TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO AND THE WEST INDIES FEDERATION: CONTRADICTORY ATTITUDES EXAMINED by EDRIC LAMBERT WEEKS-SEALY B.A., The University of British Columbia A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of HISTORY We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA May, 1964 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of • British Columbia,, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study, I further agree that per• mission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publi• cation of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission* Department of History The University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada Date April, 1964* ABSTRACT The federation of the British West Indian colonies, which was long considered desirable by colonial officials for reasons of economical and efficient administration, was accomplished by an agreement reached on February 23, 1956. The West Indies Federation thus established, consisted of the islands of Antigua, Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts (Christopher)-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Trinidad and Tobago, and had a total area of eight thousand square miles scattered in a wide expanse of ocean. In this federation, Trinidad and Tobago by virtue of its economic development was expected to play an important part. The purpose of this study is to examine the attitude of Trinidad and Tobago to the idea of federation, and its relationship to the federation itself. In the course of preparation for this study, the writer spent three months in Trinidad collecting information at the Library of the Legislative Council, a library operated primarily for the benefit of legislators; the West Indies Reference Library, operated by the Information Service of the federal government; The West Indies Regional Library, a branch of the Trinidad Public Library; and the offices of the Trinidad Guardian. Valuable information was also acquired from the i Office of the Premier and from the Trinidad Chamber of Commerce. The writer's visit to Trinidad coincided with a period of intense activity among members of the federal and Trinidad governments as a result of the collapse of the federation. This situation rendered it extremely difficult to secure inter• views from persons serving in either of these governments. However, Mr. Albert Gomes, a member of the federal parliament, who while serving as a Trinidad legislator had played an important part in the establishment of the federation, provided the writer with very valuable information in the course of two interviews he very kindly gave. For over three centuries the project of unifying Britain's West Indian possessions defied the best efforts of colonial administrators who believed that such an arrangement would make the government of the colonies more efficient. The success achieved in the establishment of the West Indies Federation was due to a great degree to the activity of certain West Indians who, early in the twentieth century, envisaged federation as a means by which West Indian nationhood could be achieved. In 1910, Meikle, a Jamaican, advocated a unification of the British West Indian possessions as a means of forestalling American imperialistic ambitions in the area, and at the close of the First World War, Marryshow, of Grenada, and Cipriani of Trinidad, advocated federation as a means by which the West Indian territories could aspire to the position achieved by the older dominions- Marryshow and Cipriani hecame the leaders of a movement whose aim was expressed by the slogan, "No federation without self-government and no self-government without dominion status.•? Those West Indians who were interested in federation viewed it primarily as a basis for demanding self government for the Colonial Office. The inadequacies of such a concept were amply demonstrated at the close of the Second World War, when the Colonial Office, aware of the growing interest in federation in the West Indies, decided to capitalize on it to implement its programme for constitutional changes in the area. This decision deprived the West Indies federal movement of its raison dT etre. The movement succeeded in disseminating the idea of federation, but it accomplished very little else, and the first constitutional changes in the region were introduced independently of federation. In the changed circumstances of the postwar world, there was need to re-define the goals of federation. The founder of the West Indies Federation failed to do this clearly and proceeded on the basis that federation was indispensable to the achievement of West Indian nationhood, but their efforts were largely self-defeating for they spent almost ten years in discussions before finally agreeing to establish the federa• tion, and the proposals they formulated for a federal constitu• tion were so conservative that during the time it survived the iii federation made no contribution to the constitutional develop• ment of such territories as Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. What is even more unfortunate, the existence of the federation appeared to restrict certain territories in the exercise of the constitutional rights they had acquired independently of it. The defects of the federal constitution were influenced to some extent by the political situation in Trinidad and Tobago, where until the rise of the People's National Movement to power in September, 1956, the government of the country was not directly associated with any political party. In this situation the country was controlled by a conservative coalition consisting of a minority of elected members, nominated members, and government officials who were members of the Legislative Council. The rise of the People's National Movement terminated the influence of the conservative element in Trinidad's poli• tics, and gave the cause of federation the support of a well organized political party. Moreover, Dr. Williams, the Chief Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, won increased support for federation throughout the West Indies by advancing the view that the chief goal of West Indies Federation should be to promote the economic development of the region. In Trinidad and Tobago, enthusiasm for federation was greatly stimulated by the decision by West Indian leaders in January 1957, to place the federal capital in Trinidad. This enthusiasm, which reached its zenith at the inauguration of the federal parliament, on April 22, 1958, began to diminish iv shortly after the federal government began to function. The constitutional restrictions under which the federal government functioned prevented it from playing any important role in West Indian affairs. Meantime, the federation had been con• ducting negotiations with the British and American governments to secure the release of a site which the American government occupied as a naval base under the terms of a wartime lease, but which the federation required as a site for its capital. In June, 1958, there arose sharp differences of opinion between the federal and Trinidad governments on the methods to be employed in negotiations with the United States. The tensions generated in this situation became increasingly acute before the matter was finally settled in February 1961. The strained relations between the federal and Trinidad governments developed at a time when plans were being made to revise the Federal Constitution. The Trinidad government, in harmony with the view that the federation should play an important role in the economic development of the region, pro• posed a form of federation in which the authority of the federal government would be greatly Increased. This concept of federa• tion conflicted sharply with that proposed by Jamaica, where anti-federation sentiment was increasing, and where the alarm created by the federal Prime Minister's reference to retro• active taxation created the belief that Jamaica's interests could only be adequately protected by a reduction in the power enjoyed by the federal government. At an intergovernmental v conference which met in Port-of-Spain in September 1959, the Jamaican delegation adopted so inflexible a position that no progress was made, and the conference was only rescued from complete collapse by a decision to refer disputed matters to select committees pending a resumption of the conference. An understanding reached between the premiers of Jamaica and Trinidad facilitated the acceptance of the Jamaican position by the intergovernmental conference when it resumed in May, 1961. The Jamaican demands which meantime had become more intense, were embodied in a new federal constitution drawn up in London in June, 1961. The success achieved by the Jamaica government in its proposals for the federal constitution did not make federation more acceptable to the people of Jamaica. In a referendum held on September 16, 1961, a majority of them voted that Jamaica should be taken out of the federation. On January 16, 1962, after a few months of suspense, the General Council of the People's National Movement which had been victorious in general elections held on December 4, 1961, recommended that Trinidad take no part in a truncated federation of the East Caribbean. The doom of the federation was sealed. A study of the factors leading up to the establishment of the West Indies Federation, and later to the experiences of the federation itself, leads to the conclusion that in Trinidad interest in federation was influenced by her internal political situation, the conduct of the federal government, and the vi attitude of the Jamaicans- The emergence of the People's National Movement in Trinidad greatly stimulated interest in federation* This enthusiasm continued until sharp differ• ences of opinion developed between the federal and Trinidad governments, and never improved thereafter.