P.M. Of Jamaica Dies In Canada

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31343, 13 April 1967, Page 13

P.M. Of Jamaica Dies In Canada

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) KINGSTON (Jamaica), April 12. The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Sir Donald Sangster, died yesterday in the Montreal Neurological Institute from a brain hemorrhage.

Knighted by the Queen five days ago, he was flown to Montreal on March 21 after suffering the brain hemorrhage. The External Affairs Minister, Mr Hugh Shearer, was last night sworn in as the new Prime Minister less than five hours after Sir Donald Sangster’s death. Caucus Choice

Mr Shearer, aged 43, emerged as the governing Labour Party’s choice to succeed the stricken Sir Donald Sangster after a party caucus six days ago. Mr Shearer, who led Jamaica’s United Nations delegation in the previous administration of Sir Alexander Bustamante, has the powerful backing of trade unionists. He is vice-president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, Jamaica’s most powerful labour force.

Sir Donald Sangster, at 55, was Jamaica’s youngest Prime Minister. The son of a land surveyor, he was known as one of the best Jamaican Parliamentarians.

Unmarried and a lawyer by profession, he rose politically in the shadow of Sir Alexan-

der Bustamante, a flamboyant figure whom he succeeded as Prime Minister last February 23. For the two previous years he bad been acting Prime Minister, after illness and age forced Sir Alexander Bustamante to retire. Sir Donald Sangster’s body will be flown to Montego Bay, Jamaica, tomorrow and taken by train—halting at country stations for people to pay their last respects —to Kingston, where he will be given a State funeral.