REPORT OF THE BRITISH GUIANA CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION 1954 (The Robertson Commission Report) Copyright © by GNI Publications, 2003 Editor: Odeen Ishmael This edition is published by GNI Publications. January 2003 36 COLONIAL OFFICE REPORT OF THE BRITISH GUIANA CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION 1954 Presented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Parliament by Command of Her Majesty September 1954 LONDON HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE THREE SHILLINGS NET 37 Cmd. 9274 MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION SIR JAMES ROBERTSON, K.C.M.G., K.B.E. (Chairman). SIR DONALD JACKSON. MR. GEORGE WOODCOCK, C.B.E. MR. R. E. RADFORD, Colonial Office (Secretary). TERMS OF REFERENCE In the light of the circumstances which made it necessary to suspend the Constitution of British Guiana to consider and to recommend what changes are required in it. 38 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION - 5 CHAPTER 1. THE GENERAL BACKGROUND - 10 I. Economic Factors II. Social Factors III. Political Factors ... IV. Conclusion CHAPTER 2. THE WADDINGTON CONSTITUTION - 29 CHAPTER 3. THE ELECTIONS - 33 CHAPTER 4. THE SUSPENSION OF THE CONSTITUTION - 36 I. Introduction II. The P.P.P. and the Constitution III. The Attitudes of Others IV. The Working of the Constitution V. Main Issues which Arose VI. Development of the Crisis CHAPTER 5. THE FUTURE - 74 CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSIONS - 84 CHAPTER 7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - 85 ** APPENDIX I - 88 Extracts from P.P.P. Periodical " Thunder " and from Writings and Speeches of P.P.P. Leaders APPENDIX II - 96 List of Communist Literature distributed by the P.P.P.... APPENDIX III - 99 Note on the Arson Plot 39 APPENDIX IV - 101 List of Witnesses APPENDIX V - 109 Itinerary of the Commission APPENDIX VI - 112 Brief Notes on P.P.P. Ministers 40 INTRODUCTION To The Right Honourable A. T. LENNOX-BOYD, M..P., Secretary of State for the Colonies. SIR, The composition of the Constitutional Commission appointed to visit British Guiana following the suspension of the Constitution was announced by your predecessor in the House of Commons on the 2nd December, 1953, and at the same time he made public the following terms of reference for the Commission: "In the light of the circumstances which made it necessary to suspend the Constitution of British Guiana to consider and to recommend what changes are required in it." 2. Two members of the Commission, the Chairman, Sir James Robertson, and Mr. George Woodcock, accompanied by the Secretary, Mr. R. E. Radford of the Colonial Office, left London by air on the 4th January, 1954, and reached Georgetown, British Guiana, on the 6th January. Meanwhile the third member, Sir Donald Jackson, had made his own way from Grenada to British Guiana, arriving at Georgetown on the 5th January. 3, The Commission held their first meeting on the 7th January to plan the programme for their work and to consider the situation which had arisen with regard to their appointment and terms of reference. The Commission found on arrival in British Guiana that an influential local Committee representative of 15 citizens' organizations had been formed under the chairmanship of Mr. W, 3. Raatgever and had already communicated with the Secretary of State stating that in their opinion the Commission's terms of reference were too limited in scope and suggesting their extension to include matters concerning the economic, educational and political development of the Colony. Furthermore this Committee thought that the membership of the Commission should be increased to five. 4. The Commission determined not to be delayed by the action taken by this committee and decided to hold a Press conference at which they should give their interpretation of the terms of reference. This was done on the 9th January and the criticisms regarding the terms of reference were dealt with by the Chairman in that part of his statement which reads as follows: "Another criticism has been made that we should have been asked to consider other than purely constitutional matters. It is true that the Commission is only charged with making recommendations about the constitution, and that we are now required to make recommendations on social, educational and economic matters. But we consider that in order to appreciate the circumstances which made it necessary to suspend the constitution 41 we must acquaint ourselves with all aspects of the country's life. The constitution in our view must be related to the general conditions of the country and is not a thing existing in vacuo quite unrelated to the social, economic and educational environment in which it has to function. It is in this sense that we interpret our terms of reference and we propose to try to get as clear a picture of the general background as we can. We visualise the possibility that in our report we may have to make observations upon these aspects of the situation, while not making specific recommendations about them." The statement was repeated in a broadcast on the following day. In the event, large numbers of people came forward and several of these, who had been leaders in setting up the Committee and making representations, informed the Commission that their doubts had been completely dispelled and that they were satisfied with the way the Commission were setting about their task. 5. We were faced at the outset with the decision of the Executive of the People's Progressive Party (P.P.P.) to boycott the Commission. The Party leaders by coming forward would have rendered themselves liable to public questioning on matters of some difficulty, abut the reasons for their decision declared publicly were: (a) that the Commission were, by their terms of reference, precluded from enquiring into the circumstances which led to the suspension of the constitution and were committed to recommending some curtailment of it; (b) that the Commission were weak, uninspiring and unlikely to report objectively, 6. We tried in a number of ways to show that these objections were not valid. For example, in the statement made to the Press and broadcast the Chairman said: "We propose to make enquiries both as to what happened before the constitution was suspended, and also to see what people here think should be done for the future. We have been told that some people wish to boycott us, because they fear that our recommendations will not be free and unbiased. I should like to make it absolutely clear that the Commission is a perfectly free body we have been given no directions regarding our recommendations we are not committed to any solution nor are we bound to accept any suggestions made by anyone. We would not have agreed to come if such conditions had been imposed. We intend to follow our terms of reference honestly and impartially, and to make recommendations based not only on our own experience and common-sense but also on advice and information given us here both by members of the public and by members of the Government. There also seems to me to have been some misunderstanding of our terms of reference. I should like to give you one or two examples. It has been stated in the Press here that the terms of reference which we have been given do not allow us to recommend that the 42 constitution should remain unchanged. We consider that if on full consideration of all the facts we believe that the suspended constitution should be re-introduced just as it was, we are entitled to say so, and it may be of interest if I repeat a quotation from the official record of the House of Commons in London to show that we are not unsupported in this belief. On the 2nd December, 1953, when the Commission's personnel and terms of reference were announced, Mr. James Griffiths, the previous Colonial Secretary, asked the following question: ‘It is difficult to follow these terms of reference. Will they leave the matter in this way? That if the Commission having enquired into all the circumstances come to the conclusion that no basic fundamental change is required in the constitution, it will be at liberty so to report?' Mr. Lyttelton the present Colonial Secretary replied: 'The Commission is asked to recommend what changes are required. If it ends that no changes are required, I imagine that it will say so.' " The Chairman also wrote later to Mr. Ashton Chase, then Acting Leader of the P.P.P., referring to a pamphlet " Why we boycott the Commission " issued by him and trying to persuade him to call off the boycott; but the reply was that the Party Executive had decided to adhere to its previous Decision. 7. We do not believe that we were materially handicapped by this attitude on the part of the Executive of the P.P.P. We were able to read the Hansard Reports of all proceedings of the State Council and the House of Assembly; we obtained a complete series of the Party newspaper Thunder from its start up to the most recent number; and in addition we heard recordings of broadcast speeches by P.P.P. Ministers. Moreover, the boycott of our Commission by the official P.P.P. Executive did not extend to a boycott by all Party members and sympathisers. Many of the witnesses who came forward spoke as members of the Party and made it quite clear that their sympathies were with the Ministers and that they did not believe the criticisms levelled against them. We have, therefore, had an opportunity of reading and hearing so much of what the P.P.P. leaders said that we think it safe to make certain assumptions about the way in which their minds were working, and we have obtained a good understanding of the feelings of the Party rank and file.