The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1962. Jamaican Independence And Its Cost

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29896, 9 August 1962, Page 12

The Press THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1962. Jamaican Independence And Its Cost

Jamaica’s attainment of full independence within the Commonweatlh is noteworthy not so much because another small nation is added to the world’s roll, but because it signifies the collapse of the West Indies Federation, conceived four years ago. Last year a referendum in Jamaica produced a majority in favour of secession from the federation; and the decision was confirmed electorally when last April Sir Alexander Bustamante's Jamaican Labour Party defeated Mr Norman Manley's People’s National Party, the leading advocates of federalism. The defection of Jamaica spelt failure for those statesmen, such as Sir Grantley Adams, the Federal Prime Minister, who had laboured unremittingly to create from a string of underdeveloped Caribbean islands a viable constitutional entity within which economic and social progress could be coupled with strength against undesirable external pressures. Trinidad and Tobago, the second biggest unit of the old federation, will itself become independent on August 31. Already, preliminary arrangements have been completed for associating the “ Little Eight ”, the remaining smaller members of the federation, in a revised form of federal administration. The difficulties that result from all these changes must add seriously to Britain’s financial burdens. Political instability in the Caribbean area and opportunities for ideological conflict will be increased tremendously. |

It is much too late to question whether the British Government, by exercising better judgment, could have won more Jamaican support for the old federation. In terms of population alone, Jamaica was critically important to the scheme. With the exclusion of 1.7 million Jamaicans and 800,000 citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, the federation was left with scarcely 650.000 people. Parochialism and misguided concern to preserve Jamaica's ascendancy over the other islands weighed more with the Jamaicans than any genuine appreciation of what leadership in the federation could have meant to them. All this implies an insular immaturity that will hamper Jamaica’s initial development as a fully independent State. Jamaica is 70 miles from Cuba, and even after 300 years of British rule it has similar economic problems. An illiterate, pov-erty-stricken, and rapidly increasing population is obviously far less exercised about constitutional niceties than about its daily food. Regard for Britain cannot have been enhanced by the Imperial Parliament’s recent Immigration Act, restricting West Indians’ opportunities of individual betterment. While Britain will undoubtedly continue to assist its former Caribbean colonies, its power to do so is being severely cramped by constitutional and economic obstacles of the West Indians’ own making. An independent Jamaica will not reduce these obstacles.