This 50th anniversary year of the founding of the PNM is
an appropriate time, through occasional articles, to refresh
T&T’s memory and to enlighten those, then unborn,
of some of the PNM’s major positive contributions to
the shaping of modern T&T.
These fundamental contributions undoubtedly explain PNM’s
enduring relevance to our young country.
Yesterday, marked the 46th anniversary of the march in the
rain by thousands of citizens for the return of Chaguaramas.
This march was an uncompromising statement of T&T’s
nationalism; our signal to the world that we were no longer
a subject people, malleable by virtue of being a colony, but
rather a proud independent people, in fact, determined to
make it so in law.
The struggle for Chaguaramas was a veritable David versus
Goliath encounter, pitting small T&T against the mighty
United States, supported by Britain.
At issue was whether Chaguaramas should become the capital
of the West Indies Federation, the decision of West Indian
political leaders through the Standing Federation Committee
(SFC) or remain a US naval base.
The snag was that Chaguaramas was the principal US military
base in the region leased to America by Britain in 1941, for
99 years, for 50 aged destroyers to assist the British war
effort, during the bleak days of World War II.
Dr Eric Williams, the T&T leader, objected and abstained
from voting on the SFC resolution, saying:
“It placed (him) in an impossible situation. (The PNM)
had given a clear, distinct and unequivocal guarantee before
our election that we would honour all international obligations,
including the US bases agreement.
“The Chaguaramas base was vital for the defence of Trinidad
and its oil—an important basis of federal revenue.
“If Trinidad supported the resolution, she would be exposed
to the charge of using the SFC to break international commitments.”
If Trinidad opposed it, she would be suspected of trying to
foist some other side upon her federal partners.”
Notwithstanding T&T’s abstention, the resolution
was passed. The majority, led by Robert Bradshaw (St Kitts),
Norman Manley (Jamaica) and Grantley Adams (Barbados), were
determined to “press for the release of the base for
the capital,” outnumbering those whose reservation concerned
the fear of antagonising the US.
Dr Williams agreed to participate in the West Indian delegation
as an observer. SFC members were concerned that unless there
was full participation from T&T, the delegation’s
prospects for success would be seriously prejudiced.
They urged T&T to reconsider. It did. Having consulted
with the US and UK governments and receiving their assurances
that T&T’s full participation in the federal delegation
would not be regarded by them as a breach of its international
pledges, T&T became a full member on the understanding,
conveyed to all parties, that, as necessary, Dr Williams would
make separate submissions on behalf of T&T.
Significantly, the SFC was initially more aggressive in pursuit
of the return of Chaguaramas than the newly-elected and more
prudent PNM government, concerned as it obviously was with
projecting an image of responsibility that T&T’s
government does not break its pledges with impunity.
The seeds of the acrimony that developed in these negotiations
were sown from the very outset, because of the pre-emptory
manner adopted by both the US and UK at the initial talks
in London in July, 1957.
Manley, the West Indian leader, presenting the case for Chaguaramas,
was inviting the US to facilitate the aspirations of worthy
neighbours about to undertake the task of democratic nation-building.
The US, in response, was unmoved and inflexible. The naval
base could not be released; its capabilities were essential
on military and economic grounds.
The former Federal Deputy Governor General, John Mordecai’s
chronicle of these proceedings described the US as laying
it down, not bargaining.
Moreover, he described the attitude of the British chairman
as a sly baiting of the West Indians.
This was too much for Dr Williams who, Mordecai said, at this
point: “broke his angry silence and altered the entire
tenor of the meeting, shattering the complacency of the American
delegation.
“Dr Williams was now launched on a fundamental change
in his approach to Chaguaramas for which, prior to going public
with it, he prudently sought and received PNM’s endorsement
by a convention resolution.
“Dr Williams’ profound attitudinal change was dictated
by extremely diligent research of T&T’s government
files—some reaching him in London mere hours before the
conference began.
“The colonial Governor was resolutely opposed to the
lease and its terms; too much land was being alienated to
the US military. He suggested locating the base where it would
contribute to T&T’s development, example, the Caroni
Swamp region.”
The Governor’s powerful pro-T&T stand led Dr Williams
to condemn the entire moral basis of the bases agreement,
noting that it had never been sanctioned by T&T legislation.
Dr Williams, in Mordecai’s account, insisted that a small
country, then, had been callously “bulldozed” by
two mighty powers who were again using the same methods to
perpetuate an international outrage.
Regardless of the military considerations, Dr Williams described
the proposed US stand as untenable.
The intensity of Williams’ intervention produced the
first cracks in the hitherto unified West Indian approach.
This wholly unanticipated impasse was temporarily resolved
by the establishment of a joint commission of technical experts
to consider the West Indian request, taking into full account
military and economic considerations.
This is how Williams described this development:
“With respect to the composition of the joint commission,
I advocated representation of T&T as of right and was
unable to accept counter proposals for the inclusion of T&T,
either on the UK team or on the Federal team.
“My Federal colleagues, whose recognition at all times
of Trinidad’s overriding interests in the matter I gratefully
acknowledge, unambiguously endorsed my proposal for a four-power
commission and my declaration that hereafter not one square
foot of the soil of T&T will be alienated to anybody for
any reason without the free and full consent of the elected
ministers of the people of Trinidad and Tobago responsible
to this honourable council and to the people themselves.”
Chaguaramas for Williams was clearly an issue of nationalism
and sovereignty; T&T’s and The West Indies’.
(To be concluded.)
