
bourgeois tradition, professional mercenaries,
politicians, common vilifiers, have all tried to refute the
unassailable logic of Marxism. They have all failed.. He
ended his speech on what he must have considered a high and
piercing note of rhetoric: .We will attempt to build a
new society . a society which exists in more than one third of the
world today; a society in which there will be
freedom and plenty for everybody. That is a genuine socialist
society..
49. Thus, in the beginning of February, the P.N.C. and the U.F.
were ready to launch a determined opposition to Dr.
Jagan.
50. The political professions of the P.N.C. were somewhat vague and
amorphous. There was a tendency to give a
racial tinge to its policy. Mr. Burnham expressed the opinion that
it was Dr. Jagan who was responsible for this
unfortunate development. He referred to the murder of an African
supporter of the P.N.C. at Port Mourant, which is
the birth-place of Dr. Jagan. He said that the report of this event
was suppressed by the senior information officer at
the request of the government. He also referred to other acts of
violence against the supporters of the P.N.C.,
especially in the rural areas where, as we have already observed,
the East Indian population was predominant. We
do not, however, think that there is much substance in the
contention of Mr. Burnham and it seems to that whatever
racial differences existed were brought about by political
propaganda. These differences do not go very deep and it
is to be remarked that there are two** African Ministers in Dr.
Jagan’s Cabinet. The counsel of the P.P.P. at the
inquiry was an African barrister and some of Dr. Jagan’s
strongest opposition in the proceedings before us came
from East Indians. Mr. Luckhoo, the counsel for the Chamber of
Commerce, Mr. Ramphal, the counsel for the Trade
Unions and Mr. Jai Narine Singh, the counsel for the National
Democratic Party, are all East Indians. One of the
most vigorous opponents of Dr. Jagan is another East Indian, Mr.
Sankar; the Trade Union leader. It may be argued
tint politics do not enter into professional considerations when
counsel undertake to appear for any party. We do not
wish to imply that racial loyalties would prevent an East Indian
from appearing for an African, or an African from
taking up the case of an East Indian, but we are merely drawing
attention to the circumstances mentioned above in
order to show that there is no clear-cut division between the races
and that although, broadly speaking. Dr. Jagan’s
supporters are for the most part East Indians and the supporters of
P.N.C. are drawn mostly from the African races,
the difference is not really racial, but economic and vocational.
As already pointed out, East Indians are for the most
part agriculturalists and they are the supporters of Dr. Jagan. In
the towns the percentage of African residents is
greater than the percentage of East Indians. The town dwellers
support the P.N.C. not because their leader is an
African, but because they do not approve of some of the socialistic
policies of Dr. Jagan which are less favourable to
town dwellers than to the rural population. These policies, in
their turn, are dictated, not by the fact of racialism, but
because in British Guiana agriculture is of primary importance and
development plans tend to promote agriculture in
a larger measure than industrial schemes. [** Editor’s Note:
This is incorrect. There were three African Ministers.]
51. The real motive force behind Mr. Burnham=s assault was a desire
to assert himself in public life and establish a
more important and more rewarding position for himself by bringing
about Dr. Jagan’s downfall. The weapon be
employed was the argument that the budget contained measures
calculated to inflict hardship upon the working
classes by increasing the cost of living. So, the argument
continued, if Dr. Jagan’s Government was allowed to
continue in office, further and still more oppressive measures
would certainly be enacted. The attitude of the U.F.
was a little more honest and certainly more consistent. This party
represented the businessmen and the middle
classes, and these were, no doubt, adversely affected by the new
taxes on capital gains, gifts and property holdings.
The U.F. genuinely feared a further decline in their vested
interests if Dr. Jagan’s Government continued to remain
in charge of the country’s affairs. They naturally resented
the socialistic, if not communistic, leanings of Dr. Jagan.
The Daily Chronicle supported this campaign of criticising the
budget and discrediting Dr. Jagan, and developed an
increasingly hostile attack upon the Government. Mr. d=Aguiar, in
the course of his statement before us, protested
that he never interfered with the editorial policy of the
newspaper; but the fact remains that his share holding
enabled him to exercise effective control over the paper and the
editor’s transparent loyalty to his employer and
principal compelled the latter to criticise the editor far not
criticising him (Mr. d=Aguiar) enough. This reprimand
was, no doubt, administered in order to remind his employee that he
must at least give a semblance of being
independent and not carry his argument so far into the realms of
absurdity as to invite the imputation of being a mere
supine hireling. Mr. d=Aguiar based his attack on arguments similar
to those advanced by the P.N.C. and
proclaimed that the budget was an oppressive measure and the
clearest proof of Dr. Jagan’s Marxist ideology and his
dictatorial methods. The contradiction implicit in a measure being
both Communist in substance and oppressive of
the workers was not a matter which troubled Dr. Jagan’s
opponent, for political slogans are not infrequently lacking
in logic and the multitude to whom they are addressed does not
possess the faculty of discerning an incongruity or
fallacy in what their leaders expound before them.
52. A passing reference may here be made to a matter which is dealt
with more fully in a subsequent part of this
report. The P.N.C. challenged the election of several P.P.P.
candidates on grounds which are available under The
Legislature (Appointment, Election and Membership Controversies)
Ordinance, 1961. One of these petitions
succeeded and the P.P.P. member for Houston was unseated. A
by-election to fill the resulting vacancy has,
however, not been held and the Premier has been exploring ways and
means of validating the election of the P.P.P.
candidate and thus circumventing the order of the court whereby he
was unseated. This infelicitous handling of a
delicate situation was an open invitation to criticism of a
vituperative type.
CHAPTER III
ECONOMIC DISCONTENT
53. A brief reference has already been made to the rising cost of
living and the inadequacy of the
country’s resources to finance development plans aimed at
increasing the material wealth of the
people and providing better amenities for them. A more detailed
examination of this matter is
now necessary as economic discontent played an important part in
fermenting the agitation
which led to the disturbances of February 16th, in Georgetown.
Civil Servants
54. Let us first take the case of the Civil Servants, who in
British Guiana are members of a
well-organised body called the British Guiana Civil Service
Association, affiliated to the Trades
Union Council. The last revision of their salaries took place in
1954 on the recommendation of
the Hands-Jakeway Commission. In the course of the next three years
the cost of living index
rose from 277 to 300 and the British Guiana Civil Service
Association (B.G.C.S.A.) asked for an
increase in salaries. The Government appointed a Commission
presided over by Mr. Gorsuch to
enquire into the matter, but owing to a difference of opinion
between the B.G.C.S.A. and the
Government, the B.G.C.S.A. declined to take part in the proceedings
of the Commission and
rejected its recommendations. The Government, for their part, did
not think it fit to implement
the report and matters remained as they were for another four
years. In 1961 another body,
known as the Guillebaud Commission, was appointed to review .wages,
salaries and conditions
of service in the Public Service of British Guiana.” This
Commission found that there was
considerable substance in the grievances of the Civil Servants and
observed:
“The cost of living has increased since 1954 by something of
the order of 10 per cent; there
have been increases in wages and salaries in commercial and other
forms of employment in
the country; and the remuneration of those in the Public Service in
other parts of the
Caribbean has risen in many cases. . . .
“There can be no question as to the strength of the feeling
of dissatisfaction which prevails
throughout the Public Service in this country. We have heard much
evidence on these matters
not only from Staff Associations, but also from the Heads of
Departments, whom we have
personally and separately interviewed. As a result of this we have
reached the conclusion that
during the last two years there has been a widespread decline in
the morale of the Service,
particularly in its lower and middle sections. Much time is being
wasted in the discussion and
ventilation of grievances, and the efficiency of the Service as a
whole is becoming impaired.”
55. The Commission made a number of recommendations involving a
total increase of $2.5
million in the expenditure upon salaries and wages of Civil
Servants. The report was submitted
to the Government on July 29th, 1961, and was published in
September the same year. The
B.G.C.S.A generally accepted the recommendations. There was,
however, considerable delay in
implementing the suggestions regarding the increases of salaries
and the final decision of the
Government was postponed more than once. In the meantime the Civil
Service continued to
agitate for the suggested increases. In November, representatives
of the B.G.C.S.A. met the
Minister for Finance. A few days later a report appeared in the
newspapers that according to a
spokesman of the Government the Treasury was empty, and this
naturally caused consternation
among the Civil Servants. The Association decided to hold what it
called “whistle stop
meetings” at various places. Prolonged negotiations and a
period of attrition followed, but the
Civil Servants were unable to obtain anything beyond promises from
the Government. In
December, Mr. Benn, who was acting as Premier during Dr.
Jagan’s temporary absence,
promised earnest consideration of the Civil Servants’
demands, but said that lack of funds was a
handicap. On December 12th, the Association held a meeting which
was attended by a large
number of its members, and on the following day the Government
announced increases in
salaries with effect from 1st January, 1961. There was. however, no
indication of when payment
would be made and a request for interim payment was not accepted.
On December 18th a general
meeting was held in the Town Hall of Georgetown and those present
insisted on interim
payment; they even criticised Mr. Stoll, the President of the
Association, for being ineffective.
Mr. Stoll promptly tendered his resignation. This, however, was not
accepted and he was
requested to carry on negotiations on behalf of the Association. On
December 21st, another
deputation met the Minister of Finance. The Minister said that no
interim payment was possible.
Another meeting of the Association took place immediately
afterwards at which it was
abundantly clear that tempers were getting more and more frayed. On
one occasion Mr. Stoll told
Mr. Benn, the acting Premier, that the situation was very tense. He
referred to the possibility of a
strike and admitted that the Government was no doubt in a position
to defeat the Association, but
in any event a great deal of damage to both parties would result
from a clash of this nature.
56. On January 2nd, 1962. there was another meeting between the
Finance Minister and the representatives of the
Staff Associations at which the Government conceded the salary
increases recommended by the Guillebaud
Commission. but at the same time made a great number of changes in
its detailed recommendations which largely
neutralised the good effect of its tardy decision. Even on this
occasion the question of salaries was not finally
disposed of. Further meetings followed but the Association failed
to obtain satisfaction in respect of any of its major
demands. So, at the beginning of February, the Civil Servants were
in a very sullen mood. They had often thought of
holding public demonstrations and even of going on strike. The
Government was probably doing the best in the
circumstances, but handicapped as it was by lack of funds and its
incapacity to make quick and far-reaching
decisions, it was unable to give adequate satisfaction to its Civil
Service. It is important to note that there was a very
considerable measure of deep discontent, amounting almost to a
sense of resentment among the Civil Servants, and
in the beginning of February they were ready to take drastic steps
in order to ventilate their grievances and have
them redressed.
Other Government Servants
57. The lower paid Government servants had unions of their own.
There were in all five separate
bodies .
(i) the Post Office Workers’ Union (P.O.W.U.)
(ii) Medical Employees’ Union (M.E.U.)
(iii) the Transport Workers’ Union (T.W.U.)
(iv) the Public Works, Pure Water Supply and Sea Defence
Workers’ Union
(P.W.S.S.D.W.U.)
(v) the Government Employees’ Union (G.E.U.)
These five unions comprised a Federation of the Unions of
Government Employees
(F.U.G.E.). Mr. Jackson was the President of this Federation and
also of the P.O.W.U. The case
of these employees was almost exactly similar to the case of the
Civil Servants considered above.
Their fortunes had passed through the same vicissitudes as the
fortunes of the better paid Civil
Servants. The findings of the Hands-Jakeway Commission had been
applicable to them; they,
too, had declined to co-operate with the Gorsuch Commission; a
strike by them in 1959 had
persuaded the Government to offer a slight increase in their
salaries, but this was not considered
adequate. Ever since 1954 the minimum day wage of a Government
employee had remained
stationary at the figure of $2.52, though the cost of living had
increased by about 10 per cent. In
1959, the Government proposed a revised figure of $2.75 which would
have fully counterbalanced
the rise in prices, but the workers wanted to improve their
standard of living and
insisted on a minimum wage of $4.50, to which the Government was
not agreeable. The
F.U.G.E., however, accepted the Government’s offer for the
time being and signed an
Agreement in December, 1959. In this Agreement it was provided that
the dispute regarding
wages would be referred to the Whitley Council, a body which
resolved trade disputes and
differences between the Government and its employees. The Whitley
Council gave its award in
November, 1960, recommending a minimum wage of $3.04.
58. The Government accepted the recommendation and agreed to pay
$3.04 with effect from
November 29th, 1960, the date of the Whitley award. But the
Federation was not satisfied with
this and, taking their stand on the argument that their claim had
arisen on the date mentioned in
the Agreement signed in December, 1959, wanted the higher wage to
become effective from
April 1st, 1959. This dispute relating to the award of the Whitley
Council taking effect
retrospectively could not be resolved, and it remained a source of
discontent and resentment. In
September, 1961, came the report of the Guillebaud Commission and
the Federation wanted the
points of difference between the Government and its employees
arising out of this report also to
be referred to the Whitley Council. Negotiations continued till the
end of January, 1962, without
bearing any fruit, and on 31st January F.U.G.E. repeated its
demands in a letter addressed to the
Secretary to the Treasury. After some correspondence, the Minister
for Finance agreed to meet
the representatives of the Federation on 12th February, on which
date he was also meeting the
representatives of the Civil Service Association.
59. Therefore, at the beginning of February almost the entire body
of Government employees,
including the lower as well as the higher paid officials, were in a
state of extreme discontent
amounting almost to bitter resentment against the Government.
Trade Employees and Factory
Workers
60. In addition to the Government servants there was a vast body of
trade employees and factory
workers whose feelings and activities greatly contributed to the
disturbances of 16th February. In
their case there appears to have been no old standing, definite and
clearcut grievance against Dr.
Jagan’s Government and their hostility began with, and was
founded upon, certain provisions of
the budget which directly affected the working classes. In the
beginning their criticism was
confined to the scheme for compulsory savings and the additional
taxes on consumer goods,
though, later, income tax allowances and the reduction of
advertising expenses were also taken
up as objectionable items in the budget.
61. A word may now be said about the nature and implications of the
savings scheme. The idea
was not altogether novel and had already beet exploited in certain
Latin-American countries.
e.g., Brazil and also in Ghana. The proposal was to the effect that
every wage earner whose
salary exceeded $100 per month would be required to make a
contribution of 5 per cent of his
income and this amount would be credited to his account and he
would be given bonds of an
equal value. The bonds would carry tax-free interest at the rate of
3¾ per cent per annum and
would be encashable at the end of seven years, except in certain
special eases such as the death
of the contributor, when the bonds could be cashed earlier. This
scheme was interpreted as a
wholly unjustified incursion into personal property and individual
liberty. The fact that, except in
rare cases, the bonds could not be cashed till the expiry of seven
years, savoured of an
expropriatory measure and it was said that only slaves could be
compelled to save their earnings
in this manner. There were not wanting malicious critics of the
Government who suggested that
the bonds would ultimately be confiscated.
62. With regard to the taxes on consumer goods, no one paused to
think that they entailed an
increase of only 1 per cent in the cost of living, because in
actual fact the situation was
aggravated when most shopkeepers promptly raised the prices not
only of those goods upon
which the import duty had been increased, but also of other goods
which had not come within the
purview of the budget. Moreover, the increases were in almost every
instance more than the
actual increase in the import duty. The all-round higher prices
were naturally ascribed to the
radical provisions of the budget.
63. Increased taxes at all times and in all places bring about a
stiffening of attitudes towards the
Government, and Dr. Jagan and his Council of Ministers must have
expected some adverse
comment and even a certain measure of opposition. But the active
hostility and the virulent
propaganda which the budget provoked cannot be attributed entirely
to an objective
consideration of the new tax proposals or to their effect upon the
economic life of the working
classes. There is very little doubt that, despite the loud
protestations of the trade union leaders to
the contrary, political affinities and aspirations played a large
part in shaping their policy and
formulating their programme of offering resistance to the budget
and making a determined effort
to change the government in office.
64. It has been proved beyond all doubt that the three most
important trade unionists, Mr.
Ishmael, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sankar, were deeply involved in
politics. Indeed, when Mr.
Sankar, Assistant General Secretary of the Man Power Citizens
Association (M.P.C.A.) was
questioned upon the point, he could not deny the close connection
between politics and the trade
union movement. He was asked if there was good relationship between
the M.P.C.A. and the
P.P.P. His reply was “The M.P.C.A. tried to be realistic in
its approach to the government of the
day. The P.P.P. has gone out of its way to be critical and destroy
the union”. A little later when
he was asked if there was any introduction of politics in a meeting
of the T.U.C., the witness
admitted “Well, it is unavoidable, because on the General
Council we have all three of the main
political parties represented. We have Mr. Burnham from the P.N.C.;
we have from the P.P.P.
Mr. Chase, President of the Senate, and Mr. George Henry; and from
the U.F. the two defeated
candidates, Mr. Bolton and Mr. Critchlow”. Mr. Sankar, in the
course of his examination,
expressed his strong sense of resentment at what he said was an
attempt of the P.P.P. to influence
the trade unions. It is significant that the Saw-mill and Forest
Workers Union did not join the
strike. The fact that the President of this Union is Mr. Henry, who
stood as a P.P.P. candidate at
the last election, can scarcely be a mere coincidence. The question
of Mr. Henry s election will
be dealt with more fully in a later part of this report, and here
it is sufficient to recall that Mr.
Henry was declared successful, but his election was set aside by an
order of a Judge of the High
Court who found upon an election petition that the election was
attended with certain
irregularities.
65. Mr. Jackson, the President of the F.U.G.E., used to be, as he
admitted, “close to the P.P.P. He
later joined the P.N.C. and became its Secretary. He resigned the
Secretaryship, but his political
loyalty no doubt continues, because throughout his evidence a
strong anti-P.P.P. slant was
noticeable. Mr. Ishmael, the President of the B.G.T.U.C. and
General President of the M.P.C.A.,
vehemently denied any association with politics. There is, however,
no doubt at all that his
conduct during the period of the disturbances was actuated by a
strong feeling of animosity
towards the Premier and Mr. Hubbard, a Minister of Dr. Jagan s
Cabinet. His dislike of Mr.
Hubbard was manifested by an incident relating to the strike of the
Electric Power House
workers. Mr. Hubbard, who was the Minister in charge, had issued a
circular to the workers
telling them that they were members of an essential service and
therefore it was illegal for them
to strike, He made an oblique reference to Mr. Ishmael, who,
however, was not named in the
circular. But Mr. Ishmael was greatly piqued at the somewhat
derogatory suggestion that no
election of a certain trade union had been held because the
President would not have been able to
get a majority of votes. The words used were: “Further the
M.P.C.A is unable to secure a strike
of sugar workers, which constitute the bulk of its membership, and
indeed its President is not
able to face an election in his union”. Mr. Ishmael explained
that the President referred to was
himself. At the Electric Power House, Mr. Hubbard tried to get the
workmen to continue their
work. This was a perfectly legitimate thing to do, but it seemed to
have incensed Mr. Ishmael,
who spoke of it in the following terms in the course of his
examination:
“Mr. Hubbard was called or was informed and came up and
sneaked
behind me and attempted to get the workers to change their minds
about
not working and not going on strike. And he didn’t only do
that; I was
very shocked when I came outside with the last one behind me to
find that
he had taken some of the men standing outside into the plant. Not
only
was he trying to tell them to work but he was saying all kinds of
things.
He called me a capitalist stooge. He said I was bought over by
d’Aguiar
and bought over by the big businesses and he told the workers to
get me
off the premises.”
This statement shows the extent of acrimonious hostility which
entered Mr. Ishmael’s
thoughts and actions in his dealings with the members of the
Government. He could not deny
that there were several prominent union leaders who are
politicians. He mentioned the names of
Chase, Agard, Burnham, Bolton, Henry and Kirton. Nothing
illustrates more clearly the close
collaboration between the trade unions and the political leaders
during the disturbances than the
agreement about a meeting which took place on the Parade Ground on
the evening of February
14th. The trade unions had obtained a police permit to hold a
meeting between the hours of 6 and
10 p.m. The P.N.C. applied for a similar permit, but were informed
that a permit had already
been issued to the T.U.C. Thereafter, the two bodies agreed to
divide the time so that the meeting
of the trade unions was from 6 to 8 p.m., and of the P.N.C. from 8
to 10 p.m. Both these
meetings were aimed at securing the support of the masses for the
anti-Jagan agitation. Mr.
Ishmael himself made the announcement at the T.U.C. meeting that a
P.N.C. meeting would
follow. When questioned about this point, he said “Yes, I did
[say] at the very commencement
that our meeting was going to be short and the P.N.C. would be
taking over the meeting. They
were not to take it to mean that there was any affiliation or
collaboration between the P.N.C. and
the T.U.C. I mentioned that it was just a question that they had
applied for permission and had
been refused, that we had had permission for a long period of time
and we did not need all the
time, so we intended to give it to them”.
66. It is needless to comment on the strain upon one’s
credulity exercised by Mr. Ishmael’s
statements. Mr. Ishmael used to be a member of the P.P.P. until
1950 and stood for the
Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate in 1953. In 961 he
again offered himself as an
independent candidate but withdrew before the election was held. He
took part in two
discussions at the headquarters of the U.F. in order to consolidate
the elements opposing the
Government and bring about a single Opposition Party in the
country. On the morning of Black
Friday (February 16th) he held discussions with Messrs. Chase,
Vernon, Henry, etc., who are
prominent politicians. Mr. Burnham himself is not free from a sense
of loyalty to the T.U.C.
Indeed, he was one of the delegates at the T.U.C. meeting. These
facts make nonsense of the
reiterated protests of the trade union leaders that they were at
all times anxious to keep their
organisation completely free from all political influences. We have
drawn attention to these
circumstances in order to point out the extent to which the
economic discontent of the country
was influenced and helped by personal and private grievances. This
phenomenon. we may at
once concede, is not a peculiarity of British Guianese public life
and is to be observed in all parts
of the world and among all peoples.
67. We therefore see that in the beginning of February there were
arrayed against the
Government
the political parties in opposition and also a very large body of
the workers and civil servants, all
carrying their respective grievances against the Government. It was
not long before these forces
combined to form a veritable torrent of abuse, recrimination and
vicious hostility directed against
Dr. Jagan and his Government, and each day gave fresh vigour to the
agitation.
CHAPTER IV
THE DISTURBANCES
68. At the beginning of the second week of February, there were
signs of a gathering storm. There
arose in certain quarters an apprehension that something untoward
might follow, if not directly result, from the
mounting agitation engineered by the political leaders of the
opposition parties. From February 9, onward, the
intensity and the frequency of anti-Government demonstrations
increased and it becomes necessary from this stage
to give a more detailed narrative of the events which culminated in
the fierce outburst of February 16, a day which
came popularly to be known as Black Friday.
69. On February 9, the Government was expected to make a statement
relating to the appointment of a Committee to
consider the draft Constitution for British Guiana. Long before the
Assembly Session was due to begin a crowd had
begun to gather in front of the Public Buildings as the Assembly
Chamber is called. Assistant Commissioner of
Police De Abreu saw a crowd of about 400 seeking admission to the
chamber. The public gallery could
accommodate no more than 118 and De Abreu had to close the door
against the rest who remained standing outside,
disappointed and obviously discontented. Inside the chamber the
proceedings commenced with the Minister of
Finance making a statement that “in order that the Government
may give careful consideration to all of the
representations received, it is proposed to deter consideration of
the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill to a
date to be announced. Discussions will be held immediately with all
persons and organisations so that the Budget
may be debated in the House without undue delay”. So the
debate scheduled to take place on February 12 was
postponed to an unspecified date. The government hoped that this
act of procrastination would, in some measure at
least, allay the fears of the Opposition and placate the
agitators.
70. The Premier then proceeded to move a resolution having
reference to the forthcoming Constitutional
Conference, due then to be held in London in May, for the purpose
of fixing a date for the inauguration of
independence in British Guiana. He pointed out that as suggested in
a despatch by the Secretary of State for the
Colonies “the Conference should be an all party
Conference”, so he (the Premier) proposed a Committee of
16
members of whom eight would be drawn from the P.P.P., six from the
P.N.C. and two from the U.F. In addition to
these 16, the Speaker of the House would act as chairman of the
Committee and this Committee would consider and
report on a draft Constitution for the country, which was to be
prepared in the first instance by the Attorney-General,
after taking into consideration representations and suggestions
made by the proposed Committee and by members of
the public. The Premier’s proposal provoked a resolute indeed
a defiant opposition from Mr. Burnham, leader of the
P.N.C., and after delivering a long speech in the course of which
he attacked the Premier and challenged his claim to
speak for the people of British Guiana, Mr. Burnham walked out of
the chamber, taking with him the remaining nine
members of his party. At the same time almost all occupants in the
public gallery also left the chamber. The
simultaneous emptying of the seats occupied by a major section of
the opposition and the public must have given the
appearance of a pro-planned and somewhat histrionic demonstration
designed to shock and humiliate the
government. This impression was further strengthened when Mr.
D’Aguiar, the leader of the U.F., went through an
exactly similar performance by giving a speech opposing the
Premier’s resolution and walking out with his
followers. This reduced the proceedings in the Chamber to the farce
of a unilateral debate solely conducted by the
party in power. But to preserve an air of dignity and overcome the
sense of mortification induced by the dramatic
walk out, the Attorney-General who was to speak next rose to his
feet and delivered a speech supporting the motion.
71. The Premier then stood up to reply to the debate but before
dealing with the motion he read out
a statement couched in solemn terms. The statement was a brief one
and, as it adumbrated to some extent the
unfortunate events which were enacted in the course of the week, it
is set out below in full:
“It has come to the knowledge of the Government that violence
is actually
being planned on a general scale by certain elements acting for a
minority
group. In addition, it is understood that attempts against the
Premier’s life
and the lives of certain of his Ministers and supporters are
contemplated.
These acts of violence are intended to secure the overthrow of the
legally
elected Government by force and the tax proposals in the budget are
being
used as a screen for the general plan.
These plotters intend to call a general strike for Monday, February
12.
Since there is no likelihood of this strike call being widely
supported by
the workers, certain elements of the business community plan to
shut
down their business houses. The intention is in effect to stage a
general
lock-out on the excuse that the strike has created conditions which
prevent
continued business operations.
Every step possible is being taken to bring the Civil Service in on
this
strike and if these designs are successful, the total result will
be to cause
widespread dislocation of the Colony’s economy.
Such a course of action will be very likely to end in riot and
violence. The
people who plan this operation must be aware of this. It seems that
they
are seeking to cause turmoil and unrest in order to halt our march
to
Independence and economic well-being for all.
This small clique is determined to preserve their positions of
privilege.
They want to create another Congo here. They talk-about freedom
and
democracy, but are determined to use unconstitutional means to
achieve
these ends. They feel that they can depend on foreign support.
In the circumstances the Government intends to take energetic steps
to
forestall this plan and I am now appealing to all reasonable
public-minded
citizens not to allow themselves to be persuaded or fooled into
taking part
in what can only be a disastrous and futile effort on the part of a
small
misguided and selfish element in the community to turn back the
clock of
history.”
72. The Premier then reverted to the motion before the House and
declared that in view of the nonco-
operative attitude displayed by the opposition, he craved leave of
the House to withdraw the motion. This was
agreed to, and the House adjourned to an unspecified date to he
determined later.
73. Outside the Chamber a large crowd had collected and was waiting
for the moment when the Ministers would
leave for home. The demonstrators were carrying banners and slogans
and as the Ministers came out they were
jeered. When the Premier emerged from the Chamber the crowd became
even more vociferous and impeded his
departure. The Police came to his assistance by forcing a way
through the crowd and bringing up an emergency
vehicle to act as a shield against the onslaught of the hostile
demonstrators. One of them . a Dr. Reid . pushed a
banner in front of the windscreen of the Premier’s motor car,
obscuring the driver’s view. It was after an
uncomfortable moment or two that the Premier was finally able to
leave. Assistant Commissioner of Police De
Abreu estimated the size of the crowd at 5,000. Mr. D’Aguiar
was with the crowd.
Opposition Manoeuvres .
People’s National Congress
74. At This stage it is convenient to discuss the policies and
immediate objectives of the two major political parties
in Opposition, viz., the People’s National Congress and the
United Force. The energies of these parties were aimed
at forcing Dr. Jagan into a position which would be wholly
untenable and from which he would be compelled to
resign. Mr. Burnham, while giving evidence before us, said
“our tactics were to remain silent, make no public
reference until the second reading on the 12th February, then we
would make known our standing. It would then be
a matter of prestige. They would be unable to withdraw the budget.
Then Dr. Jagan would be embarrassed, his
unpopularity would increase”, and he would have no choice but
to resign.
75. When on February 9, the Finance Minister announced the
postponement of the budget date, these plans had to be
revised and a public meeting for the 12th was fixed. Mr. Burnham
spoke at this meeting. He began on a note of
self-pity by making an appeal for money on behalf of his party,
which he said was the poor man’s party with no
fairy godmother or rich uncles. He went on to explain the
party’s stand on the question of independence and
declared that the P.N.C. wanted independence immediately, and there
was no question of a referendum, for it was
superfluous to ask the people if they wanted to be free. He then
turned his attention to Dr. Jagan and the latter’s
reported intention to bring his farmer supporters to Georgetown in
order to provoke an outbreak of violence, so that
he could justifiably call in British troops to help him. Mr.
Burnham next dealt with the harsh tax measures
introduced by the budget and ended his speech by working on the
emotions of his audience in the manner of Mark
Antony. “Comrades,” he exclaimed, “the fight
starts now. Tomorrow at 2 o’clock in the afternoon there is
a
demonstration organised by the Trade Union Congress, a
demonstration against the harsh proposals of the budget,
which make life unbearable. No doubt the Riot Squad will be there.
Do you still want to go? . . . Comrades,
remember that tomorrow Jagan’s army is coming down from Cane
Grove and Windsor Forest. Do you still want to
go? . . . Comrades, I will be seeing you tomorrow at 2 p.m., when
we will all join the demonstration. Thank you and
goodnight.” The next day there was a mass demonstration
organised by the workers and trade unions. A procession
was taken through the streets of Georgetown ending at the old
parade ground where a meeting was held. Mr.
Burnham arrived somewhat late at this meeting because he had been
detained by professional work. On the morning
of the 14th the Government issued a proclamation declaring the
Public Buildings and the area around it a proclaimed
area, in which public processions and meetings were forbidden. The
political opponents of Dr. Jagan decided to
contravene the proclamation and on the morning of the 15th a large
procession was taken through the proclaimed
area. This was considered a great triumph and on the evening of the
15th another meeting was held. This meeting, as
already observed, was the result of collaboration between the
political parties and the Trades Union Council. The
Trades Union Council had agreed to give some of their own time to
the political parties and in lieu of this
concession, the political parties had made available to the Trades
Union Council their public address system because
their apparatus was somewhat defective. At this meeting Mr. Burnham
spoke. He began by congratulating his
listeners on the splendid performance of the morning when there had
been a wholesale breach of the proclamation.
Exhilarated and carried forward by the flow of his rhetoric, be
criticised the unsympathetic attitude of the Volunteer
Force and of the police. In his peroration he declared that a
government could not be got rid of by merely saying
“Resign” or “Down with Jagan”. “Those
are useful and helpful slogans, but much more than slogans are
required in
the present circumstances. Comrades, first of all, let me say this,
that the People’s National Congress sees the way
clearly, step by step and phase by phase. All I can tell you is
this, that it is no sense taking part in this explosion
which has happened at this moment if you are going to peter out or
turn back half-way. You have to see it through . .
. . I believe that the P.N.C. knows what we all want and knows how
we will seek to achieve what we all want; but
one thing I know you do not want, one thing I know the P.N.C. will
not countenance, and that is violence.
Comrades, violence we shall never start because we are a peaceful
people. If there is to be violence, let others start
it, not the People’s National Congress; but comrades, they
shall not pass.” After this, Mr. Burnham advised his
audience to take a rest on the following day, but be had by now
worked them up into such a state of frenzy that they
declared their firm determination to continue the agitation in the
morning. There was an ominous foreboding in the
promise which Mr. Burnham made in reply to the reaction of the
audience to his exhortation for rest.
“I have heard what you have had to say, and I have noted very
carefully what you prefer and want, and
therefore, Comrades, you will be informed what exercises may be
necessary tomorrow. Comrades, you will
be informed. I do not want to make any suggestions here tonight
what that exercise should be. You will be
informed through the usual channel which has proved effective in
spite of the fact that our comrades, the
Post Office workers, are on strike, and tomorrow we shall meet
again some place, somewhere, somehow.”
Opposition Manoeuvres .
United Force
76. The policy of the U.F. was clear and categoric. Mr.
d’Aguiar was espousing the cause of businessmen and the
upper middle-class. He himself had an important stake in the
country and his politics were therefore not quite free
from personal motives. He told us that in 1953 he offered himself
as an independent candidate for the Legislative
Assembly. He was defeated and chose not to stand at the next
election of 1957, because (he said) a racial element
had entered the elections. In 1961 he stood and was elected as the
Member for Georgetown Central. He told us that
he re-entered politics because he thought it necessary to reveal to
the people the dangers of Communism. He
described his own function as leader of one of the Opposition
parties, to “oppose, expose and depose the
government”. This objective he pursued with the most vigorous
consistency. After staging the dramatic walk-out
from the Assembly on February 9. he addressed a public meeting in
the course of which he said “there is only one
thing . to show your mettle, buck up and kick off the braces, unite
and fight to break this bare-foot. bare-back,
bare-faced budget. It is breaking already. . . . let them resign,
they are, shaken by your solidarity. Do not fall back
now, press on, break this budget, destroy it”. He seized
every opportunity of attacking Dr. Jagan s government and
inciting the crowds during the week of disturbances. On the 10th
and 11th February he went into the country on a
speaking campaign. From Monday onwards he was in considerable
prominence. He led several processions, and
gave a number of speeches. Before us he posed as one of those
individuals who, as Shakespeare says, have greatness
thrust upon them, for he was at pains to emphasize that it was not
he who led the crowd, but the crowd who wanted
to be led by him. On Monday, the 12th, when he came out he saw that
a large number of workers were forming
small groups in the streets, instead of attending to their
business. He addressed them and congratulated them. He
advised them to go home, but they said that they wanted to march.
So Mr. D’Aguiar led them in a procession
through the streets of Georgetown, passing deliberately in front of
Mr. Kelshall’s house and then past the Premier s
house (the Premier and Mr. Kelshall had become the two main objects
of odium to the Opposition), ending at the
Parade Ground where speeches were made. The supporters of Mr.
d’Aguiar had taken the precaution of fitting a
public address system at the Parade Ground. Here someone from the
crowd shouted “Radio Moscow”. This was
rightly interpreted to mean “Radio Demerara” against
which frequent complaints appear to have been made on
account of Dr. Jagan’s Marxist views having been propagated
through its machinery. Mr. d’Aguiar accepted the
invitation of the crowd and led the procession to “Radio
Demerara” because, as he said, he wanted “to
protest
against the attitude of the Government in not allowing other
political parties to use the Radio Station to express their
views in connection with the Budget”. According to law, a
police permit for holding a procession in a public place
was necessary and, as this had not been done, Superintendent of
Police Barrow stopped the procession and pointed
out that the law was being contravened Mr. d’Aguiar replied
with the specious argument that since the procession
was spontaneous, no illegality [was] attached to it. He continued
on his way and the police, anxious at that stage to
avoid a clash, offered no further obstruction and Superintendent
Barrow decided not to provoke an excited crowd by
arresting Mr. d’Aguiar on the spot, but to take action
against him by mean of a summons, to be issued later on. The
procession was brought back to Mr. d’Aguiar’s premises,
where he addressed them again. On the next day both Mr.
d’Aguiar and Anne Jardim, another U.F. leader and a member of
the Senate, went to the T.U.C. meeting at the
Parade Ground after the token strike and mass demonstration. Mr.
d’Aguiar gave a speech at another meeting when
he called upon the Government to resign. On Wednesday. February
14th, Mr. d’Aguiar told his supporters that there
would be a surprise in store for them and that they should be
available in the afternoon. Mr. d’Aguiar, who had a
special predilection for the spectacular and the flamboyant, had
arranged a parade of his trucks bearing slogans
through the streets of Georgetown. The parade did take place and we
have no doubt that the population of
Georgetown was duly impressed. The proclamations issued by the
Government prohibiting public meetings and
processions in the area around the Public Buildings had exasperated
both the Opposition parties and they looked
upon it as an extremely provocative move. Mr. d’Aguiar had
not, like Mr. Burnham, made a decision to contravene
the proclamation. He had to give a broadcast that afternoon and
when he drove into the town he saw a large crowd
and people asked him to join the procession which Mr. Burnham was
leading into the proclaimed area. Mr. d’Aguiar
was, as he says, “propelled” forward to join Mr.
Burnham, and the two leaders, followed by a large crowd, made
three circuits of the Public Building The procession ended at the
headquarters of the P.N.C. where the two leaders
shook hands ostentatiously and in full view of the crowd of their
supporters, and were photographed doing so. In his
broadcast speech that evening, Mr. d’Aguiar said “If
any budget has to be substantially changed because pressure
has been brought by the people who are being taxed, then it amounts
to a vote of no confidence. The Government
must stand or fall by its budget. In a democratic country, in such
circumstances, the normal procedure would be for
the Government to withdraw their budget and resign”.
77. Mr. d’Aguiar was no doubt referring to a broadcast by the
Premier on Wednesday evening when he announced
some modifications of the budget. The view taken by Mr.
d’Aguiar was that it was not enough to make any
modifications in the budget and the only course open to the Premier
was to resign. He intended to use every means
of bringing down the government. On the morning of Friday the 16th,
he went to time Parade Ground and, seeing a
crowd, had his mobile equipment for public address set up. Speeches
were given by various persons and Mr.
d’Aguiar himself spoke. He then went back to his office where
he was told that tear gas was being used in front of
the electric power station. He hurried to the power station, and
there he heard that two young children had been
seriously injured by tear gas fumes and taken to hospital. A crowd
was standing in front of the Power Station which
at that moment was being protected by a police riot squad. Mr.
d’Aguiar walked through the riot squad paying no
heed to the impediment . we were shown a photograph of him passing
under the extended arm of a policeman. A
number of persons followed him. He went to his own premises and
addressed the crowd which had collected in front
of his premises. Mr. d’Aguiar told us that someone passed up
a note to him which said that one of the two children
who had been affected by the tear gas had died in the hospital. He
did not wish to incite the crowd unduly and so
instead of reading the note out to them he said that the message
which he had received was to the effect that one of
the children was seriously ill. He advised the crowd to remain
non-violent because violence led to innocent people
being hurt, as the small child had been. A number of witnesses
appearing before us stated that what Mr. d’Aguiar
told the crowd was that the child had, in fact, died. We are
inclined to take the view that Mr. d’Aguiar did not
exercise any restraint upon himself and that he, in fact, announced
the death of the child to the crowd and not its
mere illness. We are constrained to observe that his being wedded
to truth did not impose so stern a cloisteral
isolation upon him as not to permit an occasional illicit sortie,
in order to taste the seductive and politically
rewarding adventure of flirting with half-truths. We found more
than one instance of this lack of ingeniousness on
his part and when he was being examined by Mr. Potter, he confessed
to no less
than eight occasions when the crowd compelled him to take the
initiative. It is scarcely possible to believe that a
leader of an opposition party, whose creed is to oppose. expose and
depose the Government should be no more than
a passive, if not an almost reluctant, leader of processions and
initiator of political moves. Mr. d’Aguiar admitted
before us that whenever an opportunity offered itself he took
advantage of it in order to further his projects. The
information given to him in the note regarding the death of the
child must have placed far too great a strain on his
perfectly natural urge as a political leader to make him suppress
the information.
78. We thus see that both the political parities in opposition
followed a course which was calculated to excite the
mobs which were wandering about the streets of Georgetown with
little to do except look for mischief. Nothing is so
well calculated to drive a mob to acts of violence as a state of
prolonged boredom and the continued exhortation of
leaders, even though they make a pretence of pointing out the
extreme desirability of everyone remaining peaceful
and non-violent.
79. Something must also be said about the part taken by the members
of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber was incorporated under an ordinance and one of aims is
to “promote or seek to promote, or to oppose,
legislative matters and other matters relating to trade, industry
and commerce”. It was natural to expect that the
members of the Chamber who constitute what may be called the
“big business” of Georgetown, were agitated by
certain provisions of the budget which affected them adversely. On
February 6 they called a meeting and passed the
following resolution:.
“This Chamber, in general meeting assembled, condemns many of
the
most significant items of the budget which are penal in their
incidence,
and considered to be not in the best interest of the country as a
whole, and
it is also resolved that a Select Committee be appointed to
thoroughly
investigate the impact of such sections on trade, industry and
commerce
generally, and to report back to the Chamber what action should be
taken.”
In the meantime it was bruited abroad that the businessmen of
Georgetown intended to close down their business
and thus force an impossible situation upon the government On
February 8, the Premier’s Private Secretary spoke to
Mr. Tasker, Chairman of the Booker Group of Companies, and
mentioned the rumour to him. Mr. Tasker assured
the Secretary that there was no question of Bookers, who constitute
the largest business organisation in the country,
countenancing any such move. Two days later Thunder, which is the
organ of the P.P.P., published the following
news item:.
“Water Street businesses are to close so as to force on a
strike. The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce
has decided on the lock-out. Indeed, there is now a formidable
alliance between big business and the
workers’ unions.”
The news item appeared in Thunder of February 10, but the paper was
on sale on the previous day, that is
February 9, on which day a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce was
called. In this meeting the decision of a
lock-out or a strike was brought up. A letter from Mr. Hubbard, the
Minister of Trade. and Industry, addressed to the
Chamber was also considered. In his letter Mr. Hubbard had said "I
have learned with a great deal of concern that a
section of the commercial community is planning to close business
on Monday next in protest against the
government’s budget proposals.” The letter went on to
say that the discussion on the budget in tire Legislative
Assembly had been postponed to February 12, and that the decision
to take protest action without first stating the
objections to the budget, was a negation of democratic
processes.
80. The Chamber as a whole did not take a stand favouring the
lockout, but several members were very positive
about their sentiments. Their attitude was far from conciliatory or
helpful. They were not desirous of offering
constructive criticism and Mr. Nascimento, who is the Personal
Assistant of Mr. d’Aguiar and the General Manager
of the Daily Chronicle, which we have already observed may be
considered an unashamed and remorseless
protagonist of U.F., took up a very forceful attitude. He advocated
that in case the workers walked out, their
employers should pay them. This was tantamount to suggesting that
the employers should subsidise the
contemplated strike. When the question was put to the members, Mr.
Figueira, another businessman, stood up to
indicate that he would pay his employees if they walked out. Mr.
Gajraj, another businessman, was even more
positive. He advocated the cessation of all transactions in
non-taxable commodities, e.g., sugar, flour, oil, and the
discontinuance of all credit facilities to their customers; because
these actions, he thought, would cripple the people
and bring tremendous pressure on the government. This would lead to
economic chaos. “People will then have to go
to the banks and draw out their money and that will force
government to reduce the tax on savings.” Mr. Gajraj was
no doubt referring to the scheme for compulsory savings. Mr.
Bettencourt-Gomes, another important businessman of
Georgetown, also expressed agreement with the suggestion that if
the factory and shop workers walked out they
would do so with the blessings of the employers. With the exception
of four firms, including Bookers and Sandbach
Parker, every member of the Chamber of Commerce was in favour of
paying the employees in case they went on
strike. We cannot therefore escape the conclusion that there were
many businessmen who were in entire sympathy
with the strikers, and their attitude encouraged and fostered the
strike. The Chamber as a whole was exonerated by
the Premier in a letter which was issued on his behalf on March 12.
This letter contained the following paragraph:.
“The Premier has never at any time alleged that a plot to use
violence was
formulated by the Chamber of Commerce. He has stated that
certain
persons in the Chamber used it as a forum to advocate a shut-down
of
business places, and in fact organised such a shut-down among a
number
of the members of the Chamber with the intention of helping a
general
strike planned by the T.U.C. to paralyse the business life of
the
community. This was done in order to force government to withdraw
its
budget proposals.”
We cannot, however, refrain from saying that the Chamber turned a
blind eye to the attitude and intentions
of its members. Mr. Steele, the President of the Chamber, when
questioned on this
Point, was only able to say that the Chamber being a democratic
body could not regulate the individual action of its
members. This lamentable confession of impotence scarcely redounds
to the credit of a responsible body
incorporated by special ordinance and professing the lofty aim of
promoting the interests of trade and commerce.
There can be no doubt at all that many members of the Chamber were
happy to watch the unfolding of events as the
week under review proceeded along its unfortunate course. The
undertaking to pay the strikers undoubtedly
encouraged them and provided the material which became more and
more combustible as time went on.
81. We return to the narrative of events. After the Premier’s
departure the crowd around the Public Buildings slowly
dispersed and melted away. Nothing further happened that day and on
the following day there were several
conferences and consultations. There was an emergency meeting of
the Central Executive of the Clerical and
Commercial Workers Union. Guy Edwards, one of the employees in
Messrs. Fogarty’s, saw some of his colleagues
standing in front of Fogarty’s stores. He thought this
surprising because the workers did not usually stand at that
spot. One of the men asked him what the Union had decided. Edwards,
however, could give no information on this
point. A decision had been made not to call a strike on Monday as
originally planned, but to stage a mass
demonstration on Tuesday. On Sunday the campaign was opened, and in
the afternoon a large crowd of people
gathered at Bourda Green, which is one of the open places in the
centre of Georgetown where public meetings are
held. Police permission to lead a procession from Bourda Green to
the Parade Ground, another open place for
holding public meetings and demonstrations, had been obtained and a
large mass of people carrying
anti-government placards marched along time prescribed route. The
placards carried various slogans, e.g.. AXE
THE TAX, CHOKE AND ROB BUDGET, SLAVERY IF JAGAN GETS INDEPENDENCE
NOW. The size of the
procession was assessed at 9,000 and a number of Trade Union
leaders addressed it. The audience was urged to
make peaceful demonstrations and demand the dismissal of Kelshall,
Private Secretary to the Premier. The meeting
at the Parade Ground finally dispersed at about 7 p.m.
82. Despite the decision of the Trade Union Council to call off the
general strike on Monday, the supporters of the
United Force were under the impression that the strike was to take
effect on Monday morning and they decided to
call out the commercial workers who were not members of the union,
in order to lend strength to the party
propaganda by synchronising it with the trade union agitation There
were indeed conflicting reports about the Trade
Union plan, and the United Force thought that a strike would almost
certainly take place on Monday morning. So
they decided to proceed with their plans. It is somewhat strange
that no one tried to secure correct information from
T.U.C. headquarters. The organisers of U.F. asked the workers to
assemble at 6 a.m. on Monday in front of the
Public Buildings with placards and slogans, and march through Water
Street. On Sunday evening, however, it was
learnt that there was to be no strike on Monday, but only a mass
demonstration on Tuesday afternoon. The U. F.
supporters at the last moment cancelled their original plan and
worked all night to send out information of the
cancellation, and telling the men to go to work as usual on Monday
morning.
83. Early on the morning of Monday the 12th it was noticed that
small groups of shop-workers of
Water Street were collecting at various points. The employees of
Messrs. Fogarty were prominent
among them. Some of them were carrying placards. There was a
certain amount of confusion at the other stores. At
J. P. Santos the workers were inside the store, but they were not
attending to their business. The workers of
Bettencourt had been loc