http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2006-04-23/overand_padmore.htmlWilliams stood for sovereignty
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’.
