WHAT'S HAPPENING IN BRITISH GUIANA? by Pat Jordan
No one would envy the legacy that Anthony Greenwood has inherited at the Colonial Office. 13 years of Tory rule has left a variety of very complicated problemssMalaysia, Aden, British Guiana, etc. Tory policy was determined by their need to manoeuvre between the world-wide pressure of anti-colonialism and their desire to maintain neo-colonialist exploitation together with a system of military bases to underpin that exploitation, A further complicating factor in the case of British Guiana was American pressure arising from the fear of another 'Cubat in the Western Hemisphere. No doubt the mistakes of Dr. Jagan have added to the mess. However, there is considerable uneasiness in the Labour Party because of reports that the Labour Government intend’ to continue Tory policy in Guiana. My ow disquiet on this question has been reinforced by the two follewinz press reports: Doctor Jagan denounces British violation of freedom of correspondence
Hsinhua November 15th, "Premier of British Guiana, Cheddi Jagan, yesterday denounced the British euthorities for ordering postal officers to seize and open postal packets by invoking emergency powers..eThe British authorities took this step after an undisclosed London source had published a secret police report on activities of a terrorist organisation operated by the reactionary opposition’ People's National Congress Party and had mailed copies of the report to thousands of people in Guiana. On November 12th the British Governor promulgated new emergency regulations requiring the surrender of all copies of the report and making possession of any copy a criminal offence,
"Jagan said thet the action of the British authorities violated the constitution of British Guiana and the intcrnationally recognised principle of freedom of transit which ensures the inviolability of correspondence. The denunciation was contained in a cable addressed to the director of the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union. In a statement to the press, Jagan disclosed that the opposition's terrorist organisation was financed by the United States," Journalist hurt as he saves girl from the Daily Vorker (November 17th)
Georgetown, November 16th: "Time magazine correspondent M. Garcia suffered a head injury last night as he rescued an 18-year-old People's Pragressive Party activist who had been stripped naked and brutally assaulted. The incident took place after a PPP meeting in the heart of the city at the Parade ground was broken up in disorder by opposition terrorists. It happened at 9.45 pom. in the presence of two police horse guards, who, Garcia says, paid no attention to his pleas for help, and it was only a few yards from the Governor's residencesese
"The only other police acticn involved the arrest and detention at the police station, for three hours, of a PPP member who was picked up for having a toy pistol. The PPP general secretary, Mrs. Janet Jagan, spoke to Garcia while police were searching his room and asked him to help make the true situation known all over the world: that in British Guiana the dice are loaded in the December 7 elections so severely now that PPP women will fear to come out to vote, and that it is impossible to rely on the police, volunteer force or British soldiers for protection,"
"No doubt it will be argued that these reports come from a 'suspect! source - but is a member of the staff of Time likely to lie for the PPP? British Labour Party members, without giving uncritical support to Jagan who, after all, brought in British troops, will want to know what's being done in their name in British Guians.