BRITISH WEST INDIES: Toward Nationhood

The picturesque West Indies colonies, once rich treasure islands fought over by the fleets of Nelson, Rodney and De Grasse, are now impoverished and decaying. Overpopulated, underfed, off the direct pathways of world trade, they have been kept going in recent years mainly by meager doles from the mother countries and rising U.S. tourist trade. Seeking ways out of their luckless predicament, some have suggested switching allegiance to the U.S., a few have talked of lining up with nearby independent countries, and others, defying harsh economic realities, have demanded immediate independence.

Last week, after years of such debate, a new hope rose for some of the backward Indies. In London, the Colonial Office announced that most of Britain’s West Indian islands had agreed to federate. Next spring, delegates from the legislatures of Jamaica, Trinidad, the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands will meet in London to draw up a charter. By the time they have settled on terms, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands and continental British Guiana and British Honduras may be ready to join in a federation of all British possessions in the Caribbean.

Though all of them have made progress toward self-rule, this was a big forward step for the British-governed colonies. With only foreign affairs, defense and certain economic matters reserved for London’s control, their federation may have a status somewhat like that of the new Puerto Rican commonwealth under the U.S. flag, but with less autonomy than British dominions.

Jamaica, much the largest and richest of the present federating group, will provide more than half the federation’s 2,400,000 population. But if all the colonies unite, total population will be about 4,500,000 (double Puerto Rico’s). The larger mainland colonies, if they decide to join, have ample room for the surplus population of such overcrowded islands as Barbados (1,246 inhabitants per sq. mi.).

One big advantage of federation may be the customs union, facilitating freer trade for the sugar islands. Hopeful West Indians also believe that a larger economic unit is more likely to attract the outside capital so badly needed for further development. But for the region’s politically dominant Afro-West Indians, the projected union probably represents less an effort to achieve economic betterment than to affirm a sort of nationhood that will erase the indignity of past slavery.