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want, the Colony to govern itself in the same manner as other Caribbean possessions, and the failure of the attempt has been bitterly regretted. On the other hand it would be foolish to insist that the British view is one of undiluted altruism concerned only for the welfare of the people of the Colony. Millions of pounds sterling are invested by Great Britain in the Colony and it would be unrealistic if concern were not given to those interests. In the past more concern was felt for vested interests than for the Guianese, who naturally do not fall easily into the view that British colonial policy has changed, that British capital has now come to agree with the British Government that its colonial interests can only be preserved by a greater concern in the general happiness of the colonial peoples. Fortunately, in British Guiana's case, this does not have to be a matter of inhuman expediency; as an independent economic unit she would submerge, and all responsible Guianese know that it is necessary that she should remain within the British Commonwealth. British investment is large enough in the Colony for Britain to wish to preserve it, and the advantages received from being in the Commonwealth are great enough for British Guiana to wish to remain British. It is quid pro quo. Mas no Although it has been disappointing that no responsible political leaders have emerged in the last three years, it has been a period of activity in Government, Sugar and the P.P.P. There has been marking time only as regards the constitution of the government. Government schemes for housing, self-help, credit loans, etc. have been joined by Sugar's housing plans and various welfare schemes. The world 'welfare' is significant; during the last three years the rudiments of a welfare state have been laid in British Guiana-but a welfare state which does not arise naturally out of the economics of the country. It is, of course, the universal danger of all colonial territories today that they may 'jump the gun' and be guided into or gain for themselves a state of society which we in Europe have reached only after centuries of political and economic evolution. The European upheavals which reached their crisis in 1848 were a comparable case of countries plunging themselves into chaos by attempting to emulate Britain's slow industrial expansion, and forcing the pace. It is true that the British Guiana Government has not left unconsidered any major practicable measure that

might be taken to come to grips with the basic economic problems; land reclamation, geological survey, rice development, soil survey, agricultural development. Everybody concerned with these activities is doing everything possible to develop them; and yet the results remain disappointing; there are constant frustrations, financial and otherwise, and intransigence of various kinds is taken as a matter of course. There seems to be present in the air of the Colony some subtle and undefinable conspiracy to reduce the most magnificent of intentions to the merest shadow of their original conception.

It is agreed among colonial officials in British Guiana that her problems are unique and perhaps more intractable than those of any other colony in the Commonwealth. It is possible that the central problem of land reclamation and drainage on a large scale will not be an economic possibility, and the question will then be whether it should be done even if it is uneconomic. As one looks deeper into the problem of British Guiana it becomes more and more a problem of how much 'welfare' the Colony can stand without exploding. There seem to be no signs that it will be able to develop itself sufficiently to support a good standard of living for the masses without charity from outside. That charity is coming at the moment, but there can be no guarantee that it will always come.

Everything suggests that British Guiana is going to live artificially for a period of some years. During this period every effort should be made to ensure that all land not beneficially used is made fruitful. The only worthwhile existence, anywhere, is one which arises inevitably out of the nature of the country; it has been shown that the coastlands and the riverain lands, if properly used, could support one and a half million people. There is all too little sign that the British administration is preparing for the return to the riverain lands which must come. Just as Gravesande's genius undertook the move from the rivers to the coast, so must some new Gravesande see that the rivers are well and fruitfully re-populated. The life of the new settlers might be hard and never higher than a level of good subsistence; but it would not be subject to the vagaries of charity. The Guianese are conservative people who do not like radical change, and this move up the rivers is not one

which they will accept willingly. It is another task for inspiring leadership.

No one can travel in this fascinating country without feeling a deep concern for its future and its peoples, whose goodhumour has been preserved in spite of so much hardship and so long a sense of having been forgotten and neglected, left to fight their eternal battles with the sea, the rain and the instability of world commerce. They are no longer neglected and forgotten; it is now up to them to show the enterprise, the spirit and the self-reliance which will carry them towards a moderate prosperity and the goal of self-government. As I suggested earlier in this book, this new spirit will not come from the reactionary, mercantile elements, or from the People's Progressive Party under its present leaders. But in the new generation, somewhere, the right leaders must exist. 'What is most necessary for successful nation-building', said a former Minister of State for the Colonies, Mr. Henry Hopkinson, in a speech to the International Society of Differing Civilizations, 'is the existence of a substantial local, educated class which will man the government and the civil service and which will work out its own local variations of the pattern which we are able to supply to them based on our own constitutional experience.' That class is emerging in British Guiana, but its leading members must lose their timidity and make their presence felt. They should be men who are above the antagonisms of race, who speak for the Guianese as a whole rather than for a particular race within the Colony; they should be men, above all, who can forcefully direct the new, healthy energies of future generations.

In the spring of 1956 it was decided by the British Government that the political situation in the Colony made it possible to take steps to introduce an elected element into the legis lature and executive. When the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. Lennox-Boyd, announced this impending change in the constitution he said, 'We have no intention of seeing any possibility arise of the establishment of a Communist Colony. However, I believe it is now safe to make some progress in this field of democratic government.... The following is the text of his statement:

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'Briefly, there will be a Legislative Council of twelve elected members, four officials, and not more than eight nominated members. The Executive Council under the Governor will normally consist of four officials, one nominated and five elected members of the Legislative Council.

Preparations will be put in hand forthwith for the necessary amendments to the Constitution, and for setting up the election machinery. The Governor will settle a suitable date for the elections....

Her Majesty's Government hope that this substantial step forward will encourage healthy political development, and enable experience to be gained, upon which further progress can be based. Until more of the people understand the dangers of Communist leadership, which could only bring a second collapse like that of 1953, we cannot run the risk of restoring the type of constitution which was suspended.

Meanwhile, the development programme will be pushed ahead, and whatever is necessary will be done to prevent, or counter, activities promoted by a handful of Communist-trained agents who are causing interruption of constitutional progress.'

To enable the existing legislation of the Colony to make provision for the election of members to the proposed new Legislative Council and to allow of registration of voters, the British Guiana (Electoral Provisions) Order-in-Council, 1956, was made on the 3rd August 1956. Later in the same year the proposals were modified so as to provide for a Legislative Council of not more than twenty-eight members (excluding the Speaker), comprising not fewer than fourteen elected members, three ex-officio members, and not more than eleven nominated members. The Elections planned for 1957 would be for fourteen members.

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