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Chapter 2. The Challenge of Political and Economic Integration
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CHAPTER 2 THE CHALLENGE OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION * * * * * Norman Manley, the premier of Jamaica, delivered a major broadcast to the people of Trinidad and Tobago on June 17,1960. The newly inaugurated West Indies Federation was experiencing difficult times, and Manley was assuring his audience and the rest of the region that the federation would prevail and that it was in the best interest of the islands to remain united. "Each of us alone is small in the world today," Manley said. "Because we are small, it is the simple truth that for us unity is strength," he added. "The West Indian nation has a manifest duty to go forth as a free people, as an example of unity accomplished, of prejudice overcome, of brotherhood realized."1 Manley's call for unity among the Anglophone islands was the political mantra of many leaders, particularly in the Eastern Caribbean after World War I. Among the most prominent advocates of the Federal idea were T. Albert Marryshow of Grenada, Arthur A. Cipriani of Trinidad, Grantley Adams of Barbados, and Norman Manley of Jamaica. Arguing that the small size of the islands imposed limits on their potential for economic development and their international stature, these and other leaders promoted federation as the panacea. Concerned about the future of these colonies, and increasingly anxious to abandon them, the British government also strongly encouraged federation. The first major step toward the creation of the West Indies Federation occurred in September 1947, when, at the invitation of Arthur Creech Jones, the secretary of state for the colonies, all of the West Indian governments, including British Guiana, met in Montego Bay to lay the foundation for a federation. There was considerable enthusiasm for such a gathering, and the delegates approached their task with seriousness. Delegate AlexanderBustamante , the chief minister of Jamaica, was the most skeptical about the T H E C H A L L E N G E 4 1 creation of a viable federation. Bustamante admitted, however, that he could see no reason "why one day, whether that day is tomorrow, or next year, or another year, there should not be federation of all the British West Indies." He acknowledged that "the time has come not just for Federation but for self government." Still, he doubted whether a federation could succeed because the islands were at different stages in their constitutional development. As the chief minister said in his colorful metaphorical style: "Jamaica can walk, Trinidad is creeping. Barbados and British Guiana are right behind Trinidad or almost the same. St. Kitts and St.Vincentare attempting to creep and only attempting. Antigua is creeping, and of all the other small islands, some can barely creep on the palm of their hands, and others on hands and feet, and others not at all, yet you say to us 'We want you to federate.' How can the walking and the creeping and the babe who has not begun to creep yet, how can they walk on the same avenue?" These were politically ominous observations. The "pauperized" state of most of the islands also worried Bustamante. "I have never heard," he said, "that in joining with bankrupts one can become successful or prosperous." Bustamante was fearful that Jamaica would have to spend its resources to support the proposed federation: "Whilst we want to be very liberal to our brothers and sisters across the sea and take them out of their difficulties, whether it be Grenada, St. Kitts, or another, whilst we want to be very generous to them and whilst some people say we of the West Indies are all alike, to me Jamaica and Jamaica's interests come first. It must be so." Norman Manley, the leader of the People's National Party in Jamaica, contested Bustamante's arguments. Manleywas not a member of the legislature but attended the 1947 conference in Montego Bayas a representative of the Caribbean Commission. In a direct response to Bustamante's use of the "creeping" analogy, Manley observed: "When people talk about the unseemly and slow process that is involved in creeping, I can't help but feel that, slow it may be, you may get somewhere by creeping if you know where you wish to go." Manley rejected Bustamante's concerns about the economic condition of the potential federation. He believed that "so far from feeling that wewould be financially weaker, we should realize that there would be a gain in our credit potentiality and our ability to organize...