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~or all his reserve, · he had a rio self' that thur.1bec.. its nos at sanctimony. Back in the ' Thirties, when he was searching among the b r igh young menjto staff his Jamaica Welfare , he made a personal vow never to employ anybody who was "pure. YMCA. 11 .-eedle ss to say, he hac nothing against that f'ine agency; several of' his best people, including the Welfare lea­dership, were connectec'! to the "Y ". It was the exaggeratet gravity, anc piety , that he abhorred . 



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E P.O . 

XXX X 

151/78 

do .c. l 
.nr,l nd 

r ' • Gre n : 

t re 

S ce w '!.y ou .. 

V • .s. 
C rns.n 

• • lt nl y: 

e 

maic N ton l uat Co rdusi 

V R/ p 

nd i 
o n 

s nin 

n w bein"' loo 
i e # dy 1 0 .. 

t her . 
1· h.:. • 



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.f ./ 1-J fl , I 
1 ' ,JAY U ' ' h~ Lh 1) 

f.~e i1a,reulule u y wa:::, enui1 g . 

l1e hi uen cq.::.sacks had comEt ._·n.t.o. t_ e .ovew • t the sce1 t o-.f 

vict.ory , raking the slies with their brooms , the unlikely guiuons o a 

s"tra gely lilOVe proletariat ,,1 o had voted f'or a urea . 

nu it was the wonders of the day that vere i.aking the night b.:. 

lievab e , turning their hope into certainty . Ano so multitudes i 

"tl1e City woul stay awake , :::,tay awake . nd !:>til more, man .. o e in th 

backcountry kevt vit:,i at neighbourly radio:::, , or stalk u t .J. e ·er - shi ting 

oulletin-boar s 1.~or the inco1;1 • ng 1ew:::opaper reports . 

or ::;weatln~ a oefeat as a canuidate leL , or lag~e0 . 

c clai111ir.g a 6 ain , 

'or hi::; tor y was 

L,1; to l t:::, olP t.r icks of' cru 1chl 6 _,,o,ne of it::; ,.1akers . 

ow would come the 11igh.t o.r the poll count . 

*** -1( 'fJlt< 
;'-~··.=t .. ut carni 

.; 
al , or grier , ristory, as requireu , aad alreauy uec iue 

... i • 1a.t· itomor1 ow woult, be the ay of the .. .roo 1 • A rejoicinb ~or the new 

.. ,.-" . ac li vtrs who ha shrugge u a decade or rw,tration: l.O::H, of ho 

... 

elec t lOlsS . 
.; 

•• i rl festival 01.· ::.traw 

·f ?' '; .f .1.or • i::. glory . 

·_ l ~.. . '~ l -~1 

~or a tro11pi1 5 , 1an wLo ha walkcL ah L! 

*** 

• ·' .::,o, 1e ::.111all coiu usio ,1anL::s over the way tie broou::s oeLan . u . . .1.'alrclou0 h , 

r~·e· .J.;1uia.1:J, 
.~ . ~ 

-s u.i:Jfi. rte , 

..!I!' 1 ... , the vee.i<ly 11ew!::l.iJaper that 

tl1e ... e<il.i:-1le:::. • at ioual ,.'arty , • thou6 h t it L1ay 11ave collie out of' 

·. a· ... arty ~.>...ecu tlve .,,ee t.il ... L 01'-e n i.._, ltt. at . : .,: . r , ,ulair , -the olc... anley re::,l-

el1c, e 0,1 Old ..,llurc ,. uad. 
·, ..... .. .. .... 'SI 

_. i te.L i, c~ ~ .... _ ... ..,o e u 1t , re~ccl ... :: L,c:.t _..trt._ ,.;~'cle'ta ry ,._,y 1 ... c.y 

✓ c it cl.!. , a1 indc.'ati..,a lt' JO.Ker, h.ad su0 est.e t La t •.,:;01 •• ort.a1. anle) 1 

Uw 
return f1 ow t u~ Llli te d .1\.inbdo: ~attehdi116 a con :::. t.1.tutio11 co111'erence) , lie 

ue welcor.1e i at tlle air1;ort u a broo,:i-bea i116 ··er WL --- a_,, a s Lol 

of a ;ro. i::se to :::,weep t Le Ja.1ai ca Lal;our -arty o it 01~ oi'i'ice at t11e ne:xt 

geLeral electio11:::,. 

rin:::, . 

.,_, 1t the trutb io that be· ore tl.c idea • rr.L et.. at the .1..,xecuti.ve 

, .C etil.L tlie Lroou, l1ac beell carrle ir, a 11ew::; ;a..._J er cartoo l>y a young 

art f ::,t named ill eld who was t 1: awii.6 i'or 1 l.i....,LlC U ... .1: J.u ... . * 'i'L e 

*1 .-:as i;riei'e 
.1:-'a,>er, a11c J 0 1 
'to""etLer worke 

u y t l1e AL.. tl1or , Lue 1. ;.J l i tor OJ.~ t.l ... e 
ax~ell , thei. '".;euior .,riter , wl10 

, out tl"e iuea. 

cartoon, .-b.owi1.'--' a uro o1 .. - ,iei 8r at \\Or~ ;:; vi.,,l ... iu~ out -c he 11 corru ... )t 11 vL1 

t ~0011 jeca· 1e a ki1 

o erro, e t' ,e ul1, ) boi • 



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sug es i .a m 't ith straine-<l-gri~s .) ' 'he trut h i s t a t t 1.e 

bro~ms ro ·e in on a a you~ d 

:!Jill 1 e i d who 

had 

ove rod.J 

t~ march 

brou ht a 

uinion. * .,.,.. 

*I t was b rie fe d b y t hor , t h en ~ 
of ubl ic , d John Max wel l , 
writer on r who had toge t_e 

wi n ..e 

s e n ior 
worked 

by syrtib s or 

t he 

There were i ssues enough which should have roasted 

.i. 
the • 1cur1bent s. :-{ecurring scandals had two 

•• ';reovt~:::- , bu n- b faces turne i'amiliar 
cauinet ministers to jail. - • ½_ havir~ ruled for a ,'ecade a volatile, 

often fractious electorate was ready to collide with the law1aakers 

who in the course of huwan frailty had made their errors. Dustamante 

had been in • ower sine 194l~ when the struggle for 

won t hrough 
to full adult suffrage; 

.. anley ' s P;.., had not only been battered into near oblivion 

by the Jrunaica ~bour Party ( 23 to 4 , with 5 
liad 

ley hims e l been rounllly trol:lilced by a 
f olks_y 

ca1.1pai~ner 

f'ollowins 
11amec_, •agan. The /1949 polling which the .Pi'll-> had ex,.->ected 

to in) had not changed !louse rulers , although this tirne 

W-util 
. :anley won his 5drtt and the ·- 1 s itif'ul & fou places ~ increased 

to 13 . . s it prove a , a resvec table f'ulcrum on which to rest tlJ. e 



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f'eisty 1954 notion to weep Th.en ut l 

*** 

The slogan slammed shockingly into the vitals oft JL.!:-', 

~or the first tiille in the island ' s 460 ear ' s histur , L oorus vcre 

at .-J e1 iun value . ..-·ous eholu. brooms of' at I:lizabeth rush , "yaru 

broo1;1s 11 of thic\:~er straw , the siuew lk: pounding i111)orted "bass" 

brooms of the sanitation gangs , lon - hanalecl chi1,1ney iustrw,1ents 
HAf',€.i., 

like TIP [] b 
i'T)OL<,'Yl,--ta..~ 

i J@ d eacons , branuHew ones still • rorna tic ofi\ tliiie, 

■ a I and the knuckled ancient ones already worke d own. to 

the nub , all were brought out to carry the notion of S:wee-.> 411!1!!!!1t them 

ou t! 

One e1terprisin entre~reneur - produced an elec,ant 

"broom" for la ) els , a little item eminently suited to art Leader 

w«..o ~J'D.,t> ., 

J:o r ruan ,,.anley , fan • inveterate wearer of buttonholes . 
1'- p (,!,,'r-t :s·anS 

The brooms also swept in the closet ~◄ 8 IP. lTitllert_p ~ 

Uill IPs&t cossacks of the Pr:P , long silent in the L - dominated st-reets , 

rode into full view as broor,1s a peared in t I J]S Iii, ,..Jlaces. <'isher -
n - 'Y i'm pro ba.lJ-ll.. 

~t:o .t:t..R__ f ~obi llkJ 
men stepped then _. mas t s • µ their boats., 111M.a,e,11.c Ir I &Ii• ha 

~ . 
thetll ram.>ant on the hoo,Js. .£Ven that bastion of a El respect~f'f) 

wiw.f~~ I 

-~t P.11-f the railway engine , tr.1FE - i1$~ffltl'6ii2i a ,.. carrying 

• the message . Geared as the were to )enetrate into the 

I L a mountains an valleys harcly 

~ 
.UlLt Party orators , 

,:: 
reached b 

t.l.• 1'-l• 

the sight of crosseu brooms 
of 1'>1 ,"1- va.l Id.. 

on the cab front of the 10.45 to ::ontego 
/\ 

Bay was •• ' than a tlozen 

z 1::. ,.,. ■ @ • p I 1'f-1 c.o.l s-t u (l'l p€.Y • 

*** 
~tt, ·J;le. 

LY night:fall of the SJ O fie- uay) when the counting of' votes 

cor:imenced , old election heads aMong the PN wer cautiously talk-

ing of victory 
.sfru_ld,1 ~~ 

but the ci!'Sw w,skiL 's lll&liSll of 16 years since the ..... 



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.ce o ltb o f' 19J6 had or aniseu ii.to p olitical re to lve s , otiJ l ea,e the11 ,~orry . 

At 1ea quarters t h at eveni1g , u1_tairs agi.ol ou e 1 12::1 S lipe oa , tl e 

arty f'' i thf'uli-, t.,.a t here f' or the ·i..,il . o e were s o , bre . re -

iOUt-:i into auol.!.y. ow they ,, ere ar i1 } ear~ tl1e vi ,il hac.. tur e 

1-.; ·or, ,a11 a • Jura . ar ley 

uais at the r..orth e1H, or the roo1 

at a.101.L> ...,µµ.c-10 ... tt'rs o r. Le :::.,n, 11 rai::.eu 

_'c was ::-!10wi11c, little s iur.s of' the 

L,one -t iri u..., 1.;a,. a igu jt s t enc e (., , s miling in easy repose 1 that air of 

uiet - in - cor~ otion he had maue hi:::. own. A oi PLilli JS 1 eceiver .;011e -

body had se"t t.µ :> L>oo 1eL the count 
°\·2~ 

The roo1uA rumpleL and overheate ,A ; 

aH it wa~ receiver at the rau io station . 

bo ilin J with louc talk. of relief' as oou 

cheer now that it ,vas over . 

A har wu1 elation. The car1 aign had been long anc roughl) 

fou~h t . They hau , to the c is,nay oi' their opponents I cto ne well in the 

country Ant.. if it ha' been satisfyine, in the ruralb 1 it hao been down-

r.ie;h t _pectacular ir. the city .m Large I respo ::;ive au ie11ces surging on the 

candidates I singin6 tl e song of raillery at u::;ta h1, uling in t.is larer~-

ion con::;tituer.cy , here is the Leader? the labou~ ites cry . u::;ta a.rriad 

to venture f orth . For . urray , an inspirec PP choice , Lative born to the 

cons tituency, ha rw1 a b one - in- the-throat ca,_paign tl,at did ,\hat the I I 
~ 

lope : l\pirn,e w.o, n the JLP h iel' . 

fhey Lad ~Ullt, it witL a strtt an s,,ageer tr1at ...,ent . o 1e the 

i, a ter eetin0 crowas ~ingint in a triw 1ph they coulc alrea~y f'eel . In 

turgia , 

sible : 

emotional , epochal HU ~ort for the man who would c o the i mp os ­
,~,~-"[(, ) 

d islodee the li vin~ legen of' I m,tal who hac. one e seemea i 111ovable. 

And now , ~ ley ~a i d oftly , it wa~ do1e . Th ey could feel 

it . Ian ley hac won his election . 

a bloo~in ' oroom . 

y , amor.; the issues and artif'ices , asy,.Jo~, 

*** 

The 19 5 2 Pl\1-' purge of tlte !''our I ' (the H~ll x rothers , Ken 

, frank , ic ard 
'tl-'11",t-'f 

art and Arthur J enry) , undoubte~ly ~ipe the Red ~mear 

lai on the ¼ by the bUstau ante pro ia c e tle 1 acceptable to 

the 1~earf'ul ur,decidet.. . 1'he Coi,m1ies ~~~~ ~ il".lMll~~ ~ The c o ws c ould 

return to the front grass ~ rJn priests lose neither flock nor frock . 
·~ 



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• .:.aving lost the support of the Trades Union Congress (TUc• L the 

PNP labour arm which wen t into exile with the purged our;) the 'f?~ 

had quickly f'ormed a new union , the at i onal Workers Union NWU ) . 

he strategy triumphed as the N,vU , in a furious burst of energy and 

• ~azzlinL skil l s - in structuring 
ti/ot."-/ 

workers ' local:, b the experi enced A iethe:ssole , Thossy 1ielly and 
F,A , 

:., ecretary Glass ole , drove a wedge into the sugarworkers ranks of 
I\ 

Cv,,,d 
t h e .b ITU1 (with a young trade unionist named L ichael uanle at its f, .vt" 
~ I -ft.p__ 
~ edge ) and won t he bauxite workers to ~ fold . ct so on 

this incred ible day , the count woul show that the hithert o "middle ­

class " arty had dug into the grassroots and claimed a 51~:. of the 
o.f fkt ?,',}.. ' 

popular vote ( t o the JLP ' s 39'/ ) and t ake 1 1 8 seats to the JL:(>' s 1 4 . 
I\ 

*** 

Towards the end of the 

been that both parties were 

ca npaign , the general speculation haJ 

t=>rob"' bl 
clo se i n · he PN 

I\ . 

had its issues , but i t sorely nee d ed some magic to t i l t the balance 
.Jt wfo-0 ~"l.t-.;.,1 .fcv 

in its favour . ~ more exposure mn the streets , so often deni ed 

them by Hus ta 1 s strongaru squads. They needed a little more p l ume 

to feather an<' shal- e at the fence - sitting voters before ollint, 

da . And then t h e brooms came out i n a sychological cavalry charge 

and the battle was turned . 

uudenly , there was ) lume. 

nd a great ~"1t'was releas eo into the " :1' campaiGn, A.Jew 

encrg t l oo cl ed in , and new cer tainty , more bravery in the voices 
c... l a.().Ye..Y 

that spoke u:> for the ·arty in h dlstile territoryJ ~ u alice 

in the voices s i nging t h e sly Wher e is the lead er a :ful -

ler t hroate J roaring of 1-Ianley ' s own There were n inety- and- nine 

at t he corner street meetings as he a p eared on t he fringe of the 

crowu and strode forward into the p latform li ghts , one lean brom1 

fist u ward and cleuched in t he Party ' s s bolic avowal to stay 

t he course. 



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i ~ wati released in the final lays , a bat tering 

rarn of worcts, and brooms , and a ~ for the seat of p ower 

they were sure they c ould better occu Y/ than } ustanante. 

Wh• o was not so good , since he had dawdle la decade , they 

said . 1 c] 1•lismanage<l anu ruled corruptly , they said. thd- &kL trf: 7~ 

~o the rhythm mounted in the last weeks and broke into the 

incredibl e r--! ay . 

waned 
When the d ay llHHI and the polls closed, there was a lull 

and the streets wen t slack as the tire~ troopers, weary with 
out 

bringin r/m t he votes , and hawk- e eing the polling booths for 

enemy skullduggery , and yelling to h oarse the battle slogans , 

gathered at the counting laces , wai ting for t he scriveners , 

~ poll - c lerks , to say who hau won. 

so,oe went to Pagnol I ous e. mong them , Manley and Edna . 

'~'hey were all old hands at waiting. 'wice be 'ore , n 1944 

anJ 1949 , the viPil haJ endea in agony . nut t h is year ~as a 

good year , they felt. day like this required a good end. 

nd gradually , they knew it was true. 

One by one, t h e names were 
J;: I). c,. t-.l 

ston. :/i lls O Ain ,,._ cent r al . 

s oken. ' lasspole in East 

1', , 1' , 1 ethersole i n ,les t :t 

r'row t he foothilis , t he word came J.ow1L : :t', . . • ~.an le was i n. 

ing-

ndrew. 

There were J2 s eats for the l~ouse. They counted heads . 

' bey went up to ten. E1even. Fourteen . The yrojections were 

worked out. 'he P would win not less t h an 18 or 19. And 

when those i nsid e .la nol ouse -listened to the streets outsid e , the 

knew that the streets had counted hea s too. For all hell broke 

~ P/J (-➔ ~ eyes (h~-;., ol Hcv · f 
loose outside. he 1 NP. was in. 

t:; ~ All the - in ~ ~ t urned I e h eld 



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their gaze ann a curious silence slip ed • into the room. 
as he 

He spoke to those nearest to him and rose , laughing gently 

broke the spell . For he was not a 

spelll>inaer. He was a cool and rational ma11 who had an awesome 

capacity for work and thoug t; and an integrity strong auu u.11-

vale 
shakeable as the 1,1ountains surroun,ting ~uanaboa . The - he 

It was a long road he haJ co111e from ~~ 

uuanaboa Vale . 



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Part Two 

GUANAROA 

As in other seasons , it was a g ood year for a few , an 

average one for most . ~ •~ 

~ -~ 
,,,,,.._-
They were closing out a century that had canted the c olony 

from an economy supported by slavery , into a society in which 

skill and sweat c ould be converted into gain no t much for 

the lower layer, i . e . , the ex- slaves and descendants, but 

better than their ancestors~ ad known . 'ti '-(~&,,)-,, ,._,z:,.J 13'i~ 

Politically , they were in a halfway house . They were 

working a Crow~lony salted with democracy in its nine 

elected members _whose rhetorical flow broke harmlessly against 
I\ 

the final powers of His Excellency the Go vernor . 

The Governor was appointed by England . 

And, in any case, n o t many islanders had the vote . 
J IM,.,... .. l 

The Island ' s 700,000 peopleAe~g~~ ~ 

under a government chosen by just six percent of their peers . 

Usually theD white , and c ertainly theD richest, peers . 

The money economy seemed innocently f'etching until you 

looked closer . 
,, 

~ _ou could buy new potatoes at two cents 

a pound at a city market . Butter from Hanover (homemade , 
ii: 1wl1~'i.. };.; .{;q_ ,j 

creamy) cost 25 cents a pound . Easy walking except that the 1,,.rt..L'iaz.~1 

i'~ 
had no legs . A f arm worker would have11 t o work a week to buy a 

pound of butter . A cut - rate Sunday suit off Nathan & Company ' s 



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peg was a backbreaker : 

weed six acres o f grass . 

e must uproo t 500 hardwood stwnps, or 

Socially, the g overnment he had no hand inSelecting , had no 
'f,Z.,- £ 'IC. 1:,,s.plt.:, 

anxiety t o please him . ~ = the primary purpose of the 

25- year-ol d Lands Department was n ot , as t oday , t o settle the 

landless , but to eject black p easants f r om the highland s, the 

area most "suited t o the labour of white men in the open air II Ct,o 
{i)vl- -.,~~.- W"t'ih. ~~- w)(/ , , 

** 

But i f the wealthy straddled the r idge s , the J~~ b oldest 

among the p oor were c oming out and 
AA-hfu, 

t h e Anglicans , the "n ob's church 11 , 
I\ 

filling the r oads . True, 
cf li.,;z., p,li fi'(.,'./ -t{turti.;-c:.4\ 

were Established , . but the 

" old rural "slave church" o f the Moravians was also moving to town . 

lncreasingly , each year , a rising class of small artisans had 

b een knocking for n o tice . Cobblers were l obbying for ■ closing 

the d o orto the fl ow of India- r ubber f oo twear . Carpenters were 

assailing the McKinly Act which put a tariff on timber whil e 

letting in tax- f ree prefab s . And tailors were deamonstrating 

f o r a cut - back in the fQZ off-the - peg readymades . 

Even more f ar-reaching , taking their cue f r om an English enact­

ment which made masters and servants equal b e f ore t he law, one 

Jamaican newspaper was asking , in a carefully small voice , whether 

a way c ould be f ound t o 11 give workers more rights . 11 

** 

* hat year 1 89 J was a good year f or purveyors . Hen deJ:?son 

& Cpmpany's elegant leat her carriag es ( of' 11mail coach axles and 

steel tyres 11 ) were g oing well . At Louis B Winkler ' s Music S t ore fit~ l 

/ No 18 Kin g StreetJ , Mrs Cor i naldi was success f ully p lugging her 



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latest schmaltz, La Premiere Pensee to a downtown flow of uptown 

ladies accoutred in French sateens and shot surah silks. A 

steamboat named Britannia docked with a full load of determine d 

Ameri can tourists who rode in horse drawn hackneys through the 

corduroy road to Bog Walk Gorge and lunched at the Rio Cobre 

hotel in a• historical inauguration of t hat lucrative s ub-tribe 

-~1/,,o~ ) (.~ 

of the tourist ~ the one-day tripper ~ the cruise 

ships. In spite of an uneasily growing f'r equency of bankruptcies 

and a certain graveyard humour wh ich made the Theatre oyal 

on North Parade open its season with the farce "Ready Money" 

there was plenty of cash in circulation, made up of Mexican and 

Spanish doubloons, U.S. double eagles and British g old en sove­

reigns. 

** 

1893 was also an election year and the h ead-rolling season 

opened early. Councillors on the st Catherine parochial board 

were b eing dissolved "for persistent default in their duties." 

The voters, all six percent of them, were being urged by the five 

daily newspapers in the country, to show up on polling day, and to 

oust, as one Edi tor wrenchingly put it, the ttmedd l.ing, mud dling, 

tinkering, tenta~ive legislature of t h e last eight years." As 

the times were not particular for reticence, so were the• entre­

preneurs not for honesty: shopkeepers who slipped "hickory in 

coffee, sand in sugar and stones in currants," were being crush­

ingly exposed in the Press. 

** 

.11:593 was also a year of high fettle f'or the lively isl.anders 



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o f all races. Und er t { e "Big Tree" on South "'"arade, Kingston, 

black youths were single-sticking their Turnbull ~ Company's 

"pimentos" with bone-cracking skill. Highboote d white boys 

were b rawling with the 1and eville Town constables in } r Palache's 

lunch room. F i ghting Ch inese d icemen sometimes ll tumbled 

out o f Barry Street's Chinatown d oors and into the police 

Black Maria. In t h e Hussein f estivals of Vere, s avlamar 

and S t 

~ the 

Mary 's, East Ind ian factions locke d in doughty battles 

passag e of t heir celebratory shrines. 

Yet, lively or not, it took some luck to s u rvive if 

you were b orn in the 1890s. Th ese were tie lethal years for 

babies. Staying alive p ast c h ildhood was a statistical coup . 

Some of' the random samp les numb. 

Almost any mon t h , fatalities ran to just about half :t/L{!__ 

/J t't"fl , The determine d help lessness of the period today savag es 

t h e mind . Once, upon t h e approach of a cholera epid emic, one 

community lead er could of'f er no stronger h ope than to exhort 

all "lik e brave men and b rave women, be p repared f'or the 

worst."* 

-If-The En g lish governor of the period , Sir Henry Blak e, 
of stouter stuff, took hope, because, unlike the 
outbreak o f 40 years b efore, t h e streets of Kingston 
were 11no longer being pave d with horse manure." 

inf ant 
And even if your iiiiiffl- durab ility p roved :l6Xlllflf~ enough 

Pa 
to tak e you~ ~- the fifty-fifty fatality curve, there 

were other hazard s like the fury of the lawcourts which could send 

a nine-year-old g irl to t h e re f ormatory for seven y ears for 

stealing three halfpennies. 

In f act, 1 8 93 was like any oth er year in that a g e of our 
past f unny,riarsh, good , bad, heatwave and all. 



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CHAPTER ONE 

The heatwave was a blanket over the island in the first days 

of July, drooping damp, hot and low over the plains and lower 
and 

valleys/na hanging lightly in the high country about ·andeville. 

J u ly Fourth, the American Independence holiday, was not legally 

observed in Jamaica but the huge gross of shipping between the 
u;)Wy),t:~ Jo ~ n)€.,~l, &1 JZ&,,i).¥/j,\, 

U.S. and the island provided f'or the• /\• -- . American Consulates 

I /I .M ~ /y r:'o .,.~ w-ao « 
in eleven port towns* , OU1,d-'\a:• 1 1 1 .1 noticed. ! . diilJ by 

*In Kingston, Falmouth, Mon•ego Bay, st Ann's Bay, 
Savlamar, Port Antonio, Milk River, Port Morant, 
Port Maria, Old Harbour, Black River. 

"dressing" ship and firing cannon salutes. Away from the ports) a-o ~ i{;;_ 
,,, OwM,-talM4 .If rn a"' rrnr-> 

~ it was life as usual. 

The heat had been mild in Manchester parssh, where t h e coffee 

and pimento crops were promising. Welcome evening showers -
t ti£ j 2 

cooled the night• about Old England and Richmond I\. C § • ta s r 

.i1@91¥ 1o z t , Lying on the broad height between Old England and 

Rich mond is the property of Roxburgh. There, late Tuesday, July 

• 

Fourth, N. W. Manley was born. aturall y for be i ng born on such a day 
that t r uly belonged to America , they na ed h i m orman Washington . 

oxburgh is four miles up a slow, rocky ascent from the quaint 

roadside village of' Royal !<"'lat, near Williams f ield. The road works 
i~A.-tU!--a.. 

up past some rolling pastureland and the stonewalls 1 I i C 
~ A 
c-.. the parish. The air is exceptionally clear, with long / 

• 'L • -Ui~ • 
views Gr llU S, e.-. At Jones Depot, a narrow parish road leads off 

to the right..:> to oxburgh gate. The house is some 500 yards in from 

the gate, raised above a cellar) and mild ly well-to-do. It is sur­

rowided by pimento MacfiJOfi'OO( barbecues. It sports that symbol 

of the above averag e ranchester f armer, great water tanks for 

domestic and pasture use. The house was owned by N .W. Manley's 



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fatl1cr, 
K 

•-'- . s .r anley. 
6 

homas lbert ;Samuel ,.:anley was born in orus , t he son of an 

glish commercial traveller whose beat of lack l iver, t hrough orus 

to ingston , resulted in sons in the three places and a aughter in 
T. . S . 1anley 

!:)t ·lizabeth. 'he orus son of' the amorous salesman was/(~• 

who b ecame a produce d ealer and married Margaret Shearer and bought 

Roxb·~ . 

ilargaret Shearer was a daughter of Al exand er Shearer , t he Irish o-

tato farmer who fled a famine to Jamaica amd settled in Hanover . e 

marrieJ the widow of an overseer named Clarke , in I anover . She had been 

left with a large family , the eldest a boy nruned lexand er . hearer 

sired four daughters 

was to include among 

d a son. Tle remarkable Clarke/Shearer pro en 
but one of 

them all/the national leauers into the t hir d ueca e 
' 

of the new Jar. aican nation : Alexander (Clarke) Bustamante , .N , . ,· anley , 

llugh Shear er and ichael sranley -- - and N. W' s wife , Edna , whose mo t her , 

llie , was one of lexan 1 er hearer' s daugh ters. Alexander ' hearer was 

not rich but he was whi t e . Hi s daughter largaret lost some status when 

"' .%.. f!,c-i;t:° h-2.~ aLt ,4. ~ s h e marrie 1..1 the d ark s k i nned T . .S .Manley . -- (J 
lh~ a. ·~,O . >) ~ IJ on~ ~ 'f £411,<l '.m"-t- • 

By all accounts , T . . J. S .r.,, . was a successful roduce dealer. !Ie kept 

an office i n orus to which h e c o unuted. . ie a as an aggressive young bus ­

inessman , unusually farsighted for his day . IIe became a p i oneer i n citrus 

export and was known to gamble on a one - man l ease of a shi p tor ove his 

fruit to eri ca. Sometimes he los t. Hot suns and calm s e as sabo t aged 

the unrefrigerat e d voyages of the schoone r - rigge d . _e was a man of great 

pers onal chann and hos itality . The house at oxbur h was on o a casions 

overnight host to werican i 1nporters on trad e mi ssions for fruits and 

s ices . But he had a d rawback. ' he father o:f the man who woul d become 
(3{(. ,-W.p,,. ~ ) 

..., most famous lawyerAhad a fatal love for lit i gation . Just before h is 

death , one of' his lawsuits took its ruinous c ourse all the way to the 

London Privy Counc il be.fore it financially felled h i m. s a result , and 
aggravated ~Jw-i!.. 
~ ~ya ~ blight whi ch eliminated the pimentos on _oxb~}h , 

the f i scal affairs of' t h e family were in considerable uiscornfort when 

he <.l ie d . .F'ortuna tely for them all , Hargaret Shearer Manley was an 

indomitable woman. 



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A while b efore Pl ••••when the blight began its ram­

page throughh Roxburgh, Thomas Manley, had , with his father­

in-law, Alexander Shearer, acquired a 2,000-acre property at 

Guanaboa Vale called Belmont.* Granpa Shearer move d , I I• I : I h I· I I I, 

*One source reme-bers it as a 1,600-acre holding. 

f rom his farm at Blenheim, Hanover to Belmont to manage the 

property. At Thomas• death, his widow and the children 

joined Alexander Shearer at Belmont. By then he was ailing and 

partially blind. 

Margaret Manley was a small woman of tremendous will. She 
Ax.£ AIJ 

set to wortith~ courage wl!dfi• r to make Belmont pay. W 1 ts 

logwood groves would raise her family. There were four 

• 

children: Vera, Muriel, Norman and Roy, born in that order. N -tJ . 
th ~le'( ~ ci \/.. y€-a'w tJ-ltL ~ m I,{_ A:o .,14 v... - bo~<- . 

Guanaboa Va le is 

history. F 

paigns by the English 
b,-ok(l.. 

officer-led mutiny,\ in 

»~Dlllll: as rich in beauty as it is in 
IYl I/ 

of the 17th and 1 8 th century cam-
Ft. ~ H • 

against the Maroons; were mounted . An 
o..-t: ~ ~--b v ... 

the Occupation Armfas put down here and 

the two leaders hanged .dBi B ; a Mi 1 I lQ Pf • - S at Spanish Town. 

A loopholed military strongpoint still stands in a small woo d 

across the road from the church. Inside the Vale churchJare tombs 

of officers wh o land e d with Cromwell's forc es. On t h e heigh ts 

a b ove the Vale, J uan de Bolas wag e d war at first against t h e 

English f rom t h e mountains which bear his name, then 
:deer palCC °6 

a gainst the Spaniards to consolidate ,(he country f or 
p 'y()~CU-. 

afterwards, 

his ... 

black 
" 

The Vale is part of a great glad e in the west 

shed of the Rio Cobre. If not riotously fertile, it is fine for 

pastures on the long, easy slopes, almost always usefully grassed, 

and for cocoa. And even better for the two high spirite Manley 



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boys with its limitless borders for horseback riding, and a naar 

pond for swimming . 

The •'•anley boys were registere d at the Guanaboa Vale el ementary . 
oruan ashi1 0 ton a11ley was seven. An on the extra day of that lea 

·/ ear ' f'&'iffli/WJ:czcent@y ,n ~'b~~t# ~91,"'t. ,2 1n t f1 e ~6/ as~ town of 
Bournemouth, ~'n4=tand, was born to a ~ ethol ist anchorite clergyi, an 

--. ~'ttliinltJ b ,.x 
nar 1e 1arvey Sw i thenoank , anc his Ja 1aican w i:fe , .;liie , nee Shearer , 
a daughter , in whou1 the locally fa 1e preacher , ,r1en in fro1 p11eu-
1,,o .. ia ant generally long illhealtb. , woulc see a sign of his own 

recovery , and , witr. ::;or:,e thanksgiving , allot to his fifth ehil the 
.ebrew name of rejuvenation , -'"'na . Go,«..k:GA."""1 ~ 

e Belmont house was a S&1•• • .. •~hfive ~ eel.ro om bungalow of 

d eep verandahs and commanding views. N.W.Manley was, in later 
p la ., (, 1-1, 1/d'fiA 

but certainly the old~ ~ years, to call it a ruinate property 
.s,>t S pa riis:-R -tiPJ "' 
rat &JS vat ae -'had paying stand s of logwoo d , pastures and a -fcd-r 

1111 t tenancy. The f amily lana Granpa Shearer) managed a .U.ving 

R 6 v f tJ. ~ et- -----­
f ar :fro r inconsequential : -nsa. ffµII.) • a2 . Jtzll' dogcartl , 

s ~""ta ., and later, bo rdin 
rid ing horses ..- church pews, r. • •wze&clll! .......-:'tin cis:P.bd:211... -~ .. 

u a ter a 1 they cold afforu Cous·n Alec ' larke , also style n us -

tan ante , hired f' or a year as Junior U erseer . Im.lee tb.e 

time that bills for •'1argaret' s maternal ambitions for her brodd 

too rapidly for her income. Then, like g enerations of J amaicans 

b efore and sin ce, she took the migrants' route to America, accom-
by 

panied ~ h er sister, Elizab eth, leaving t h e ch ildren with her 

aunt, s Shrimpton, widow of· a Methodist minister, who live in 

toe Kingston suburb of Rae Town.* 

*Dr ~ riel Manley tells the story of Aunt Shrimpton 
going to Blenheim, Hanover, to collect h er small 
nephew to• live with her in Kingston, but returne d 
wit h h er niece, his sister, Maud, instead a f ter he 
refu sed to leave the old h omestead , clutching at the 
gateposts and bawling until he turned blue. I t seems 
as if nephew A1exander Bustamante woul only move to 
Kingston when he coul d run the place. 

- send f or t h e children to live 
He r job i n 1 ashin g tOD.SJ 

in America. But the American dream soon f'aded. 
as a p ostal clerk could neit her support her family n or keep 

-- CT ; 1 ._ I J 11l liilPs •c ; -It I Di 
t hem out o f t he ghe tt o whe re t he ir colour woul d se ttl e t he . . , &dNd:11 -! ii" illJMijE -· ¾iJII az ht; 7 J Jilt I IC 

Wliil J 3 & 76& She and Elizabeth sailed for h ome . 



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Meanwhile, a:fter a short stay at Wolmers' Girls' School, 

Vera and uriel, the two eldest o:f the Manley children, had been 

trans:ferred to the boarding school at Hampton, an academy then ex­

pensively reserved :for daughters of' the gentry. Norman remained 

at Woli:ters' Boys' :for a year and then was pulled back closer 8 

h ome to his "parish" high school, Beck:ford & Smith's, in Spanish 

Town. He rode on horseback the twenty miles to and from school 

each day, mostly at a gallop so f urious it brought many waarnings 

from the local law en:forcers. He finally entered his third 

secondary school, when, with his brother, Roy, he was enrolled 

at Jamaica College in St Andrew. There he would make mark s in 

scholarship• and athletics unrivalled in the total by any o:f his 

countrymen be:fore or since. 

Belmont was a property to gladden a boy's heart. Two large 

ponds prof':fered :fishing a nd swimming through the long school 

vacatiol1Jll summers. Birds :flocked the great glades with its acres 

of guava g roves, yielding shoots of baldpates, pigeons, ducks. 

Miles of riding trails twisted up and away into the Juan d e Bolas 

mountains. The two boys roame d Guanab oa Vale inflicting t -1eir 

pranks upon the indu lgent countryside: Roy, the younger, i mpul­

sive, outgoing• an explosion of laugheer: Norman, lean and 

hard -riding, the high priest of high jinks. 

The countryside was lenient to their fun. The se were the 

good years f or the new brown aristocracy, themselves remotely con­

trolled b y the ascendant whites at a carefully encourage d level of 

arrogance I to be the r u ling d ivisives among the non-white masses. 

The two b oys could have turned rogue, as did, traditionally, the 



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d escendant encounters of white master and black f emale f ieldhand , 

living highbooted and spurred, above the populace. Conversely, 

g iven that at this season in our society, Quality was a»~~• 

state d enie d ZKI those of the Manleys tribal persuasions, they 

I 

-~ 
coul have become genteell f allow. That neither._ the case, had 

its reasons in the work-laws laid out by Margaret Manley, that small 

woman whose cadenced strength held her children even. Widow an-
di,d;i,vm -

ley' s Belmont .a.Elts-•n- declared -i"hat labour, and only labour, 
s 

brought rewards. She herself handled the propert½ A.cattl ~ ,_a d 

the postal a g ency her resourcefulSness h a d acqu ired for Belmont 

()., /1-WYh ~ ---
--- kept in the house) with equal prof/iciency. 

•'\ -
Everybody worked at Belmont, the g irls at whatever was going 

f or young ladies of t h e times, the b oys at chopping wood and 

cleaning pastu res. "We grew u p to neither g ifts nor pocket-money," 

N . W.Manley said in later years. "We made our wages." 

At home from Jamaica Colleg e in the summer, and some week-ends, 

h e honed his skill at the axe until he could make h is wages, and 

better. He could challenge and b eat most of the Belmont profes­

sionals on the property's logwood stand s. And even into his Six­

ties, before - massive heart attack, he was still handling the 

J-foot splitting axe with absolute ease. At Belmo.nt, in his .. teiiiil6ens, 
'1:iid k i'I/ 

. A bought 
~ -favo,ue.d • * . 

him the guns and saddles for the sport JliiNllllj I nwu• ·• - · 

*At Jamaica College he led his team to win the Perkins 
Shield for shooting. The Shield is Jamaica's oldest 
interscholastic trophy. 

argaret Manley died when - . W .a ~ , )l-tv2..1, 
was ll 1•"W.M , but the 

spiritual energy which had welded this volatile and highly talented 

family into a unit at Guanab oa Vale, still held. ~ would appear, 

too, that Thomas Manley's nicely developed d iscernment for prece­

dents which had made him, a produce buyer from inland Porus, into 
/ ) 



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e ha o ked hard and passio ate y to gi e them a ood education . 

t was er "o e 

::ih , made all our 

nall chicken .fa 

eat i e determi ation i li e , 11 Ianley as saiu . 

clothes , ade jellie~ when ~ua ab were in , kept a 

m , a few cattle , a little co ra. Sing ehan euly 

1e manage all these thins . When night came , she disap eared 

? ner own room tow ite letters to er ew remaini rien s, nea ly 

1 o wh m ha oe~ert e her er she ma ri~ct a e back 1 an. 

ien not wri tin , st e , s a wide nd orac ious reader . 11 



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/ I 
.fo ~ xptJd s > 

a charterer of blue water s h ips,t was not lost in h is childeen. 

When Vera won a music scholarship to Britain, and with ror­

man g oing after the Rhodes, it seemed an appropriate time for a 

wholsesale mi gration to Britain. N. w. ~ •s plan to a pply for the 

Rhod es Scholarship meant he would stay a while longer in the island , 

but, by August, 1 911, Muriel was at King's College, London, and 
F"' Roy was attend ing a public school at a elstead, Kent. 

luck " 
So f ar, the JIUIIB h a d mostly broken g ood f'or orman Manly. 

He h a d b een a f ine sch olar at J'amaica Colleg e and an ath letic h ero. 

His ten second s for the 100 yard s dash in t h e vintage year of 1912 
unbrok en 

was to remain/ti~~&~a for 41 years (although it would be equ alled b y 

h is son, Douglas). In track, fiel d and team games, his prodigious 

perf ormances have ma d e him t h e all-time unsurpassed in college ath­
w/i i le, 

letic•s. Bu t in t h e two years he waite d in Jamaica to be called by I\ 

t h e Rho d es Cormnittee, and , perh a p s, be awarded t h e c oveted blue 

riband ot' scSholar s h i p s, h is l uck -ir: Jft ran ou t. 

I t was to an ext ent, typical of the later man t hat h is instincts 

led h i m i n to teach ing , and to teach all through the three levels 

o f the island system: p rimary (at Titc hfield ), secondary (at 

Jamaica Colleg e)and agricultural (at Hope Farm School). The k now-
detail and concept 

led g e a nd insigh t gat hered throug h his g ift for JOQ(UPXUl:Xl:UUXXX cu ltivated ~ 
mxllXJClfl:xt:uU an authority in a griculture and general e du c ation 

that strengthened his political career. He had grown into a t h ought-

ful, qu iet young man with a passion for reading and music and 

h orseracing. 

His luck cracked one Satu rday afternoon after the races at 

old Knutsford Park , now the site of New King stuu . He was at 

t h e track with his c lose f riend , Leslie Clerk. Clerk avers t h at h e 

seeme d to be in good h ealth , fluttering ga mely alth ough his h orses ran 

slowly. "But t hat was characteristic o f him," say s Leslie Clerk. "He 



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d id everything f ullblooded, win or lose·• l e lef t Knutsf' ord toge­

ther a f ter the last race. Next morning h e was dying ." 

Th e . a n ley bout with typhoid was p h e n omenal. His well 

ili-ffli athlete's frame thinne d to I gaunt bone and knuckles. He 
iV..rt:rall 

was too tough to d ie, bu t it was close. Th ey took him to the 1
11hostel •~ a., 

hospital in lower East Street where they :fought the fever for three 

weelcs . He had made plans to travel to the United states (with 

Clerk ) and t h en go on to Oxford, f'or, by that time, he had b een 

awarded the Rhodes. But these plans had to be aborte d while he 

mende d at the Hope resid ence of his :friend s, the Joseph s.* He 

*One of the Josephs, Sir Hector, was later Chief Justice 
o:f 

:finally sailed for England early in 1 914. He entered Oxford. 

The illness ha d a crucial e f fect upon his university career. 

He woul d have undoubted ly dealt definitively with the record books. 

That he never mad e a Blue in his years at Oxford was due to the post 
tf..t i,µpL 

eff ects of his illness. However, in his second year, • II" ti more 
h e war b r o e out . He 

important matters f~or his attention. Yiidl■ii!J enlisted in the Royal 
was 

Field Artillery and Pl I bttJ committed to the Somme. 



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CHAPTER 'fWO 

So now, that year, 1914, the Manleys were together again, 

Vera and Muriel in their London flats, Roy,a public school boy, 

and XO i: orman at Jesus College, Oxf·ord. Not quite Guanaboa Vale, 

it was true, but neither essentially alien, since, in bone and 

breeding, there was a good deal of England in the four. More­

over, not unlike the Rae Town aunt, there was another in County 

Cornwall, with . a b rood of nine energetic first cousins. Aunt 

Ellie Swithenbank, sister of Margaret Manley, lived in a house 

on large grounds with her husband, the Reverend Harvey Swithen­

bank, a Methodist rninister. Here, in a Cornwall manse in England, 

was home for the four Manleys, and to it they turned in their 

holidays. 

The summer was good that 1914 for the Manley brothers. True, 

one could not gallop across to Lloyds, or walk the hills of St 

Faith-Macca Tree, climb to Point Hill or fish the ponds at Belmont. 

There was no money left over for spree - spending, since, on £J50 a 

year, the value of the Rhodes, it was hard enough to keep up with 

the cost of those monogrammed cigarettes which the young N.W. 

Manley-about-- London-town, down from Oxford, affected . But 

there were long golden days in Cornwall, and good conversations 

and vigorous ramble s_, led> sometime~ by a leggy girl cousin - named 

Edna Swithenbank. 

Pranks were not so easily executed as at Guanaboa Vale. 

]~nglishmen, even when disguised as Cornishmen, were wretchedly 

uneasy at any inroads into their privacy. What was even more 

shaking to the pair of Anglo-Jamaica youths was that they were, in 

spite of blood, upbring ing and outlook, alien corn. It, of' course, 



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SUP" . 

' e si ewy: intellect, equal to t he urgencie::; o f his will. 
~ 

Li ely , alttlou~h l\.i t unhee ed , at least in silence , he alrea y 

ha heard t he ethnic skeletons ratt ling in the f'ami l y closP.t. 

"""' ' i ·, e l1 es cent 01' the d arksk.inn . anleys on Corn, all had colli t e( , 

however c-entl , ·lane ingly, with the life lUlie Sw i thenba1 I ad 

ma e for hersel.f; however innocentl , it wa::; , in a sen::,e , a c o n ­

trivance '- escribec by our hardpresse olack AJ erican cou:,;in::; a. 

11 as::,in . . 11 • Indee t , tLere is no o ubt tl at it ,;a::; lo ge in 

*A ploy emJ?l o ye usta11ante when he livEi 
in the U::,A a::; re ort e by Norman 1anley . 

ruley ' s awareness. A f'ew years later.:? uefo re t hey were we , he 

, as to question the wis d o, of havinc,, chilc ren . ot 

i:;h e , rote hi " I d ont a1 t ( my child) to be wlite . 

so [ 11, • l. u iousl;I' 

rnr~t hi n to 

have your o,rn beauti ul orown skin ... 11 And to .i;>rove t.he was not 

\va1'I'ling on the resolve , she ma e it vublic a c.i o~eL year;;:; later in f-
an E11g lish new::; aper , shattering the ,vi thenuank 

J.Jart - A1rican ance::stry . 
t, C ut ,,1ore particularl at thi time iu ,.is 

,vab f' cil a 11e~ reality . H e ha been in0 est e 

tun ble of' the ritis l... Ar 1y . 

)' l-'arad ing l er 

li1'e , or a1. anley 

i1to trLe rougL f 



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brought them even closer together. Intelligent, high-spirited 

and proud, they accepted .. certain truths that were emerging 

and settled into as f ull a life as the circumstances allowed. And 

this meant that for the two, living was not without incidents; 

6ccasions in which t h ere was a flashing return to the f unny, 

eng a g ing whimsy that pervades an N . W.Manley caper. Such as the day, 

when, f ootloose in London, they entere an auction room, and , in an 

excess o f good manners, each time the auctioneer nodded in their 

direction, politely nodd ed back. They natu rally end e d up owning 

t h e stock, a great load of cheap alarm clocks. 
haken, 

~ but functioning, they hired a barrow, waited f or the 

end o f t h e short London day, and, quietly as possible, trundled 

the barrow along the Embankment and umpe the · 

in the Thames. 

lot 

But summer ended and with it came 7 & the guns of August. 

N. W. anley had turned 21. 
F ield 

Royal/Artillery and were soon in 
for him 

in a way markedAby his character. 

He and his brother enliste d in the 

France. Roy was killed in action 
during c.t,.. left 

He 'ltf' 0 
I\ 

) JT• his dugout g - ilf 

h eavy shelling to rescue a fallen comrade. - His loss was a 
ound ed 

tragic irony in that, by the time he was hit, theft sold ier he._.. bore 

£ J .I§ on his back had been dead for some time. 

N .W. Manley's soldiering put him in a racial crucible from 

from which h e emerg ed with no visible scars but a 
7'/IK IP 

gut awareness 
sp ecific· lly 

man , '\. l g f ■ that c olour was a factor. U'he English enlisted 

1?W 5 I 27' the Cockney, was noted neither for tact nor a tend er 

heart. A r u thless phrase-smith of quick dexterity, - to him, 

the "darkie" in his ranks was a g od-send . All his life 

Manley had b een a leader of the pack f) .,,.,, ell- ,, 'JMlli Tl111illllil!s 



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a fine acad emic who could also run and jump and shoot; .. 

,... already "even then a ... ational Hero," as Sir J ohn Carberry, 

a retired Chie f J ustic~ of Jamaica and an early professional col­

league , asserts. The s u dden exposure to t h e raw power o f t he 

English peasant-on-horseb ack must have assau lted his e go. 

The Tommies in h is c ompany f lost no time in d e c iding who 
C 
~ 

would b e the Com~any ,f oil A "Darkie, 11 t h e black f ellow from the 

Colonies. Bu t soon If ; · z what h a d seemed a p erf ectly g ood g o, 

was stumbling on the cobbles. 
happened 

ItA •t:~n!ll. thkat "Darkie" was not 
any in e rans, 

only much better edu cated thanA!- but possessed a wickeder 

tongue, could out-shoot, out-ride, out-box and out-run the best 

of them ,~.~~ltllllllU •••••• incomparab le axe-wielde( ·at 
" -~l':J . ot only th t, he was 

• clearing a forest f or Ill' m ■ jra I\ Jillt58 • IA J[[ a a g reat deal 

more hand some , a f act resp ected b y the many pinched spec i mens from 
Their 

t he purli eus of the East En. 111fhll tribal worship of class, saw 
the 

in him/the "gent", • A 11 guv'nor. 11 So, 11 Darkie 11 was ch ang e d to 

"Bill," a solidly En glish handle. When incoming new replacements 

to t he regiment b e gan t h e baiting that was as natural to them as 

s p itting , they were swiftly and ob scenely put right by -... old 

hands in the platoon. 
outlook 

In/1■1!1 _ ih and insight, Manley's f our years of war Ctl HU 
foxea the rules into ihich his schoolin~ a ill raising coul ha e 

- ••• • ·- :•Z ·•■ l2Jtsffi¥,a--·g1• di s•:••-·• I Plfile.i-..J& l 

J 111'.J' '71111:P JilllfUllliHlllll:11' •~ • til1111U&llll!IUlll 12tl-llftJII ,8.IWM 

a rlPMlilf71•11:rrotr■, 11111 •11tfililtNWMllifdllJJIINWtfi XRll►--iliUlil--
10 cke.st h i m. He committing 

•IIH■ tU'.IN!!ilJJJ-Jisfl .... lllHO) I fSJt1, was for the first/\l■INlll.t 
. ·- his w_~~ proletariat; 

1 _ ~ ..Life with the l\.llf1111t with the folk- people of a race 

t hat was h alf h is, the English workingman. At Guanaboa Vale,• 

¥1!1.l ■lnl!11iWllb he had been of the local aristocracy. His working 

I.ilia I' JI in the field d i d not breach his privilege as the son of t:he: 

busha. Deference g linted , however briefly, in the downwind toss 



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c_by his axemen c olleagues. 
of sweatA He returned at evening to the genteel affairs of the 

country-home life maintained for her children by the d etermined 
no 

Margaret Manley. In the army, there wasA- going home at the 
''- Cornwall 

end of the day. The shelter of Jesus College and of theAmanse. 

;4. rllllt had gone. His comrad es were close to his back as s hirts 

hair- shirts. 

"Colour had meant nothing to me in the years before the war, 

in Jamaica ... I was by nature, a reb el, and little a ff ected by what 

people t h ought of me. 11 But young Gunner Manley found that what people 
were But 

t h ought o f h im could raise hackles where he t h ought there/..-, none./"I 

d i d not, could not allow it to be an obsession since I was totally 

without a~y i d ea of 'white superiority.• The only s uperiority I 

accepted was (that) o f •excellence• . I h a d an unquenchable belief 

in •excellence' . 11 ace as an implosive which by iron c ontrol he 
diffused into ialectic. 

The value 0 1" •exc el.Len ee' was not o r cours e .lost on h is brother , 

Royawh o did everything ... not only well, • but with grea t . 
However, Roy, h aving 

enthusiasm. ,'a··~----•-·' p rece ded h is older brother, Norman, to 
endure d the system, 

England by two yea rs , and/ • public sc hool~ was taught and 
. a lP■Nt 

quickly grew aware that• -- racial prejudices were ever •■■■W· 

creeping out of the English oy • 
rnm•l!l1- Zlnftllll.., ainscot. Strong and h ot temp e~ ... was 

- · ,... flicking the d isrespecltilttful 
W... Nlllifl - I 1!' already expert at/Jl(JIIQClt•......,./ffJ ]( .. ._ 
by tongue-lash or fists. They h ad joined up together, soluiering with 1 

DDrDQmDIDIWDllliEDD:nunt:rauo1pnum A a mounted bat-

tery , culled from t h e B East D ptford gutters. East 
raff'ishly 

Dep t f ord is in East London, J lll f tough lower class. ~ 
in the battery 

I ·r The Manley boys would have lasted a while longer had not Norman's 

natural excellence lande d h im a promotion. ije was made a Bomba-
among 

dier which placed h im t h e non-commissioned off i cer's. He believed 

h e was sing led out because of the Cockneys unaqu aintance with horse~ 

"and anyway, I was a University man. 11 Although he wore only a single 
non-com 

stripe, the lowliest on the~ ladder, he had stepped straight into 



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trouble. 

"I really never knew for s ure just what the men thought. 

I am sure they resented in a cynical way having a 1".!!1DQIK!is 

1 darkie' given special authority. But I was very popular and 

I think they just made the best of it. Not so my fellow non­

commissioned officers. Without exception, from sergeant-major, 

through sergeants and corporals, I became intensely disliked. 

They disliked a situation in which a coloured man shared their 

special rights and privileges and they showed it in every pos­

sible way. For two months or so, I suffered a virtual perse­

cution. I was not then a patient person, and I treated them all 

with every mark of c ontempt, imitating superiority. Something 

had to snap. 11 

What snapped was • their honesty. They shook together a 

f ew falsehoo ds and laid charges against Bombadier Manley. At the 

preliminary hearing before the company Captain, .w. J!D con-

f ronted his sergeant and sergeant-major. The 22-year-old 

future King'S' Counsel had never been in a courtroom. He was 

given permission to cross-examine and suddenly, it was all 

there. 
recall this rummaging 

questions• 11 H'e , • "I asked a few simple 
for t he first time ~ 
C - (U • ~JLt• lllllA amono the tools of/\~ profession . 

in final, 
C Simple they B may have been, but. 6 211) lbiW J■ crushing. 

His captain , in the army tradition of guilt by being ch rge of a 
lfllHWrv llli!ltntvnsa;JMi8r'111M h t!G\kaJ.ilil& Uf ! F;i ■ IIH11trtrsqUJ(tst JtlL M&A r ii Sllil!M re W 1 ll!'iL 
uperior, advise d he was in for a court Martial --- but did he 

have a 11 ::,uGt,e::;tion"? . . e looked hard at .tanley . Any sold ier worth 
_,_ "" ..,, 

his boots knew that vera<?ity rose with rank . 

.ianle al-roitly cau.;ht it. 
• t J'71 • I i!zl vt )lfJCP 2 llliblt l ; IJ . .. 

b ombad ier' s stri e .;t\/ •'11-IC 
He had a suggestion. He would 

undersaanding that he and his brother iN I be transferred to 



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another artillery batteryJI and "the whole case could be disposed 
eflectively, he added: "He. 

of in this simple seemed very pleased ." Faces were 

saved all around and the smiles 

When he became a political 

came out. .. 
at home l'h 

leader{4ii•ll'.11Mt-ls•· •s11a1rta•b::1t•.~s•· •••· the 

1940 1 s, the possibility of linking his wartime experiences III to a 
lookwd -for a connection 

anti-white attitud always assiduously sought by 
h i m; 

English journalists interviews withAilllllli-•!iia•- was 

frequently tested. He steadily denied such a posture but never 
c_isow1.el -----,,. 
c1•u JI• 11,r the experience . He has never in public life dis-

played any racial wounds or trauma. It must be believed that, 

young as he was, with the integrity that was to be his peculiar 

grace all his life, he contained his reactions. 

Once more, after the initial skirmishes, he settled easily as a 
private in l Before the war was much old er, . he had 
JI I ~( t h e new bat t ery ·A - Tri. • 111 millt6-- • Ii".,,. ., •• ~,1,nn•• 
become the company guru, writing their letters, addressing their 

problems, supplying a foot -lockei contact with an e ducated world 

most of his East London comrades knew only to exist. He was 

offered a commission, of full officer class this time, one he 
(his) 

refused because he "did not want to leave/~ companions. 11 Al-

though he has stated that 11all good advocates are egotists," a 
.. 11e unrepentantly 

proposition~IF • -~fills by meeting the stipulation, he was often 
1. 0\'l._ 

a shy manJ- partial to hisj\ way7 -.,, anc. 
Mlfltibe£,dlll jiWl8 JiU,llL,1has never been strong on the science of 

a :iituation --- as was I a1.i1'estly~ 
dismantling /\ fttlll■ btJft#il•J I ii 1•,r 1.5"roven ""in his later politic al 

life. 

Manley's war was fought in- the 1914-18 classic theatre 

of Ypres and the Somme• and Pachendale. It was b loody and dan­
r ~rofessiou~ iy. 

gerous and he fought bravely and i,Sr!1i & 1-J Because of who he 
e n . : s \ ar...!) . (. 1.'ounc h l ll iinc; 

was,~ could also~ s••ff.11 • M § ta o/', arias from Madame Butterfly 
li.ber cl t .J.11 ' 

andN bottles of Veuve Clicquot, 1905 from a F rench 

town l iberated from the Boche. 



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EXTRA SUP L EMENT WEL FARE TI~!E . 

, .. 
I' 

I.:. nJ'L '¼ /.. ,j-rw, . In -i, 1 i v a t e he wa 3 a u r t h-1-e..s~ t: i c , o r h i.ms e .:r-.r-...u..Ld.. o t h .er s . 
I' '1J ..,,,,,.fi {m/ 4 vt, m.., )j g row inff , / ~~~~Ji:ilU!,'¥ 

' fr isson , Doug l as was a'.XXNNRX:1::imN " t a ll and b rip.;b t and secretive ," 
& o · t en 
·vw~ a escrip t ion x :ax also <:3- p t to Dad . act x .x • w:.sx Eis school junior and 

.. 

lat e r colleae-ue , Rud olph ·,:surke was/fgot;,+-giir~~N~d wit~ consclitousne ss 
\ I 

o f h i s orig ir s and t h e p a t an t i1 e f opporti. i t ies ." A li tt le 
. / ale skin.ne e. 

was sev al~ ·nade x K RXJI.IDO.lllM 

I ' , '{ . o ~ ear
1 ·n c! i n • Jama i ca i:nfi i -C e y 

eas i er ror h . W. to say 

t h an 
S,lh,~-

all 1'l1,wee =ae -, :sg. 

oreso Doug las , t l e ola er , with 

cou l d on s ocialism and cap italism/,aiiu 

b ook s ;aN XN x book s o.r p lai11 re .1 • s m anc raw life :wli: i:K x R t ha t we r e , 
I 

to h i s t h i nking , t he :ext: mos t e f fe ctivf;}~ utRt ion . .:i:«kaKi:: 'hirte en-

year - o l d 1•lic hael was 

S~h ool ac t ivitie s at 

his own J&.XN«:i:ai: prob l ems h a 

f. smok i n . tt o ~x~~~x gx& a cigare e 
:.».J'O,j 

crisis sinc e Edna was 

en ro s s ed wit h h i s Lower 

t o mi11 Ha r x. d oreover , :t-,T i k e had 

lat e ly caught in t he h ei ous cr:L1..1e 

ormi t ory . I t was .i.ii:.x x x N a minor 

eI s l ow . f s c x tur e and 

t his turne d NW loose 

"but chery o f a o ie s " an 

was r oughen h is o l d sch oo l ' s 

consid e r ed n oving out t h e ~o y . I1stead h e sat 

d own /
i n t oxicat i 

t o an ev eni ng w i Orph eu s and slat er rewarde rl b y a n apo lo g etic 

no t e i'rom r-· ichael ::t. t lla t broug 1t a t he fu t ure Pr i me 

:Minister ' s ore sens itiv • f eeli1~ s t la I can ~re tend 

t o .X. • ian c e , wl;a t p ossibil · ties ~ 11 ex laimed f qthe r of son . 

~ 
operation , w~ 

Edna was~ i ,. Lon on/?ir-£1\ tA~ Htl1{c~ 0 an 

s t aye work in t h e cour ts , 

s t ruggli 1g with n e cattl e a t r umblai r n d n:a pp ing p lans for Jamaica { 

~ Llfare Li mited . Ui s ho es were lif t e late in t h e mon t wh en t h e need 

l "P:,-!:;f-I:.41'/ i~ .~":f :. ~;;.;J:Z;~ L w'<o µr~;;;t~ .,,,• .::.t:-d,,,"":.~ 
.-/(--.L-- .w,,,1~ t1,,,...J... ~ ~"'hl1~ ,,>,,,f(n,..L • -"•~ n • ~ ; ~ - P, To -/w /otffi.oif ! 

,. 



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•, ~ , ~ l.i,f,¼ 

7 

' {/! ,} , t,,._,p-.,/( 1, --,',r--,,1' ~~ f:v 

I 
.,,,., 

l';,) -' ~~ 
';( 

) 

.. 
.. ... __ 



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r - . 

--
A CHA CTER STUDY EX CARDBOARD COVERED DIARY 

MM~dd . 

Ft Jf/ lft. 11,{J 

At 4 4 ,{Manley
1 
scribbled a note to himsel f in wh ich h e qup t ed : "Lord , 

my days r u n throug h me like a sieve ~" / BMg t, he noted , in despair , as 

{ e e ard He was ~acyXMOCXlOClOOffi: aware how time 
much an an urg e to/ 1me and continuity./XXX5X~3NW:.kgmi:xigxkaxxa:sxaxax xxk 

crowdine . ,,. 
was Xl!IXXXH~.X»l!IXIDI him but he had only his int eststo blame if :.kkax the 

<") 

i d ea of censure ever occu rred t o Khim . His law b riefs cou ld certainly be 

d oub le that of aiq_ t h e next leading barrister;and music, painting , books , 

x«xHx£a mx~g farmin g,social work, the latter two by ENXk comment ~ Kand 

p erformance ~h, somehow/ ~2 P fRto place wi t hout any shrin age in 

. The SQ-called year of awakening, 
quality . / May i~J~ was mbre t han a year away in that Spring of 1937 

wh en he was wres t ling alone with the •••~B elements »xx~x~x Hs.s. which 
/; 

would b e the b edrock o f any progress in his country : land and its use. 

He h ad calculated that t h e currently popular opinion f or a 5 - acre farmer 

was a "false i d eal. " He t h ought t h e ai:1!4 aim should b e at a 2O-ac re 

averag e per family. I n this h ~ was joined b y several men of his time 
He d i d no t, as d i d ma n y, envi s a e wh at he c alled 

but Manley went f urt h er. / ili:kexml!! i:k x x xxxxxJde.a:x iBx x x x -------
llf.X XNXlll.BXXli!:&Xi::s.a:gie " true homes " x x.111.111xm.mx .H:xi:a1u!is. or strong er families 

through more lands to work or b etter yields. He prof ound ly b elieved in 

e ducating f or ±k:&xx~m±x~ resp onsibility, an area in wh ich his p assion 

never waned . So XJOIDit:XX~ the Zemurray p lan for/JRiliaica Welfare organisa-
to ra ise s ir 't s and teach ski l ls 

tion XBmkxxxxs. x~ a~xx i:x h ad an unshakeab le p riority in wh atever h e did . 

• -,,, . ~ ,>' )El jji@ ~ rtp;' i ' Ji ;@If ' 
0~ ' Po litics and1overnment were not yet the openingsfe woul d later 

se e . Government h a d certain "d uties " and thase they shou l d/ rt-s_:tmhe 

saw t he social service of e ducation-iii better-living to be m~±:si:mx an 

xui:xxkRx~xa ex~ercise peXculiarly Jama ican --- as d ivorced f rom t h e Colonial 

government which was IDiXX.KIO{ll run/fi~~ xfiifl~Iilxxxi xf*~ i~ x £ ·x~x · x 
London for Dritish interests. He strove f or an indep endence xm of the vil­

lage, o f the f amily in t h e imp overished countrysid e by t h eir own efforts. 

He d eclared a strong f aith in cottag e industries f or/ ~s~sp ecially d e­

p ress ed a r ea s¥~ given to furiou s d rought s o r p oo r ~ 

soil ~:XXX a nd laid t h e foundation of t h e s traw i ndustry which N 

x u b e gan a s / Jxiir 8¥d t h e i nfr a - e c onomy and now xi:m claims a plac e in 

our export s . The " Zemurray money " /~&iue\Hier problems . 

Manii Yhad t o/ i ~ xii~~i i !ixii~ii~~} iR d guard thinking wh i ch 

/ 
ut 

would x XllC the new money int o their t ired old "credi t schemes " , a venture 

which would have none of the drama t ic impac t Manley s.x saw as a require -

1ent for aK~/~i id'~i~itassault on/i~IN~iii:1¥eRpathy cent urie s of/i i iiis
1ope 

i1hnueuJD1XB.1... i:. ... h d ht " d t ,... t h t ,_ ' d. t h ' 
xxxRx~axxm~x Xk~ a wroug . I o no agreeA a ~ ere 1 sc emes 

) ought to be pr i vately attempted , " he said a t t he t ime . / ¥xlii :tx'11 essent iall y 

) government ' s job ... a duty which mus t soon be recognised. " HP was still 

some years short of t he s.mx~:ix~ cooperat ive an credit union suree.1 which ,:?-J 7;i 

W!P:§s § O take t he imagination, almost the passion of a rising young mid le -



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class caught in the gospe l f rom Ro chdale. At~1at time, he saw t h at 

,,.,.{,'our f' oundations are flimsy and superstructures are wasted efforts . You cant 

buil a palace on mud. X " 

~Ht-it-¼ - e~-te-ee~~BRti~!» a-~ ~t 
NDX:N): u Qi,._,........... XJaoarnIDCQ:frnUDC 
Such hard cool ·t hinking earned h i m a deserve d re utation :f:&xx:&x:fi:aplx 

for composure and coni'idence, 7:n Uf!J0 ti al whose infrequent outbursts ., 

generally/Rli ifix~~~» a result. ~no.An.=A==~~A==~~~~A~~~~A,=~ • =~~~== e OCK. 
=-.,,,."'"""=" __ _io x A:'"'ter a le l~al cord:erelil., _. it.~ a XX@ x a x maNXX.&.&Xmi«X~HBRX NXMXX XXRX~.XXNRRX 

c ollea,•ue who had been "rude and ,J rovocative " , he could cor11I1ent that " I / fL'1 
L> "' l.)ifl 

lost m rage a n d it had the desire d effec t." But 1J riva t ely he , like othe r me n ~, - )s 
0 reat and smal l , h a his sel f ct oub t s a d conf'es sed to of' t en a c ting i t u it i;

1
~ll / 

~ '.fk:e:xxx :i:.s.x NNXN.&Nla:.tx :.tka± 't'he s etting up of lla a ·» lfit aJ£:e: the bananat~ 

fund N :i:xk and Jamaica Welfare NR:i:~k:lt was the f' irst public weight he was to 

bear and it sat heavily on him. " It ge ts messed u J in my •lind , f " he said , 

" this business of spendine money for Jamaica. " x~x:i::t.x Na:s l ' e 
fiK Xl& XXl1tRS.5-

XOC~ Xll X · xx ~ K XOID~Xl:ltl&.. 

lai c.J d own X!l2»:x pr i n ciples on wh ich he wOu l d stru cture liis p olicy . • :i x x x 
± &1x ~kRXRXXMasx RE±~ x :& x He would re rrai n

1
, 

N ill.MN X N :®. lrX N X YN:K:S:X X ~X x :s.x a :s rom iversi f ication , but 

ra t lfr to accumula t e and concentra t e n oney and erfort; :t~ combine c¾~ i £~ » ~ .iot i: 
• X X i:± X • al: ' f" with/ • .Rxat;g XEJil N xa: eaucation in a g r i c u l t u re; a1::. .:t~ c h a nne l s ome o f' t h e 

mo1 ey into a "narrow crefli t s c h e me 11 in a limi t ed ar:ea , pe r h aps i n equ ipme1 t 

:SRS. loans . P e aske c1 Ansell Har t , U The o Mc Kay , 11 Bu z " Sharp , 

C1 ark e to jo i n t h e Board . I u d olph Jlurke 
HIS EX PAGE 7 I ' DIARY . CHECK NEWSPAPERS 



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He spoke, in his later years, infrequently, of combat. Yet 

he knew the misery, bitterness and continuous peril of trench 
For three years. 

warfare in all its ugliness. / He entered F rance at the beginning of 
came out in 1 is first unit was a 

1916 and , •-11• l 11r the Spring of 1919. ,.LI IltdL. , ..... :Ux: J!ll 
company. Then he 

mounted ammunition supply •·•■ .. became a map-reading scout, 

locating each battery as they moved about the vast arena 0 1 the 

Ypres. The army was on the slow moW1t to the explosion that was 
1~ri6 ht1 ulness 

to be the long drawn -Kie tlliJf:flllbbJ•~ of the Somme. "Map-

reading was for me an easy exercise so I was given that special 

task." 

He liked the task. It was flat farm country, deserted to 

war by the owners, and roaming was not much unlike Guanaboa ex­

cept for the occasional howitzer and other cannon fire that could 
Ly 

tear your head off. merely/ passing close. But it was country, 

"fresh,• and with a beauty of its own in the early morning, or 

late when twilight fell," JillUBl t 11 IU 8. He recalls his luck at 

being almost lost for four days searching for the batteries, "a good 
r Tltat ~ort _of . four days t II on his own with his horse and rifle. 1 · 1f :•r ,mn1r111lillilir 

,,_,.,. ·a~ , f' .1.'01 thif.> uor~ . ..,J-,.cre were ~-er,_ ,eant::; in happiness' HMt not, of course, ct t:; ·•11 liZFT•irtt: !Oiii£iYNr 111118di' every army. Anc. tl e a1;,ley ii ~)i-,l 1.es:::- i . .l t;are-fa cin .... a ::. er ...,e, 1 t i tl a , ••• ·--t!h■ ...... II I •• 7 f ,,.. • I. @ •• • • m:•wwr:,r t& lffll tl I ,.n ..... 
ric..ic. lou:s tor} of a c,tron6 )OU11t, solaier, u1,woinoed, faintirb L1 '!; II 

ill" I t a ii i# U iP".i.lJi\J# d rxlJ ---- -· • • 11 smn l I ti J J tlilW 1111 . ....... lfll'I •• , •• sac le a11J "ah.int, to fiu or e ;:inu 1 i:flP or1e, arc tal ing anotl er cJa to look 1illr1rw ·• · 11 mna , m !lite••-,,...,..a ti ,.,.n r•1•·,•• --• ,rn,· • 111 mrrw:rn-·1Jr~•• i'or the , lee to L, tran:::.fer fro11 the supply unit to a brigade of guns , a move requested by Bombadier Manley to get rid of &_, ·Ille : ff · fl lil Jll'tl-f ­Ser ue-int 's heat. " In --~>itef'ul f'olly , . 
i IJ•r 8't(Iie had charged me wi h insubordination after I showed him 

my rifle next day," -- flliB\tJ,I ojJ~- states the feisty ex-non COi . 
1 o s t ~ , 

He JRi!l11J his corporal's rank, became again a gunner, and 
best joined D Battery of the J9th Division. He became the/-=.; lt gun 

layer in the battery, fast and accurate with the complex machinery 

that puts a modern cannon on target. He went up to the first fight 
iver omm e , wh ere ... ·~ brO+fi,o• Ro'-/ 

for the II(. i& • .•• F,lf$l Ii, • • •r·n I ; tWrr!IUtfM'4ll; .,,JNCtt::WttlMll!lf@a:; JtrWnn~ 



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I 
0-- Roy 

Roy, was wounded. Shipped to ._ rear h ospital/ , Iii recovered and 
talk ti o • ~as an able talker. 

in a short time ,., :·1n Z-liFZ• t:lfl•tt his way back to the front., 
He was returne. to the 

/ very battery ■1181 I q _ pse in which his b rother was the fastest gun 

layer alive. Roy, says N .W., had "a prodigious gif't for making friends. 

I have never in all my long lif+aet anyone who found it so natural 
, /JJ<e IA/ SvPA '--- I 

and habitual to get in touch with perfect strangers." 11iiP,aM'bi ■II ;::;::-, 
oth Jamaican so_ldiers wer e atJ 1ii I fl li!lf U§l-~~ili t arr han'.~_are ~ . 

.J(t1i""e appearing of the most remarkable.K•-, • 81 1 I •• ■ a • •••• since 
'alking close in ~ wake , they uiscoverec how 

Troy, the army tank:aA_ !1111■ MIO · 7ilk.lft's lumbering tFilillfflMJ ■■t: HUR 
an arm ould advance /'' in =-::----:::::-. 4-, trench c,, cl~8:r~e . 

further in a single day than 1■ 1:g r; ltd.Ji four month~ Mfl.l.Q.L I. 
/;; since • 

But " .,,.,,wnn:rrn•r tbl'l■ffl the allies had no plans to expJ.o•t its 

1
the ~o 1me uloouletting was yiel led another year . 

success that year " ■■ • 7 • I I • J Jit 
po.,teo b~ in uneasy urill 
B • •a~B elgium, at Ypres, they stayed ~ six months 6'11 111hUillll: 

for the secon l.1olocaust at the . iverd s no • • ; , 
lililr rt I • z•nllfsrd • • uluen ttb•.~ - -h I Ila: ■111111 711 l •i!fl11'NIJLI ■-
N . w. ---.. 
19 I I J? t@#.IAr i: anley's battery was to follow the first wave of the 

fhe aruour at tr...e So111·1e ,.,a .. i1 couceivc..ble; a j 
attack. ·11 like mu •11tiJ10IIA Rl'SUffb(inass of' guns, whee l - to wheel,_ 

broad . 
six miles) He would b e laying his targets from a position just f or­

C■Pl n e s t s 
ward of the second line of trenches, digging dugouts fur ~ 

cannons (a~ shells for each) . 
'211 \ • r• fd&t ra thousand rounds of'A : t• !ll&t IIH■I QI II• 'l'he s h ells , 
f'ulls !hzeu golgotLati of , ere 
a ■WIQflZilU «a ; n !flltRPlt 118 I I 45 lbs each, l(two to a box. You 
lif'ted 

l ■ • _ \ Ht close to a hundred pounds Id J each time you hefted a box 

to Cl Ti.X sore shoulders. But you worke d fine, lice and mud and all, 

f or the great offensive would roll those guns, anchored at an end on 

Ypres, over the higher ground and d own the plains of Belg ium and 

win the war. '!'he reckoning was for four to five miles a day. "That 
<. after the off'ensi ve bet,an." 

was the plan. We stayed put i' or six weeks)...• ~ 

Likel any sun:I'a; n~r;l a1yst :f!fr11iS:::~
1

:::::fz4~ 
of that unholy oblation could now fAT~ 8 fll -hOH the hell _was forge 

• ll f 507 Jllld l'Dilfllllllt -• · '· ·•11 11•rx 51-.SflU ;;-,.,. 1 ■,: -· "-
•but , anley ' s peculiar achieve111ents '> 
:, 1i1DS••naC U.I QB_lf4"u ggests that; even then, at 24, he h a d a sturd ily 

conceptu al eyeJ as he talks of the Sonnne: 

"We spent two months preparing gun p ositions in very dangerous 

terrain. The Germans knew perf ectly well what we were doing and all 



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ac ..... in t'ng lan , a 17- year-old fle c gling artist 

mpatiently pushing a pen in a poky Pensions office, 

oulc ave concurred . E na had f'ound .., oY "strange an attrac-

ive , " accord in~ to 1 avne Brown . He was--- and 10re. P is sister , o c~ 
r) Muriel lanley / observe d : "Jie was a p erson of the most 

.t2 stic cl arm (but) had a ruthless streak" with wo~ en. 

t a canny t e lve year s old , ,dna h ad like< , but sexually 

i s trus t e t ti e e xotic brown omeo from Guanaboa. 

] d f ind an/ easier affinity in the ol<.er , less 

a d ier. 

ebt llient 



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Nor r~ , 

~ th 

far.1ily 

vould 

cross roads were heavily shelled from early morning until t h e sun 

was well up. About JO of us used to leave our camp at about five 

in the afternoon and walk ten miles {for) the shells. We worked 

until f our in the morning , carrying boxes of shells to where the 

gun-pits had been prepared. (It meant) 

carrying a heavy load half the time.Fr. 

20 miles walking, and seven 

will never forget four a. m) 

on D-da:, when all the thousands o:f guns we had laboriously assem-

bled opened fire at a JIil 

the attack was d oomed from 

IIJIJ•s precisely 

the start. ~ bout 

timed second. ( But) 

the first half-mile 

of enemy held territory was lightly protec ted but then came a most 

highly :fortified line with enormously strong machine gun empl,a.ce­

ments built on the surfaceJ since the land was totally flat and the 

least rain would make it into a swamp. Well, before dawn_., began one 

o f the JM JRIR worst rains I have ever known, for eleven days, 

almost ceaselessly." 

It was there that he lost his brother, Roy, from a fragment 

of shrapnel that pierced his heart. "We buried him with others 

the next day, all wrapped in blankets, and placed in a field already 

established in anticipation of the battle ,~">~ cannot speak of how 

I :felt. We were very good friends and I was to be lonely for the 

r•st of the war, lonely and bitter." 
But the war want on. They ~ 
1·•11t?UIJJ,'$TJ)Ldl!l~llf :fought without shelter, in the open, 

and he :fired his gun without break for 46 hours at the rate o:f a 
.c.u,rv ,,-, ..K.,Q/U,·._ - v,,+,/4J.l:J;fd1( -~ ~ w~in1 ~ . 

round a minute• f or the m 2 hoursj • J • ·uu • l 7 f ~ 
<-R?.:: H ~>. we"') c..oi't,. -ro 71fe 8006) . f-lot-~ tN . . . . , 
4 l 1,( in mud-filled shell II , IIJ . r A A an unceasin~ dllQ L ff 
mind-bending noise. Half a cent~ry later, although he was not 

clear on whether they stayed in the inferno for six or eight weeks, 
describe ,He /!:,f>/h8fJf!- fh6.Arr.. 

he could ~ _... <d• ~iill!,ai.lllla; n a moving recall: 

"It has to be imagined to realise how the world can dissolve 

into one vast sound like a great wave drowning every :feeling and 

every emotion and nothing exists except the continuous unbroken 



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SlJPP P 2 8 

His full name was oy Douglas 1a nl ey. t or r~, 

sensitive to a childhood difficulty which made th 

name come out ~ ' had cal rnly , in defiance of fa.lily 

Ubage, called him our-las till it stuck . {J e would 

name his first b orn, ,ou · las. 



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2 

solllld broken every minute by the vast roar o f 

I 
ow~ 1 

(your~ 18-inch gllll, 

and constantly pwictuated by the staccato tattoo o f dozens of 

79-pol.lllders, powiding a• practised roll like super machine gwi 

fire but mostly, just sound that you could f eel, that envelop ed 

you and bore you up . 11 

OPE~ ..s· 'P A C t::.. 
The odds were that he would be killed. More than half of 

his companions were. He came close to it. Once when he was run­
OF ~ 

ing f or shelter from an incoming shell/\ !ti Sa,( velocity ..e only , 
1-1~/loR... 

little less than sound : "I knew from the increasing hor11or of 

noise (behind me) what I was in :for ... , and at the last split 

second , dived for the growid. I :felt the shake o:f the air but 

just before that, heard the shout from a runner behind me: ' Bill's 

gone t They've got him t ' " But Bill was 

• I> t t, I>' , . i I, I • •I I I I : , . , not gone beyond the bottom of a crater dug :for 
'TIM~:> 

him by an earlier shell. Another awe . ta at on guard duty, he' detected 

a-• gas attack and crept f rom his lean-to/ 

awake. When he returnectj M •• 3d the lean-to 

with shell f ragments. 

to shake h is platoon 
WAS 

bail I ¥,gill. riddled 
A 

"As a b attle, it was the great f ailure o:f the war," he say:s 

of the Somme. "It cost the British 750,·ooo men kille d and wounde d , 

the cream of the men who volunteered bef ore conscription was intro­

duce d . 11 

Norman Manley :fought through the war, won the Military Me dal 

f or gallantry, was demobilised in 19l~ and resumed at Oxf ord. 



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CHAPTER THREE 

He had fought a bitter war of dull, nagging danger, laying 

and firing huge guns, sleeping in and galloping through French 
.,.0 

mud of such tenacious quality that some Ml IL £ ■ 
/l 

the most endurable memory of the war. In :four years, he had 

written no friend s, seen Edna only once, at Neasden, then, in his 

words, 11 a most exciting young ll girl o:f seventeen. 11 She was ---- ' 
S FFCIJ..1;.JC:, 
~ in the civil service/ liillDlft9 ~e, W ~wrJil ••■ ±.M-, and :fight-

ing off interf'erences with her own chosen destiny. She ll was near!i:ng 

graduation at the st Martin School of Art and being persuaded to 

join the teaching staff at the schoo.i, a plan s h e was vehement.iy 

opposing. In a kind of laconic a,ccolade to her courage, NWM says 

of t h at period, "In the end , she left home, endured .great h ardships, 
~~- i~ ~ -~ ) 

but had her way about teaching and art. ~ ~he war was nearing its end 
he• returned.,...to the ) from f l i# 

w~ '~uiet of~ England/Bl'ZII!: the fury ~ France ..J in - e•••• 1918..;, 

DUXUJ(]Gi~E(XJi.,._......._.,UUll-.-_.t\.¥ll...,.....LAA.AllLn..AJl~-.A.'n:xn:rA:JCJCXXXXU:X.Xnx%XD:X 

X1DUCXXDDXDCllJOOl(J(J(X:X: 
to take a special e ■Zl■'B heavy artillery XUUDK course. He was 

coldly sick o:f the war. His unit had become attached to an Austra-
R. ft c.£ llAJ 1> 

lian division in which the old explosive ofA.colour held less heatj 

yet, he had brushed with the idea of seeking a 

own West India Regiment, long since engaged in 
•ntffl\.f@ ■ di! 

.; 

Commission in his ~ 

all the theatres.* GfJ/t{; ; 

~ 
*He was to withdraw the application after a court-martial 
as the ringleader o:f a protest against leave infringe­
ments. 

He was 24, battered by war, 

his brother killed (at 21), 
f<AC:1 /'.lL 

his e ducation unfinished, and withAexpe-

riences ugly enough to signal the impractability of living in Eng­

land. So he carefully worried out a rationale by which he could 

"with due self respect say yes 11 to the offer for re-trainin.ing 

in England fully aware that the war woul d probably end before the 



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/,/ 

., E~Tio.· : Why wa:::s he content to serve in the ranks of an r lish 

regiment , an unpretentious, unprestigious , non - Guaro, non-triga e, 

non- famous flotsam outfit, but had thoughts of a commission in his 

own West India 1 egiment? 1.e was a proauct of his Colonial time. 

~nclishmen , ev en if quashies, qualified for Quality . It was a 

honily that had been steadily hammere home for thr ee hurj.drec 

years. His fine spiri 1j had , of' course , rebelled. ! e turne< arrocant 

anu treated them with "contempt . " 1ut he was ~1¥ ~ tilting \lith 

ra 

The in~lant ¥as deep . 

sit sometimes despaired . 

His intellect sa,, it going in anci 

It would , an evidence proposes, 

soon pu:::sh him over the brink into a nervous breakdown . It would taKe 

him years to face it; perhaps never to extirpate it . ,ot altogether , 

until it broke down in his progeny . uut he would never become one of the 

anxious men casting no shadow at noon . Dreaming ramshackle areams in 

the long night ' s journey from the Coast to the Caribbean . He would wall 

it firmly in , by mind and reason , and be able to relate , at 45, to an 

audience at the forming of his Party, the story of the indiscreet En­

glishr1an, who , on Home Leave f'rom his magistracy in Jamaica, 1:Jlurteu in 
could 

a ::,peech that the Empire .ariiilllU only stand upon the "carefully nurtured" 

f'eeling oi inadequacy among )II the natives. It wa:::s , conceivauly , a com-

ponent in tr..e extraordinary success with which he urbanely destroyed 

the ":mp ire in his part of the world . (I is sister , Vera, '.:> 

..,{::as even worse afflicted . "You cant be friendly 

Ja1 iaican servants) like you can the Enel ish ones.•) e,.enerally , the 

c 1 aract er of' the Colonial mulatto of the time ~ --~~~~ ~~felf, straddled / 

~ two be 1aviours : timid or tw-,iid , mewing or bellowing as 

a feverishly active protective covering dictatea . 



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'171 KE IA! IJ, 
__ .... ...:> 

- S,p(-)C6 
•. my P,¾e .:30 

Much later, twenty- f'our years later in anot h er c ountry, she -
Jamaican .s:.k S4¼J 

woul give a moving account o f a s malllb oy in whom t..._ E a a 

re f lection _: 

a little pup il twelve years ol , an elementary 

sch oolb oy and h e only wants to carve, tie hates p ainting., tlis hammer 
! 4 

g oes like mi ne . 

I I went i n to see him work , a bout two o' cloc. ( Oc tober 2 d , in 

1941) an d to tell h i m to g o home . He was so intent , he · i tln t 

no t ice me . He went o n b ang ing away anrl t h e c h ips f lying . I put 1y 

h a nd on h is s h oul er and I said , '' Look h ere, F "'r d i n and Escof ­

f rey , y ou h ave g ot to g o h ome." 

/ His eyes went so d~rk , an tl h is h a nd s d ropped quite still; 

t e a f ternoon sunshine seeme d to g low f or a sec o n d and I f elt 

such a f eeling o k insh i p , it j u s t swep t over me fro1 head to 

f'oot. I kn ew h is urgency so well. I knew t h e fatality of' stop -

ping s o f i n ally. 

I He climb e d own an d we walk e d to g ether to t h e gate . 

bye , Ferd i n and ,# lh"l. t il next Saturd ay. J> 

t • >Yes , ma'am . e x t wee I i' ini sh h i m . /.. ') 

'' Goo d -

O , F er i n and , Fer d inand , you 're so lit~le an your « f eet ~ 

are so big a nd bare ., tln ct your eyes , why d i d t hey g o so ark? 

An n ow the s u nshine isnt the same again.g.· looks shabby ■ 
wit h o u t you. 

(POOH p'.io 

SH.3HSl18nd O 3Hi 

-==- ' 



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,' , 
I 

Sa~ 
course was over. "9\. was in England at the Armistice, November, 1918 . 

MitSfWTJlll111l,1111t i8'WQIL S'i He had p~d entl.y registered for 
'FoP.-r..:iNlt-n; 

Gray's Inn a the previous year, 1917. It was ~ that he had , 

in that sense, destroyed his bridge~ ~Ida:- rs i for he was D 
(3EmC.' f.ltJkJ) -wAS 1-10-r, J-1€. 

~ ssailed by fears of his abil.i ty to be a _barrister. It ~•• :1 

-rHtNC.H"r , E V&'N fl ' 1St=NS/8~f>> 0~ 1/ScFII~ PR.oFEff1tJNj c·H1cu~A1 ~ 8Rcc'l>WG WAS 13c'rre"~ . fr fis,.,.Oc! . 
4' ' rt&n·-,iii:it P lfNll!fl?iMMlll JL•.••••,4 that N.W. Manley was once severely ~ 

'
1 

•• s r 1 L .rnh1,01 t:Rel:> 
afraid to talk in public, even in as~ arena as the court-

A COWS/c11.J 11iHI IJ'. 'WIJR. Tin,£ '1"ilf11AI /Alf.t 
room. Thin,afll in~ense.> awe tough 

S;1'rt1>i 11JfJ ,1111--r -r' Pi-101)> 1>-II}~ ~E'but .. E-6 :> 

as,,.:,•• tee• .,,nn ii "1iad res ored ·?lie 

I fl Iii • ·:ne(although his fine athletic edge was irretrievably 
n, f2'in ~.) -- J-/t WtJN 'TIie /.-()J./C' :/'l)p,P, AO 1 • , 11111) TH£ 1)0 '/11P.i>S Hv~bL.ES, ') 

los;~ , f I 1 ;ftlSF') l gq;: • SF l? l fl i'II ... A. But he was wound up tight as a 

drum., £7 I 18 ;J • 1 1ft .■rm :W Q&bw. "[ji..s sisters, Vera and Muriel, 

were fairl.y establ.ished along their careers of music and medicine. 

He would be stepping out of •■11111 four war -year~ of open air l.ife 

with little reading save the King James Version, Samuel Butler's 

Notebook and Browning's Ring And The Book volumes thoughtfully 

packed to him by his sisters. "To think of a life to be spent in 

talk and study, seemed a denial of self. Besides, how did I know 
I.earn 

I could talk or/X l to tal.k? 11 

But a stern look at his fiaances seemed to have restored the 
//.l l/€RtTeb i;VEN Jr 
__.AGuanaboa ,.._ resolve/\ 11 Fi t

1 
there were few openings for 

' ' 
axemen in England. ( His brother, Roy, faced with a similar dilemma 

before the war, after he .-.,, left public school., •••• --
done _ 
ZlliilllfHW 'fli:ltl-lii-X a brilliantly fast study of London streets, and, in 
three months, become 1 . /./e TI/Ou,1-1-
udll. i I :l a licensed, fully qualified WI . -~ taxi driver ) ~-- 1 

!rs ~,ke 
of the property at Belmon~~was a possibility but he could hardly 

hope f'or more than six hundred dollars as his share of the inheri­

tance. He had another one hudnred and fifty dollars coming from 

his army pay plus a limply tail.ored civvy suit as a mustering-

out bonus. He had eight months of study ahead for the Bar exams 



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before returning to Oxford. Resolutely, he settled in. 

War, for gunners• with intellect, offers fallow years. The 

wheel-driver f'rom Guanaboa, famed along the front f'or his f'ast 

hook-ups and his cool handling of' the six horses .. he rode through 

mud and shell holes on the suicidal near-side of' his pair, had 

been fallow for four years. Now, suddenly, it was all springing 

back. To his "delightful surprise", h e found 11a capacity for work" 

and what was more, "enjoyed it immensely." He could work for long 
the 

hours and discovere d that he had developed/• prodigious memory 
more 

which would b e one o f his/~~gz spectacular g ifts• and the most 

commented upon by his peers. He raced into the four papers t h en 

required f or the bar exams at Gray's Inn, d id three 

of them in six months and was f'irst in two. He obtained first class 
that 

passes in both. It was at this time also /he recognised 11111a he was 

in 102 

He was staying at Neasden with his Aunt Ellie, Edna's~ 
llie 

mother. Neasden was a London suburb to which.._ had move d with 

her chil ren.J after her husband 's death. His Edna of the "uniquely 
len t hen i ng 1';1,0 

bright spirit" a girl, shining and tempestuous in .. ~ .. 
her/~{'<> be an artist. The postwar uncertainties, Ellie thought, 

elected a safer profession, but the creative energies in the 19-year 
girl .--..... 
Jallllllllll(generated ibx.aJDUs•~xa~x the faith and kept alive 
ld:axazxi:ax ✓- artist I s ~ often losing . 
hope which the --PED- observab le_, strugg e.J ostly conceals. The 

~ t school teacher; ~dna wa:::, f'or a p ro i'es s iona l artist ' 
Family wante ~ ill I QP~~ ll • i.12 t1•1 1&a■111. :ilJ--. fll ••·• .. ll- 1 1& uf]Sft ... _ 

career; and on,.an \~as stron l\. for her . 
·iJII- ■Ila • ••••• • The girl's solution was simple. She left ·.home, 

- above a 1 is J ) 

took a small illpaid job,.-..,. lived in a rooming house and wrung . out 

her apprenticeship YlUill I ff? 

Yet, the doubts and anguish assailed them. Although t h ey 
t here were 4uest io~ ­

had planned to marry the following year, 1 9 21, June , ,l 2'.85 I • 
R Sil tfll to oe f'aceL . 

lt a•a.i _!\Jfllt · lliitl ill Qr One of' the more i mportant uncertainties 

lay in the choiee of islands to live England or Jamaica. It 



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"---------
~ 

<..111a l1au suff'ere o through se ere viccis s itude::; . 

e h er Jamaican cous ins , Alec : larke/ uotamante 

, orman bef'ore , she was eA1>ert at ri i1 g u ntame 

h orQes an her last job had been ,aci.fying lalf- ¼ilc 

Canadian 01tie~ .for tle ritish arm} in France. At 

l o year fi ola. 

JlucJ -e f'ro"l 

o , ,badier anley at Yp res may liuve been 
ay 

the Jaw s or. a remoU1 t ,· upplie I\.- the 

long legge, escapee f ro~ t he P cn::;ion~ Office , 

and .from pulling fla. in rtolk fielrs f'or paa in 0 

air Jlane wing::,, an rom g an ... ening f or a i tching l4' 1 

mo1,1,_ey1J g w o ire cl her 1'or being (innocently) 

• 11< ly wi t h t, e only other y oung , ...., dee n tly thin 

rson in the .. anor , t he male chauf1.'eur . 

unre::.traine hor::,e h. acj been her most sati f'ying 

JO 



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t~ Rets 
~u t as 
; ,eecl 

. 
, ;_ sa i d : 

ltllb 'imi , Nili!H:.fl1i:1l·b[". Iabl'fJ\a1iiNrtnm .wlint:J.'ii 1 

of a cquai n t anc es , he / ~ nimTii "If you 

page 3 2 

1,.llfliNll:tNtli'tl .ill 
have any gri evances t hat c an be 

lee; i timaely <..leal t with , you will t e l l me and your r i evances wi ll 

be rectified . 11 

swering the tug at h i s sleeve from • orais and Dacosta , he 

auded : 11 1 do not wan t t o see t he city burnt down and the good name of 

ou r people d e s t royed fo r we shal l only be putt i ng the cl o c k of 

progress bac k ." 
,(.;,...' 

Well~ they took to it . They spoke t o i t izen Manl ey as i f 

he had been the i r elec t ed po l itical l eader , giving h i m all the data 

he required conc ernin~ wages , pens i ons and the insurance scheme t hey 
\ j 

wanted . ' he head of the brigad e himself came out to t h e aprdn o f t he 

f i re shed and told him what had 

by t he dayor and orporation . 

been s o mifl fa r d one 
.r,4,T Oh, t- --n..6/t ;.,..a_ 

!• anl ey spoke pe r s u asively 
I\ 

fo r a long J1.~t<..t£ 
!li wen t with h i m. ~ 

and thr ea t ened a s t rike . " If t hhi s 

tomorrow , overnment wi l l only have themselves to blame fo r what may 
f4 / t-6 !J u 'r /u.du 

follow ," ~ e~ :r b-e had said . ( STANDARD TUESDAY MAY 24 ) . t was a small 
,; 

t riumph but in t he wake of Bus t a • s mass i ve passage of t he past t wo days , 

followed by great cheer i ng crowds a n d hur l i ng defiance a t guns and 

rac i st 
had been arr es t e ct; # the Col oni al 

police followed t he/classic trad i tion o:f s trik i ng d own the black ( Gr an t) 
before the a r rest 

/and 11erely t aki ng i n to c u stody the wlli t e Dust a ). Governor Sir dward 

I1 enham , tha t llllllvungru1:uim~Jlmp:i.ruf11iue.nrilrr11nmm s l ow t hinking but maligned and 



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I 

It was like anley to t ake t he firemen's i s sue and make a 
wha t 

thorou h test r un of it , to ac uaint himself wi t h/.rrullllnartlf:ae little 

there was for reconcilin labour disputes. 

machiRery / NLll\bib.U .,,n~ Nlt.liraltn.I'fll.l::ira~- e11 ·N,..-iltlta. · ~ ... KD1s1 ~ 

amrl.mmir:imBBauru:dt inm spoken at length to t he 

Af't er he had ruamn}'irbhmnnmm. a.hm ~,~-~ :u:b.nr1uiE!f.¥mnnLJ.!lf nbems.1:1 · hm men , 

~{!; !VI T~D 
Nltt!J:il"nlitli.utlad t hem to send a deputation lflmrm:u:ius.nc:iti:tfuiooJ!llu of experienced 

away from t he noisy crowd surrounding t he station , 

profess ional s to his office where/he coulu l earn mor e about 

bri~ade work and conditions. Armed wi t h all t he information he 

returned to t Le station for 

needed , he/BlllNllil1nRnmal)lIU!nt..1 , rim:amurun a spo t check and t hen 

saw vayor TJr Anderson to repor t the men 's griev ances. 



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R.r u VL.LJ .1.,.c,v .c,n;:,.c, ~.1L r Iv 1•1c2. ,:;.~ , .i. 7..) v 

ber~ te s usta & Smith for bei a nist 
s _e·• ove ne t. JJ 

THE 
AGO T 

T 
THIS 
IT 

H+R1.IER 

pat i ent man , was worried at the lack of leadership . 1e had been O}Elitrtue 

those 
roundly bert ated by/whom J . A . G . Edwards, called · the ... ompany of "1'e anent 

Janaica Governors and 
11 ._.,......, ...... - , .. Bmamrim:ihmginrtlIUii • ID.Illl!rni 

rivy Counc illors" , i . e. , the nmrufinriunmmilirunpinmm 
uooailirtim!)'l 

nihammm minm commercial interests whhich more often han not were the 
fo r h is conc ern 

power behind King ' s House and its occu ant ~ o , / i:irampmmrtuu with 
BM It Few O'-Ut✓lf>--4 4. -li.d ~ fi"c.:~'1-. fw61,d'1 l\tn,i'wl /lid~ w,,,. J.,1,f 'Plig 

better education and wag es. l\..Although he had not f reseen the popular lciJ,j !/ 
#::.tl :e,.o;I, t; ty) I ,ri,. M ,_ : //,IC " ".{ tJ;,t 

wave which would change t he surface of the country , l. he was now fo fovr?YL P ► . '1 

direct i ng it whe r e it woul d " 
11p11riunmiluJmgmMiil.nymliutirnillh immmlll do the mos t g oo d . While many of h i s advisert,1 
spok~ of us in force by 
lUJ rnflnmnrt tfJm.111 iBJ\ ,imlfJllOin turni1 g the military ( Kings ton Infantry Volunteers 

West Ind ies WefJtrl/6 ''(Yt1r1-€ bfJuJ/£M"~ ~ 
and th_e English line regiment on/stat i on , t he 'herwood or.eesters, atec2i ____.) * ca ~ (h f4r ►,) ~d.::...e 

loo se on t he people , Denham was seeking to find t h em leaders ~ ) 
He had t alke d earlier t hat mor n i ng with the ayor and Coun-

anu to be in con tact./ Te-se 4;- ~sP- a *ey ... c ill ors at Ung ' s House but had 

evi dent l y found little crea tive:t:J.O.t~- xWM. 1-1~ .e}fl£.;w,t t hinkin arnong t e >O . 

Jenham asked ttanley to/ia s=ml8 head of' l =1:lea;d:ia:t.it:=i:h~ stain- i ·t-
i•,J.:1~.,.,,1t /tv;'(,, fl"'1'-rJoh1 :3 -da'11J,wa.-rt-.u,tu, ... {4 n{f.,wt _t:,~n ft.J q~~o,-, ~ans ,Jf_i20 fle s en -e- for i•lan e • 

ii(: '».it,Mo-,,,< <t /.,t/,.,(1,,F, / -:::=---.c::::.-r ~'1\ Il!DgElllDlEOllll@llm 

pede , to turn t h e current energi es of destruction into/13.J!m~illi!a ~m)!llftmmm 
m111f!}nm1iunn01 zxlini\xx JjtU... / 41.,_ already 
:ih01hmnmmm1nm an organi~ structure. / had taken t he ~ oruia l proconsul I s 

~ 'J:.J:.£ ~ -r~1 
rout e , of arming t he be tter o ff citizens wi t h some legali t y to med! assist 

applying his own thinking 
the paid forces in keeping order . 

~/ .,I-- ~ t/4,rl, 6f,; 

1:mlb in the situation . tJ e knew that 
amiin:ihahml!llII the land t\ 

Nmrubrtrnn:amrlmmx::nt w o u :t. d 

ow he was /in:amll§nrtlhlanpmmgm:mflruil a m 
bmillllnm.apmilmrl:u::il 

in the l~st analysis , /~he = i:s:~ai:i;e ---t:Jt- .-~-~- ~ 

~'~ 
.e knew -t1.r,_ 

;,,;~ 

t he hardheaded ways of' the employi nt, class, qui t e spoilt for havin >-Uour~ 

. -#~I ~~ ~1./e« 

need no t conflict . but compromise . 
..;< 

/7~ <;:_d their own w'ays§l insisting on the obvious gamesrnanship of't, ~ g tJud f 
'(h.M ., l ' / ;;.,,#k.,r,) 
,.. t he workers return to work before t .l."!11•• ~ -•--- any discuss ion of C(~vi~ 

• , <;" d'.tY ~1/£ 
wages / ! ( the workers were for the first and erhaps last time to have :'.t 

6oornl'i {'~ ~ ~ wP-A< 
their slice of the gamesmanship when t h ey Jf<li1 ::n t J y ~ad bd.reti:ir:n -

"- C . I . Varney , t he 
w1.til Bustamant e and G-r~nt were re l easeu .) ilnUBJrunmtnri:ullmn1m.Jnm 

brit ish manager of rniilla England's Royal , .ail Lines was quo te d as 
... hear t heir grievances 

saying : 11 We have all along been prepared to/manmlhM a md~PMiuiutuh:run.ndi 111 

and we still i n t end to. 11 

D.fflll!nl'llll ami. m 
show h is hhand : i' 

f JBnlWilt!}JiH:illl!JlID 

hen he couldnt help himself but had to eu!lmr 
a '.,:WM' }!M "fitil1 " Our men are quite satisfied but 

they 

are preven ted from working by others. " fililJ.ihklnmlnmmrn ·ot much chance M' 

for N:ihlrunablmmm t heir " grievances II t here . Ot!i llli~l!iilJ A local 

~ lf00 ~fw /;di'(Lh. ~1., ).~ l.f1,;_d,.L r ({){) krV.;· ~ ~o ~ r:~-ti;; ~ c,11,;/tJd tfd-
~ .. • . ,,, . ' I ...._ ~ ,. " .,,, . ; 



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\J0fr'.,~ (.;r,L t~iU ,. J4 
e,'l::, ~ - J i P.J' 

.lru:;a;i;e:a~•l,Je;"!B emp l oyer, 'harlie ..J ' Cos ta of Las c e lles de :ti:ercad i!I? wharf 
whip crack ing . 

was no t a w it behi nd in/XU rjwn~ m . .im "The s t r i kers will only p aralyse 

t hemselves ," he a-i,:ewe ... p romised. 

"He suggested t h at I act; he begg ed me t o ,'' 1anley has sa i d of the 

meeting with Denham. "I tolu h i m I woul d t hink it over ." 
d;l-1 

Denham was olf,;,k,,;ifi~ ~ O:t' more t han a leader, i-R- . ~:d:ngs-"baR~ The unres t 
~ mall out breaks had 

was .rubn m alread y s weep i ng t hrough t he c ount ryside . / EMNM JMNHNlel , t'nh1N1~-•i 

-r'k-1 
been occurri n g e v er since 11 rome . 1Jow ~ - h ad r e a c he d t he t wo larg e s t 

£1/{ were r efusing 
towns , Spani shh own a nd , 0 ntego Bay . I n ,,1ontego Bay , d ockers/mmrib,m2Ifu:.lmiani 

t o work the port. I n Sp ani sh Town , a march o f J , 000 workers had c l o s ed 
mmhilimmmmnuo~ A few railb l ocks were 

d °',m t he Old Ca.P i tal .runrl.n1minhmmnrutlhmn§E1l[lln i n du l ged i n , 

by p lac ing bould ers on t he t rac k s . )_d.;[f}f. !1/fl,t.l>L.o ~~;;_.,!.-_'4it::JjiT _~.,.;: 
S f! P>, ·44.,.,...,'o/ _s·/?/~~~ I~~ I' • ),, / '"·1 , •J.J 

fl A s h e led t he ~ - 1:ua r c _ do 1 Cing reet ~~ int 1:a rbour stre et 
~ \J. "" fl'-/Jt, ( I 11 .__ .r Ii,. j JAAfJ/"'1 1-}I/: •~J.. f-/-,,{hi,.,_ 11 , , , 

earlier • morn i ng,,_, B a had a s Jpealed for s __:_::...i..._u.u-~ 1,,-1,--lil/.A,J..l,-t t h i s 
t,.._ , ,.__,...____ 

t erribl~ no i se ( iA{) • t u;e:;-;:.~-- ~.e-t which prevents me from t hinki ng whi le our 
¥-,;i:.'l-/'.>l" _____ ,,-- ·--· ····-- ··-

enemies are thi lking against us "@"::=ti"i~ =-1:~i,..· 5 ----h"e riea-tn t h e balcony of 
-----·-:-· t h e c 'i:1, 'l,,R:;t:,-().::.,;.. l • ✓.tt-- .e-i,-.,~~t( 

the Standard Fru i t Com any ' s o f fice a t /Georges Lane corner · r_T.=..,H,p=:::.a&fle sul len 
v.~0~ ~~ 

- -ter.:Si:~ 4~~ -t(lit 
/J-(.. ~ et.c'. 

anley l:;ta;d sw i ft ly s et fi..,.,;7' 

his own t h inki ng i nto a c t i on . L,a;t ,n;: + J:- 1'l t n i,Fb + 1 be r
1 0°=i F'. c;J;..---t;.; publicly 

offer h is s ervi c e s to the c ount ry . ~ e c alled in t he newspaper repor t e r s , 
t io.a.rtmmlil§htt:11,.n u::henri:trtmrl rua:amilmnmmni:J.mnmmap mmtuun am • p1>1hdu:imrlu:J1m 

ru6:toonmrlmI!llJUUIU3.irumilmm.a :Ji!: 

"Events hav e p r ove ~ h ow necessary i t i s today that the peop l e of t he 

r 
c ounty should have good l eadte r sh i p and good advice i n put t i ng t'orward 

th e ir er i e v ances and maki ng the i r demands fo r 
"I have r e we ived t he assuranc e 

told p r essmen . tlftlnilirl~hmamn Mtioo11,nru,im 
( des i res ) that the p e op l e 

their b ett erment , " he 
o f 

(the Gov ernor) that the 

g overnment / :m.mnmrubmmmll:§llllBmE:iilJn.mm should have an opportuni t y of maki n g 

r~p r e s entat i ons and t h a t their greivances shoul d rece ive fullest cons i d e 
(The government) i s p r ep ared 

rat ion . ,(lfllmml_}fl,-L.!Bllllmtn~ 111 e to a p poin t a Cone ilia tion Board 

wh ere b oth sio es cou l d be heard . One o f' t h e d i f f icul tie s in t he way of t h 

g overrunent to assist i s t he c i ff icu l t y of' f i nd i ng pe rsons who are wi l l i nc; 

t o assist t he l abouring classes and put t i n g forward t heir grievances .... 

"If any l abour grou J will a c cep t my s e rvices in investigating t h e mr 



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JS 

grievances , in acting for them ai d by leadin5 their deputations to 

er,iployer interests , or to UJnllmnmmmmdl t11e Governor or to t h e Labour Cornn is 

sion which has bean appointeu , I p ledge yself to serve their interests 

fairly and properly and t o give every assistance to see that reasonable 

and fair demands are met in a proper spirit . 11 

hac1 not lost sight of 
1•lanl ey/rlmninnm:ilJ111linriua wha t Bus tarnante , Grant , "Fightine; 

arrister " Erasmus ampbell (whom the strikers had booe ci into silence 

the previous day because h~e had suggesteu moderation) had oeen doing 

during t he troub led uays r e left the door to t he choice of leaders 

open . 

" I f workers) can fin<l t he services of any responsible 

person who is willing to assist the 1 in puttin forward t l.i.e ir case , am 

confident t lm t they will b e heard . 11 

: e the nee d for trade unions . 1' Jtsl· 

llibmmrtl "When t hese troubles are over , I hope that so e g rou of res -

ponsible people wi ll recognise the necessi t y for organisin p roper 

trade unions in t h is country " w/N 1t15},6,1Alc lfir>,l'ct-F 1v IHc 

It was 
l , 1 ' ! L1'. ~. 

lti t(t tR 

ueing a !) fateful night for Jamaica. ;lh.ile 11anle}lwv,1i<!7, 
~'ll.J..e~ ,'la .;- • ilii i n.5 t o t ' e :eep o :.l." t eors , hasti laj- ~ 1 ~ 

fro;,1 barris t er 
~ night court was listening to arguments/J .. G .. Smi t h and solici t ors 

oss Livinston and Allan Wynter in a plea for t he release of busta-
~ oth had been arrested 

mante an<..i Grant./fiaE.rbamam:iunm fo r disorderly conduct but 

by the time t h e case carne to court , bustamante •s cL.ar5 e had been taken 

higher , to IliE sedition anct inci tine unlawful asserHL ly; Grant was on 

the latter and plus a small one for refusing to obey a police order . 
hearing was hel( i n a 

The/crowded little office of the police inspe ctor at Sutton treet; no 

mBlml:lm newspapermen were allowed in . he lagis trate remanaed the 1 in 

cus t ody and refused t hem bail for "even thou h lr Bus tamante and _.r G-rant 
())"""'/ ~ -{ ,:.,I 

might be willing to stand trial , the ·crowd would not allow t h em. " ~ 
~ µ~~l..+ J.;,a .. -(z'4.(.J,~ N.fl,~ r.,...m..~.(. -fbJ 4-".(W+ ~C<n-.t<vl;,..- w,i, ~ ~~ - '' ~ 

fJ be .... was then p ut in a cell for i.t Dus tar.1ante. ~ 



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36 

C L.\.PTER 

The Governor honed !<anle •te 1.e:::.<la Mor i :.; . He was leased 

at t e i,1anle ::, t men t 1e vrevious ni ,ht but uisturbe 

, ~t /Pl a.:t 
rhfnmrti. at Lhe 

retu n t absence o the usual nind-benu ~ e • 11 kr t..i @• stri'-..ers 

before ne otiation. ::a_ le reto ted t iat he was actin for the 

labourers a _d wo ltl uo so on 
0 

with a free hand. Governor Denham had 

I w~mutmto work .feelL1g ike a Ifiln m 1 in a dream , ' e wro e 
lat r , 

w mm JI 

" and meet 
11y i'irs t followe s --- f'o wo1.ien ca r1akers. 

T 1en Lwen t doc ers -our in. '' 

recognized it. ·1e issued a statement 
ttmWBmrtliua:ih :sm.,1:i:lhB.ntnrnlIDilIDJlllllllmin which he averred that 11 ~overrun en t 

welcomes the offer made by one of the most distinguished sons of' 
of Jamaica , !Ir Lanley , to represent the cause of the labourers and 

'- is.i.Jerfectly willing to see that the fullest considration is give 
'\_t.p, re resentations made . 

:rro ems were also pou iu in. rti.nm.am. ' 1.e ver da 

, martl 1e was beL, hai ed };( :for is "since e nd brilli 1t a v c c r 

on be1alf of the coo erat · ve i ea amon t ~ eas n r i1 tie as w~en 

the fa e of he Jama · ca B a a roducers A sociation hune; in the ba anc 11 * 

* b an article on Ja lel td Gleaner 2 / / T).. 

hlet 
:1e was bei - b e t ~~ as an e emy of the ' little 

man. ' This was of cou se due to is a)..:•earance .for ' lisco beo.fere tbe 
aw 

•rone Commission and ot unconnected wit _is enera / actice which 
all the slan ' more important cor)orations. rone 

I 

ontaine' ret ine s 
had been aised by 

the Ja aica 

from/n m:em nbtilgmd'itilmm1li:lnmiwl l!.ci>. • mn • ili m llDlll ni n1 

!lJ, -(lft<£ 11-1 SvP/5let?te-AJr. fiX>,N°.tl ovel is t/his to1 ian 
l 'i'f', V\/' 

rog ess.ive ea ue in rew ork led b /IImm.i.uimamm 
. ewt;rnan 

_ <lolphe f,ober:ss and/ Dom · n,·o , unn Jamaicans livin in,}1e /L .. 
~ c.t-t-ri,lf, }--'-..l. ba,... 17T~.JI/ 

- . s. to .a· m11 hel) >roviue e ral aid to t ie Frome ace us eel. I1anle ' s 
ti 0 ~,.~ P<Jb!IC o~i,-,11>-> ~ w#lc-fi,.,,d.o (},.,t,,~t d if~ ,f~h,J,+..-r f o~ --:f/J'71M.,. • frlA,,. r1y',; 
inabilit to ta e the ca::;e o t 1e wor ers because o his e .ra com11iitt11en 

) t,r,,i. '/Z, tAJt ~-1 ufl,d ef 11-i!Nt17J e e a His op onents ar t at 
rlJ EX to ~fisco/lhad rou~ed a ood deal of/ ant a a nism ./ . tilnoom he coul ha-d-e a d 

J, ~-\-~ _ is day in court f'o the rioters without breac· Lg le -"al ethic:::. .mm :Mis -
~/-" of' his motives e an 0 6 ing illmm, 

trust / iusmmJWB 1 mibbliemminrllm¥J.lOIDWIIll!} v~ 
t 

r{.;r t e same he waswell 
fi ""' rr11·~ ~v, tfrJ Wt:'IZ(::'.' :v \fl' f' (:BS trlFtdP, <foubly harrl 

ik' 

heard 1., r a 

W 0 



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*** 

A ress as follows: 
dock 

"Cit /labourers on strike for mor pa f l oe e to South Street 
esterda a:fternoon .. to e ar r r . W . Hanle K . ., ,- rnake th most 

i11 )Orta11t announcer11ent ... sin e t 1e deadlock . ( Packin the 
s t reet in thousands , the men , obviousl bo a • ide Wl.Lar.f hands , 
listened attentive to what I1 ,fanley had t o tell them , and 
fe l in to rOCK a nan with his suggestion that the al l. dis )ers e 
uietl. and me et him this rnorninc at :No 1. ~ai wa Pler fo a con 

:'.:' erence . 
(J eaterless and wiling to e led --- for all. the want is a 

a uare deal anu. a :fair chanc.e :to e rn an honest living N:lll• ·•10:1 • t e 
C:{GJ }, I ; Cl 

'-- ~ !:7- t 1e men ave nr :ranle • • ..11.._s • en· id receLJtion all1d cheered 
w 1a t lhe 'J, said . 

[.i't1.g u above t iem:v mil ing i n t 1e street , 1e leaned throu__, :1 

one of the windows in t 1e u oer f'loor of Hessrs Adol11 ev s 
buil in and spoke to them .. And , des lte a bus , hard da of 
conferences wit 1 vharf owners on the sit ation , he did no t look a 
t i red JUan. 
1i1i e ±ruc~s o· so l diers , o icemen and s-e ial constables 
stoocl b , parked in Oran e Street , g rim rei,dnder of the militant 
nature of' thins i n s trike-ridden Yinston , t he dockhands heard 
h~n cow1sel a course of ea e , and ur ·e that tie· continue to 
act decentl . 
iir Ma le started b remindi n • the men o· his offer made that 
monnin • t o lace his services at the d i s p osal of those worker s 
who had a enuine reivance , and of' his romise to do what le 
could to help ~dMMM all those who came to h~1, and ·ou ht his assis­
tance in cases of real d i satisf ction. 
Ever ood aJ aica , he told t em , and the cheered him when he 
said it , re ret ted the riotin T which h a d taken lace , and knew 
it was not t 1e wharf' l bourers who had rioted. e had struck . 
T ie were ent i tled to strike . '3ut t e didnt tell the rabble to 
tear down Kingston . 
Hr H ,le a _).Jealed to t 1e men s ood st,mse an<.l in the name of 

amaica , their countr , which was staadil cli111bin ,. u the laduer of' 
rog ress , to do no vio ene e . He asked them to tlis1erse ana o 

1ome c uietl , beiiav lnt. themselves li e ood , re Jee table cit· zens. 
Ci; 1 n he made the illl )ortant announ eme_ t , invi t iue, a l bona :fide 

dock.hands to turn out to t he wharves where the usua· l wor ed 
at . 0 t1.is mor in · , and f.rom there to cong re _;ate at the N 
ier b oc ock, or he conference to Le he d between m o er 

and emplo ee ... 
As a final word :Mr J.'~anley remar ed that he had bee ke t so bus 
all d . that he had not been ab e to know :iat !.La pene • to I1r 
Bu stamante. But this he wou d sa : t _ c ase wa& i11 the h s or 
aver :famous Jamaican lawyer , :Mr Smit 1. And it could not be i n 

< , bet t er h~i-tds 11 
.JJ r , J!k', u1viio_111,,_ i,.,, ~ t,1."'f: . //Jj f ///&M,, 

l-Jift Ti'1Jh-,.., ~lfv''f'J{7-e,, f..{ , I/ -U'11,#;:,c1,{I/ /J,1,.i,/a 1f -~f..cf. b """' /;./.;'>fl ,--.. ()4 7cr . t.or>->/Jla)~h 

&.~ ~.,,., 1, L, tkd. r...,,.,_ ., wf..u ~1~ tdu k. ;;,._ a r? fl P u,,bi .. ,:;f, -1.dtl ~ fk L_t¼A '"" A✓ 
~(;,.f ( C1 ~ -f-:5:.do vit-u;,.\ C ~"-

(,L. fh.f V/ ~ cJ<w_./x_p ~wt,,,'/, I • 

· / 1 1 / ~ (, J.1, · .I) L ~ k r l ,iffi/lC W7vi-n , V\.t._t,.J_. ,/ l/ efvL o/ v , 
I - r '".1~ 

_c_ /,'-v,ict/4 t ~t-r.,l 
,~ wvt 



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'f:Jo,Alt>1E 

SUPPLEMENT 

JUC:Xsacxxxk.x:.tJ01xix amai:«ax:Rxmµ:a.a.ai:xa*xi:.:aapax111&111ll•xs.xiilx 
"(" 

Ja:SDttkldCUXXXXU.XXX~d:XXl:DI.JJCDX:nacxnidUX . 
t,- --rltt:r _k t~k rn~ley l!>-o --e..Acl ~ fU<fP✓lr. ~ opa"L /Jy tt /Jct-,Vh 

'l'he League d i d not a J !:\,S 11u,in4. be d b e,pe d: ±t would fer 

HIM ~ ~ -y was able P EHC:ii:=:da y tMunda,y) to show telli the records 

of' his/;:~ainersnistn 1;;; the WEst Indies Sugar Company:¥: :a: t h e 
~ binder ---
~ ~ /and a special drawn up on May 5t#. with specif ic 

Co "n/J ~"''I' 
d irections to represent the CGllfl 01'&11 ion at the X subsequ ent 

Jl!ll enquiries. ~Dll~lliiXZKZf'Kll As it turned out, J.'J.anley 
E.R.D. 

had in fact:¥: promised ~X/Evans to appear at Frome but 

had been stopped in his tracks by a gentle reminder f'rom 
wrote 

Wisco that h e was theirs. Hep{~ to Evans a w ~ek 

later ~M»Z~JXll regretting the oversight and pointing 

out that he Xwas "bound by professional rule not to appear 

for the rioters." And so ended what could have been a 

%'.lCIXx.JlQJUlX.BD]rt)OO{XJlQD.n:l:~X~::!J:"JiJ:.:;;~~,::at'ou.-~-..,,-~ 1~;..., 
nasty Xm'b:oi.~l.o imbroglio with the League which later Y-L/!£,Q 

powerhouse ~ P.€;/:7/ea M/4,:/wJ,d PA~'rf.( ,{i,t.,t( ~ ./ 

u~ be a XDJUf:z 0~zgz~~~~tH t o~ r~P an~ ,(th e island ' ~ 

mP--Yd.. ~ aa:a.:: sel g ov ernment. 



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lanley said in 19Jb , een educa-

ting our people an< been making them 

anc.. their ri6ht . and it is igh realiseu 

got step forward 
le so that 

they ca pro~erly 

ever be made until this en is recognised an 

mt. "'hat is a statement which has to be made both to employers and 

the working classes." 

p Iv d~ , !\n~ 1 
h?lc., 3 ~r' 

9 0 ~k 1~ t 

I 

1' 



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sprouted into a contest• of doubts; she fearing the empty pom­

posity of the planter colony, uncultivated in any art save the 

military and cocktail parade•, he to a losing interest in law 

and the bar as a profession. The tension rippled between them. 

Edna's appeared to be a clean case of the artist loathing 
among 

to live IIDOIQO(K philistines,with no escape routes into galleries, 

or museums, or concerts, or even the privacy of an attic studio 

r,luntly , 
in an island of open doors and windows. His was hidden, and more 

damaging. 
was , 

)l o caust There is hardly any question that, at the time, he was 

being de~=l ~ !JJ;lrt, by the English rejection on account of his 
,tainl 

••brown ' 

~ ~ _!_AJ ..( Pr') 
colour~ He thought he was fighting back by going to ground 

the defensives 

ave 1 o 

)a tin6 

behind KIO( -- of what he regarded as his "arrogance'', and 

1e winter 

even told himself that he welcomed their prejudice since he 

wanted to be left alone. Yet, in years afte5 he was to bitterly 

recall that in the months he read in the Common Room at Gray's 

Inn, nobody spoke to him. 

! .,__ .! - - - - .. _.., ,__ ..... 

:t: ••• a ~ley was , a1 u renaine 1 , a l y !:ien::.itivP .tau ,,llo took to a 
covert of arrot5anc e to conceal 1 ..:.Jartiali ty to co1upany , Go ou cor.u.-
11an~on,, '. '~ t1:in that. covert, nev~rth~less , ~1.e "f'el t hehe. sail. , a 
r-:-c~al 1ost 1.11 ty "r:oving arou d II in lus lo1.•'-"1ng au /\public shops he 
v1.s1tec . The oHtsi e .Jounding of cunnin~ , unspoken racism , the ._ 
growine; cri::;i:-'i in tl e r ecision co1 eruing E na , hi,:; own ~ is1,,ay at 
h is uncertainty in his choice of ci=i eer , ant tLe inner , ,:;lee_pin~ 

ar age cause by a 10110 ant an ,c u1 -Jar , built , _..>reuictably , to 
a head . H e was 

~ ay at Gray's Inn. one afternoon when he br:::- ~own. 

What he had thought was an interesting and exciting treatment of 

his subject suddenly became non~ense on the paper. He was strained 

and confused. He looked about him. Nothing seemed out of the 

ordinary. The Common Room was silent except for the scratch of 
\:>Ct- fO.'r . 

pen~ (I/ft/I/I the brush of ~..._ He 

quickly before his agitation was 

was shaking and resolved to be out 
PvS.lJC fLlJ.IE.eS WIIS' V/ll-£Nc.J..1N( . 

discovered; A And that was tl?e last 

he remembered until he found himself in the British Museum hours 



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E0) 
e returned to the race - dille1 ma ao;a i n and again , suut l_, bluntly , 

always hurtedly; for it was ugly and a reaucer of ~en . e was , 

plainly, in E J land, a product of t.e loneest continuous ~ o l o ceust 
he waslan h,sue 

ex erienced by 10dern ian ; ,; :et1!§1h a p, of the slave tra e ; he had 
I\ 

inheritance that \\Ould ha e pas::iet· .illilciticed , and would cer t ainl 

be anagea le , in his layereu Jar.1aican s o ciety.:::>where being "brown ' 

and a graduate or a ''good II schoo l woul,.1 ha e cushione , t:he i .e i-

tab le collibion · . ?·ot ::,O .in . l u ion. " en in my Jo,-,it i o1 lave no 

conventions . .. no home, no social .)osition .. . a s Jeck floating 

a )Out i a liqui 1,ass. 11 ~ 'hus he ~vrote to =dna :n t11e , inter 

of' 1919. sa age self-aenunciatio1 that suri'ace u out of' 11 th 

ob .:,es::iions that colour :feelings ca.1 create. 11 



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later looking steadily at early Egyptian sculpture, a black, 
j">t:fl.ttflilS l-1€i...h fl .Sl(t>i f3 f_. , 

broken-shaped work t h at l i l 1 sutut• • I b Shocked and 

frightened, h e rushed from the building and caught the un erground 

to Neasden where his Aunt ellie put him to bed aftEr he stag-

gered into the door and collapsed , • e fir 

When he was sufficiently mended, Manley ilOC¥UU made for the 
for 

woods, his constant healing-place/all his life. In his later years, 

;f'p, n-,t:11 C ~ t:2~~ 22..P 
it was Nomdmi, high in the '1!' 1!31 1£551JPI; mountains. -~ne headed 

forr he New Forest, in Hampshire, some one hundred and fifty~ 

square miles of as near soli tucle as it was possible to get Jill tpq in 

En g land . 
crowded/% g C It would be a walk ing-camp•ing retr eat and he 

travelled light: waterproof', road maps, compass, toothbrush 

and sopp and towel. He met nobody during his four days in the 
warmed 

forest. He slept under a fallen log, 'L RI I Lt between two fires 

and safe :from the herds of wild ponies galloping in the night. 

In the daytime, he walked and cooked and though t. It was in the 

New Forest that he face d the truth of himself and the Law. - Dry 
law 
- would never be :for him, a subject of deep interest. The cut, 

thrust and hammer of the courtroom would always be a challenge to 

h is love of 1ilOlllJOCX intellectual combat., '?ut the bench and chambers 
,,, 

JOUCtKXXJOO(X held no inducement. He has never tried the f'ormer, and 
, near the end of his life, 

a short eng agement with the latter/proved his conclusions right. 

He was the advocate, the worlanan who saw to the close and harmonits 

fit of XDXCGIXDllY fact and law. 
#-4Rb Ai.. 

Hi• walk in the New Forest ... not solve'his prob lems b ut it 

strengthened his mind and body to._ struggle with them. ■ He 

cook ed and lodged in the woods when the villag e landladies had 

no room "for the likes of you." It occurred to him on his walk 

that if he could not ignore the matter of colour, it was not neces-

sarily an issue to be wrestled to the ground . He told himself he 



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was a citizen of t h e world and on that lofty note, returned 
left 

to London and Edna. 
committed 

At Neasden, he :found that Edna had WMU'DY## 

her 

h ome, her :future to :tae - weFk - e~ art. h f ' el t h e 

losing her. 

.:.Heir's wa.,, a t?; reat love 

peo
4 
le. ortunately, each 

to _ thorouc;r,ly l ocketcd by b o nrti ulat P 

lonely , for different reasons; and lbrikily , 

in love too ,,i t h .;or1 s . rayne Brown, in hi:::, b oo coi pose( arow·,. 

l er letter -; , .-'oi11t::; out IP that 11 clo::;e on a t h ou:sano letters, a million 

\Jritten , oru s, p as:sec1 .., etween them" i1 

o r n.in (25 t h ) ~ tt ey were wed 

Kil uurn. S o ewhere a mailn an 1,us t h a 

of hi :::, loa 

the thirty 1a onth:s be.fore th 

in the e istry O.f£ice a 
e. erienc d 

e ••a> an inexplicaole liel 

A.. 
ug 

al y 

T eir letters we r e o:ften young a.1.1 Jreathless an 

brol enhearted . .Lt "as the o ... e tin.e hi::; natural regarious \\ay 

could break throu
0

1 the shell t e :::, l.i.y ,a n ·1a e11ca~e 1 hi 1sel:f ,vit L . . 

e clt mi s u s e L \vhat h e e::;perately ~alle 11 a cheap 1·1ow 0 1 cy11i ­

c i srn and an af 'ectation o intellect al aloo i'ness .>' ut hi:::, i ntebrity 

as p owering hL.i to break :free . U .:>tarte out by ackno, ·le ging 

1 i s vanity , d ioap .i,>ro ing his hknt:,er for applau se , and pro is i ng to 

p ur::;ue !.is 11 g ree for ability " that would 1,a e hi., s t rive f o r 

excellence . It too k a li f etLue of' s t r i ving , an equal :::, ~are of ic -

tories anu e1' eat , an n n d ers tanding t hat espite hi so i; b oasts 

in .1--1u lie - -- the e g o - armour he encase vi th - - - he ha1 just ab o u t 

"f enough • t- -:- 1- ~ -n -rn a un ly d i s atis t' ie ith ty own inte l lectua l con -

...... e y , 1.n h is earl / F1 
wa::. the i> - . . y ear::; ' 'a.:, ea::oier w . t i ~ -i-; • f' l 11p11cel.. I& 

I ..tvate arti.:st l who f' i l pen than ton ue 

in torrer.1.ts ' e~~~~er I OU! u relea e in wo rds/ TUshi! g r:O Jil .ile~rdna 

id ,.., au, over in her 

ea :::, , f las l in its 

sanely, t h ought f ully 

stru le for calm . 

::, in,~ h eel::, of \ i 1, 

between t l e m ; a 

sunny moo, s •l. . 
, u 1nt1.11g 

fr o 1· • 
ic --- or fl • owing 

yinff stream in t heir 

With 

e.Late 111.. • A s he ha 
· at xfor , 

r ize ... or his es s ay ou 
" F'or th i ' . amuel ut ler an 

h e ay I e receive t h e L ee 

e 1.rst t irne II h tg , e w r 

t o O. •f'or "' A 1 er ::.>ack 
'en a tw i n g e 

own it .11 

s,e travelle _ up to see it. 
in Lnn ::i on , 

~bre t at leavi ng . 
" I 'v e :fel t u 1· i'e:t e.nt l y 

I ' 1.1 al .10 t ashamel. to 

ll 

alienate< 
... i i , 8Up erb ly ii 

g lo~ing too f'or i t i 
warml v .J. o r 1.· t "' all lds .t-1art l t 

J "' col 
O u a :::, k1· 1 

n arrowu es" t · a , northern • 1 
, ne voun . ' g u1. t - ri d e1 

i n cool ~ ...., JBI 1a1.can :::,Ol . ' ra,,-eye 
r , . ier 1 ou t , 

0.1. e S..to1, l d t u l for t li e El.! )ire ' 

l1l a 1 f' ecte e ach ' ent ; and l 'or hi·~ ··'o a1, el~~~~~ 
e1,.::.uous nes o f .., " • wit h the ur, ent 

a ot .. r:,,ri-.a..-..... a to1ri - zone love o ' 

l 
: ,, 1 ' t ( 

:::, ex e "" s 1· a1 my ) lat ~, 
~ • a m oi' tli.e l <- • • ~. 

* uotiu,! K1.· 1 · , es, e..1. bree0 . "* I • 
. ~ ing s car te t tir e :::.lie 

fn rln e~ :::, of' the 
society be lo e 

it 

s 



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(!_(o_) ~ 
** fivE SPACE BREAK** 

S,7V/JT10N 

The a.d!!lil)\"t at Neasden seemed to have twanged the bowstring. 
CU-UQ~) 

Although he supported her,\_ he was physically unable to cope with 

much. He had been through a grinder. The discomfort, danger 

and peril of the war years in France, the .XJOCllIKJ( DcI relentless 
the fM GM~H strain to stand tall among Kn racist nn~XXEUQ::~:i!t i at com­

rades 
JUIIIDO[ of' his regiment,DKXIIOI~ the joylessness of his own 

I I I• I 'I I J, r h I· t , , i 
puzzled loyalties a drift somewhere between his %XJQ{X)(Kl: unsophis­

cultivated seat 
ticated little island and the xmp•~x•h••n of Empire, the hurt 

and the need not to show and the years of the same ahead 

before he could claim his 1QQIJ1( life in terms of profession, 11DQ 

family, identit_x, all these combined to fell him. He was jelly 

for a year. 

he began to mend. A~;as he had done before, and since, he 

took to the outdoors, or as near to them as he could. This time 

at the ---. quiet resort of Milford-on-Sea ){ICU.XX close to 

the New Forest. XJUCX Cousin Edna Swithenbank also was at Milford, 

studying and drawing. They met every day for lunch, talked and 

planned. It was a good summer. At the end of it/ he was his old 

normal self again, intelligent and tireless, tough enough to 

announce their engagement and hoping that Belmont could be sold 

before he took his finals at Oxford. For he would be broke; and he 

needed the cash to be marrie <:,> ~nd to read, unpaid, in Chambers in 

London for a year. Then he would return to Jamaica. 



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A {;l st 

t h Tri h c.c ti • E · tt r y 

a c man · p ~i c t i on r. t 

a d b een f'L. e d ith t ..:. c o urt, 

,.ar.a c , . Yaye H 

01 beh c. l t" 

• t t lta t t l · pap , s , 

how d t ha.t t h e s~ :i fl 1-r 

1 , ad p a ce all tl e Heccf, , ·a n s i n Lon< on a d en 

d u 1 y 11 • a 1 , <I o t t e • r i n t .• e • C un t . y . ' 

' pat e d o e "\in<~ t l e 1 ,;; iJ" \ J 0 1L l1 t n·J.o ... :1. 
•. , ,. C, • ,· a l l r (, 1a ril..> 

11 Ju .- t i ' Urown , wi r- p ushe ,ac.+ 1--...cl 'h:l t ~ .. 1·~, n at 1 ( u , ) .for 

11.-

s 
' 

cool in , p-ravB l l ea e d t 1r u t,h tlle . a i_;o • n i ade .n.1.s 1 ti. 1 a l. 

re h au reac:1 t he i l e ·or . l u o ~< .1 , 

an n o l d o at t c f l c g l:i.H•-' a -r .. ~ s t e r . young l'1 l ·u tlle 

a t i' 11 a g ar =-

r se, ' owed ard o e l~vere t lle .uea.t l itt e ~v' •c 

h -. h u l c ,.-. r , .f\ . .tlly : r 1:c o v . r . • :.: ... .L.L u lt 

t . t on c e l e u Li ed 

h i •· n rvo •. ·n • s f, A t . -a · t , 

o . to t · .f ::i 1· ~J t c- a_ ., . 

t r ovn (, . ly en ol l e 1 i 1 a1i,01 ; t h e l ~~ t a z • . barri " t er v •. 

c mnlJ i s · t he > iv. t c ar . ~ 

* l 1c.l1 o i ng c . i . Bea:r , , . F . I . c ox , i r,. , ' 

; . l . ; ;: <, _if' f.! , • - • ~ t')YlJ1 i . (~ , J . 1 •. JJ ti.i. li ) , , 

J . l'l. • ( r . m :i t ii !.___f_:f'~• T omlin son , 

1 1 ' Ltliill , the 1ir;-,,t roq i sitc • 1.' c,-. c 1 1, e ·' 

a war n j TJ. E:! ' t l , t t or id. ;-j' tO l. 

oe ct ::.ie1 Ohly 01 t he o i L, -t Li , o - e ,~ t.1· 01 g, sclio l ar y l a ers . 

ow e woul u meet the L.o_P. 0 ) 

ueue icia.ries µossess ~.1e c ualities w i ca 1N 0 1..i.l c "l i ~ely ; n c f t c x 

i 



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(JO cent 

h:i. ,has t aim," was st.il l id< on e h ind tb e cool , al ost :l e 

... o )O S UTe of' th z - yG -ol war vot e rau . 

h . a r a ica t o ,titiC L h o re t r ~t J • n o :n o t 1,1u. , ; J •• t :f eren t 

r:1 s 11; m l) O t . 

f"",2l) 1\1 TH i3l? 
:l.H an c 1 1 st u.nb--o • r, r t LtJ 

.f .._' l&. 1 e s ih 

1' i ca. 
1 t 

50c i e ty ~ e rvin~ / t n r 

t 

ces ti!ll!audl,M!lllE!Ulff ! '. ,· 

t J. e 

·ur - ,a 'h i ·, n i :n, e i. «) r / ·n J j 1t vr·:.co s t:1 , 

ar , s t 1 • f' t ·or n on hs T P. t h ' 

c o io . ne s wor t n l a ~ r a r as a c a ryd ow 01 t l He so 

~ •. ~i 0 :.:·a i. r , a · <; an invi t a tto t 8X;_.>10l'P.r ii t chell l <.l a s to 

c.Lca . 1, a bo r r i t, · l •nmerh !1 s ;:lr ·,. 

S t r e t:i ts were un ;n e c! 

1 S • 'L c ar n ven u 

,,ar ley c n.on tho ro t a •• r i t . wi t h wr om 

usta at e a s w·m a~ g v &ea s . ln 

io i o u s sqt a o of treasu y a g e its w, s µ u t-

., B r O. .l .f e int o which they woul 

V , ' sla1~ p o l i t ic was a art - ti 10 exe r c i s e o a 

an• tu l o n t s, o e t o A aris . .1u t, ro ~~ s s i rally , t ~ 

• ., ts wer • 1 e d · u ~ . ost f ormi ab e p one J ,; wo 1 l e 

t:,iolato ' d v olubl e l • li n w to e lo ,,t;wi .,u . ,1 

lo . He e ( ut o u c lau) c nl rl re uc j ' •, g e an o - os .Ln ~ cot ns cl 



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black 
Smith straddled the Bar; a lean/aristocrat whose f'earless advo-

cacy and unfeigned air of grace-un er-pressure from the white Bench, 

was not lost upon black and brown jurymen. He was immensely s u ccess­

ful, appearing in most of the important causes for a dozen )ll(Jc years 

prior to Manley. He was one of the fourteen elected members in the 

Legislative Council, representing Clarendon parish. He was an 

abrasive, relentless battler for citizens' rights with an almost 

unqualified distaste for local Colonial officials. He was the 

widest known J·amaican of his day in his country. 

Norman and Ectna Manley anu their infant son, Doug las, stayed 
o::t f<a,f ;1'¢1'hq_,,t" {)-~ ,,,"t 

with his lifelong friend, Leslie Clerk and his wif'e, Beryl, /\before 

settling in an apartment on Hope Road three rooms and a part of 

the verandah on the grouncl floor of what was to become the Andrews 

Memorial Hospital. He spent his early weeks looking for Chambers 

and visiting the courts. Like the superb craftsman ■ he was to 

become, he believed in looking at the work of other prof essionals. 

I n England, he had watched. closely all the great jurists and had been 

strongly influenced by Lord Birkenhead. He a dmired Carson and 

Patrick Hastings. (The way he stood in court and the cast of his 

head was said to be uncannily like Hastings.) On board ship on the 

homeward voyage, he had the good fortune of discovering Sir J ohn 

Simon who was sailing to the island for a month's rest. For the ten 

days remaining ot~ the voyage, the holidaying Sir John in an expan-
sHrP&flflh 

sivef\mood practically coached the young colonial lawyer in law, the 

courts and in the art of advocacy. "All good advocates are egotists," 

Manley said many years later, 11and nearly all good advocates are 

happy talking about their cases. Sir J·ohn was no exception. I think 

I learnt more aboutlOCDD advocacy in ten days than _I had learnt in 

all my JtOIIDO(JIJ( life, for here was a master talking about his own 



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But - it was the powers of observation and absorption of young 
$ {)0 /u 

Manley that fixe d that fleet encounter into what qu ~ became a 
A 

familiar professional quality. 

The Manley re-entry into Jamaica seemed to have been a careful 

blend of thrust and caution. While he stayed with the c1erks, he 

sent Ill Edna and t.ae baby into the Mandeville hills, a cooler 

place containing the countryside-green of England but occasioaally 

f anned by the warm breath of the tropics rising from the plains. 

And they escape, the is cor.d'ort of t he anley::; cro,~c.in ~ i ... 01 .. top of' 

the Cl e r l s i n the small sub urban house . c ~ut . andeville was a cor e y o f 

anners , an entr ' acte of high- bo::;on.e u t;ran .e d ates crouche a t their 

lace curtains , alert ~ searcling out t he slightest~ nrraction o f the 

vhi te-boss , ..ilack- pea::,a1 try relations .. ip relent le ·_, ly at worl in ho,.1e , 
churc au, state . an<'cville va::, no )lace t' or a free - spirite artist 
,ho ,·a light . ears away in intellect and sheer fine - , lindedness. The 

wb.i te u ashie::, ue_µres::;e her; as diu w.-at she reckor..e , as the L.o · tllity 
or the lack ill - use folk ; perhaps i ma g ine a vhite - flit,ht 1~ro1 guilt; 
a elf-accusin0 colloquy to inne 

* efore t e ~usion of the two branches of tle profes·ion , ~olicitor::, 
a11 barrister.::: , olici tor s dia not " appear II in the hi6 11 t,OUrt::,, 
anc barri s t e r-, to appear , haJ to be riefed ) :;,olicitor . ar ­
ri t er::, ·1 i th c:;oo connect ion a ,lOilG solicitor::: of heavy cale1 aars 
c ou~ eq rnntlJ recei e< more Lr ief's a1L 1 ua e nore r.10uey . T op - c l a::;s 
oarristers woul naturally row~ t o heavy- cale c ere ones . 

the 1 , anley <.l e pen e Oli the Crown f'or hi::, first ca3e; i . e. , as a Gourt ­
ap ,oiute counsel :for the ,jef'e1 e in a ruur er trial ; y coi1 ciuence> in 

Ja ish '!'o,-.nJ 1cre he , as a 1ar - idi ::,choolooy , rac il g i::; mount fro ... 
elmont to tiiu '1 school , llad h is f'irst brush w i-ch tLe law '"he1 he , as 

sto~~ed ano war1eu b) the town consta le . 
In. n ot es .ia e a ter l i retiren eht , : e re orte hi acve .t on the 

le 0 al cene: 
"l \\ill f .ever 1.'or et 'IJ t h e n o ... ent I rose in Court to a::,k } :firot 

. 11 the cros:;; - exa .. 1 • .a t.Lo.1 hau bee1 ... wri tt er out , with any 
Ir (the) itness saia , ' no '- , I aske a c.if':rerent question an we 

act.:or in ly . I a be en lai t u ( ill) .r or tl ree ,\ eeks an tr e 
work one 01. that si .1)le ca c wa tre .1e1 ou:.::- . L .,lie ( lerk) ca e wi tr e 
to S anisl 'I m 1... . I ir::.t ,itnes e1 e h is 0tory. I rose . 10ut h , a::. 
c. y, ,!J' el t ~wollen. I ~ too sile t f'o.1. .1 L:ar 1)- c: ... inute. T .. e1 t Le 
,.o ... tl,s o auto-..,u ,, 0 es tio ...... cu:,1c to resc e . e . .1 f' 1 t ai... ~ or r .0110:f 

0
reat 

ene1 ;y a11u conf' idenc.:e . .J... a l e u t he ques tion . I ,as o f' . 1.at: a oi. ent . 
lat a -,trange thint:. . 'his lortg 1Jrep aratio. , t.i s 1ear .1Jrootration , tte1.1. 

X 



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apartment at Hope Road, it was an easier descent into the heat for 

Edna than a straight rush from chilly England to the Liguanea. 

It was a good road for living, with the fine mountains at the 

back and the famed poinciannas flaming in the green of the Liguanea 

1U1UICJa savanna~. But out in the underbrush, something stirred. 

Among the prized possessions in the lightly furnished flat of 

the impecunious young couple were the thirty cups and trophies 

he had won in sports. Today, the• trophies would have been national 

memorabilia but for a• sneak theif and an open window. One wag 

thought at the time that the burglar was a hungry collector since 

the only other item stolen was a tin of Douglas' Glaxo. 

In lieu of the Glazo, they acquired a goat, a shaggy Egyptian 

Q JtP • 
Black, from the soldiers at Up Park Camp.)!:- p,r' 

They moved to Worthington Avenue. They sold the single-buggy 

Norman had b een using to drive to Chambers and invested in a 

two-year-old Essex and a couple bf linen dusters• for the chalky 

thoroughfares. They remaine d at Worthington for several months, 

including a move across the road to a larger house called "Newara 

Yahlia, 11 two words of' reputed Ind ian origin believed to be an invo-

li'nnR had her 



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\ \ 

I 

LJne even ir b as they sat ir. the livin room oJ. t. eir upstair" 
IIo.l.Jc ·ond .flat, ::;ty eu • .1::1res iably for esoteric reasow,; , in 
Ara, al· Octa 01. 1 ( t.1e c,i t:;,ht- ::; i e • uts of' tl.l.e_,e ar ly a1. aicans , 
h or cvcr, ·ere or ) ur O::, e .:> 

t h e llm.atic :f.: ·u~ .. ricane win<.1 s :::eek.ing solic.. , .:ull- a ce c.:. 
u stacles to wic t he ir f't. r) on), i1 wall e .. lee l a r l~e , tl e 
. a .over .ul a t to cot::; L :L.o , ·oulc o n e ay ,ro. ose .e :f:i.ct io1 
Ar~, .'a ... 11,, ulou an 1.c • a n o towa r d Ai' ic a . e a1 .l.Jole t 11 a1.c 
lea11, ::, ar.y COl. tr b o y ha e Lr o 1 .forei6 1 >arts/ 1 e • cl 

u rbi e t o illu.,trote hi::; s a .:c c ss . 1 e was howe i'rc,, 
C u ) ' 11with all tl.c a i r::; o f' a ; ,.,aJ1 ~.c d.hue e, " recall::; . Or uall; 

tie s t h at I ate. e 1 • s soc cs ti.at .... tcl,e i i .J:Jlay .C::.lJ.. h ere. ie.l • 
.... i. a n 0 ui~he d l.air po .,a ct. ~ ~ ~~ :r 1~, 11 11 or air.:, an J 

race::; . 11 Th ey talke f f' tl1.is an that . , ayJe as Cou in ·orina1 
.,)OKe of his war , A.Lee , 1 ever to be outdone , :r oun e his o, n AFFll.Ayt , 
~ 'ihen 

i11 S}>ain an 

1ay have been born t 1e later stories o • cont licts 
~ 

Of' l i s orocco , al thou h never of specif'ic battles . ..__.... 
courage there t1as neve1 t,een oubt; no less of hi::; inve tions . 



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Naturally, fond of horses as they both were, they had horses, 

among them a racer name d "House of Lords" which was to achieve a 

minor fame on Mr Dolphy's track at Maverley in Edna's gymkhana 

appearances. In 1924, they moved to a place in the woods above 

Half' Way Tree, named Drumblair. 

~ bought the property f'rom / Volney Rennie on a loan 
OJ.. ,{2,~00, secured partly on his life insurance . t wa~I ought 

rl callin his ~ . ''rebirth , 11 • Once , be:fQ:r;e 
1·1.rst 

their .1ar1 ic1.ge, J. /t e year of his/r.Lervou 
col.l.ak" ) 21d he t ought he ha lost Edna, e> had taken to the 
l ealin' woods. e ei tu to 11t ; others seek solace 

~~t,!.,,.1-..l / fHiG 11v(i, T,-J£ 
lengthenine t e ~ J is ••.SBatllOli,D"-.e, I¼,-:~ .. t J • 1 l _..., . 

f1P.(;u1N{J '1"HflT rTS to lo~ e his g 1.e J.u an r i'-l c., ~ t. ~ r L ... 1 W 
1111 -n-16,; 't.>lly.S, Y\ 

in 

souet~ t 

1 
iminish I c J. t nm . _ t , ~. r ,J_ , a 1..1il ~ 

:::, ' 
J' 1..rt e • 

,;A. 

, t 00 , 111 

-rt1flr o0,R> ,,.,l,,,~t.11111i:., ~ (Gt ~.Jii! . ~; c::;;:p: ~i<A,I --_• l~ 

lan , ... ua1, .L 

bolted . 

if'e. 
b 2 }Ol.ll1t_; si. teen-year-old country ,irl 'ror ornwall, snt: ha 

Leen terri:fJe ,y London, s o oisy , btatcly ~erocious, 
l a1f - way into its century oi u,ly ro,th. ut there l U( been 
usic an nuseu ,. , ark and theatr ) a torre1.Lt of' art. Ja ,· 1ca 

i:. ,•as a astol.an tl at la e4 il E:' .::;C: rt L 1. . A ...1\ of' f::hrcw 
' 

1ar ' 
f'lairl.e-.,s er. in t o-tonc 1 oe~ a1 c tl eir -li tex atc 0 1·n 
dve . A f'rontierland , ith an inhabiteu scttlenent o 
li estone streets, queue~ oi open ,~hor ou cs, one r ostl) 
clo e , an a loud, un ere ucate , overdressec t.,uar -

barons. t, 

iitt tl e · u erouh intert of ouber a 
odE:' t two- to:r: ey edlifice ir.. ast treet t.ousc t 

onl) natio al 10 towar s the nrt tt e re rid .L .. ~ ti tutc l: a a i1. 
of' no ·c-ir -tt. •-air aloofnes .... , rea y to o a little iI ehs i 

yo f oul su. ,o . the courawe to c.r o tl e thrcsl ol . o c . pinster 
a e piano lessons an a ioces·n choir r.. occa::;ionally. ~lau c 

C ay' tl e 0 ly p.ro i_inl> oet of' >o, er, hac i :u t eu. to America. 

A l andful of' iatercol.our artists br she tl: eir clicat talents. 

lane.. an its 

ut a sen e 

.re e Dere on a 
oili ir. the .at 

po 11erf' l fol fecun lty, la 
f' llo-.. ..:as 

oi' rene• - 1 ,ur in a ain t tlose bon s o:C Ef!lm 

,~~~7~1~a=~~~-~-~-a-~ that were so 1clow i o-
~ o on o~ tl.e '-'rican >co Jle / . ·oon, 



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an1... pro uced 

thlJt/lJ hills . 

For 

J 4 
a handful of love - chil, ren among t he peasant ladie::; of 

let slip 
And ll'dna iil!l!alt; her e,rip on <- espair . 

apJeared to the marriage, it now ~ : e : II!!)' her mine.. a railw 

reeling under the impact of' those letters concerning the dream house 

at ,rumblair, and the two - seater secondhanc Durrant antomobile he 
was ( ickering :i:'E to b1..y ' and the e;rea t white moon he wrote eloquently 

comint;\over the mountain , an the artf¥ 1 easing in of his succes!:5 in 
makin5 f55 one week , and that (this one reall 'Yfo body hook ~), Tiger , 

her large, black, mixed-ancestr~ fiercely-loved , savagely- protective 
pup was roaming the countrysic.e seeking herJ ai how her friends 

stood about ,missing lier, and that a m1tually- loathed one of them had 
seemed ~leaRed that she had weakened an run for ~1gland anc after 

subtle changes 
all that splendi,i~ _p;;g1u: wooing with its --.i!!.4'11a1a of pace anc. 

h 
directions, the ,,;arria 0 e, it must now have 8_)pearect to ~ona ' ::, reeling 
min , was not in ruins after all. That it could not only work, but 
be positively ecstatic. It ,\·as not long before a she wa!:5 ~121~:l1:Zl~ii!l:i 

passionately longing to be back "in your arms hen 

of 

she returned a:fter five months in England, it was with bag an baggage 

furniture she had bought :for their f'irst-owne home and tools for 
lier woo~ carving career -- - anc the ~ecision to have another child. 

It was N ., ' s first effort at ~ - negotiatine an was 
concludec with spectacular success . 

Hospital, on l)ecember 10 . 

ic:ael was born in uttall 



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\ 
I 

I 

CHAPTER FIVE 

~ u'nh1>i.L • , 9t 
Drumblair arked the creative years, a time of gifts so ~ at-i. ahitlii~~ ~ prolific Jtt!V rA would providehiiQ ► • g.-e1"ePh,-.. The ) Ol~vpitUl 1ri1,1.e,,/., of property--•• &.., a curving leafy lane known as the Old Church ..1·11r pv bUt ,=t:,.#( > Road. The house ._ ~ well back from the ¥1•, reached by 

a drivew¥Y which circled in front of the verandah. Genteel, 
~Wllq 

rather than elegant, it had fine floors and panels . .- quickly 
._ made over into an image of the talented young couple who 
occupied it with their two sons. -,7,;}~ E;="" 11' .fv~P 

The grounds of Drwnblair had a little of Guanaboa Vale D m about its rolling foothilly acreages, laying close to where 
the Liguanea commences to swell into the Port Royal mountains. 
Besides the house, they had a stable for their riding stock and 
a garden for N.W. - Both~ loved mountains and rli] 'J cA,·JJl,ocL~ f,·rtf ~ as at Belmont, his~ home, there was a clear view of 
Blue Mountain peak from the north windows. It was a similarity 
that may have engaged Manley's responses when he choose the pro-Soof../ perty J ~ Mill they were .._, both running off into the mountains. 

Wlf.il>e•~~, Drumblair won• and held a special affection 
to that remarkable generation of poets, writers, politicians, 
lawyers, industrialists, xv:xxm painters, sculptors, scientists, 
dancers, statesmen, republi~esidents and the better royalty 
who frequented the place for so many years. Even at middle age, 
and past it, the Manleys had a faculty for att~acting the young sometime and gifted. If his/impatience was from the first of such) to 
cause traumas among the• less shining acquaintances, his approval f>I ft,J y nevertheiess endured through~ abrasions. For his warmth was 
only banke d , not unkindled. He had been a shy youth, not, it ap­
peared, because of uncertainty, but more because of a mind whose 

7 



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native incisiveness dictated an unlinking fix on facts. He could 

listen as long as it took, but a profile sculptured in the cold 

classicism of a Seneca; and a preference for logic, locked out 

intimacy. "He had, 11 says Leslie c1erk who came closest to being 

one, "no intimates." 

He had, of course, several friends. His wit, wisdom and 

t aplomb attraced the clever and the sophisticated. The deep 

verandahs at Drumblair grew famous for soirees of cards, conver-

sation and that light flogging of political ideas which the 

times allowed. But the bottom submerged D majority of his country­

men were still out of sight and barely on the edge of mind. What 

passion there had been in the country for the shoeless ones had 
si&ty 

been interred/M'fi[ffl{J years before with Paul Bogle and George Wil-

liam Gordon. The land was suffocating in its middleness. Claude 

McKay and Marcus Garvey were fleeing to Harlem, U.S.A., seeking 

concern) or bent on stirring it. In a land once noted for its 

risings and riots in response to the rights of man, there had been 

a ringing silence for two generations. 

So far, the young Manley had gained success in two fields: -

nncxx~Olll(XM%XEIXllD~lfDX1JOOUIX)CI~ 

.-.r, . , r "n,r- r • ; ~ the prodigious performances which made him a legend 

c.O (/tU( (I,,. - -- O.C.A.~\U,.. I I'( 
in the · ~ athletic contests, and as the first obviously 

~ ~ 

mixed- blood to obtain a Rhodes. These were the visible, highly 

lauded exploits. His scholarship at Oxford was less noticeable, 

while typhoid and the war had kept him from adult athletics. His 

new field of the law lay before him. How challenging was the fiel d ? 

The Jamaican bar was small in size and middleweight in quality. 

J.A.G.Smith's advocacy was strong on the legalities but mild in 



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techniques. No new barristers had been admitted to the Jamaican 

bar in eleven years before Manley. The only King's Counsel, Phil­

lip/ stern, was already aging. The brilliant incoming young man 

brought a whiff of fresh air into the musty corridors of the tired 

old courts. Litigants liked what was showing and :flocked to his 

practise~to commence for him a 32-year run that ceased only when 

he retired to become Premier of Jamaica. Very early in h is caree~, 

a former Chief Justice* was already publicly labelling him a "gen­

ius". Another WDIQOI Chief Justice** spoke o:f the "ability of his 

mind." The fact was, his presence in court was a promise_,~XXX 

*Sir Adrian Clarke in the Alexander murdsr trial. 
** Sir John Carberry, who, as a young barrister, JtEaCJOt was associa­

ted with Manley in Chambers 1925-27. 

tacitly acced ed to by the BenchJof sound, clear advocacy which 
:facilitated their 

most often ~H5e■■ifi DJOIHD coming to judgement. 

For three decades, there was no important case at trial in 

which Manley did not figur, fil@e cuflltllii:ibWtaiq" But even while he 

was winning an unchallenged reputation in Public Build ings East, 

the lower King Street civic block housing the High court, the 

politicsJ which was to disengage the law from h is life;was going 

into gear a scant few hundred yards DHJOD( nort~, in The Parade. 
'= 



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CHAPTER SIX 

A redbrack sidewalk east of the Victoria Park~on The 

Parade) is the cradle of Jamaica's modern politics. The side-

walk was then a kind of platform rising about eight rungs off 

the street and ran the length of the Coke Chapel along East 

Parade and East Queen Street. 

~ ~to match 

Coke Methodist Chapel is a landmark 

the sidewalk. It was for better 
0FP1c.c 

than three decades, the main forum foievery ._ seeker 4& 1N 

o-rv .. 
~ The platform, on The ~arade side, faced the Park , 

where, by day, ancient banyans drooped shady and cool to the 

green curved-back benches. The banyans sheltered in comfort 
s111nu... 

a whole generation of touts, orators and candidates for~office~/ 

reading newspap#~rs and arguing to the caw of crows and the 
'-' 

clatter of electric trams switching on the tracks outside. It 

was, towards evening, a short matter of crossing the street 

to a platform exactly high enougrror effective haranguing, 

wide and flat enough for a little limited dramatics as points 

were driven home to the auditorium in the broad street below, 

free of traffic save for the occasional horse-drawn hackney. 

Although the voters' rolls were small, the campaign quality 

was vigorous and ■ crowds flocked to - The Parade. In the 

flicker of three-burner kerosene lamps on poles (wealthier 

contestants afforded carbide flares), the rhetoric rattled from 

such pros as Leonard P. Waison, 

~ and the doyen of them all, Alfred "Doc" Mends, a short thickset 
gallery 

brown man of eloquence and Napoleonic gestures whose 

libels enjoyed a generally accepted legality since he unfail­

ingly prefixed his DJ]O(%XX¥1{ insults with the adjectivJ 11poli­
A-L 

~ 



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tical 11 • Opponents for years fell into one of' two categories, "po­

litical rascals," or 11political nincompoops. 11 The specialist 

speakers were men famed f'or their invective and gutsy humour,who 
o ppoAJEIJr.t grew in to 

could and did switch sides if' the ~?&a£ liberality/xasxaa 

r (' ()')Ah€ IT F(Jt!)LJ.fff -rib 

offers hatA~itJ-~ refusef, the citizens had more lamplit fun 
yardful 

than a J■MHMM of kids in a full-moon Anancy night. 

Lights burnt late at Drumblair too but for other reasons. Now 

in his thirties, Manley's capacity for work was dismaying to his 

adversaries. He had a knack for unlocking details. His law briefs, 

closely studied through exhaustive research, powerful perception 

and an uncanny memor? became an avalanche as eager solicitors sought 

his services.I Like all courtroom giants, he was a consumate actor. 

*. fa . al :fus· n ic' r o . 
e c a r o r r 

g e d 11 s s • ~ 

The aquiline features under the theatrical flow of hair escaping 

his wig, the eloquence and strikingly beautiful gestures)ialtcJa 

~ tf1t!tilF ..... G the ability by the lay of his headrm or ~ 

I shrug of his robe to compel attention, gave him a style so 
though 

personal that/widely imitated by many younger lawyer}denied them 

a true copy. It was a curious side to his character that he seemed 

to exude the same warmth to a jury as he did in the intimacy of 

his home or among those he liked but hardly elsewhere. His 

emotional orchestration was for the chamber, not the symphony hall. 

His pull on the great crowds that would, later in his life, hang 

on his words from the political hustings, was activated by his 

intellect and his unquestioned integrity. They knew the odds were 

that he was right, and certainly that he was honest. 

For years, the lights at Drumblair were darkened only some 



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four hours ffli nightsn - he would make up the loss with an 

extravagant six hours sleep some nights. His knowledge of law 

was of course, prodigious, but so was his capacity for work. His 

success was long, and collosal. The, 11 Yes, Manley," from a 
when 

high court Benc~~the Presiding Justice called on the Defence, 

came to be known as the commencement of a virtuoso performance 
which was, 
tilllll for force, skill, elegance and wit,m unmatched then as 

now. 

The profession quickly recognized his remarkable gifts. so­

licitors and the growing bar were soon filling the seats of the 

courts in which he appeared. Many young lawyers had unabashedly 7/,KcN 

to lurking in the seedy law library (then serving the Su-

preme court on the second floor of the East Block) 

in the hope of obtaining a gratuitous opinion on mmm a knotty 

point. His natural generosity for awhile obscured the ploy. When 

he did catch on, he took to visiting the library on a Sunday morn­

ing but soon a surprising number of lawyers were breaking the 

fourth commandment. 

Manley the Lawyer asks his own book, an unavoidable but 

reluctant conclusion since much of the clout in his political 

career came from the insights into the Jamaican character he had 

gained through his work in law. He was to defend high and low, r fl ~.,•aasr:114., C/Vlt NE6 0-rich and poor and all races throughout Jamaica. ,., IP» 41i.s 18 ~ 
-r,n-nofl 
G'IJl1(Jff' was to prepare the ground for every social reform MJ01MM 

,rne Y€1Ul 
e:pQ since 19J~~hen the State took notice. 



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Yet, the t rutl i!:j that the early :auley looked less a likely 
p olitical fellow than anybody who ever s oute a sloga11. }Te ;r:e"' 

e +'o..,. on a .farm b ut ·~i::; irn:,tiuct"' were traine <1 to tl e b ourboisie 1' •• e 
I\ 

tbe p roJerty owner ' s :::,011, ! e d e1e1 ._,e s lanty town i11 t €. courts 
t sat ·u t .e S tewar d ::;' 

T . e I ockin ~ work loa 

satisfaction wit ::;heer la 

box at t l e tracks. 

** 

h e wa s carrying and t l e t e n::,io .s of is­
li c a ::., h i rea E> onab le/p urpot>e, ~~ too 1 

it s toll. ·a c e a l ing ' s Coun::,el in 1 ~ 32, he a s s oon cu ar L. e Li.:, 

:f irst ulcer. 

He had. set t l E' i , to no .familiar pat t P , Forty- five years later , 0 
ing back , ~ short weeks before his d ea t h , he was satis:f i ed t hat acao t 
in ~ t he Jays of ~ or dim i n i sh , he had " lived my own li.fe 
in my own way " and :flourished . Put his life beine largely wit h the 
Law, and resolute as le was in his purposes , hii::; own way coul lock 
him into plights where his e~o goose< his judgment to isastrous 
co sequence · . One such was to baunt him al l h i s years : 

Th e unlikel. alliance o f . a r cus Garvey and wealthy Jewish 
corporation lawyer '1M Lewis Ashenheim * wa-, one of' the eculiari ties 

*Actually, such a l liances in Ja 1aicawere co'1mon a century 
and t vo be.fore when t lie < ise1 .frar chi sec.. Je,, s made co -
p act "'ith the equ al l y deprive, b l acks to shake t he 
An lo - axon/Caucasian c o i nance . --------------------

0 ::,olicitor-=- orten as-.,ocia-
0 ~:>olitlcs . 

s l en, e i ,1 h ea of ,fir I\ was a 
te d ith . anley ii hi1,,;l co rt 11ley, ti u thf ull b u t r eek-<;. ~ 
lessl i1 t h e tee ti 01 the wind out of black cou:c,cimus ness 
and p ride a s Gar ·ey' s n opo::,i tions and . ret ict ions rove d agreeable 
to blacl- a mbitions, r ls k:e t a lasting un larity by placir.1 4 l.i..irr! -✓ 

C ~ :1. CJ , ~ sel .f i ll rores::,ional le~al o J JO::,itiou/-~-• Garvey- Ashenl.e i ri;f court 
iatter. ,,,fo:re that , anley , unf ortunately but in accord ance ith 

t h e la, , l .. a , b O inion , supportec , the cit) council ' ::s r u lin"' 
that Garvey' -eat wa acated sin c e he ha beer JSent .fror.1 three 
counc il meetLngs --- , u e to being in jail for cont ~t o:f court . ( t 
t h e time tl e r .1:Ji dor1 , as ~ e iven in the Council ChaL1Jber, 

~ '..> an 
h is .future rello, ational Hero) ::,quareu o.ff am nearly car.1e to blows . 
G rvey, a uri~k, energ etic ma .. , cnuckleu at hi::s slight 01 .... t sinewy 
challen.,er ' invitatlor to 11 :c,te._J out:-;ide, " ar .. r eclined . hus ,:as lo::,t 
an i com arable hilarious f ootnote to hi::;tory.) 

or e as to come a f' ew 1onths later \\ h en a 0 ai.'1 he pla c u l i!:> 
leGal sills at t l e servi c e of a lay- lit igant ueirg Garvey ~or a~ 
allee;e libe f u t>li.,he < in his paper he Blackman . Ga r~ ey) the lay1i1an, 
lost to anl€c)_,, the la,,r.1a~ ( r.arvey ha c argueu h is own ca ,-,e), ut it . as 
a barely perceµtitJle f/111. ictory. anley's o\'n words on the outcome 
tell or the b rui:-,e1:. ne s .istaine 11 . e ac.le a brilliant closing ao ress 
to a Special Jury hearin e; the case . J e wa:c, witt>· an a1 U::,i11g (takin ) f 
every a cl vantaee op ell to a litigant who c efen< s himself. Thoue-h l ' On :really 
the ca!-,e, wh ich ~ qui t e inaefen :-. i )le , he got that Jury to awar a 
bare half t h e < amat,es we ha< e pecte c It wa s a t'in e ,er~orr ance . rt 

The I ost ~a 1ou of t h e three le al cla hes -; tl at i n "11ich an 
merican ~ r r IA off'icial 11amed arks uro 1 t h e 

Jamaica11 l, , 1. 
1 ark::,, with . . . ., 



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0<.1-

i'ul; and Libei ty IIall, the U1IA healll_. arters 011 Upper King street, 

a valuable blocl -wide property, went under the hat.mer f'or settlement. 

The local UNTA, iu effect, Garvey, appealed through their solicitor 

an won. But Liberty Hall had alreacy been soln. Ashenheim, desperate 

for arvey's support of' his own political ambitio11s, turned UiJ at the 

auction and made an uncharacteristic louumouthen protest which cost him 

the then who ping fine of' £JOO for contempt of court. Then in one of 

those curious turnabouts in courtroom manners, it was Manley who apveared 

1'or the Jamaican UNIA and won what he called 11 :;:;ub&tantial (. amages 11 , 

enlarged, he believeo, by the faulty liecision chart;ing Ashenheim with 

contempt. Ater all, all Ashenheim had, loudly, granted, declared, was 

that anybocty who bought Liberty Hall would live to regret it, ~ince, he, 

Ashenheim, expected to win his appeal. Which he did. 

The stories of' HaHley's Jil.!iWEX tilts with Garvey were arnplifiec 

and made bodeful ~y his political opponents in later years. "Any sug-

gestion that I had anything else to tO with ~arcus Garvey is totally 

untrue," he wrote vigorously in 1969 in a last mxaxl.ac.s:t: strong effort 

He said the Labour Party had sought to e11-

ba:fass hi1,1 over many year::;. 
And so it was that 

.tZ£(!£i real impectiment to the success of' any politician./ £'21': the 

It would be a very 

explosive quality of' "black" politics which Garvey's great lifeworl-.. was 

to subseque1tly entrench in Jamaican affairs wa alway::, critical in the 

reckoning of' both ·.w. and Busta --- both wdeniably "brown" or mulatto) 

ano targets for ruthless rejection by the people if' either showel 

a ~raae-by-shac.e leaning, iZei a t,ias towar s the fairer-skin rock-dwellers. 

-!Vfhe island is wryly referrea to a.s The ,.ock by Jam­
aicans aoro&d, the economic exiles ::;eeking shekel 
while unceasingly scheduling tlii~ The {eturn. 

"Lot .. I.:usta:nant e and I, 11 ... •• W. one e confesseu, E II in our year:;; of' 

(Party) growth, were careful to refrain from references to Garey and 
And so 

the UNIA.11:" Sfl.l:Zi1~ n:eith.cr ever lost the black ma:;;:::. support each ependea 
two 

on. ( On the :&VlfJ occa::.ions that Lawyer danley hac. a professional i1,. ol e-

ment with Busta, the ~irst was a comfortable cousinly request, in the 

early Thirties, to read over a contract Busta was negotiating for the 

purchase o:f an apiary. To clear the document of any hif c1en stings, Cousin 

A1ec consul tea the bright one of' the far. ily anc was assured that tL.e 

contract would hol up. The ~econd wa& the famou:s ia11ley inter"ent;ion 

(along \dth J.A.G.Smith) during tlte 'Thirty-l'Jight Troubles which 

freeu _Justa fro1, tlte Tower :;trcet 0 aol anc lmrtleu tl em both into 

politi c::,.) 



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CHAPTER SEVEN 

And yet, not even in those younger days when he lived the 

~ 
life of the young gent-about-• upper- town, did he lose touch 

with the marketplacej for his choice of fun and games held a 

social luck. While he did not turn his back on the stewards' 
sit 

box at the tracd, norm in the cheaper seats at his beloved 

~rv IW~l> 011, 1.-ATl?ll- -n, 8e-
boxing nights,* it --,i sound political collateral Ia I•• that 

*In 1937, both he and Edna were Board members of the 
Jamaica Boxing Association, he as Chairman. 

his public sports were folk-sports. Chess or tennis woul not 

have served as well. Almost casually, he was being groomed• in 
address and profession - and 

spite of mD™...,.••••••••v:mv:ucw: a style perilously 

close to hauteur 81118 .._, tll ~ -.. 

But in the bosom of home, truifside of the cool aloof young 

lawyer, hardly ever on view away from his family, was/ as usual, 

droll, frankly comic, marshalling with a dry wit a personal pack 

of fun-devils. His love of pranks and unconventional ways could 

redu ce his f amily to apprehensive shivers or throw them into 

howling laughter. He was a man notoriously careless of his own 

safety, thinking nothing of mounting/high roofs or going to• the 
an illogical 

top of giant trees by Dllllffll•DlDI system of double ladders that 

never failed to work. A great lover of classical music, al .... 

ffi 1 discerning critic, his own performance however never endea­

voured beyond virtuoso blowings of the mout h -organ. ( His expert 
·,Hli" 

stroking of..- wondrously indecent folk-mentos still jellies 

memories.) On the long sununer-days at Nomdmi, their cabin-in-the­

tN 
sky~ the Blue Mountains near Guava Ridge, he could fully give 

range to the imp that was never far remove d from his most serious 

moments. (T ime and again, in courtroom and parliament, the Imp 



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5Lf-

would show up, in apparent innocence, yet suspiciously enabling to 

his catse.) 
c.--" 

As he journeyed up and down the land, practising the law that 

was, already in his own mind, lilBDI apprentice to his politics, he ., 
came 
~ under scrutiny 0XZ~ of concerned men whose 

growing "look to Manley" was assuming a kind of cult. For he had 
of the literary 

the kind of identity for which the ¥Oung Jamaicans 

and debating clubs had begun to vaguely hunger. He was a strong dark 

presence, accomplished as hell, in a sea of vapid tea-slopping 

English :faces that floated like ghosts behind the jalousies• ,...~ 
of wealthy suburb• St Andrew. He had proven that he could out-run, 

malarial 
out-jump, out-talk them all. He was handsomer than the ?3 &. sahibs 

and an authentic war JIii( 
8 v-i-f:Of.l.S/ 

-ro /3DP,. 
hero~e• all swallow your collar 

studs, ~◄W he had been to Oxford. 

~v-r ihe 6L&il!il hunger was not widespread. A sprinkling of young 
were 

intellectuals had discovered Karl Marx and m cautiously brush­
proposed 

ing their fingers over the mosaic A au J -- • to :fetch po-
Yet, 

litical power to the working class./ Marx's philosophy had its 

foundation and growth in an industrial than agrarian economy; it 

owed its soul to the tight wage-bond between mill-owner and hand) 

than to the - at-large irrelation of scattered peasant :farmers 
home 

whose one acre demesne was M P9I( all the year. (Farm labourers 
we/2.e' \ seasonally employed.) 

on the sugar estatesA.., vastly Bauxite was 

thirty years away and manufacturing :factories, :further. 

The wait :for an industrial working class would be crunching 
St>'lt;>'-<-- If./ Nr.Jm8€P..S 8 T 

to the hopes o:f theApassionately impatient long exploiteds. There W~~S 

r~ {\lo i,.fJR{;€ fti,'THOV(il-f ~T~I> tJ~D-1, 
->-/\black middleclassJ "-the urge existed) J • - among the 

sons and daughters o:f the rising artisans. find it was here, among ~e 
these, that the Marxian irony happened,-jhe young, hopefully 



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wer~ 
bourgeoisie,(clamouring for a transfer of power to the "middle-

--- for them to .m■ LJ hold ) 
class", e t e:se~until me · "working-class" was ready. But 

irony is often a shortcut to reality. The new politics took 

holdJI and rapidly replaced the old talk-shop on the Coke Chapel 

steps, throwing out the professional touts whose flamboyant 

oratory had no grip. The long, arduous 

'Thirty-Eight had begun. 

walk to 

N . l~ .Manley understooa the efficiency of history; that 

it never strode ahead but was coiitent to be carried by the 

chroniclers , the 11 akers , while executing its own proposals . 

While the "growing and expanding. middleclass " had been the 

pioneers in working for "Jamaica as a possible national unit , " 

the peasant farmer represented " tl1e most s t able element in the 

cownunit} - -- patient , hwnourous , accepting life anct whatever 

was brought into it with great f'idelity and tenacity . 0 ~ hat 

wa::, ho,v he saw it . ~ Guanab oa and St Andrew . The earnest 

ana the elite . And they vvere walking well together aw .... he was 

::,atisi'ied . One day it woulct be his political gi1 t to 1'ocus tl1em 

in llimselfj and execute the political victory ne was beginning to 

want . heanwhile , other:; would commence the loHg walk . 



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CHAPTER EIGHT 

There was no leader so the walk did not kick into a march. 
l·W /IA,'1'1 l.ULI/TE" yo,wG .fcuP..NALl 'lT; 

Kenneth George Hil~~with his National RP.form League, came close. In 
·rnu 1 'TH11.1, HIU1))VJOR l<I /.JG 

a lesser way did the union movement o:fl\A.G.S. 111'"'ather 11 Coomes.* 

*Both would win seats in the House o:f R0 presentatives 
years later. Coombs served as Minister of Communications 
in the PNP government. 

St William Grant, a honest, earnest war veteran who had cut his 

eye tooth in Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association 

(UNIA•}, was holding his regular "banyan lectures" under the great 

banyan trees in the Victoria Park, unaware of his destined meeting 
~nd the .role o:f John the Baptist that would lose him his political hea◄ 

with Bustamante/4 There were other 

unmistakable indications of the new awareness. E.L.Allen, a 

dimunitive battler :for elementary school teachers' rights had taken 

over the Clarendon 
FJ8ou r 

parish Teachers Association and was bombarding 

the press ~ their plight :first of the new young classroom 

politicians who would cut such a swathe in Jamaican politics. Father 

G1adstone Wilson, the Roman 
e.u, 

who, <Mt- :for the strictures 

catholic intellectual and teacher-priest, 
r:' tttTlf 

o:f his 11!!4 I would have been an acti-

" 
vist, was lecturing on such erudite subjects as "The Origin and 

End o:f Human Society" to heavy listenership, including Bustamante. 
BlfG ur.1 

Several Citizens Associatio~ OOIW A. as suburban improvement 

groups, were turning their eyes :from sidewalk mending to political 

:fencing. 

The new thinking gained strength as the harsh days of low 

employment and :feckless Colonial rule wore on. The new kingmakers 

who replaced the old barkers on the Chapel steps were bright, often 
r£Rvbi,£' 

travelled young menJin whose minds lawyers could no more 

be out o:f politics than Das Kapital be out of print. True, by the 

'Thirties, blacks had acquired sufficient votes, even on the limited 



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suffrage, to become kingmakers; but because they had no precedents, 

only those heads which could approximate a Westminster paradigm 

had any hope for a coronation. Generally, the most likely suc­

cessful candidate had in him the least folk. 

And yet precisely for the lack of precedents, they diag­

nosed their political pro~s by instinct and worked at the 
8u-r ~E FP~ myopia 

solutions with I laconic good sense.~,\ tfie probl-A ~ 
identifying their ...,i;qit!,-,E'SS 

A. leaders, a 111· PS J C J- induced by the 
-SO 

in 

which had been"-carefully introduced - L la and 
-~ 

nourished in their psyche by skilled E)npire builder~and care-
,,, I\ 

takers. Insidiously, it weakened their inward struggles for a 

belief in their own capabilities■ and so they d l self-effaced.. 

like crazy. But even while they practised - ~ , ' • A_POlitical ~ 
~ .~ 

a publicA..41 Sa 

with secretive shoulders any ion of the i~il 

they were pushing 

who seemed likely to 
;: -

burrow to the top. They could laugh at Leonard Waison, a not un­

comical political tout, but their tears and bottled anger were for 

Garvey and his enemies. 

An effective weapon of the white/brown Empire caretakers, 

the elite maintenance men, was the virtual withholding of the 

mass communications media from their black brothers. The newspapers 
the day bear a ~ family identity 

to the American of/ 
Gi-lffS1t..y 

journals where black life was confined to the sports and crime 

pages. The annual beauty contests of the Daily Gleaner featured 

only white entrants. A real colour bar was up in most sections 
·-,{+IN SPP.IAJl<.Ll; 

of the Jamaican community. A very . ., of dark browns 

and blacks had, by hard push, penetrated St Andrew society, but 
~p~-t 

no blacks held Jobs in banks, most offices, nor ranked above non 
/\. 

commissioned officers in the constabularyB or military, nor held 

rectorship in fashionable Anglican ••••ror catholic churches._ af~ ~r- ~ ... s~el Vera. rna... /41 H)"Zl-0 b 1/-rl.a. ly w iri--Cir>f ;,.... € "'tj/(;/\,.,d ~ u-rk~ -io ~ 
,J. ..... .,.. hv-Ll.vr.J.i (.4.. ~ 1£...t.J:t- !la£hA--li DI. -H..t. Si.tm.. >> 



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By their treasured 11 tax 11 or "property" votes, blacks had sent 

several teachers, planters and lawyers to the legislature, but 

none with the charisma to lead them out of notion into reality. 
looked like 

N. w . Manley the one who could do it. He 

was young, rich or capable of becoming rich, handsome, eloquent, 

darkskinned enough for identity, an Oxonian Rhodes Scholar, and 

* had a seat in the Jockey Club, the then quite inaccessible exclu-

siveness of Englishmen,- very rich Jews• and less sallow 

mulattoes. Manley could be the one to do it but he was not 11 in 

politics," nor displayed any real inclination. He was a lawyer, 
s~eking 

a superb one, but the country was not .. a s uper-lawyer, I1wa s 

/looking £or a super-patriot who understood power 
tak e 

and passion 

elements to 4id could explosively~ these most unreliable 

just s h ort of the critical mass (although there were 
And yet , 

some who saw the solutions coming only after a nasty boom). 

notwithstanding, it was a law action that made the grip of the 
ti h ter 

people close•••• on him as their potential standard bearer. 1e 

o~d order was auout, s o t o speak , slip on a banana peel . 

(01.- .1at1er~~a 1 s) O.)t,te.rer 

tlie biL triple ut-•--•111m111WJM M1--. ..i...i11aica vuiHec:ls, 

auc 



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..,. 

1 
CHAPTER I TE 

Wearing h is proc onsul ' s panoply of plume d ,_ hat and short 
sword , the Governor spoke from his " thron e" a b out the not - so - good 

year gone . The d ate was Tuesday, March 10, 1937 . Sir Edward 
Brandis Denham, a rot und, p eas a nt-featured Englishman was opening 

old -flam ;/,·t,.-r- flJl('l:>ct- ·nilJr crrFt) 
• the year's Legislature with the • I 11. • ■J • _£ I 5 5 ·• 
the colony's successes, 1 iUf-. _,~s ...-.. :f . 1 g oss1-f .__ ai ures, and pro-

11d .(t1"' . A 1 µ 
mis:iiiif :futu re :felicity • its luckf ■ 1 C being one of the 

t\ 
"bright gems of' the Empire. 11 

While Denham made an early acknowledgment of a :fall in 

expected revenue, creating instead of a £10,000 s u rplus, a 

d e f icit o f :five times that amount, the Commander-in-chief could , 
~ 

towards the end of his report, look into the future and declare: "I 

do not think there can be a ny doubt that the great resources of 

the islancVwill be able to cope with the demands made on them 

during the coming year, in spite of the many problems and 

difficulties which we have still to meet." 

The blame :for the year's :failure was not o:f course placed 

where it belonged: on poor, non-options planning, for t h is would 

h ave led bac1hrough questing minds, to Britain_, and the whole 

qu estion o:f Colonial rule. Instead, it was lai on the weather, 

"th e storms and hurricanes which have in the past been responsible 

:for the setbacks which the Colony has sustained." 

It was true that rainstorms, near the end of 1935, had cau sed 

an e f fect on t h e 1936/37 banana crop, but there were other unaccount­

ables, such as the mysterious spiriting away of the profits on rum 

exports. "I t is difficult to account for this loss in an industry 

which has had a particularly good year," Denham said plaintively. 

He also cited t h e annual heavy drag on revenue by the limping rail­

way system, and the acceleration in the movement of - job -seeking 



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country£olk to the towns. He hoped to halt the wiwanted migra­

tion by a rural works programme#. 

Yet,,another uneasy cloud on the 

t h e north, ninety miles off the KllHD 
appetite 

horizon had appeared in 
f/ll?ll.Y{Ca~ ~ C0'1 -frvt{~ t1 

coast, where t h eACuban 

authorities, their/ •I f ,. i I• i ·I r ·I l I•· for lowcost energetic Jamaican 

labour in the canefield s blwited by low sugar prices, were not 

too politely s u ggesting that they be repatriated at Jamaican 

expense. "Th e Cuban government, I am sure, are good neighbours 

and will avoid any embarrassment to this government." 

Nevertheless, Governor Denham took a clear-eyed view of 

the future when he added that "with a rapidly increasing popula­

tion and the risk of its being f urther augmented from outside 

(Cuba), it is essential that the policy of agricultu ral d evelop-

ment and a programmel of works should be steadily pursued. 11 HJi1¥ 
B.,±~ 
r•a•r: &;; in making the customary bow to Empire) in the Speec~ by 

observing that his constituents were a "happy, peaceful and con-
he 

tented people, 11/lost his fine sighting. For by the time Throne 

Sp eech Day had rolled around again, his "happy, contented people" 

were rioting in the streets. 
/\/f7~T - S P, A CG-

Thej.!9J8) Throne Speech Day was on Tues day, March 8 , when 

the in-giving of his stewardship led Denham to intone: "It has 

indee been a good year," a statement based curiously on the 

inflationary info:nnation that "imports were considerably h igher 

than they have been for t he past six years." And th causes? 

Why, the weather, dammit! He was in to it within three minutes 1 

--• the commencement of the Speech: 11 0ur balance would have 

been still larger had it not been for a we somewhat dull Decem-

ber cau sed by the bad weather at the end of the year which 

induce d people to be more economical in their expenditure." And 

declared that the past year had been "prosperous." 



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But for whom? 

Jobs were scarcer than they had ever been. School-leaving 

youths had, in the majority) • no hope of regular employment 

for years to come# --- an area so clearly close to disaster that 

the usually tightfisted government was dipping into its Earthquake 

Relief Fund to borrow $2,000 toward s the $5,000 required for a 
"' 

Boys' Club "to meet the needs of unemployed youths and boys in the 

provision of healthy instruction and amusement." 

Despite his upbeat speech, the governor was a prudent man 

with a stomach for accepting harsh prophecy. Just to be on the 

safe side, he was also instituting a loyalty-intensive bonus of 

$d ,OOO "for good conduct" in the police force --- a prudence that 
paid ~ 
Ja~ei off a few weeks later in-.. May riots when the bricks flew. 

One of Denham's 1938 hopes was the promise of/~assive Public 

Works programme which increased that vote by fifty percent. But 

the small, ill-staffed ~ ublic ; orks i epartmentJ which the year 

before had been hard-pressed to carry through a half-million 

dollar budget, had hardly the faintest of chances to spend half 

again as much. 

The Colony's failure to harness its resources was not exactly 

due to a lack of enterprise. Coconut planters had in the same year 

sought permission to establish a soap factory. Others were 

entreating for assent to a cement factory. But since either would 

have provided competition to the British import, both-• were 

flattened at birth by the British proconsul. 

While the island's spending money was collected off the 

export trade in sugar and banana, the social impact of JHtB either 

crop was dissimilar. Sugar was a once a year harvest when for 

three months occurred the great gatherings of reapers on the cane 

estates. Most of them hill people, they came down to the ;:;.:;f'dt/b 



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for quick wages. But there was also the year-round workers, 

living in estate quarters (or "barracks"), sometimes for genera­

tions, not altogether rootless for they had their family enclaves, 
on the Owners 

but obligated to a dependence/that was not seldom unjust. 

The banana-man was considered the weigh\er citizen. He 
acreage, 

usually was a landowner of a modest ,c••• . •• ••• ;:·ma•---: ...,. 

:Ml II 115 1Jl.lllil of' a common sturdy independence, selling his crop 

on the weekly ttbanana day" when he paraded his home port-town 

praising "God and this right hand that I am a banana-man. 11 * - It 

*From the poem "The Banana Man" by Evan Jones. 

women who created the first national organisation founded to combat 
~ -. an organisation 

the control of a multuational corporation; alillll-■ hammered to-

gether in the wind of naked opposition from the most powerful 

private enterprise ever to occupy the Caribbean, the 

United Fruit Company. The canef'ields provided the recalcitrants 

who would initiate 1938 . The cane-belt brought out Busta. Manley 

would enter public life through the bananflanter. 



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CHAPTER TEN 

The establishment of the banana export trade in Jamaica is 

credited to a Captain Dowlt Baker, a 19th century American 

sea captain shipping out of Port Antonio. In the 1920s, the 

island was still the world's maxi largest single banana exporter, 

sharing with some African countries the European market. The 

United Fruit Company, with its• vast banana plantations and 

concessions) in Cantral America, virtually owned the American 

market. They also controlled the X shipping and marketing of 

fruit to England 

times/ when rain 

through a subsid iary, Elders & Fyffes Lt d . At 
#tz 

or windstorm flattened..,,. fields, the UFCo would 

quite easily take over the shortfall in the English market. In 

effect, through its shipping and marketing complex, the UFCo 

could (and did ) pull-&-play the supply lines at will. ~e Com­

pany was a monolith that controlled the economy of several 

c~ntral American and C~ribbean countries with ruthless efficiency. 
S(i.,vt1 €-

in encounter, and backed by the gunboat scowl of the 

United s~ates, its might knew no limits. 
1u1 changed 

It penetrated and some­
states 

times • 1/the governments of Latin American/ U Pd with 

such blatanc~ that in a 
'I-& t>l?rase, 

few years'/\ "banana republic" was IUA,'4 

freely through the U.S. Congressional Records. The Company 

also liked monopoly. 

The Jamaican banana grower 

were fixed by the UFC~'s policy 
~Y\-0~~ 

6ad4/ .t2x.j,_Ned 9nJ1M-td.. • 
was on ·••••• Fruit prices 

A_ 'f;: 1/'1-fl WO'r.!'fl;, 

of the day. 

there that his fruit would be bought at all. 

Only as the Company's programme willed . "It was in these circum-

stances," N. W.Manley has said , "that a few brave and farsighted 

men began to believe that it was p ossible to plan for a co-op-

erative big enough to own their own ships, and strong enough to 



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force the company to bargain with them. 11 

The co-operative would be the Jamaica Banana Producers Assoc­

iation and the men included Charley Johnson, Sir Arthur Farquahar­

son, Captain List, R.F.Williams, W. Joysey and others. It was 

created to make "banana-day" arrive regularly and even-priced. 

Its creation was to fundamentally change the lifestyle of the 

farmer. It was also to come near di spelling disaster for Manley's 

political future. 

He was quite early among the credits. As the island's most 

eminent barrister, he was called in to draft a constitution for 

the co-operative, -a task that was to take him the nearest he 

had ever been to the gut-issues of wages and unemployment since 
a;;t: 

his wood-chopping days 11111 Guanaboa. He was among "men who knew 

about Jamaica's economic problems, urlderstood them, and were 

worried about them," he said. "In this way, I got drawn into 

the real life of the country and began to learn and prepare my­

se14t'or the future that began in 1938. 11 

One of the keys to the success of the enterprise would be 

the relationship between individual growers and the co-operative. 

lany of the farmers, the potential membership, were financially 

depend ent on the UFCo, the ruthless, overbearing paper-holder 

to whom they would sell their crops in P&HZ crisis times and 

to Shell with the co-op. Manley knew that a binding contract was 

the answer. 

The several all-night sessions at Drumbla:irwith the co-op 

founder~putting together the delicate steel of a contract that 

would Kn exert enough moral force so as not to be lightly breached, 

involved long discussions of social and economic histor~ and drew 

him deeply into the core-structure of contemporary Jamaica. He 

had known Guanaboa Vale and the surrounding countr·yma inside 



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out, dug ditches, ~~e~z»e~!a~ broke in horses, cut wood with 

the humble. In• spite of Jamaica College, he had been essen­

tially a country boy when he sailed for England. He grew up at 

Ypres and Passchendale Ridge and Oxford University. He had 
of 

sound knowledge of the firepower~ his 4.5 howitzers, and 

knew how to liberate a dozen bottles of Veuve Clicquot, 1905, 

out of a shelled cellar, and knew, enormously, the tricks of 

h is courtroom trade but did not know enough about his 
pe- o f>I t. • ~. ••I learnt about the social and economic con-

ditions of Jamaica (as) I was drawn (in) deeper and deeper 11
7 

insid e the banana trade. 

The cooperative flourishe d qu ickly and in no time was 

handling a quarter of the yearly harvest; but if they though t 

the monolith f ruit company had been licked, they D had miscal­

culated. ) The creation of the Jamaica Banana Producers Associa­

tion f or buying and shipping fruit to overseas markets, once 

exclusive to the United Fruit Company, awakene d the latter's 

corporate fury. It turned savagely on the small cooperative. 

When the American company neede d more fruit for its own market-

ing operations, it raised its buying prices and hundre ds 

of sworn loyal co-operators of JBPA would soon be making boot­

leg d eliveries. On the other hand, a drop in UFCo's demand 

meant an immediate uncomfortable increase in the supply to the 

Co-op. The problem became: How to hold the Co-op growers to 

the tenns of their contracts. No way, it proved, but through 

the courts and guess who had to prosecute the farmers on 

behalf of JBPA? 

Manley was having his first taste of the rocky road 
~a:r~~y 

walked by public figures. He had been usedA~ to applause. 

He had quit his school athletics at the undefeated peak. He was 

a n authentic war hero, a brilliant Oxonian, a much sought advo-



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cate, gifted and handsome, blessed with a sparkling young 

wife. He was (or could be) a social lion. But none of these 

meant a shoot K to the small dirt-scrabbling banana farmer 

whose costly expedition to court as a defendant made him lay 

blame on the lawyer whose questionings were aimed at his 

undoing. 

Securing convictions for breaches of contract was not 

to 
a good road/Oil popularity, even for the fellow whose skill 

and hard work had created the one organization designed with 

the farmers' prosperity in mind. The small banana man, tomor-
later 

row's mass voter, didnt like him then, nor/made him forget it. 

Later he was to laconically recall his dilemma with, "Circum­

stances had their way." But he did not lay down and die. 

Soon he was helping to organise a delegation to Governor Den­

ham that would, he hoped, remove him from the horns. 

Denham, himself an Oxford man1but of humbler vin-

tage* "was almost hostile. He vigorously counter-attacked 

* 
*He was an exhibitioner at Malvern & Marton College, Ox. 

in defence of Elders & Fyffes (the shipping subsidiary of UFCo)," 

Manley del!f1.res. "He argued, and nothing could shift 

him, that the JBPA was not really a cooperative at all except in 

name." It was a point of view that would later have signifi­

canee when the head of UFCo took the same line, an evidence of 

the link and power of a company blamed with reason for having 

a hand in any number of Caribbean and South American governments. 

Denham, forced to move eventmally by the force of NWM's 

advocacy, headed for the old stopgap: he appointed a Commission. 

Onl~ that)this time, the Commi~sion found largely in favour of 

the locals, reporting that thei'1-8PQ:lai•Nt production costs were 

among the world's highest and that an arrangement should be 



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~ 

worked out which would :favour the~ ati'~ survival. 

The juggernaut company, used to rolling back any obstacles 

that got in its way in the ] )f5111 republics south o:f Florida, ,wM 

:SU ■IP¾ta having its :first confrontation with :feisty locals who ~ 

not only disageeing with, but challenging its monopoly. A 

heresy that brought out the UFCo's high priest himself, Sam Ze­

murray. He met with N. w. Manley in Jamaica. The meeting be­

tween these two dissimilar men, one an avowed rock-ribbed capi­

talist, the other an intellectual o:f socialist bent, was to 

turn out curiously :for Jamaica. 

Zemurray had made his acquaintance with the banana in 

impossibly less basic circumstances. A son o:f poor D Rus-

sian (Bessarabian) migrants to America, he grew up around the 

docks o:f New Orleans, earning his :first money selling - rotting 

bananas scrounged :from rejected :fruit. He was a tough, ruthless 

/~ompany manl who believed in unbridled private enterprise. His 

United Fruit Company was a soulless, utterly efficient machine 
Sl-fJP3 l(cE/.. , 

with about the humanity of' al\dlll ■. To him, a cooperative was 

repugnant. But pragmatist that he was, he saw also the 

quiet determination o:f the little band o:f businessmen/patriots 

and offered a compromise, reform the cooperative into a joint 

stock company and he would work with them toward s a 
that it was 

just arrangement. Manley W commented~ wrylyQMl•l!iCL 

"impossible to argue that the cooperative was a better way to 

handle the banana business," a view that was a :forecast of' 

the practival visionary llhe was to become in politics.* 

*Richard Hart, writing in 1970, questioning wh•t he 
regards as Manley's changed position on direct :foreign 
investment capital, relates that in a 1967 letter to 
Manley, he posed the question: "It was in the discus­
sions leading up to the 1949 (P ) Statement of Policy 
that I first became aware that you and ( N. N.) Nethersole 
were thinking along the same lines as Munoz Marin (the 
Puerto Rican leader) in your approach to indusbrialisa­
tion and foreign capital. Looking back, I am inclined 



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to the view that this was not unconnected with the 
al~ing proportions of' unemployment in Jamaicajand the 
feeling that unless something was done to provide jobs 
very quickly, the unemployed would turn against the 
PNP in off'ice (as we expected to be) as they had 
against Bustamante. Is this fair comment?" 
Manley's repl~ which Hart found "interesting", declared 
that the "comments about the 1949 programme and what 
preceded are both f'air and correct, although as a 
matter of fact I had myself in conjunction with 
Nethersole thought out the lines of approach towards 
industrialisation which I discovered afterwards were 
identical with the policy in Puerto Rico. 11 

marks his appearance upon the 
Manley's meeting with zemurrayA)a}QfXl6leXUD~ 

national stage in a significant political -mm part. He showed 
••~•-~aaaa•a•••••aaeaa~aaae•aa•~••aia-~•aauuaa DD~U 
instant talent by upstaging a star without inviting disaster. He soughi 
out the only line of' reasoning that would reach a stubborn man ~-&, 

r:=t the economics of the trad-:; indeed, he agreed with 

Zemurra •. 

"I thought there were, other arguments that went beyond the 

economics of' the matter, but few, if' anyone thought that these 

considerations would affect Zemurray," he recounts. "As the 

future (showed), they did. For what happened was this: Zemurray 

asked to see me, no doubt expecting to listen to, and rebut the 

economic arguments at their highest level. What I did was to 

concede all his points from the start so as to open up other as­

pects of the matter. I talked about the history of' our people, 

the difficulties they faced, the values that might be learnt from 

the cooperative movement." 

He had gone in for an hour's meeting. He stayed for four. 

Zemurray was "absorbed, sympathetic and understanding." 

Manley was not so ingenuous as to believe that he could change 

Zemurray but he gained what he had been after, an opening into 

the tough old Russian mind. Crusty capitalist as he was, he would 

have no truck with a two-horse droshky of a co-operative. But the 

Jamaican negotiator had crept up on his f'lank, the side of' him 
W,l..(..d. ~ a. 

that could remember how it " to be scof'flaw on the New 
,( 



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Orleans docks. "We worked out an ingenious plan that was accept-

able to Zemurray, 11 Manley states with sly satisfaction. 
<, 

The plan was taken to New York by M~ley, with two banana 

board executives attending, Charlie Johnston and Richard Williams. 
~ 

There, with United Fruit Company's lawyers, they set to work on 1--

amzat~liJl!OliHiZ structuring 11an organization that was not to be a coop-

erative but a strange form of Company in which all the shareholders 

would be (former) members of the Co-operative." 

He was very proud of his role in founding the producers' 
quite 

association because it was/simply a triumph that insertedjinto the 
opening 

deadening colonialist economy)the/tt 1 ~ which would broaden into 

the base for his own brand of socialism. It was also the trail-
-tf,..a;t 

blazer for the other commodity groups • eventually opened A 

profitable markets for previously marginal farmers. But even more 

profoundly, Manley's involvement in the banana business would 

bring about the most far-reaching change in the country's social 

structure since 18 38. 



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. CHAPTER ELEVEN 

Zemurray was impressed with the brilliant work of the 

young lawyer from a small Caribbean nation. He was also pro­

bably aware of the damage to his company's corporate image caused 

by his bullaozing tactics early in the negotiations. A man 

who thoroughly believed in cutting his cloth to suit his coat, 
"t:a.fa_ ~ ""TU-~ ways in such a fashion as to he was about to tailor his 

t.W--i.A..~4Lt.Jitµ;t:. 
radicalA Out of his company's profits, he was about to encou-

rage an example of that socialist thinking which the pressures 
~ 

of the twentieth century forcing upon the old corsairs. In 

New York, 
)\:l:c 

troops,\ 

he turned loose 
~IU,~ 
contritual 

I\ 

the young turks of his company's legal 
t!d J/M.,pM_ 

negotiations ... would••• a bedrock 

capitalist to do business with a co-operative. Manley and his 

friends, equally relentless, traded ideas for eight days until 

the two sides settled on the formulae to ensure a good price 

and a fair share of the English market> then ruled by the United 

Fruit Company's subsidiary, Elders & Fyfes. 

"It was a unique and remarkable agreement," Manley has said 

of it. "I do not think fl,llything quite like it was to be found 

elsewhere in the world." A remark not immoderately modest of 
fairly well writteAAsinglehandedly. 

him, since he had/iWBBZ~~~t azz1aezz~azezaa1azz~gz i~azz•&~z 

The draft was adopted by the Jamaicans and Americans after 

two days. Manley was satisfied. He packed his bags and 

readied his farewells. Then the old freebooter Zemurray dropped 

a bombshell. 

"He took my breath away," says NWM. 
CornptJ.riy 

It was, in brief, a ~self cess. A volunteering by a capi­
~ ~~ 

talistA ......... to tax itself. Zemurray proposed that his corpo­
zatz21s 
ration mark off one cent for every bunch of banana exported from 



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1 

the country. The money would create a foundation for the 

11 good and welfare it of the people but place its emphasis on 

the growers, the country-• folk. At the average quantity 

being shipped in those years, the fund would provide about 
' ' 

71 

a quarter million dollars a considerable sum for the time. 

The purse was he avy with onus as with cash. Manley would 

be virtually responsible for its distribution since he would 

form his own managing board. Moreover, there was more. The 

great .man h imself would use his influence on the smaller fruit 

companies to contribute. 

Manley returned to his New York hotel to sleep littleJ 
confronting 

- he knew he was/~ a new. unlocking, 
.fn,al -Pc-r ~ 

recognised as Ill ~ 
~ 

~ d iscipline. ~ had the idea it 
S~-t: ~ 'f(t:o; 

would be A- corridor 

to politics~ A Fate, with a grin, had buffaloed the American 

free enterpriser into making a small lef t turn. 
Yl,1,~t:; -~J) 

Manley was not reaching for sleep - that .. ($ p 'I 

.l■■I \ he eluded it. He had a contract to put together, 
~~~;:t: 

familiar assignment enough} except that Alll•o: ·· rm: 01 ili:11 a 
~ c26 Au ,/JiaJl ~ > 

couple of clauses/\.rather close to a mix of oil and water. 

He woul have to convince t h e growers at h ome 11 wh o coul d not 

f ail to s ee that mmm@ilfiliJJiUilfliiii (the growers ' coop erative) which 

they had committed themselves to build and bring to maturity 

was quickly being brought to an end." He spoke the words ) 
,th,,C~ht, 

and his mind ran into the~ equally unnerving, of per-

suading the Legislative Council, in which his arch-rival, J. A. 

G. Smith was a power, to put the Manley-Zemurray concord into 

law. For it would have no validity unless legislated. 

As it turned out, the last was cleared first. A suf--­ficient number of the key legislators were planters whose ; 
exports were controlled by Zemurray•s fruit company. J. G. 



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Kieff"er had no doubt how the House cats would jump. Kieffer, 
U(/-M. .. ct.~µ,..11 

theAUnited Fruit company's manager in Jamaica, bluntly observed 

this to the English ftovernor) Denham> at a King's H~use meeting_; 

and nobody protested, a measure of the time. Manley, ever 

quick to appraise public cbpinion (although with less alacrity 
the Zemurray offer might take on the look 

guided by it), reasoned that/XlOiXl{lOIXXKDX~.!Oa( 
of a 
/ poultice if his corporate deal with the United Fruit Company 

came to be seen as a blow to Jamaican pride. Even worse, the 

Foundation for the "good and welfare" of his countrymen had the 

power to elicit a suspicion "that I had betrayed the co-op and 

sold them out for what woulu prove to be just a plaything of my 

own. 11 

Cannily, on his return to Jamaica, he said nothing about the 

Zemurray offer but proceeded to seek approaval for the proposed 

new organization. At a tumultous meeting of planters in the 

Ward Theatre, the plan scraped home after an inspired speech 

from Charlie Johnston won a small majority in the vote.* A 

*Manley spoke for an hou:tjand faced a jolting barrage 
of questions for nearly J hours from a suspicious, 
hostile crowd. 

second visit to the United States to squ are out the inticacies 

of the cess, he returned and announced the creation of Jamaica 

Welfare. The sensible timing and a warm editorial from the 

Daily Glea~~~ settled it gently into place. 

"Jamaica Welfare tapped a deep stream o:f middle class interest 

in Jamaica," Manley has said. "School teachers were anxious to 

(work with us) in terms that meant no financial benefit to them 

but answered a dEiep :feeling that rural Jamaica needed special 

help. Those were the people who responaed most readily to the 

call for self-government which I was to raise just two years later 

(through) the Peoples National Party." 

c~t,l k; Jld'~p, it:" WM , 



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CHAPTER TWELVE 

ing 

An evangelical lash f'licked the land.) ppening and expos-

m= ~= ~~Hr- . long neglected wotmds. ,t ~ ■■t1i'if Jilt ... t a Journey 

of rediscovery, re-founding and putting to use values which 
and 

had been forgotten by an uprooted/dispersed people --- the tribal 
strongest ,~ 

care that has stayed/ran Ct• among nations whose accumulations ~ 
Fo-r f f~A-\U .. IJ.IJ2ftilu1.. kJA6~ kit,~ n--a/4,. .flh'k~a~ ois. cc()~rd,11~ ~,. 

have been unbroken. Wft •ta Id.Ml )[Nd erlllliµ t BIi t• NN1 - 7 , 
().L ~(ii,..~ ;;t° ~ '":I a.-M'.t.A • 

~%-0- encou~el private earners. Mainly,AWelfare turned a people 

to look inside for answers to their problems, Jn that way) it 

antedated by a decade the widely publicised and admirable Opera­

tion Bootstrap of Manley's friend, Puerto Rican governor Munoz 

Marinj and only failed to achieve as much because of its 

stricter exchequer. Jfulike Puerto Rico, it had no U. S~ federal 
1)/k.f/._v.f;w.,;,.a.JL ~~) <~ 

funds. An what else Jamaica Welfareft4lllilllrl was to/41 I ■IBla•rwe 
--((¾r,.1(!,.,'~LEI' ~ ·,a:~ .~•a, 

a dynamo of new,'t • in Norman Manley., illklliltAha d 'be-en waiting for 

just s u ch a Aa -~ ~··h:u ... --1;-. 
!;~~t. \'et( 

One of his gifts was 
an 

extraordinary ability 

to attract recruits to his cau ses on a b onus of bloo d-&-sweat (a 

gift which would be manifest in even more astonishing degree 

when later he began t h e building of a political party) . His 

programme of social re f orm through cooperation brought together 

a group of young men who were to become minor legends by the 

quality, and qu antity, of their work. 

In a neat if tmstudied u se of" history, Welfare established 

its headquarters in a crumbling mansion at the corner of Hanover 
h,1 once occupied by 

and East Queen Streetsj~a building 
M..d.t,t:v~ m~ ~ iP:8 ~ 

of the two a■I limiters to the~J amaican folk-people• 

in earlier years: the planter and the military.* 

*The 18th century townhouse of a merchant & sugar baron 
and) up to the 'Thirties, the hq of the Kingston Militia. 

7 



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m~ I 12.1~ iJ a.. Jfo:,L -I. 'r- ff!!s 
Most o ... were trained teachers~ the fieldmen, purveyors of' 

~~ " 
ideas, ·SINUS f -~ the countryside,) where the schoolmaster 

was more than a pedagogue -!Cd J ••n l but shared also in the 

broader life of - village and farm: as church cat• echist, 
serving for the absent professionals. 

sports leader, medical adviser ,~ 'f•tQl'ltlBll- lll llft,ADDff 
They were • 
I WI Tia messianic young men, articulate and outgoing, • i• r 

proper tutors and conduits of the new Manley Message. If some 
come near to the bow-tied evangelists of the 

were inc lined to / dr -~~--~!lfii .. 
American South, their 
Wl ffl11!a..-wlllllllJW--... a little irritating to/ .... urban critics, 

~ 
the deeds would soon -- the parallels . In any case, they wtAJ;?__ 

~ ~ ,It>+-~ u'-t:y w~ t:A- fa-k.12- i.Jkc4J2. u • •••r ·Ji!Jb• • ••• the city. Thel\.tlllfflli · ·•-z•'-•••- carefree 

swagger ~ -- lk had drawn attention from the countryside 

where life grubbed along the same dirt road it had followed 

since 1 8 J8. Low wages on the estates, poor husbandry on the 

peasant holdings, and the sundering of the family-acre to 
+0Y-

-2·•·(L inheritance .,,.., • • • sons and daughters, laid a 

dire hand on rural lif'e. Lands were as worked out as the workers, 

undernourished and tired. Not that the towns were much better 

off: jobs were scarce~and, by the oversupplied market, subject 

to the whims of employers, a class that took full advantage of 

conditions. The Society was a peculiarly distorted pyramid. 

The more normal / U.f bacy structure.:> where a broad base of workers 

supported a few at the top, was complicated furthef>y a 
~o ·~~~ 

sub - manipulation: workess~wiable to resist exploiting the pool 

of cheap labour. Union Leader A.G.S.Coombs has pointed out (al-

though he was complaining of the hardship it caused his union 

members) that a barmaid receiving ten shillings a week had to 

pay 25% of her wage to her maidj 
80llP..GfDSI(; 

~ 
~ upward groping towards a 

black w.MI ••r ; if that increased the disaffect eds and nourished 

the broader -•--r.11 unrest. History ' s rough justice , .. ,, ~ 



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~ 75,-
order that the break occur at the first serious 

effort to effect a change in the wage-labour pattern. Man-

ley, now into his young middle-age, was as anxious as history 
'itJP..A( 

to his own •••■tpost. 

' 



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C PTE TH TEEN 

At f orty- four years old , 
f, U 1'TC A/ : 

Manley scribbled a note to himself , 

in wh ich h e quote A "Lord , y d a ys run t hrough me like a sieve ~" 
p(,\~ p:l<t;f'C/CJl'l ~ 

But not , he note 

and continuity. 
, i n espair; rather an urge to dOIW ... i m~ 

Oddly enough , he had used the same word s five y ears 

reaction t o his "half-dead tt compatri~ts in "the earlier i:,;i angry 
L•R- • ) 

tropics";, 4'\. Jamaica. Now he was flaying himself. An urgency 

was growing. He had done all he cared to do in the Law. He 

was still a year away from the convulsive events that would make 

h im over. His 
~~~ ~<£,...,...,...,...c-,,,~ .-"l~rll-~ r ~~u.1:'d 

b,a"tr~~~lJ-.-11~ly ~ M ~ own far - flung, 

unsp aring occupations ~ ':tc '/1~ ..- .,. _ f()r ~aa.ys ,~& iQi~ 

~ His law briefs , i f all were accepted , woul ore t han doub le 

t h os e o f t he next lead ing a dvocat e . 02k H __ _; e was a newspaper 
p0'rt1. > 

critic on music , painting , b ook s . He was occup ie d in.\ f ar ni ng5 
/IJ 6v 'bfJNCC,> 

._., in s ocial work : ,.-. by c omment and p erf ormanc e. Some h ow 
A.. 1'10 

all were b eing sup erb ly han led , wi t h.a - lessening in 

quality. The so - called year of awak ening , 1938 (May) , was more 
P1€fJ/IIH1t1t..£, 

t ha n a year awayjin t he Spring o f 1937. ~ almost singleh and edly 

h e was wrestling with t he elements h e as s erte to b e t h e k e}I 

to p rogress , the ways in whic h t h e land was 17 ·1 husband ed . 
py,e('q~e, 

opul ar A.,4111 r, Manley calcu lated that the current itEllzn-'i 
M • v1'pl,/.e_ id €.~ti 

for the fiv e acre farm/Lwas a "f al se ideal ." He though t t h e 

averag e farming f a mily requ ired n o t less t hail. 20 acres to be 

truly viab le. In t h is, he was ,..._ j o ined by several men of 

h is time . But Manley went furth er . He d i not, as d i d many , 

beil:ieve t h at 
lllB.llmllUap wha t h e called "tru e homes 11 , or s t rong er families_, 

woul necessarily r esul t from more lands or b e t ter yields. e 

profoundly b elieved in e ducating f or resp onsibility , and in t h is 

, 1/,/e Ref'1<0,n ca me t h e 
h i s p assion never wane d . }I ,,...!IUC rim.■ .. .. , ., . ' 

."t, • 1 ,. 11 •8 ~ " " ll ~ ~ ,JI, '\t "' 

reasoning ••• l ■I t h at they raise s p irit s ., 
J amai ca We l f ar \ : I !ft m JIii •••tr I 7 Yalt:~ s they taught s ills . 

Imp overish e a land s and sad Saturday nights* wer e ero d ing t h e 

*A p oignant fo l k song , Linstead Marke t , ref l e c t ing t h e 

en of a p oor week - end market in the village o f Linstead : 

C rr me ack ee o a Lins t ead ark etJNo t a qu a t tie wo 'th 

sell• Lawd , not a bite , not a light/ vha t a Sa t ur ay nigh t ! 



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~IDOCrKEll.XXJilXX strength and will which their 

ancestors had seized and use d to break the predictions of the 

C>u.tNEIU 
"~ 

angry at the Abolition:llllkU10ldJi110! that the stony hill-

country would bring them to their knees, crawling back to beg 

the sugar estates :.> 

<i.ie was not yet committed to government and politics as 

to unlock the social and economic ilUS 

the keyMi)fi'DfflM'fffljii~iQUIPffll(MllffiJDi obstructions in the 

country . Government had certain " duties" and these "they" 

should carry out; but he saw the social service of educating 

for a better life as an exercise peculiarly Jamaican 

away from the Colonial government, ruling from London 

as 

British interests. He strove twwards an independ ence of the 

family, of the village, by their own efforts. He de[,f,k.red his 

faith in cottage industries for those especially depressed areas 

given to furious droughts . He laid the foundations for a straw 

goods industr1)which, begun as one strand in the 

infra-econom~ - ;;:; claims a place in national exports . 

11 Zemurray IQOney 11 - brought other problems. 

The 

Manley foun he had to go up against the Old-f,juard thinking 

whJrich was for putting the new money into tired old "ere-

dit schemes", a venture that would have none 

,wMN-~~ 

pact Manley saw • any significant 

of the dramatic im-

assault on the 

~lfi... uf a{jlj:;;./!ut', 

ingrained apathyAcenturies of short hope had "I do not 

agree that 1 credit schemes' ought to be privately attempted," he 

said at the time. It wa s "essentially government's · job a 

duty which must soon be recognised." He was, of course, still some 

years short of the cooperative,... and credit unions surge which was 

to take the imagination, almost the passion, of a rising young 

midd leclass caught in the gospel of Rochdale. At that time, he 



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~61) 
saw that since 11 our foundations Ee are ±'limsy (our) super-

structures are wasted efforts. You cant builo a palace on mud. 11 1Jllllll. 

C,,(J"),\~ ~ h.., Bc>n,12,o, 

(l challengeable1
l ~ }:J-evertheless it was an ex-

c,:r wPYk 

ample of the hard, cool• reasoning earning him the reputation 
I'\ 

for composure and confidence. To the public, he was an unemo­

tional man whose infrequent outbursts were generally well directed. 

Partly true. Once - after a legal conference with a colleague 

who had been "rude and provocative," he commented that 11 :I lost 

my rage and it had the desired effect. 11 Privately, like other 

men great and small, he had his self doubts and confessed to 

often acting intuitively. The setting up of the b anana trust 

fund and Jamaica W plfare was the f irst public weight of' large 

proportion he was to b ear1and it sat heavily on him . "This l>usi-

:, 

ness of spend ing money for Jamaica, 11 he said , "it g ets messed up 

in my mind ." a 

Nevertheless, he structure•- p olicy that was to 

held the line against confusion 
-- -

all the long life of .. Jti.,u,...a,,...t.a_ 

Welfare,*putting t h e money 

~; 
and effort into sociological and 

.R,,t¼,C,v.~,. 

agricultural 

Wfhe name-change to 

for cottage and field. 
\ 

by the 

Laboui: Party when they gained office in 19 __ 

has not changed its purpose, still serving as the 

essential base for social action. 



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~ § 

ROWN 
22/229 

79 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN 

The years of apprenticeship were ending. 
to 

He was about ready, 

as he spectacularly thought of it ,/••wrench myself off the banks of 
Jw (Ji.t//119 0(-f) ·rJc lltln.k 

contemplation . 11 HT as not happy about' ~ for it meant involvement 

with the vanity of others, a D team game for which he had not trained. 
tn S t"::> 1'.-1 c6 ·)IL >L- 1,c. 

i_!:dna, early in 1937, had :flown with him to the United S+ate ~ (where 

the Welfare agreement was confirmed by,remurray) and then ·••• went 
to urepare ,.... in r,ong.Qn's French Gallery~ 

- to England /ror the March showing of her scu ptures1' among them ) 
later 

the powerful The Prophet and the now legendary Ne o A oused,Aimmorta-
. r it was 

lised as the symbol of the Jamaican workerlal , •iliiilllil bougn~ by the 

Institute of Jamaica and brought back from/\ 
the United Kin dom. 

Z He flew back alone on M 

afterwards he "decided, belatedly, 
l di fi ult to remember 

He would not be a faithful diarist, 

omitting years at a time. However, one of his early entries was a blast 

against the British critics some patronising 
"It takes a to stand se ts 

reviews of the show.A 
on the head from those who ~efuse to essay the inner signi 

the work and prate about in jargon, on superficialities of technique 

and form . " The months were made worse by Edna's illness in 

London and the likelihood of surgery . A two-week holiday in Holland 
.--, 

lifted her spirit but inflicted more p ysical distress . Back home, 
I 

in England, she took her operation, losing appendix and uterus. The 

Queen's Gate nursing home held some quality. The King of Greece and 
received 

the Duchess of Kent hadA••-118~ its ministrations. The Qmeen's Gate 

nursing home would have tripped ovei' its quality if it could have !tead .__,... 

the ribaldry in the cablegram sent by the elegant young Colonial lady 

to her Jamaican lover; celebrating some certain new freedoms ahead: 

I All's well ... very happy ... going to be superwoman . I 

"That," Norman, at home, commented dryly, "defies comment. 1' 

*** SPACE 
Meanwhile, as he waited her return, he was minding the boys and 

working at his heavy legal load, supervising the farm at Drumblair and 

carefully nursing the fledgling Welfare. Douglas was fifteen years old 



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an growing "tall and bright and secretive," a des c ription 

1 ... ot unsui tea to Dad. ;Joarde d at .. unro, a high sc 1001 in p(J)w3-t.. ~ ~ ~ puob·F • • en... ~ '°~.) s t Elizabet~ he was h o ne only during t he h olidays. Michae l, 
the 

13, was at Jamaica College, --_ ~ope 

still f'reshly aware o f the fug leman 
in 

oad h i gh school that was 
,(!a,w.i,w:, Cu..t:L4MH 

per f ormance h isl\ 

had g iven~ track & field, lill IIMSl■U11 acad emics and kni f e - e dge 

chancing of the headmaster ' s axe . * He was enjoying his two 

*The famous Reginald M11rray for whom • N.W. always 0 
held great affection and respect. 

boys, but moreso at t h4d° time , Douglas, •••••• with whom he 
held long talks on socialism and capitalism ana books. Books 

of plain realism and raw life that were, to his thinking , the 

firmest road to effective education.*~ Michael was too engrossed 

~ *He once told Barbara Gloudon, a Gleaner ~ a•! edi­
tor, that the best way to self education was to read 
a page rl aily of a good book on an academic subject 
you found dull. 

in his Lower School activities at Jamaica College to mind Marx. 

Moreover , Mike was having his own problems, having been caught 

lately in the heinous crime of puffing on a cigarette back of 
401':wM, . P the dormitory ;~a minor crisis for Dad• in the absence of Edna~--t"kd knitter 

flllll btilt»U of loose ends. :s:mrrJM He was angry , snapping at his 

old school for its "butchery of babies. " He considered moving ~ ~ b~ a..f+u.Mi'/~ 
Michaelj ·•-••- bottl ed his anger and sat d own f o r an intoxi -

cati ng evening with Orpheus in the underaworld. He was later 

rewarded with an apologetic note from Michael that brought a 



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comment on t h e character of a future Prime Minister of Jamaica 

for displaying "guts and far more sensitive feelings than I can 

pretend to ... Given half a chance, what possibilities!" 

"'~· alao was{t:aving a kind of felicity in court. Capital crime 

was not the humdrum line of work it was later to become among 
..,-H<.JatS OF O()A T1Mfi:j IN -n./c 

the p:a"t ter half of the centurY,•-•lllll•llil-~e had not appeared 

in a murd er trial for over a year. But then turned up 

a p ure Jamaican one with just a brush of obeah to colour the 
jurymen's 

eyes. A rich smell of garlic pervad e d the court a 
TO 8£ 

conSftd iment consid ered by the cognoscente~very thorough in 

putting down rival witchery. 
trial 

in the/•NE 6roomJ 

The lady witnesses wore sunshad es 
~FIFE 

a 
11

cover,) too connected with the 

f eminine mystique to be questioned by the masculine court. A 

bemused Manley coul d only comment~ at the end of a day rich 

in story and innocence, "Women make magnificent liars in the 

(witness) box and e ducation has nothing to d o with it. It is 

their native flair for t h e ready tale, spiced with humour and 

invention." He add ed with a touch of wond er, "So Nature 

redresses the balance." 

But another category of balances was 
:SAl11Atc0 

blueprint for ,,. Welfare. He confessed to being K 

his 

"shaken by 
lh,;cH OF tH€ ~Mil.­

the arguments t hat you cannot build a palace on mud . "A 
(U!JLE "'t/JLc/JT wll~ 50F'7", u1,.1,/lJEJ:,. J-r wovL.1) 

/\be slow work laying the stone foundations. As he prowled the 
'5f'f}Q.CHIAI" 

unmarked wilderness of social obligation that was Jamaica, 
P1:;0fJLE' 

f'or ,\4 1 Z O t to serve on ,,.. Welfare's managing board , he was 

frequently sharply critical of attitu des, d enyingJ under stress, 



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h is own i ns i ght. He thought , i n a i ns tan ce, t h at Ru dolph Bu r k e, 

t h e emi n en t p lanter and later p re s i ent of t he a maica Agricu l ­

tural So ciety , wa s "too urd ene with consciousne ss of h is ori­

g i ns , t h e ast, and t h e want o f' op"fic,6 un i ties." Th ese h e saw 

only a s "a p olog ie s f or a sen s e of personal f ailurep r doubt ." 
ut 

ze•~ i n t h e s ociety o f his r1ay , Bur e, a very black -. and 

e u cate ma n , wo u l , .... have b een singular l y i nse sitive n ot to 

accep t t h e evi ence s of t h e hand icap s a colonial p olicy h a d laid OW H11n., 

~ After all, he, anley, had himself in near despair walked d own 

similar alleys , dismal, beleaguere by the racists of England, 

and had not emerged 1■·•11rs• utterly •annealed. 

y et , Bu rke ~ An 
~ I strove and was to 

a;t -KL 
a c iever.tlU Still an all, 

become a hig l y i mportan t 
• - IR I sa.,.~ ~

1 
1WXJe,t'l,;L.lll>(. \ 

fP:le g ifts i n h is 
§'1, ~~ flt1 i..it ¾ ' _.,_ 

junior (by 6 years) J amaica Colleg e 
tv1>01. PH 8#i<E f"o uphoJ6 

c olleague ancl ,(invitel iiliij. 

{.to t he lll21A•d1!1a irectorate o f h is "banana 

~ 
• fund trust"., G k 

Ho ha d an inten t to g o into peop le; the ind ices he s tored 

as lawyer, leader an intellectual gav e him no alternative/ . The 

ne ed to know was a p as s ion al l h is li f e. The long, intripective 
He ~ t>t <=,t>t-i GS:. woRe cause 

non-look in a private conve r sation coul d 111 Gf.i. d iscomfiture 
to I\ 

lin a co p anion . He wa s a p alle d at inveracitie s but coul 
,,;._ leake _ 

und erstand d issembl i n g s. ~h en U Theo McKay,'l•ff■E to n e~sp a er­
~ A b•-ofk e.v cf C 1Av~ /hC ~ y 

. an '' -at tie " Park er 11 ■? L the as yet unp ublicised story of the 
ch uckle ~ t h e innocence• i n 

Zemurray ce s s , h e c ou l d 81111$ in secret at~Mck a y ' sub sequent 
~M:tUi] OuUO! Eil:'4:0CXIO'J<l~ 
XIDi:DUO(KlflO:x:ncn:UXDWUaK nii 

:,&_~-
n ote enquiring of t e news •• • t 

ca aci ty ·''or levity lagge d) was in 

DUOCMX:~XXJUI: rX:XXXXX.XXXXXL-XXX 

b. e e p ursuit in wh ich h is 

law & justice. He - ~•X!lB 

was severe on incomp eten t f ellow lawy ers an ju g es , although 

Jf#iiililiiRiq in the case o f t h e latter, t h e law o f' contempt b eing s o 

n otional, p r ud ence k ep t h is o inions p rivate . But i n p rivate , 

"lazy" c ourts ex act e h i s severest commen ts, p articularly j u g es 

wh o a n ot "troub l e d to r e a more t h an a a g e ot' itex tbookl. 11 



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83 
Yet, such was his respect for the system that he would endure 
fi!ilfhlj}il "gratuitous rudeness" from a Bench,occupied b y a poor 

lawyer , as an exercise in self discipline .* But his therapies 

*In later years, h is sound and unrivalled knowledge of the law, always at the disposal of a floundering judge, and his reputation for the cutting retort honed to fit meticulously unreachable of the engulfing Con­tempt laws, won him }he unusualness of instant and unwavering attention~-• high court benchers, some of whom were notorious for arrogance and til8 savaging of witnesses and advocates. 

He could turn instantly from were not, as a r u le, flagellate . A 
a political confrontationJto finish ZDXXXIDt:llk iii a frame 

and stretch a canvas with EdnaJJ)Or assist his cow...,.Rhoda)at 

her calving, be lulled by a recording of Orpheus ("What a lyric! 
~ Intoxicatingt"),or tell outrageous tales of crHooks to a heartily 

yov,.JG. 
d isapproving~ Douglas. He was seldom undevoted to his contra-
dictions)nor reluctant to voice them. A published music critic 
himself, he could be furious at an unflattering piece on Edna's 
art and deliver of himself the pronouncement that "Criticism is 
a parasitic futility ." But the real reasons for this latter 

contrariness lay in a love story. 

(Ji.~ particularly abhorred and castigated 
who, under his merciless cross-examination, proved 

Those he was known to destroy. 



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CJ ~ IFT \\ 
\ 

. _k ~ 
:rt es ibl i t h ri t:I. h :I le t "- no t t ~ 

~ _cow.fry ~ovt:) 
a ic t I p n a 

C .J n Co wall . p .x z C c: l 

la1 . In ·t 

r ,h i OU w ]. 

i . cl 
/-1Alh l/2/M.). 

~ 
a v-

'A.. 
,l 

u 11 t l i t tl 

h a 

\, 

or my y t ,an n l C , .Lt1 11 -., 

t 

t e bloo e et 1 t, at l u -

e ouut iT country . T .L ~ lt 

ljc!Jb 
9 

~a 

"' 

l 11.G ll • l· y c.l } a 1 t OU h l 
lhJA BP.OvJIJ wu .. t.y 6~yo1vh:, 

~ ""'-i..Ly- t' - t e t co 1 I V t .I. 

,,_, v.re 
cu ov r .d 

. n t i o... ar ol - ys 
w,-rH /hoVSEHOLf: f};J)'l:, C.vt,VA'-.1 

o clo y ' • • t lite o • P ) 

t • 0 i to tt borou 1 . 

a the l ce 0 t ro 
,........_ 

t 

t 

• 11 

,o. 

t ton on ord nc 

rr nt c lls to r its . 

ar . le J. t • Jt 1 I of-r 
~ Rv(tJbeA 

0 

coastline , h cl on o iol.i , a ~ t t e 

ch C • 

cilly 

) n 

f' ro n C 

co o , th 

t 

w 

a bi nc 
t " 

t cro th at r , 

t 

r y (L'"z r 

nd y w l ar tl 

o nt) r acJ 

0 t 

0 

on 

Ul 

:for :it 

d r 

opul. ri t ., ut to -J 

dy ood 

th tori 

terl 

lan. 

or :in ry count i~ < er , 

r 

In thi 

col 
,wHo 1.vfiS 81>RN '"' BoullNE/>1ourt1,, 

S ith nban , 1 co t 

u l 

y 

ti 0 

ol ton , 

unconfin 

ttl i .1 0 

C r on, q it 

]: r cno 

n 

ir 

ourt 

unl 

" 
ut t n d to 

A' A/o/l.fhR/\1 ·---._ 
ho 

n , . tr sh an J i i -

tl r t 0 r ily 

[' 1 d turned tw,nty- on 
' 

q it ' r wh l. ' the n 1 

r • 

0 

li 



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(,' Afl.Jt rl 

academe £or t h e bl.oody barrens., ~~--:. ,.... 
llq The relationship s urvive the four-year interruption 

(1"!_ 
in a way not rt·requent aznong the ~ young. Not, of' xixxxxx course, 

without t h e l1elp o:f Mother Natu r e_, who had earnestJ.y and t h ough t­

f ully kept at work d espit e a wax;, and brought h er, when N.W. saw 

her next, to "a most exciting girl" as he record e d appreciatively on 

h is return :from France. Th ere must bave been a special s t r engt h 

and ligh t i n t h ell encounter o:f the two sensitive an h i ghly i n tel­

l i gent young p eop le, struggling to XJi.Eiili touch ancl grow togeth er 

in a soc i ety s o cap tive to its racial mores a s En gland'$ so tight­

lipped about its sick.nes5; to the schif zophrenia of a:f:fecting it did 

not exist as it enacted statutes against it.• Th ey saw and were 
1/VSlbt -rHc!nS.CLVc~ 

aware of' a d e c ision ,. that s h e d its own 
., coldly 

t h em in a land that gave/iH~?f&J bet·ore 

inner cand escence to sustain 
THctO. Hl:AT. 
4.~~ And 

i n lik e goodness , later in Jamaica, t h e creativity of their love 

was to op en ways o :f achievement s , in a s everely limit ed island , of' 

aston ish i ng bread t h and d iversity. They were bolts i~rom ' if'ferent 

parts of t he co smos , h e with h is intellect a nd log ic, and Edna with 

the art ist' s i n eluc table c ompulsion to s werve and challenge t he 

devil-muse at every c r ooked crossroad . Th ey str ode, and stumbled, 

an wen t on a gain , a triumph o:f s p irit that could ma k e t h em incau tiou s 

a n d certain . The mo e and direction .t·or t he long journey ro d e in 
W I t 

t h em. Edna, e lega n t and e a rthy, laced with a malicious Wit tl:at 

wrinkled t h e p ompous a s it en livened t h e s cene, was, probab ly wit.h ­

ou t i d eolog i cal i n ten t, establish ing t h e role o f active con cern f'or 

t h e s ocial wel :fare a n d artistic integrity of yowig arti s ts t h at woul.d 
f ounding 11g 

one d ay i re t h e char , e of pretensionJ to :tl!JDJJl a school ad van ce,d by 
·-r I& rl.f v P· i .._ 

.h er critics . .............. ., !Jers was a g enuin e compassion ming led, it i ..,; tru e, 
p 

with an enga g ing g r e gariousness. Drumblair, with its groun s, and 

trees, and r a mbling old house, its two g ifted and lightly i mperious 



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~ 
(Her idealizing of Adolph Mitler in the days before 

his unmasking, an indulgence that still drew comment forty 

years later, seems hardly to have been political; more of a 

fierce retort to all the arrogantly complacent people who had 

in England made her Norman uncomfortable. She had much company. 

At the time, many outwardly "loyal•• Jamaicans, while not wishing 

the defeat of the Empire, were considerably cheered with the 

thought of a mild comeuppance to the 

haw-haw colonial Englishman. a ) 



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and fanley had very questioning men, actors on the stage he undisputably 
managed b ut who were as temperamentally singular. At no 

, _somPtim~s l2._!!;ilously close to history was the PNP without- infighting)/\ But some of his 
colleagues would be later mortised, t.ll4PB by this exposure 
into improved men.) 

time in i ts 
be~;ing t orn apart. 
poTitical 

to artis t s, 



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p; 

ably 

apart. 

occupant s and a frene t i c t'requency of prof icients and t yro s usu a l ly 

hanging a bou t, cou l d , and di d s ugges t t hat inevitab l y t h er e wou l d 
y oung artistic 

b e a wake into which t h e/talent s would s ettle , or row s hape, and frovo~12. 

~ t.Jutit-v +la:c -1-lii'R, .,J't<a) ~ ~+tc:.. 
{_a- DrumbiairA en dowment; but t he f act was t hat Edna 

b rought to Drumb l a i r no t only pain ters and scylp tors , bu t musician s 
c'ngineers, 

n ovelist s , p reachers , essayi sts, gardeners, ath letes, 'ournal is t s , I( 
17}tc<: 111 PP turned 

doctors an d even a f ew lawy er s• and several politicians. She~- • 

a prodigious and passionate energy into every influence that could 

provide assistance :for struggl.ing artists, guiding the disordered 

~t.pa i'>-\M , f,'nf/ 

into discipline'1•and i k■• Iii the product- when the rent 

was due. She held art classes for children at the Junior Centre 

on East Street. She founded the justly famous FOCUS magazine wh en it ~ 
foO' ' 

was evident t hat writers were dying on the vine £or want of outlets. ;,.ofO. 

5-k 
-~ alao hared her hu band 's i n terest in athletics, particu.l.arl.y 

prize:fighting and is credited. with an •••i•t in the training o:f a 

~«. 
fine light fighter of the 'Thirtie• tC ■ &l st Andrew Pup. 

She had never been a re:former in the •ocialite Wednesday afternoon 

~ 
~descend i n g gloved and tea-hatted to the ghettos :for a brisk 

one-hour workout at a conscience bash, scrubbing babies ~ oR 

distributing silver :fippencesJ but later, when N.W. went into 

politics and her awareness 1817 \ broadened, she was soon with charac-

1 . 
teristic energy strongly into child care and women's welfare. How / 

/"'spousal advantage, 

at a time long be:for e the way was indicated by,1i ZS • • t •, 

-CW J,,/ €fl l-01JC6/l.N :> I Nil3NSG ltfJ-0 Pt:12.!.DA)flt_'J !1if2ilo.{rF1C/}/IJi''LY RE-111211811/ 6£Cb 7ifE S:CENE 

a,11 rf ... !Ii .&,:UC' W'cl I (J11bt JI JliW Jl@II; t ,-.- !1!11Bd1J !W $18 I • # 

~ ---.., . more than 
\ri5 . 'In the next years, al though she/ a1, 

stayed ahead 
with the chisel, gaining international repute as a 

was 
s cul.ptor, her generation of' young painters/ .... delicately but 

:firmly brushing past her, to the glad applause o:f this 

unusual woman. She liked people to succeed because she 

liked peopl and believed in hun1anity, whoever and whatever they 



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•And wrote b ackjlong d etailed appraisals to struggling young •••- kJAl"Ttfi 
ts s h e did to my first f u ll-lengttp}~vel .sent her in 1940, an unknown f'rot 
;h e wild s of a west country sugar e. ~~ where I section-clerked. AUTHOJ 



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A,<) 
were. It~ the core of' her character. The youth:ful 

Norman had been buoyed up by it in his courting days in England. 
c ovl-b /Jt) 1; 

He}- as he - has said)~' ~~ ignere the matter 

of' colour and it had stirred up enough apprehension in him to 
notice that the announcement of their engagement brou ght n o 0 imme d iate 

wa rmth of approval 0 fro m her fami ly . Bu t j o l l y for t he benefit of t h e 
that 

d oubt. It c oul d bela Metho d is t tmeas i n e ss b e gat of the o ld Ta ble Of 

Kjndred And Affi n ity , a document whi ch 

d i r e d escents of the Deity up on the h 

l a r e s among several a n a thema s, 

of t h e man- who-rn a r r ies~hi s-

mothe r -in- law , or the woma n who g e ts erse l f esp oused t o a st ep 

grand -uncle • ma y have fl i n c h e d El l i e ' Her l at e husband had been a 

fanatical iI upho l er of t h e 18th century f erv our shown by Corn i shmen 

i n t h e Me thod is t movemen t . Norma n was h er n ephew; Edna his f irst cou sin . 

~ a~ ~4 ~.;:,~ N:n ough to troub1e f or a b o dy , fo r a mom,'.:'.' t • to b e sti11? 
~ ' ~~ ii.Ii ••~, it wa s co lour, b u t t h e Manle ys did nl(t c are and 1illlll 

~ - -- - - ,,,___,,v 
eventua lities p roved the i r c hoice.K The union t urne d ou t to be n earer 

ma de -in - heaven t ha:il. most a ma l gamations. 6uch later , in a b urst 

o:f quiet exuberance at his luck, he was almost compromised into 

publishing a brochure on the joys of' monogamy. The lilla quaint• 
~ 

ness and audacity of' ~ subject a lllbtt in the aquarius age 
~tn,,,4 ~ · a1liZ.R..1.lv., A 

may just have f'loated it -..~~tk'~ffi1Fl£ _,_ 

But the £act is, they~ manage to work an orderl.y, consti­

tutiGnal, organic structure that raised hell and kids with great 

good fwi within the monagamous bowids that f'ar so many, in the 

repressive 'Twenties and 'Thirties, turned into a boredom. Edna 

was ever to be his "wild bird on a tall tree on a bare hill," the 

luminous f'el. .icity he once used in describing the "el.usive beauty " 
I 

of a thought he never identi~ied. But that was she, and that the 
love 

i d en tity. It was their NSI affair . .An elusive happening of' 

great beauty between two creatures. He was sometimes mystified by i ts 

intensity. One Spring day in 1938, he watched her at work, the chips 
flying from the wood after a time of drought when nothing came from her 
chisel. He knew then, clearly, that, to him, her work and fulfilment 
held importance over his own ambitions . "After twen ty years, this still 
matters more than anything else," rode his thoughts in quiet wonder. 



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CHAPTER SIXTEEN 

• An unusual :feature about the parish of Westmoreland is its 
island's 

flatness. In a reverse of the/total land £all, over 75% of 

the parish is below the 1,000-:feet level. Well watered and of 

heavy :fertility, the great plain was the choice of Tate & Lyle, 

the large English-owned Hill international sugar complex, for 

locating its central sugar factory. Tate & Lyle entered the 

Jamaican field in 1937 when they bought lands extensively, mostly 

from the old bankrupt Charley estates, and settled down to__, 

~ becoming the potent factor in island agriculture. The 
e,riGLJN ~ 

"Central" fl!ae!P"'iO:OfflR~n!°elJrll~li<~~ at Frame would be the largest and 

by far the most modern and efficient sugar :fa~tory in the Bri-

tish Caribbean territories. It would replace the half a dozeh 

or so decrepit mills scattered over the Westmoreland savannah. ·Tlf E ~ ... -;Teer wo<J1.-./) AE~uf/le lhA,Vy iiltJA.k~!lS, 
There had neve~-1:>een a.~!:!_ortage o:f workers on the plain. 

"t1t1 --rllE PffS1j 
m-,«caae in thousands :from the larger town,,,Savannah la mar, 

s: ~ Hill , Little London, Pete~field and~the mountain settlements 
tAl!JOv/l.- . 

Hundreds of' residentAw.g•~ occup#""' the aro d Darliston. 
JZ4,ka/1_ 

'J"Ch; l&~ "barracks" during the "weeding" or 
tt,,,t.tL 

son)between tJll/ilf April and December;~ in the 

out-of-crop sea­

harvestinJgrinding 

months, a veritable flood of wage-seekers descend on the ripened 

fields and the :factory;~ f:p~1N·~&~-------------.../ 

S01'his was the pattern o:f the 'Thirties: the regular workforce 

of Brata hoemen, spademen, planters, weeder~~ :functioned 

all year; the great regiments 0£ reapers and :factory hands 

marched in at crop-time :for the three to five months when the 
/}r.1b ~ 11\J"ZV-> tf@_ 

mills rolleca,_ atl&l "-T.ne whole countryside • 71 11 transformed. {L_~ 
v "t/])ritJ'--Y J th. 7 ~ wappen-bappens proliferates dd ~. selling liquor lilm women til!itdL'~~ 

''- t--, I<€ /-J ~·~ -nt)W'-1' V l J J lVYwf._ 

~i'=tl.~ g J • ¥ Kerosene lamps 



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£zzekez ~P6ll.s'. 
tongue and smoke on the crown-&-anchor three-pebble 

conmen
1 

and pencil-in-the-belt ginalsJ the sam-:fie sleight-Jiff-hand 

artists whose old colour:fu1 skills have disappeared under --=:t~a~At 
/J i,i f O 9anifl..S 

1'llleil of' English betting shops and The long, Stj«t:..i> 

ugly barracks o:f wood or 

are packed thigh to thigh with itinerant cane-cutters and loaders, 

who, like any man-jack footloose in foreign territory, away :from the 

disciplin~ of' home and brood, turn lustful, boasting and brawling. 

The huge sugar works commenced at Frome was the biggest industrial 

enterprise 

Jamaica). 

ever conceived in W0 stmoreland (or, at tha ... time, in 
Q. ~ 

It attracted such"- inflow••••• las had never 

before gathered in that rural commwiity. What was more, most of them 

came from the massive divisions of unemployed in the city. Seeking 
+e..R.- p~ , r;s• city a piece of the action, they bore down on~ la1 

workers, they were accustomed, when theee was work, to higher wages 

than the 

setback, 

sugar belt employers weee prepared to pay. Added to that 
~ ~,'-t 1 abour 

the huge influx had created~ 1 J! »/supply :for the mar-

ket. The two frustrations were undeniably good for trouble. 
circumstances , ~ ~ 

Nor did the •••••••••~seethe less the traditional 

attitudes of estate management. On most sugar estates, the unwritten 

law dictated that middle management posts, i.e., overseers, £ield 

book-keepers, o£fice clerks, scale clerks were filled by whites, 
browns; / rode 

mulattoes or rN•Mi generally, arrogant men whoA their mounts 

and wore their Balaclavas with the air 0£ cavalry officers. Frome was 

half a century behind the city in labour/relations; indeed, had hardly 
,e.38, ON F"telC> '1JOP-K€12.S 

left J8.J8. Fines and other disciplinary measures~were levied at whimg 

One estate even notoriously had its ow~rivate 

lock-up £or jailing minor in.f'ractors. * The overseers and book-

*Not only in Westmoreland were the estates near.it 
tiny "cane republics." P.A. Bovell, attorney for 



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Cayamanas Estates in st Catherine and a Justice of the Peace, in the 1938 Troubles, not only 
read the Riot Act (as a J.P.) himself but swore in his senior staffers, armed them and alle~ed1y gave orders to fire on a crowd at his gate,....,.wound-ing six. Irate Spanish Town citizens marched on Cay­manas but were stopped by the police. 

keepers, strong, well-fed ignorant men pursuing the ancient pru­

rience of slave time~begetting bastards among the field women/ . 
or laying a quirt across the shoulders of a hoe-man, were hardly the 
kind to easily take to the brash, more "democratic" city migrants 
who were already fired with the growing dissidence in K1ngston 
through the enquiries of men like St William Grant and Bustaman-

te --- whom Grant had by now brought to his public forum aro\Uld 

Victoria Park. 

The distance between deeply rural Westmoreland and the capi­
tal was more than long dustSy roads. Folk grew old and died in 
the parish without venturing east of Bluefields. Even among the 

It\/ educated, there was a distinctive WPstmoreland ~ay with words, e.g., 
"bile" £or "boil", "yawm" £or "yam". Into this anachronism came 

the migrants from the cit~attracted by the promise of jobs, im­
pelled by the same hope which had sent their progenet•ors into 
the canefields and banana fields 0£ Cuba and Costa Ric■o,to dig 
the canal at Panama, to work and write poems and books and take 
politics to the streets 0£ Harlem,• U.S.A. At Frome were such 
diverse men as Alfred Francis, an "honest-minded man with my box 
of tools and hymn-book, ~ho would be tried as a ringleader of the riots, 
and sea-pilot Vicker Hayden doubling as a roving ~aily Gleaner re­
porter whose early despatches gave spot coverage of the "dollar-

a-day" riota. 

~l-'i P1J.e11,o,lJ. ~ Bo/Z€ IJ 
The occurrence~~ resemblance to the Frome , ...... 



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troubles happened in Kingston in 1924, the 11Dar1ing Street 

riots." As at Frome, it was the commencement of a proL 
/JJ pµq '-Tr N G 

ject offering unusually large job openings 

the city streets, then surfaced 

in macadam --- which caused two results: a sudden and 

heavy tilt to the balance of unemployment when migrant (rural) workers ~, 
rushed into the cityJ• and~the unlucky seekers inciting the 

succeeders to ask for more. As in 01iver Twist, the keepers 

were aghast. After all, just recently, in a House debate on 

shop con4itions at the Mental Hospital , only that indefatigable 

champion of the people,• J.A.G.Smith, the Member for Clarendon, 
sa..w 
,.. ... ir cause for condemning a system wAitf 

ordered a (female) nurse ato work .. 35 consecutive nights 

of 12 hours each. The others could not fault it. Indeed, one 

member, H . E.Vernon of st Mary , suggested that when a nurse had 

to be fired for being caught nodding any of the 35 nights, the 

Director of Medical Services ought to "hold a little enquiry for 

the sak:11 of what I call giving satisfaction to the countrya (and) 

after that, the dismissal can take place." Vernon was a joking 

manJ but his comment evoked no chuckles from the Hous-=:; so one 

must conclude tha~lllft! at least to his hearez;~ the H0 noura:b,le 

Member was in dead earnest. 

Friday, Apria 29, 1938, day workers on one of the West 

Indies Sugar Company's (Tate & Lyle) estate refused to accept 

their wages •at the company's paytables. They grwnbled • that 

the pay was less than they expected. y.itf, ~ 
4 ranks of 

~ , company, a newcomer to/the long entrenched, exploita-
..ft.e,v~l !;.et,.,_ ~'> l!._ld 

ti ve sugar :families of Wes trnoreland, WJ(SouringheJ... patch. For 



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example: labourers paid one shilling & siXpence (1/6) per day 
had been 

under the previous ownership/ given threepence per day 
sulking 

The old Scotch-swilling rum manufacturers/on their 
11 f'oreigners 11 

verandahs were apoplectic at the/••••M muni-

increases.* 

"great-house" 

ficence/ which they would have to match if they would keep their 
These old plantocrats 

work-force. /had f'or generations fed their profits from an 
And al though the ,. r ~Re~ 

inexhaustible labour pool. ..../"sugar market had fallen on,_(t)iCbiP.lr 
sensible (i.e. extortive) 

times in the post-World var 1 years, NDllllll4•••w management 

could reap enough to keep a reasonably luxurious life stylej 

until, say, the next wara when prices would plump up again. The 

Tate & Lyle subsidiary was mucking about with a system that had 

served splendidly since the Abolition1 ~lu:( -1-(p_ ba/LC>{..IJ , ~-there was worse on the other side of' the wire-fence. 

A rmnour had come to the workers that the Company had intended to 

pay four shillings a daYll near enough to a 200;~ increase. ** 
some cynics were later to speculate that the rumour could have 

incite 
been spread by the local sugar barons to/Ji• M a strike on the w,Sco 

Whether or not, LMore than 
estates.A ·• • •• it did. A ... a thousand workers were 

*The day began at 6.45 a.m., ended at 5.JO p.m. 

involved. Speeches and more rumours over the weekend fed the 

discontent. The attitudes of the traditionally feistyfield book-

keepers and administrative staff, long 
by fininl 

used to cowing/- a threat of'/JUillll!IIJl or firing, assisted at 

tightening the tension. With a figurative flourish 0£ their quirts) 

**L.A. Grant, Frome•s general manager later offered two 
shillings a day but the situation already_. pola-
rized, it was £uriously rejected. 

they declared a like-it-or-lump-it stand. The ingredients for the 

explosion were gathering. 



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The weekend ended early Monday morning in a slowly rising 
the compound ~ 

noise o:f people closing in on BIIW~ old :factory at Frome - --

the marshalling yard :for the work :force . The Sabbath activities 

,(. 
of rmnours and spec.hes had not been lost on the police and they 

i\ 

were there at daybreak; in :force . The constabulary o:f the day was 

not o:f course there to prevent troubl ~ as much as to protect the 

bodies and property of the management . It was the role to which 

their Colonial training programmed them . These were also the years 

before riot - control weapons , e . g . teargas; civil disturbances o:f 

those years were met with the brutal Mark Vll rifles and fixed 

bayonets . 

Newpaper accounts later claimed that at six o'clock, there 

were about three hundred people on the Frome compound, singing 

and listening to speeches from the spontaneous leadership spawned 

by any instant revolution . F'acing t hem were about a hundred 

policemen under a couple of Irish Inspectors a land which 
·-;j""~ n-ltl-i ,~ 

had f'or many years sent • their sergeants to become o:f:ficers and ,, 
gentlemen .. :1111 U lit •• •-- lllil( 

'l'he old ramshackle :factory, a :few hundred yards north o:f the 

building site for the new Central, was still in use, taking o:f:f 

its last crop . t stood about a h undred yards in :from the main 

Savlamar- Grange Hill road , behi nd a lovely :fiel stone wall --- so 

o:ften :found at the old sugar mil ls in the we st . Across the road 
F'rome 

from the factory c ompound was the/marke t - square called the 11 shambre " *· 

*Perhaps :from 11 shambles ti, Old J<:::tlglish dial ect :for a 
meat market . 

- s P AC~::. -
The action commenced imperson.llally enough with an attack on a 

sugar truck hauling out f'or the wharves at savlamar . But soon 

it turned to tronger grievances, singling out the home of a par­
Ji 



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~ 

(j(,,? , f/L 

C, J~p_;,e y-., 

I of 

, /,i d ,c~ 

t)~nrtZ. 

~'< a.~ck . 
ticularly unac c eptable o:f ic i alA. He survive by lis a sence . 

ut t ha t turne t h e crowd 's rush towards the d ecrepit f rame 

:factory and a n offi€te 'buil ing into wh ich Manager Grant and 

is staff h a d scurried.* The refuge underwent a siege that 

*Grant, after the buidding was breached and 
e n tered, was saved by a :field labourer named 

uf'us Jones who uptilted a barrel over him. 

was b rok en only after t h e p olice opened :fire and ma d e a bayo­

net charge t hat killed, near the lovely old wall, :four;> and 

wounded nine. The stone-throwers had used the stone wall :for 

a breastwork. But t h at was no .match £or ri:fle shooters. The 

survivors ran :for cover in the canef'ields. 

So the Frome riots ended, except for retaliatory 

cane:field fires lit by the fleeing :folk. The casualties included 

six women and seven men. One of -t:he :four killed was a woman. 

But the :fires lit at Frome were to spread around the 
island and :force into leadership the two most :famous men in _ 1,'tK.-e IN .fu pt3: 
our annals "f\ Within days , ti g ■ 1 lab our • tr lli 7 ■ 6M COhlmo,,~ 

cRt.JlI ~ .ltT tlllia were breaking out on ,\ estates · andA. uanana ports. The city f;TfiyC~ 

qlf,t9f(% # liftl ■ 9 qui et ■ C • on the sur:fac e. * Tram-

*To the statement o/j;Dxkiifiii police inspector, 
an Englishman, that Kingston was quiet, St William 
Grant, by then being called by the me dia, Alex­
artder Bustamante's chief' lieutenant, retorte , " J: ¥0 
sir. Kingston is not quiett On the contrary, t h e 
city ... is seething!" 

car motormen, of some influence. among t h e workers because of 

their semi-skills among a largely labouring people/ and the 

g lamour that rode with them on the swaying, rocketing platforms, 

were a b out to be made ob solete with their streetca:ss 1• 
¥•• u r rarr 1 1ar1 JI It takeover of p ublic transp ort by motor-



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bus and the iron lines were being rippe d out as Ken Hill's 

National R~form Association fought for better severances, calling 

st r eet meetings on the issue. 

Th e Colonialist s were taking a few small 

proving life in King ston's cactus ghettoes. 
wv,o,. ~~l -f.9r • 

housing~ pla a Trench ~ ~;; •,N~hen a 

thornbush - streets and~arded 

step1towards im­

~oads and. 

wild erness of 

Monteg o Bay~ A. G .S.Coombs was planning a h un g er marchr.coombs, 

tall, tough, dedicated , was one of the p ioneer lab our leaders in 

-
the colony and president of the Jamaica Workers and Trad esmen Union. 

q'Y,.. Al new weekly p aper trenchantl y called Public Opinion, with an 
, l 

4f option on a n ationalist-socialist purp ose as it exerted a strong 

cultural interest, h a d been found ed by Osmond Theod ore Fairt:lough 

(later c o-found er of a nother greater event, the PNP ) and an English 

s c h olar name d He dley P owell Jacob s, who, coming to Jamaica at 22 

years old i n 1 9 26 and marrying t h e d augh ter of Jamaican p oet 

Tom Redcam (MacDermot) would spend all his long years h ere. 

Th ose three weeks in May were to be the en d of the Ol d Jamaica. 
I AJ S-, / 'T <.J 11= 

The New Jamaica was about to ,,•• ~e its b irthpangs. 



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THE OXFORD GROUP PUBLISHERS 
2a Norwood Ave (at Oxford Road) 

a ' 11.i:.H .as){ a.s ;tuo bsqq.i:'l: ~.rt.i:sd S'l:SW es.al:! '3ic,gstbn !,cili'mdb:rl.s eud 
Phones 64863/66243 

~.n.i:.11.so , eson.s'l:svs e 'l:s ;t ;tsd 'l:OI ;trl~uo r .nol:;t.s.i:.ooeeA nn:or~H l.s.nol;t.s½ 

- m.i:. eb'l:.swo;taqs;te 11.sma wsr .s ~nl.>f.s;t s'l:sw e;tall.slnoloD srtT 

IO aas.rt'l:9bllw »}()(~X~XIDOC~.s .rt9rl;t , .nwoT rtons'l:T .rt.i:. nslq ~n.i:.euorl 
. esmort XiOfU MJOUiOlaK 

nI &~ llXllMU~ ~~XJO'iM o;tu.s bsb'l: .so e.i:. b bns a ;tss 'l:;t e ~~• rtaudn'l:orl;t 

, admoo ::> . rlo -:r s 1 w~nuri s ~nlmt .slq a.sw edmoo8 . ~ . D . A , -x.sff o~s;tao M 

. no.i:.nU .nsmes b .s'IT bn.s e'l:9.>i'l:OW .so.i:..smsl, srl;t 1:o insbles'Iq bn.s ynol oo srt;t 

~no'l:t a .s bs ;t-:rsxs ;t.i:. a.s saoq'Iuq ;te.i:.1.s.i:. o oe - ;ta.i:.1.snol;tsn s no no.i:.tqo 

rl~uol~'I.i:..s~ s'l:obosrtT bno meO yd bs bnuo1: nssd b.srl , ;tas'l:stn.i:. l .s'W;tluo 

rla.i:.l ~rr.'l n_.s fJ n.s ( q"';,1 s.rU , t n svs 'l:st.ssT~ 'Isrl;ton .s IO 'l:9 bnuo 1:- oo 'l:s.tsl) 

SS .t.s sol: .s .sl, o;t ~n.t moo , orlw , adoosL llswo q y s l bs .1 1 i.J sm.sn 'l:.Slortoe 

. 9 'l:9 .ci a'l:.ss y ~nol al.rt 11.s bn9 qe luow ( ;tom'l:9 Io ;· ) ms obsi , o 

. so.i:..smsl, lJlO srt;t 1:o bns 9,ei;t sd o;t 9'l:9W ys l ' nl a.>fssw 99'1:.ci;t aeoriT 

. e~nsq.cit'l:.i:.d a.ti: sau.so o;t ;tuod.s esw sol:sms l, ws ½ srlT 



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96 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN 

Sh ipside\loading in Montego Bay is done from pontoons or 

lighters. On Saturd ay, May 21, 19J8, the steve dores in Montego 

Bay struck. The ligh ter loaders of sugar on the Royal Mail Line's 

Lombardy lying in stream, demanded a doubled rate per hour. From 
~~:r.asa five cents (sixpence) to ten cents (one shilling). 

u1 f>OW<?..r.S . 
True to tradition, the shipping; GM refused to consid er 8lllallfi: -ff.p_ 

v~l\. e,J:') 
~ increase and the lightermen ~ closing - the port. 

ifz. ctf.ffi ) 
It was a companion action to _. two days be:for~ in Kingston..) 

where the United Fruit Company's 200 stevedores had deactiva­

ted t he pier with a walkout a:fter the Company's refusal to up 
I eight 

the hourly rate :from 411/cents (ninepence} to ten cents. The Com-

pany had conf'ident.ly and promptly moved the vessel next door 
ti) 

where a f'ew hundreds hungry banana loaders ( then next,-t, ., just 

above, t he coal carriers, the lowest in the waterfront social scale) 

1n:ier~ could be expected to turn out :for the old eight cents rate. 

Patiently, the banana loaders had crowded t h e old wooden finger -

p ier, waiting for the vessel to be moored only to dtl 
shakings 

f'labbergas t the company o:ff'icials with unexpected ~ of' tlll!Z 

heads when t h e ord er was given to load. ''If there had been no 

strikes, you wouldnt have wanted to make us into stevedores," 

s aid a s pokesman for the banana loaders. 

It was the day's ringing declarations. A s p ontaneous X~ 

lllfKXXD rejection of' the old ~- {>,fiA.J I () vl-ATtD1/ 

The Company too the ship■ to Port Antonio on t h e northeast 

coast where, for the momen t, the old order still stood .* DD.mbQIX 

* ext day , in Kingston, it was the turn of' the 
Jamaica Banana roducer• s "Jamaica 1anter 11 to 
b e given the treatment by t he city longshoremen 
who now had their tails up. 



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Even while a We stmoreland magistrate was handing out sti:f:f' 

antences to the Fron e :fo .lk :for the happening on Tate & Lyle's 

estates, the protests were spreading i n to every p arish. In st 

Ann, led by the ind oni t abl e A.G.S. "Father" Coombs, 500 workers were 

d emonstrating against 

chial Board (I (parish 

the Pub lic Works Department and the 
;«;jl:) .,K-d.,h'f ~ ~~ 

c ouncil.) 
1
~ o:f employment. 

Paro-

In St 

Catherine, L. W. RoseD, a local labour leader, was quietly but 

e:ffectively agitating axaJJUCX :for reforms. Kingston street-sweepers 

d owne d t h eir brooms at the old City Cart Stables, d emanding t hirty 

shilling s 

curiously 

( 3) a week and the removal of the East Indian :foreman 
£ f'£11. vt!o y 

a/\.:field in which Jamaicans of Indian extraction held a 

virtual monopoly. '.OU£XJOUC 

The weekend turned h ectic on Sunday(? ay 22) when at all-dayZSi!ijiZ 

sessions on the waterfront, Bustamante and St William Grant ma d e 

marathon s pe eches calling :for unity, ending 
on 

regular Sunday mass meeting az the Kingston 

morning , the result was a complete shutdown 
~; 

ing o:f the scene :for the next two~powerful 
...f~u 
•11 • citySI commerce / t,14,,\. ' v,.1 H G.~i- f HE: 

~ F.N.b / Af ·71,i WIMD , 

the day with their 
c,;e. 

• Pl ad fl■ t course. By 
~~~ 

on the al l2% and a ready-
tt..at:-

days,tr lb would abruptly 

c.001-.rrR y fl (,I Af!,EI< /0 r/lCE m e 

Early Monday morning, strongly r ushing troops of longshoremen 
wearing their> 
1114a ot fi caps,. win d-filled shirts billowing off their backs, 

baggy trousers ankling down on :feet bare and f lift sneaker-shod 

s lapping the pavement, a ggrieve d men, d etermined and aggres sive 

men, pound ed along Harbour Street, and split columns to run 

p arallem on Port Royal street, and split some more to p enetrate the 

tar-soake d waterfront lanes, d iligent in their duty to close the 

city and rouse the citizens to havoc. 

Go p u ll down the strongholds o:f common purpose built up by 

g en eaations of bad employers who exploited the overflow labour p ool. 

r::;ed by the stevedores, the attacks were low-key ed in accord to the 1938 

• Gestalt when v iolence was noi~· than destructive. They 

bang e d the overturned garb a ge cans but fired no guns •. They force d 

the s hutters to drop but burnt no shops. They hijacked a clip of 

electric trams and joy -rode lighthearte ly on King Street. They 

broke some. gaslamps, illegally 1' - skipped pebbles in the 

2Sd:)a la« Victoria Park £ti (- p ool, and, bored with all that stuff, 

:fanned their columns into the city to cry the acceptable day of re­

lease, of New Times, of somehow by the grac e of wrath we have turned 

a corner. Roughly, they cleared the p iers o:f 



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s+r-i /(a... b~w.J<!l.:l..f 
/\ the shippers had 

At mid-morning, 
brought in.f • ••wand men 

~ 
police 
o:f the English 

regiment on station were put on patrol mJZti%0Z~6~ZZ«g but by that 
time strikers 
-. the/, had ... .._ e:f:fectively buttoned up the••••• city. 

Firemen, tramwaymen, sanitation workers joined the longshoremen in 

making the work stoppage o:f:ficial by making demands :for better 

wages (some tramway motormen were paid about :five cents an hour, 

:fire brigade rank-&-:filers :from about $2.80 a week). The authori-

ties reacted with rif'le-:fire. 

Riflemen have no place in 
had 

in this case, the rioters~ga~s 

riot control. Especially when, as 
-rU4A ~ 

no explosive weapons. 
I\ 

were the ubiquitous coco-macca used as a 
~ n-,a.f( .s lavt, ~.,.. 

With the(\ .. - - ---• at 

uR ..fcR 
walking caneA....._ stick-fighting. 

Frome still in mind, one newspaper, while carefully re:fraining 

:from any criticism o:f the rulers, observed in an obscurely placed 

paragraph that "•·· as a means o:f dispelling possibly riotous 

assemb~ ... it certainly is a tremendous pity that ZR%K (teargas) 

has not yet been introdtlced into Jamaica. 11 .B1e:fore the day was out, 

rif'le-:fire had killed :Mrs Sarah Thomas, a candy-seller and her small 

son, Stanley, at their gate, No 103 Mat.thews Lane , and wounded another 

9-year-old son, Henry. Mrs Jackson o:f 137 Princess Street looked 

out o:f an upper :floor window and received a .303 bullet in her 

back. XIOOCJOGOlZ%~e 

And some time~ in the :forenoon o:f that eventful day, his­

tory made a punctuation in the Jamaica story. Alexander Bustamante 

fand St William Grantj, passing the Central Police Station on theD 
the 

way to/main XDi :fire station on Sutton Street, was pounced upon by 

a police party and dragged into the station. Both Bustamante and 

Grant were arrested . . 



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CHAP'rER EIGHTEEN 

That Monday morning, 
DOOUOQQJCMQ A N.W.Manley was as far removed from King-

, 
ston as was possible in the island,A in savanna la mar holding a 

watching brief for the West Indies Sugar Company)before the 

Frome Riot commission. Manley was not yet altogether the people's 

man. He was the most eminent and sought after lawyer in the landJ 

and wealthy WISCO, like the other large corporations, 
.f1Y._• R£-r{J1ueR, 

~ hi~Aout of the pool~ Yet his sympathieBS 
I.__,, 

were known to be with the working classes, as witness his Jamaica 

Welfare. ~n:; U on both sides o:f the economic hal.ve~ were aware 

of the 4anley dilemma. It was not a personal inclination ~ 
N4#-d;" Of 

Manley)but his integrity and skill as a lawyer. With-

in a :few days, he would be publicly commenting that 11 :f'or many 

years, we have been educating our people and we have been making them 

conscious of their powers and their rights. It is high time z•az 

it was realised that we have got to make a step forward and or-

ganise and train the people so that they can properly use their 

powerK for legitimate ends. No progress will ever be made until 
old 

this end is recognized and met. 11 But in the beaut:i.fu1•/Georgian 

courthouse on Sav la mar's Great George street that morning, he 

was all advocate, doing the job his education and XDJll."DQt pro­

fessional conunittaent required. As a lawyer, his client's case 

was his cause. 

explain 

'-1-.(!µ}J,,t,dft I 
was ~a scruple in his mind that obliged him to 

,) ~li!rl ~ > 
to the Commissiorij4 If required, he said, he 

would assist "in bringing facts" before them. He "did not desire 

to interfere unduly, or to ask to be allowed to interfere unduly. 

Anything I do will be with the view of giving the :fullest assis-



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tance for the fullest enquiry to be made from everybody's point of 
Not 

view. u BB.ZZiiilZ everyone took kindly to the apologia or to his place 

at the enquiry. Dismissing his position as a/legal nicety/ , he 

was, they said, a main man £or Big Business. 

But Edna Manley, knowing the way her husband's mind was turning/ 

ever more strongly to the personal covenant he had made years before, 

inttl!intly sensed that his place this morning of May 23rd was not in 

the courtroom but on the streets. She sent him a telegram. With 

her usual lucidity, she ■IIUtalidllllJ brushed in the picture for him. 

All hell, she explained in the wire, has broken loose. 

Nevertheless, 11 I came home lateU and am abused," Manley was to 
note ,~1/y 'f~ 
JOBtJISd § J 1J 7114\lll911JA ll ••• af'terwards. Edna seemed to have lit 

sharply into him. / His 11 exci ting'' woman was not abibut to allow any 

little matter like B /the law• s delayS; nor rough winding road~ to 

frustrate the real start to his race. So they settled down to an 

evening of talk, conjectures, plans and projects at Drumblair, phone 

calls and visitors £lowing in and out, tasting and testing the hap­

penings which for the first time in a hundred years, since the 

1831/32 rebellion, when English warships had been warped inshore so 

their cannons could rake the street, had shut down the ancient city. 

Manley was up early after his usual short sleep. It was a holi­

ay, ironically, Empire Day, and it was to see the t hinnest of wedges 
inserted that would one day part this outpost from rule by Crown • 

• · Ml&WJ P S E taiJftiiliid 

The May morning was sunny and hot as he breakfasted and motored into 

the city. He parked the car and proceeded, as he has impishly put 

it, to• "perambulate" the deserted downtown streets, shuttered and 

eyeless in the sunlight. Occasionally, roving squads of people ran 

a block and disappeared, briefly exploding the silence. Police and 



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G0 
military vehicles nosed restlessly through the lanes and alleys. 

The city was strangely half alive. "Something in the nature of a 

general strike ... something in the nature of martial law ... 11 

mused the Jamaica standard~~ 

The newspaper went on to say,"For the most part, the strikers 

are ill-informed, lacking in leadership and in many cases, know 

not what they want. 0 

But this was so too of the employers and the government. 

Lacking in elected leadership, the central government had 

to look to the Mayor of Kingston, a general practitioner from 

Cross Roads, Dr O. E. Anderson, and his C0 uncil, to provide a 

liason with the people; _,. the elected members of the Legis­

lative council, the Crown dominated parliament, were hopelessly 

out of touch. '!'hey 11 have palpably failed to look after (our) 

interests. This councry (will not) easily forget the apathy with 

which the representatives of the people received the news (of the 

events)," observed the Public Opin~ weekly. Yet, the silence of 
as 

the statesmen was golden/against the utterances of the employers. 

The daddy of them all, the sprawling and powerful United Fruit 

Company whose ukases from Boston 
,J 

often weighted the deci-

sions DU of the English governor in King's House, spoke through 
Kieffer, the great Khan, was not much iven to statements): 

tion from our workers at all. If we had, we might have been able to 

consider their case. Even now, should we receive such a deputation, 

we might give the matter some consideration. 11 

Might have been able to might give some consideration. 

Even now, the truth had not reached: that the working 

people were declaring against the olct, exploitative unilaterals 

in labour-employer relations. Industrial relations of the day went 

in behind the whip-crack. A negotiated settlement of the troubles 



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was as alien to their 11 baccra-massa 11 thinking as rubbershod polo 

ponies.* 

*When an elite specia constabulary was later formed 
to protect the -ri~'f'Jf!!li!!!IW•-•a :from the incendiaries 

£,0 of' incensed workers, .. .., turned up :for recruitment 
wearing white polo helmets 

and provided easy targets _. :for bricks in the dark. 

Manley, that morning, "perambulated'' to the :fire brigad e 

station where he met two o:f the city gentry, Audley Morais, a 

cinema operat•or and G.M. Da Cost~, a store owner. Proprietors 

in the wood-&-brick city were especially concerned over the :fire 

brigade strike. Both being of the particularly distrusted class 

and neither o:f them possessing the charisma to demand a hearing 

by the :firemen, they saw the godsend in the approaching perambu~ 

and :fell on him. "They insisted that I break up 

the ll.JUQfX%JO[DC:X.JOlXXkXX strike, 11 Manley recalled. f!!oR.l}f~j -1,.e, ~•a•·t,t, lilt{~ -n~ 

--tnvt.o ;-:JHBY PIISHFb HNJ:l, 8 , f>J.MJ.€'( IJJ/Jl ~ltXTIIAIT. HG btb NIJT) HE FtJ1ArrEl; OUT) KJ.JOIJ.S··rtt€ F/IClT, 
t.. Man.ley must have b ·een conscious o:f the company he 

\A!Ollt...ii- Bi;- K~~PIN/£, ric > 
,(Was not a St William Grant)so much obviously a man o:f the people, 

nor o:f the :flamboyance o:f Bustamante>who, despite his Caucasian 

appearance1 reiided and moved with the proletariat.* Su~1osedly, 
./ Bustamante lived 11downtown 11 and was an ha tue 

ffiHW 
o:f Arlington House, a popular eating and water~o/~ 
place on East Queen Street. 

however, i:f Manley's angel of d estiny was prodding him towards 

political leadership, the heavenly but pragmatic guide was using 

the available help. In those £ate:ful two days, Bustam~~s con­

stant companion was Grant, an unmistakeabl~black and a veteran 

street corner battler £or black rights; Manley was walking with 

Morais and Dacosta, both white or 
~I< 

pers too were leaning in• a kiss 
/\ 

ably "passing". The newspa-

o:f death on Manley. H.S. *'Speedy" 
J,J, f 

Burns, a rising young journalist, was writing of "A Soci~ Jamai-

ca" and of' 11 a Communist group" waiting to 11make 1940 a peak year. 11 

I 

Under the same dateltlne, a Montego Bay reporter was relating a 



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/O s 

belief that "Communists :from Cuba were responsible for the recent 

Frome riots and other present strikes in the island . tt 

where Bustamante was fresh from. A little detail not calculated 

to restA~ with the Establishment. To them, Manley would 

seem a safer repository £or whatever small degree of' will they would 

allow through to "the people . " 

Nevertheless, Manley•~ngness to be involved and iden-
A 

tified with the unrest made him open to charges . He had to go 
,f,./1'0~ tq 

into def'ence. "It has been rumoured, 11 he~ 11 that I have ad-

vised some of the activities of the past :few days. It is sufficient 

to say that nobody knowing me could possibly believe that I could 

think that Jamaica's interests would be served by letting loose 

the irresponsible pandemonium of the past two days. But I believe 

that the genuine labourers themselves are responsible enough to know 

that they can secure their rights by different methods and I believe 

that they will 

Flanked by his two white companions and facing the irate fire-
'R €:J"Ot 111))€1<_ so 

men, Manley quietly spoke the~ he was to offer ., often 

in the years ahead. "I believe, 11 he said, "that I am a person whom 

you will trust." And with that T ·,· •T ,. 1'· . . .. confidence in his own 

ability that has often ruffled the feathers of :friends and foes, 

he declared that they should 0 tell me your grievances (and they} 

will be rectified." ",.¾ 14v;,t.., l'>ut- ~ - :>.!> > 
But that day his listeners took to it. ,{They spoke to Citizen 

as if' he was 
Manley/:itai their elected leader, giving him all the dat a he 

required on wages, pensions and the new insurance scheme they had 

in mind. The brigade chief himself came out to the apron of the 

:f:ixaxsn:.t:i••x 



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104 

fire station and gave the Establishment's side to the self-assumed 

auxilliary from Drumblair . Manley thus casually had assumed 

power at about the same time as had his Cousin Ai!x Alec. 

Each had gone at it in his own way. Busta had leaped in to 

take over the march , shooting his sleeves for battle. Manley 

sat on the e dge of' a tab le talking long , easily and persuasively 

to the :firemen. As he talked , the threat of' strike 
Bustamante would be called • ,f1lllltl.-Sl•·· t11rtt ··q SIP 7 _ ··• - 3 
•• - pau• 1r1@M'FI t zco.uc a 1 1 •••• ,,11 t l!ID M -••· • 

receded . 
1 1 -a •(■ 11& J I Jf grabber • · 6PP M of' opportunity. So was 

a • 

Norman Manley. .:M-□2'.ld( OnlY men with no ear for that single 

knock are excused its tyranny. They strode into history because 

their genius allowed no other road. 

~ S. P A C o ~ :forenoon 
The small exercise on Sutton street that1, t I I lMlg was to be 

f0Ef~ _world that now so~~ht him. The probing 
mic roe o s m of' the A.'ffliiiiii _ ~ • ~••--i7ilA• tlii~....., 

questions acquainted him with what little machinery there then was 

:for reconciling labour disputes . He cooled t h e tensions by inviting 

the men to his office where far from the noisy , uneasy crowd he 

could learn mor e about • firemen 's work and conditions. Then, tho­

rough as ever, he returned to the fire station for a spot c h eck. 

Only then was he ready to see the Mayor, Dr O.E.Anderson to report 

the men's case. 
was cast for the :first time , 

The :fire brigade episocte ,.<.am also to~ Manley/411,ill&,{in his .,.. 
1938- 43 whenever 
Ziff t 1 role of' put ting t h e play together againt( 

r:= came 
lead actor Bustamante;\ I ■Ii IIU near to wrecking the performance 

his predeliction for 
bYj<"lll!5llJWI IEIJIIIMll.kW8l¥NIM&lilliml&M. scene ...... [@_ stealing. 

~s performance, 
Between N.W's first and second appearance in the;f Busta had 

stopped by the fire station and threatened fire chief' Mitchell with a 

work stoppage. "If this (raise) is not agreed on by tomorrow, 

government will have only themselves to blame :for what may :follow. 0 

Returning after Busta ' s bellicose departureX.~ and recognising 

the danger of' a collaps e and a subsequent clash with the armed f'orces, 

Manley, who had already put the wheels for their job reform into mo ­

tion , quieted the men. It was a small personal triumph ; but in the 

wake of' Busta ' s mass ive pa ssage over t h e past two days , followed by 

great c heering crowds and hurling d efiance against gwis and imprison­

ment , it was an encouragement. The stage was being set :for the two 

ma in actors and the count ry needed both .then : the one of cool login 
--) 



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hurling thunderbolts. The con-

:flict of line woul d set bef'ore the wallahs in London the appear­
more 

ance of a political sophistication no/f'alse• or more misl.eading than 

their own reputation :for colonial. genius . It is not unlikely Dlllt 

.S IJ111.r_ 
that the events o:f 1ay , 

u.Jo"','"'' 0~ ~ k7-../UM 

19J8, streamed a sl~~ new light into the 

mus t~~ rooms • ___ ___ __ _ street.,; and quickened , however :feebly, 

the decision to dismantle the creaky old Emp ire. Ho ever, the 

two men were to be even more f'irmly planted into history with the 
k,(.t,7,vl 

arrest later that day of Bustamantei j and Manley would • ~ tactical 
,tiJlilf) -) ~ 

leader in the moves to restore th£/f eople's ,,:nan to the bosom of 

his public.* 

-!I-The Colonial. policem in the racist tradition o:f their 
training clubbed the black (st illiam Grant) to the 
ground but quietly took the "white" (Busta) into custody. 

An old yoke tree was on the grounds of Drumblair. It was a 
:for Norman and Edna . 

conference-tree) Away :from the house and kids and servants. That 

night the garden was fresh from the Spring rains and scented with 
.sa:r w,.£W '"I~ oltf... yof<:J, ·taee. i,v'IA.IZ 

the magnif i cent rose bushes . They/l talked about the day and the 

future · • Some symbols wont go away 1{{) flfJid(Qj . 5 I lid liJ J..JIYl 
~r- -fo'<fi( .f v~ yo2a.~.) 

that night under the old yoke tree, Manley~at last :fell 

into the political yoke that would never be d?t •1ri;;z11~ f .1'.fl:'# 1 U&;[''· ff« 

f iva CA. f days . "(We) :felt very strongly that somebody (should 

intervene) i n the interest o:f the workers . I had a profound :feeling 

that I was going to make an offer that had un:fo~eseeable conese­

quenc es. 11 He did. He phoned _ the I governor. 



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C NI NETEEN 

Governor Sir Edward B Denham, that slow thinking but 

maligned m and patient man , was worried at the lack of leader­

ship among his people. He had been more than once berated by 

those whom economist/writer J.A.G.Edwards called the "Company 

of' Permanent Jamaica Governors & Privy Councillors.'' These were 

the leaders in local commerce and the multinationals who , 

for most of the time, were calling the shots; instructing, by 
"advi ing",or the the 

flexing of/raw power accumulated when the flag 
followed 

A:rade into the underdeveloped S territories. For Den-

ham had a genuine concern to provide better wages, housing and 

education to the poor people --- about 90%> of the population. 

He had been forced, on a few occasions, to publicly remind his 

"advisers" that there was but 11 one King 's House. and one Governor." 

Although he had not foreseen the popular wave which would churn 

:further beneath the country's surface than ever before, he had 

recently appointed a Commission to examine labour conditions 

and was now for directing that wave where it would do the most 

good. Many of his advisers spoke up for using force. They 

advocated~turning~e on the people~ arme~ the 

Kingston Infantry Volunteers, the Sherwood Forresters, an English 

line regiment on 

11battle bow.lers 11 

station in the Kiij west Indies wearing DD 

~a$&,,~~ 
and~&llffi'sa,lil machine guns, and regular 

and auxilliary policemen with Mark VII rifles, Denham was 

seeking to find leaders and to keep in contact with the 

demonstrators.* 

*At the height of the disturbances on May 24, the units 

~ on street patrol included 400 regular & 250 
special constables, 100 KIVs , 80 Sherwoods. 



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He had talked ~arlier that morning with the Mayor and 
" 

Councillors at King's House but evidently had :found a scarcity 

of creative thinking among the politicians - so the political head 
Plain ) 

of' the colony drafted/Citizen Manley to stem the civil upsurge. 

He was a tri:fle late. Bustamante and Grant had been arrested-

oi1111111•1i,i•1111,-•----..-•--..,....;~Fithough as the troubles wore on, 

he took the then normal proconsul's route of arming the gentry 

and their approved servants with some legality/to aid the uniformed 

forces, he knew that in the last analysis, the country would need 

not conflict, but compromise.* He had shown during his tenure an 

*Mayor Anderson ' s 3- day Ward Theatre KWU:H e c onolrli c 
and industrial con:ference_,6 months earlie7:; on ways to 
energise the island's resources had roused a great 
deal o:f irierest. 

awareness o:f the hardheaded ways o:f the employing class, spoilt 
all 

by having had it/downhill for generations and now ~-•"ll•g in 

an obvious gamesmanship demanding that the workers return to 

their jobs before negotiations.** C. W.Varney , the British mana-

**The workers were :for the :first time to have their 
EZUtllmexposure to the sport by stubbornly staying 
away :from work until Bustamante and Grant were released. 

and a large waterfront employer, 
ger of' England ' s Royal Mail Lines~~XXXJfJlXJUCXI( 

stated that 11 We have all along been prepared to ... hear their 

grievances and we still intend to. 11 Then, apparently unable not 

to show his hand, added : ''Our men are quite satisfied but they are 

prevented :from working by others. 11 An exposition disquietingly 
~ 

future /,(_ those griev an ­

ces . Local emp loyer s were not b ehind in whip crack ing . Cried 

incomclusive about 

Charlie D'Costa of Lascelles de ~ ercado, the Jamaican wharfo,mers, 

"Th e str iker s will on ly p aralyse themseli'es, 11 It was to pull hack 



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y;_aA)' 
the approaching polarity that Denham~ Manley. "He sug-

gested that I act; he begged me to. I told him I would think 

it over." 

Denham was looking :for more than a city leader. Already 
reaching 

the un~est was~ once bucolic hamlets. small outbreaks 

had :flared here and there ever since Frome and now was at the 
~~ Spanish 

two next largest urban areas,llKXKDDCXK.lJQtXXD Town and 

Montego Bay. Dockers were refusing to work the port in Montego 

Bay . In Spanish Town, a march o:f J,000 workers closed down the 

Old Capital. A :few railroad blocks were indulged in by tumbling 

boulders down on the tracks. Bustamante, as he DM led the 

heaving curb-filling march down King Street into Harbour Street 

in the earlier morning be:fore his arrest, had mounted the walk 

beneath the balcony of the s'fandard Fruit Company's offices at 

the Georges Lane corner to appeal :for quiet :from 11 ••• this ter­

rible noise which prevents me :from thinking while our enemies 
1----7 are thinking against us! 11 Now the quiet had come/\ after his 

arrest. Sullen and ominous. Manley , close to the city's pulse, 

sensed it. He moved swiftly. By evening he had called in the 

newspaper reporters and was publicly offering his services to the 

country. 

"Events have proved how necessary it is toway/that the people 

of the country should have good leadership and good advice in 

putting forward their grievances and making their demands for their 

betterment. I have received the assurance o:f (the rjovernor) that 

the government (desires) that the people should have an opportuni­

tyof making representations and that their grievances should receive 

fullest consideration. (The government) is prepared to appoint 

a Conciliation Board where both sides could be heard. One of the 

difficulties in the way of the government to assist is the difficult 



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})¥ I fJ 1 
/ of finding persons who are willing to assist the labouring 

classes and putting forward their grievances ... 11 

it 
And in his next sentence, N.W.Manley made/official that 

he was in the business of public office. 

11If any labour group will accept my services in investi­

gating their grievances, in acting for them, and by leading their 

deputations to employer interests, or to the Governor, or to the 

Labour Commission which has been appointed, I pledge myself' to 

serve their interests fairly and properly, and to give every assis­

tance to sefhat reasonable and fair demands are met in a proper 

spirit. 11 

A leach of' the years ahead, the agonies and the rivalries, 

the gains and the foolish losse)may have passed behind his eyes. 

For conscientiously, and cautiously, he left the door ajar. 11 If 

(workers) can find the services of any responsible person who is 

willing to 
f'ident 
~tiU5il% that 

. ,--
assis1 t them in putting forward their case, I am con-

'--
they will be heard." The real labour leaders could 

yet be Busta and Grant, and even "Fighting Barrister" Erasmus Camp­

G2a bell --- although he had been booed into silence ~tla ~8.,tQ 

because he proposed moderation.<;; knew the need for trade unions, 
~ q £Ee ~o 'ftt1-I 

the day-by-day monitoxTof Xl0lX10£XXllUJOf employers .-. the rapacity 

of Barbary Coasters, a job he K could hardly undertake with his 

weighty court briefs. "When thefe troubles are over, I hope that 

some group of' responsible people will recognise the necessity for 

organising proper trade unions in this country." 6or a few hours that 
day and the next, Manley was the only working labour negotiator in the 
country --- although he was working the noblesse oblige bit to death. 
It was, on the face, an aristo under obligation; a mannerly bow to the 
court for permission to speak amicus curiae. 

S Pfll£~ Legally and politically, it was an exotic night for Jama-

ica. For while Manley was giving his press con:ference, an 

unusual media scene for that time, a Night Court was in session. 

King's House pressur)with some Manley heft, had resulted in the has-



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tily convened court to hear arguments from Barrister J.A.G.Smith 

and Solicitors Ross Livingston and Allan Wynte1£or the release of 

Bustamante and Gr:ant. Both had been held for disorderly conduct 

but by the time the case reached the court , Bustamante•s charge 

was higher: sedition and inciting unlawful assembly. Grant's was 

• the lat'fer, plus a smaller one for refusing to obey a police 

officer which KE{ neatly took ECXXUXlJO[ care of the reasons for 

clubbing him. The hearing, held in a the crowded little o££ice of 

the police inspector at Sutton Street, was barred to newsmen. The 

Magistrate remanded them in custody, refusing bail for "though Mr Bus­

tamante and Mr Grant might be willing to stand trial, the crowd 

would not allow them." The Magistrate was probably a historian. 

The 1865 Rebellion Experience was smmewhere in his ruling. 

Manley .had also tried for their release that night for he 11 felt 

a martyr was being made." Denham had demurred. But why should a 

martyr not be made? was this a torn Manley, responsive to the Dll 

now and future cal1_,but held in the time frame of his education and 
-I- passionately excludes 

~tish_ upbringing?)\ A60, t-he English psychel\~Wftaq(X fflOfl:N 
"--.__ _ Frenc connec ion £.. 

martyrs, ince the/\.WfX~~nx at Orleans !:,he court 

ordered a bed put in a cell for Bustamante. Na~ q_Y~n--C: 

* The"Morant Bay Rebellion" in 1865 had its immediate begin­
nings in the rescue of their comrades by Paul Bogle's menJ 
who, in their opinion, were unjustifiably found guilty of 
offenses. They rescued them from the courtroom and started 
the chain 0£ events which culminated in the upheaval. 
National Heroes Bogle and George William Gordon were executed 
in the bloody aftermath. 



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es;;· 112) 
[ · He was especially p leased with the incoming of' William Seivright, 

first of' the middl e-class entreprenurial people he was hoping to re­

cruit . He was deeply touched by the response. tlMy 1.ove and respect 

for that man grew greater and greater as the years went by."* 

*Seivright was later Mayor of Kingston, and in the House, 

W fjni ter of A,,.riculture and then of Home Affairs. 



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ht, 

e, 

II/ 

c · • PTirn twenty 

Governor Denham had a p roblem. He telephoned it to 

XXXXXX?Of.X.~EOtUDXllX«JC(EOiN Manley early on W dnesday morning . 
p 

He ha liked the ifanley s tatement the night before. But what 

about the usual proviso? 

He was talking about 
whlc/.. dg~,,tJ t{ 

usually 
the mind- bender 10JDCJX issued by the 

J.e 
auth orities hat workers return to their job5;at n:t the old 

Manley ' s 
J.UKXUX~1tX1UfX]Uf d isatisfaction) ~b efore neg otiations coul d begin. 

retort was blunt . l e was acting for the strikers and would do s o 

only i f h e had a free hand . Governor Denham took notice and 

acquiesceq . He issued a statement from Ki n g ' s House declaD!i.ng 

that '' g overnment welcomes the offer made by one o:f the most i s ­

tinguished s ons of Jamaica, Mr Manley , to represent the cause of 

the lab ourer~a,.nd is perfectly willing to see that the fullest con­

s ideration is g iven to rep resentations made. " 

Ma n ley was elated . Years later , he wrote , 11 I g o to work 

feeling like a man in a dream." And the dream DK quickly be c ame 

a reality; for he had har ly settled into his creaky office chair 
in came his 

when the Duke Street d oor opened and/KllXMll,XJ!M)t"first f'oll owers, 

:four women cap - makers. " But that was only the beginning . For 

wit h in minutes , the flood commenced . "Twenty d ockers poured in . 11 

And so it went. 
·,t1-kG rtJ ~u 1~() . 

Problems were also pouring i n . That May 25th , while he was 

being hailed for his "sincere and brilliant a dvocacy on behalf of 

the cooperative I idea among th~ peasantry in the days when the 

fate o:f the Jamaica Banana Producers As s ociation hung in the balance , "* 

*by D.T .M.Girvan in an arti c le on Jamaica Welfare Ltd , 
Daily Gleaner ~mt May 25th 

h e was bein d enounced by word and p amphl et on the waterfrontt a s 

an ene y o:f " the little man. 11 'r he cause is traced to his app earance 



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for the west Indies Sugar Company before the Frome Commission, 

and not unconnected with his general law practice which contained 

retainers{from all the colony's more important corporations. M0 ney 

had been raised by the Jamaica Progressive League* in New York, 

*That the League did not discredit Manley as had been 
hoped by a faction, was becausd he was able to show 
the records of his two retainers from Wisco: the 
annual binder, and a special drawn up on May 5, 
with specific directions to represent the Company 

the subse uent en uiries. As it turned out, Manley 
had, in fact, promised E.R.D.Evans~o appear at Frome 
for the workers, but ti d been stopped in his tracks 
by a gentle reminder from Wisco that legally he was theirs. 
He had written to Evans a week later regretting the 
oversight and pointing out that he was "bound by profes­
sional rule not to appear for the rioters." And so ended 
what could have been a nasty imbroglio with the League, 
which, in later years, was a powerhouse for his Peoples 
National ~arty and the colony's progress to indepen­
dence. 

Iv· fl-
led by novelist/historian Adolphe Roberts and journalist ~a) 

Domingo , both Jamaicans , to help in the provision of legal aid for 

the Frome accused; and his inability to represent them without a 

a.. 
release from his prior committments/ ~roused a great deal of gene-

ral antagonism. Mistrust of his motives dogged his movements about 

the city, but he had a good moment at Malabre 1 s Wharf where a huge 

' crowd of striking dockers heard him. An unusually subjective 

Press report spoke of thousands 11 obviously 

listening to him on South SlloZX Street. 

bona fide wharf hands" 
~ a,A.{,( A blr, 

Ile was ~ £resh 
A 

and easy voiced, despite a rough day of conferences and negotiations. 

Leaning :from one of the upper windows of the Adolph , Levy Building, 

he repeateo his offer of the previous night , to lead - if they 

required him. Mobile soldiers, police and special constables 

were parked in Orange Street ready to move in and Manley urged 
l,.)f'l>'k.~ 

that the~ go home quietly. He would meet them at the Number One 

Pier/next morning/and commence the negmtiations with the wharf 

owners. 



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Heanwhile, Bustama:nee and Gfant had been moved to Rae Town 

prison and J.A.G.Smith was in the corridors of the Supreme court 

building applying every known legal gambit his high skills and 

experience knew. Manley had not been able to engage in the 

matter all that day. His work had been made doubly hard by having 

to fight of£ some hawkish friends who were for wholesale military 
was rash 0£ 

solution. What irked employers/Hllll the/lightning strikes, 

deliriously pegged to the idea that happiness was a dollar-a-day. 

There were some who understood. "Charlie Johnson was a tower of 

strength against (the use of} force," Manley has said. "He sees 

that all wages must go up. He sees very far. 11 But ever scrupu -

lous, if sardonic, he goes on: 11 So does R. F. Williams who 

doesnt like what he sees and is for force." 

The opposition was not pecu~ to business leaders. Richard 

Hart, the young lawyer who was to become a great political writer 

and activist and the island's most famous resident Red, and Hug.ht 

Buchanan, the first self .. avowed Marxist)[, also held causes rooted 

in Manley's failure to defend the Frome rioters.* XllKD~ But 

*Buchanan, a bricklayer son of a successful May Pen far­
mer,was a dedicated Marxist who found his way to Hamburg, 
Germany for an International Communist conference in 
1937. A man of strong intellect and moral courage, he,cl1l(J 
not very personable and never~ attained IQ{ popular 
leadership. He became the first ' eneral Secretary of' 
the BITU and was once jailed for sedition. He led the 
groups that stiflfened the strikers' resolve to stay out 
until Bustamante and Grant were released. But his stay 
in the Brru had never been happyj not surprising, con-
sidering he had been the General Secretary of A.G.S. 
"Father"Coombs' union which had expelled Treasurer 
Bustamantefehe year before for trying a takeover at 
11Father 11 Coombs' expense. Although Dick Hllart was to 

MX:XX:XXUX:ll become a member of the PNP Executive, Buchanan remained 
strongly anti- Manley until his death in the 'Sixties, 

~~ soon after returning from a Hoscow visit and disillu­
sionment with Communism. 11Not for blacks, 11 he said . 

an endorsement from Ken Hill's National Reform Association somewhat 
"' 



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eased the pain.*• 
~ 

IU.11 observed that Manley enjoyed 11 a unique posi-

•*"The NRA is resolved to cooperate with Mr :Manley in his 
efforts and makes an appeal to one and all concerned 
to free their minds of' any doubt. The NRA is so convinced 
of' Mr Manley's sincerity and honesty that its 
(proposal) to the dock workers(to f'orm) a registered 
trade unio~ith Mr Bustamante as president, was cal­
culated to strengthen Mr Mznley's hands in the nego­
tiations with the shipping companies. The idea ._ 
of' a trade union for longshoremen is not new. Mr Hanley 
and 1-Ir Campbell have themselves so advised." 

tion in this island. He is trusted by Capital and can be trusted 

by Labour as well. 11 

The Thursday morning meeting stood at over 2,000 waterf'ront 

workers but bore a mixed success. Public address systems were 

newfangled in the ' Thirties , a mechanical hoodwink ._ used by 

x· 
nightclub singers to conceal the cracks in their laryn.Aes. His 

suspicion of', and failure to usel the microphone made his reach 
o;;t: t--/1111,bl,-r O>iQ,. P,'(l,r cftt-ri~) 

all the more a:r-duous. * I-le spoke :from a coal car flanked bil_v/ .A-----;--
------~llllXE~ -------------
*A coul~st/next day sy1pathised 
this "instrument ." 

with his dislike of 

Williams , a worker delegate and, • 
- ~ 

curiously, thP-

. an of the Establishment. He may simply have 
Director of public Works, am b the was Jonah on the bandwaggon. 
climued aboard to escape the pr~ss, u _ The mood of the men hardenec. 

~ would calculate that the fix was in • 

. No nmnber of concessions would make them break the strike until 

µ, ustamante and Grant wEre freed. They would accept .., one-shil-

J.ing a hour ■ I J ( ouble :for overtime) plus :freedom for their lead-

ers. It was time :for him to rnake it clear that he was not setting 

"" up as a lbour leader. ,._ 

"The people , 11 he said , "whom you regarded as your leaders 

had the misfortune to be arrested and put in jail. They are still 

in jail. In that situation, I f'elt that somebody who had the cause 

o.r the people at heart S-hould come f'orward ... and let you realise 



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that there were intelligent peopJ.e in the country (wllo) sy,pathize 

with your position and were prepare to put :for~ar your c so . . . 

to s eak n your behal.:f . 1• 

f'actu l 
WOC)L.b 

r dication ~ not ~ 

elicit zest for his leadership . Dut rcso­

lut l.y , he 1aid it on the lin: 

"I am not a labour la er. I am a lawyer 1d y wor i. i 

the courts where I work f'or anyone llo desire my ervices , to the 

best or ,y ability hen tho tie co1.c that org ni at:i.ons 

are to be :for ed by labourer to protect th mselv an< their ri ht , 

I do not say it will. be possible for e to f'orn1 the oreatd ations , 

but r pared to give y ervices :Cree . • orlting peop.l ere 

entitle to el ct their own repre entatives to lead them . . . e 

who kn~ tle r conditions ..• th•ir >rievancas . .• men ho, thy 

can meet. men whoa thy can trust." 

Obviously, at this ti e , he eith r sou._,ht nor xpect d 

a mo s base :tor hatover :future his i.u. iet,t re 'lect d . I e estnbl.i:;l e 

his ole at t outset. o would dvi , no le u. ut he a 

o.f cour e peaking to a worker• structur in mbryo. 'he depen-

dence 0£ ,Jamaican po1itic on uni n power had not yet assumed reality , 

He a. :filling- a breach , aiting :.for th r lease of' Busta ate , 

a atter that was in the "hand of' a very great l.a yer and a 

very er at worker f'or the people • " J .• G.Smith . 

s it proved , the .~mi th rescue fi8f# w to bra k on a 

tubborn supreme courtj both men would only be 

freed at'tor some fast quiet work at ng ' s louse by a ~ 

ley . 
~~t: 

At this point in tho meet.in" , f nley tato that he la 

/I\ 

been sked by certa~n workers • r. resentat~ve tone .oti·te a 

settlement w~th the hi pers . f re rted the re J. t: twop nee 



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an hour more to make the rate elevenpence 

It was rejected out of hand. 

{lld .). 

For an hour he reasoned from the coal car. He reminded that 

any increase in labour rates would be ultimately borne• by the 

local producers• --- "··• your own people ... 11 But that homily 
was counter produc~ 
lUOlXKdXJttnu:.xul\the saltwater workers who had no identity with 

growers on ~ 

OX bananaJ\.~iJHCXli:X the green mountainmPil~. He shook the record 

at them, pointing out that no previous negotiator had been able 

to secure even "one :farthing'J but they shook their heads. Im­

placable :faces turned up to him, they asked a:fter the overtime. 

When they were tolrl that not only the double time was rejecte rl , 

but that "nothing" would be added to the current o.t. rates, the 

planks of the old finger-jetty vibrated under their hurt roar. 
after they had 

But ~JOC quieted down gggtgi he :faced them with the facts 

of negotiating. 

"Bargaining is a word you will hear more and more in Jamaica 

:from now on," he said. "You cannot strike, and stick out :forever 

(for) one price. There is more ... to consider. When the price of 
is 

dock labour goes u~, food~ going to become more expensive (and) 

there are many people working ten hours a day in factories for ten 

shillings a week. 11 

It took a firm, disciplined reaolve and ~~all on his reserves 

of adroit advocacy to keep the big· crowd in the frame of' mind 

that would leave the door open :for more talk. The crowd was dis­

contented and uneasy but standing beside Manley was a workingman 

who would have a subsequent influence on the labour movement. Wil­

liams was a tall, powerfully built black man of strong personality 

and big impassioned voice.* At the end of a speech endorsing sol-

*He was interned during the war with Bustamante, 
Ken & Frank Hill and others. 

idarity in their oemands, he raised the single song which above 



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I I; 
fuct't,._~p 

all else could be counted upon to ~~ on any West In-

dian crowd in the pre - World War 11 years. Hats an<l caps instantly 

doffed , the men whom Sir Leonard Lyle , the head of Tate & Lyle , 

owners of 1ltflli visco, had only recently savagely assaulted for 

"not remotely 11 resembling 11 the English labourer in life or 111en­

tali ty"; stood at attention as they sang God Save The King :)~ and 

d isp ers ed 1P-"--Ny , 



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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE 

Manley's moves took on new urgency. On Thursday at noon, he 

contacted Governor Denham and 11 demanded 11 that a Conciliation Board 

be set up. Within three hours, Denham, now chugging along with 
.p,_ 

unaccustomed sp~ed, had his selectees at King's House and the 

terms of' reference drafted. With another dockers' meeting set 

£or Friday night, Manley turned to the Bustamante impasse. He 

offered a strongly worded argument for Busta 1 s release. He saw 

that only then would the country be at work again. Bustamante, in 

his mind , was now the charismatic leader. So in roughly sketched 

ways) in that week of' crisis) were the political lines being drawn. 

~ had been moving quickly, but caref'ully, since Tuesday, here and 

there crimping the edges to seperate organized labour from orga­

nized politics, alien disciplines to his land of' the let-alone 

principle; at once tongue-lashing his friend Noel Nethersole for 

talking of taking the National Reform Association into labour acti­

vities, then turning to hotly def'end himself' against lawyer Ross 

Livingston, already a Bustamante man;K~D and ever 
most 

watchful of' the guilef'ul J.A.G.Smith, his/Mll formidable court-

room rival who having lost supremacy to the brilliant younger man 

coul d not have taken kindly to his appearance on the political 

:field. 

The Conciliation Board was a triumph for .Manley. Just two 
·~ ) 

days~ the G0 vernor had been adamant in his stand against any 

show of' appeasement towards the strikers until they returned to work. 
, k- ~~ii 

-,;; 
atDA.was the :first 

industrial 
significant step in the direction of/arb■itration. 

It had settled well with the thinkers o:f the day_,and would have been 

effective with the actors too)if the Supreme Court\ had not squashed 

the plea for the release of' the two folk heroes. (By now the rulers 



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((9 

were muttering their :fears that once let loose , Busta would ab ­

scond , possibly to Cuba.) The popular fury now turned sullen . 
But the 

The violence of the preceding days disappeared . / 81( powder lay 
around and 
i.fiKY)a90!~ ,1the situation needed defusing . But was he the one to do• it? 

XU ~y his li:fe- style and accomplishments; he had been chosen -16y 
:xxxxx:xJOlJClONX10JfX~/the upper elements as the safe layer 

against Bustamante , the dangerous fellow. Gleaner establishment 

writers were exhorting the workers to "Listen to :t-• r !-1anleyt II An 

editorial titled Patriotism , lauding his integrity as it sought 

to soothe the dockers ' fear?may have had the adverse effect of 

1"JoP...f 
inflicting~ suspicions.* In yet the other daily , the Jamaica 

* " 1r tanley is not the individual to shirk his 
responsibility because he happens to be counsel for 
a shipping company (or) organiser an chairman of 
Jamaica Welfare to which the United Fruit and Stan-
dard Fruit Companies contribute money 11 

DXXfilG:O:XOOOO[)f 
Standard , a correspondent was giving a strong vote for leader-

ship to the England - born jotfehalist H .P.Jacobs over [anley: "Mr 

Manley ... is paying too little attentlion to the mentality of' the 

workers , seeing that he already represents more capitalist con­

cerns than anyone that we know of, the thing is simply absurd." 

"Absurd 11was strong but not unreasonable. !•1anley had been 

picked as mediator by the Other Side the Governor in King ' s 

House . In contrast was Columnist Esther Chapman ' s sniff' that 

Bustamante was a mere "local labour leader who has been given 

:formidable importance as the result of' ill- advised publicity ... 11 

The charade had its funny side . In a country hilariously 

shade proud , in those racially :farcical times , anybo y with a bone 

of humour looked in awe at the goings - on. Bustamante , who had 

not hesitated to pass- for - white in his work among the bestially_ 
Wff (T(! 

bent
1
natives of the American white racist states , had cannily 

identified with the black power base in the islandj while Manley, 



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~ · l~o 
t). JuU_q,. ., v ,'c'ti tn ~ C..1 f ~4-,.d_) 

the qarker hu~tenaciously :fought :for a :footing. Education, 

commerce, politics, the church, and all else, had a racial bias. 

E,'Very major religious denomination was headed by a white expa­

triate. So was the XX civil service. Black :faces very seldom 

appeared among the staf:fers o:f of':fices and stores , and never ever 

in banks. No black reached officer class in the rnilitary and 

police :forces. Social progress of the children o:f the :folk was 

encompassed by a set of' sti:f:f rules understood by everybody 

including the blacks. The 14 elected legislators, although mostly 

blacks, were second :fiddlers to the custodes (all white and~­

pointed) or chief' justice of' the peace in the parishes.* •lanley' s 

if-The prominent legislator H.E.Allan , appointed by the 
Governor to the Frome Commission , replying to a 
reporter ' s question on its work , ruefully said: "I 
must be careful what I say being the only black sheep 
in the lot. 11 He was later~ knighted by his Sov­
ereign, the 11 :f'irst black knight . " 

press statement late Thursday a:fterno on made a subtle n od in this 

direction)( when he observed that the Concilliation Commission had 

come about as a result of representations :frorn 11 those of' us who 

are working in the labour interests rnx and I believe supported 
) ) 

by the employer interests. The Commission included a high court 

judge , the Collector General , two politicians ,• H.P . Jacobs 

and the head o:f the United Fruit Company, Kieffer.** 

*ii-The Kieffer appointment , a notoriously anti-labour 
and racist employer and much disliked by the people, 
met with strong objection :from the longshoremen. • 

Manley was now in the thick of things. So thick , he was 

asking :for more help while acknowledging the "valuable assistanc e" 

he was receiving , and sent out a call for those "sincerely on the 

side of labour" to a meeting in his office of Friday morning. High 

on his list of the most valued XKin:XXl0£XNJUfJi assistants was his 
t,./3UN oil..~ IJN)) 

wife and a dockside ~ caterer named Agnes Bernard. 
~~ 

Miss Bernard, one of the great andf\ :forgotten patriots of that year 



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(and in the other waterfront crises of the decade) was already known 

for "carrying" many a down-at-luck docker; ruany of whom , despite 

the much publicised one-&-six (15¢) a hour, often had no more 

than one hour 's work a week. She established her own privabe 

soup kitchen at No 9 Princess Street, offering free hot meals to 

the strikers.• But neither of the ladies would have gone as far 
help of the 

without the/~ Revd A.H.Web9 head of the Children's Lunch 

Fund Cornmit eee, who stretched his terms of reference to the limit 

to put the Fund's facilities at XlOfXlOI their service, producing, 

in the words of Edna Manley , "a meal for 1,500 at four hours 

notice." 

The Friday morning meeting at the Number One pier was 

remarkable for the dockers' double endorsement of Manley and 

Bustamante . Over 2,000 were there when Manley mounted the now 

familiar railway car which he had made his own :forum appro-

priate to the DCKD incoming industrial/union age as had the quiet 

redbrick Coke Chapel steps to the leisurely intellectual exercises 
the 

of the oldtime political touts. Opening the agenda was~K letter 

:from the National fu,:form Association1 approved in prison 

X"™XD~-;ilfn:MK/by BustamanteJand read by his solici-

tor Ross Livingstone, proposing the dockers "form themselves into 

a trade w1ion and place Mr Bustamante as president ... legally 

ready and able to negotiate with wharf owners, shipping compa-

nies and government." 

The strategy, drawn up by NRA president I:oel Nethersole 

and general secretary Ken Hill , was clear. It would eive validity 

to .d u.stamante'<5° leadership and obtain consequent careful treat­

ment from the courts. The court would be less likely to hit him 

with a i)DOiM: massive sedition 
Mnt,d., 

The CRiPIB'e to decision 

sentence. 
'f"N>-h ~~ 

was ~when ~1anly 
I\ i'\ 

:firmly re.fut ed 



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personal interest Hin office. 11 I am not going into politics," he 

said. 11 I have no time for politics (so) I hope there will be no 

jealousy or suspicion in this cause." Nevertheless, hl2-required their 

support_., and the mood was good) so he showed them the Buchanan-circu-

la ted pamphlet denouncing his moti~.* The workers shouted their 

* 11Workerst Do not trust Manley and Campbell. They are 
the tools of' capitalists. Support Bustamante and Grant. 

disapproval• and Manley made his first full public statement on the 

Friend-of-the-capitalists spectre with which his detractors were con-

tinuing to haunt him. 

1•It is perfectly true that as a lawyer I represent a great nwu­

ber of companies but I do not represent more companies than I repre­

sent poor people in our law courts;tt and applied his lawyer's knack 

of' turning the prosecution's case to his own advantage by showing 

how his close acquaintance with the employers would enable him to 

"go and speak on your behalf to men who will trust me to put your 

cause fairly. 11 

His speech that followed has been credited with being the clearest 

exposition up to then of' a trade union. It was simple, deliberate, 

repetitious on certain issues, persuasive and urgent. He spoke without 

a microphone but his passion gave him good voice and it carried 

great asphalted 
over the/~ yard laden with goods sheds and rail cars• 

idled by the general strike. 

"Many people have asked me whether they must put their signa-

tures on a piece of paper £or the formation of' a union. 

11 My advice to you is: sign it. 

"Because by doing so, you are only promising to join a union. 

"If you agree to join, you (must select) men ll ... and give 

them power ... 

11The strength of the union is in unity. You must train your­

selves to be loyal to your union and to stand together in decisions. 



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(You) have proved today that (you) can stand together 

be loyal to each other. 

and 

"Do not allow people to split you into groups. Do not allow 

quarrels to divide your ranks. 

"The first step?is to teach that difficulties can be a d justed 

by compromise. 
I ask 

"Remember, you cannot all lead at the same time./ 

£or a little trust, a little patience. 

"Be careful and wise in the choice of' the people who lead 

you ... not only men who can talk, but men who can think. 

"tThis) may be the starting-point for (a better) island . 
(gain) 

"Trust your union, serve it, and you will)l■III••••• secu-

rity and hope :for yourselves." 
SPACL--

Sqrewd tactician that he was, Manley saw through whatLas the 
>-fY'Ot If r 

:first~- effort of the employers to kill in the shell any seriously 

organised move towards uniorii.~~• tiat:"■J, a••••••• •- play• rigged 
OFP' t e ship in me were 

to cut~the workers from Bustamante,;\ • agreeing to 
m frAJLE'f 1.J 

all • demands for the lon shoremen, expectin 
whiff of • would 

t h at as had :frequently 

happened, ait 
principle. 

Manley, the shippers hope d , would be the bagman. Manley, said 

"They the Harbour Street mafiosi, would shove it to the stevedores. 

kers know (of 

b ut (was more 

_ had the idea that I was the best person to let the wor­
N.. 

the new rates) and would not only get acceptanc~e 
I 

acceptable Jlll•llillJl than Bustamante•) in their eyes.". The 

dump-Bustamante-~or-Manley plan collapsed when N.W. found it an offer 

he could refuse. 



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CHAPTER TWENTY- T:fO 

The Week was almost over . 

~...,..t"£1ilt.Ji91M!U• ■- With Bustamante ruthlessly taken out 

by the authorities , Hanley was the :figure at 

in the effort to the centre . He was now 
wtt01,.1,.- ENCl,IJf.i Eb 

ct, 
return Busta I I li to the streets j A Bustamante armed with the lega-

lity of an elected union chief.* 

*Another union leader , barrister Erasmus E.A . Campbell 
chief o:f the white collar Clerks ' Union , was of great 
assistance XM to Manley during the week. Campbell had 
been often attacked by Bustamante for what the :flam­
boyant Busta regarded as his " jealousy" . Colourless but 
unabashed , Campbell would for many years be a factor 
in labour activities. 

part 
The elected legislature was not Bl'Ul of Manley ' s forces. Except 

for Smith , most of these men , put into power by a better priviliged 

minority electorate (adult suffrage would not be for another six 

years yet) , saw their duty in arming " the governing body to deal 

with the matter ," although they did recognize , as spoken by Tre­

lawny legislator Revd. Maxwe1.1'!" that 11 social and economic injustice 11 

~ ~a.+~i!Y Of ~OI/ClNfJL1~..,.- .J~IIN /))8',t r/&L.t- , 

was the true cause of the Troublesli and wonder ed aloud abou ~ 11new legis-

la tion" to allow the establishment of trade uni~ns . The brusque 

reply of the Attorney General ~as that such legislation had already 

been enacted 19 years before . 

The English press , despite the reactionary • London Times• com-

ment on "local :firebrands and visiting agitators" , was in favour of 

getting at the economic roots of the trouble. The London Daily Express 

pointed out that Britain bought more sugar from Cuba than Jamaica, 

although selling less goods to Cuba. The British Communist M.P. 

William Gallagher :facetiously asked in the KKHXlf Commons whether the 

colonial Sece etary was aware that f "Empire Day was celebrated. in 

Jamaica by the execution of' a mother and child. " 



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One settled area in the rumble belonged to the city government~ 

whose bustling Mayor Dr Anderson had made his own unilateral moves 
45¢ 

by offering a 50%, raise (to four shillings & sixpence or .. a day) 

to his street cleaners and was conferring closely with Manley on ways 

to ease the tensions, especially among the £ire brigade. But it was 

WHO 
agreed by everybody ~ knew the streets_, that the only road to 

normalcy lay in lgijij freeing the two leaders, Bustamante and St Wil-

WHcl•t, Of./ 
liam Grant. So :mociq;XEQE •JG Big Friday, the Conciliation Board 

reported to Manley its decision to double the overtime rates on the 

wharves) Acidly Manley told them the offer was too little too late. 

11 I told them to release Bustamante or Kingston will burn,tt he has 

said. F' Anderson agreed with him and the Board loaded themselves 

into motorcars and sped off' to see Denham in K1ng's House. Manley 

stopped off first at the fire station to keep his firemen cool, then 

continued to King's House. He knew the dockers were the key. The 

tough, competitive, truculent longshoremen, unlike the itinerant 

sugar estate workers, were a cohesive group, kingpins of their 

enclave of winches and high-wheele d drays from Harbour street to 

the sea. 

The lights were burning in Governor Denham's office where 

anxious men worked to relieve the beleagured downtown now 

dark and deserted under the smashed street lamps, save for police 

prowl waggons and occasional band s o:f youths bent on window-breaking 

sport. 

At King's H0 use, Manley says laconically, 11 there is a mad 

party. 11 

They we.ee waiting :for him. Of the seven or eight men present, o>&; 

he had been in close physical touCh with the strikers all day. He 

had witnessed the moods, :felt their approbation and aisapproval. He 



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had been in bat t le with friend and foe 
~ 

urin the day and n·ght 
I\ 

before. He had fought with fellow lawyer , the volatile and pas -

sionate young Marxist ichard Hart) and Hart ' s friend , Buchanan , 

vitriolic and devotedly anti - 1anley. He had worke to reeling on 
/ 

the wage increase to the longshoremen , only to have the offer re ­
€ t./d RAV€o 

jected by the i mmovable sh)-ling- an- hour stand,(• t lir•• by Williams, 

a reasonable man turned intransigent by year of wharf owners ' 

exp loitation. He had crossed ~ds ith Layer Livingstone and 

rebuke £ eth ersole., 111 i@J(ji • I W anley was annoyed 

, i th "Crab 11 
;,:, 

ethersole for " j ump ing in the union busin ess with his 

National e for Association. He erhaps saw Nethersole ' s action as 

liable to lo se them friend s . The catch- all had brought together 

such disparate people as merchant J. B .Stivens and communist Buchanan , 

conservative U. Theo 1~Kay and agitator ' t William Grant . It was 

a l s o the crucible that had annealed the anti - extablishment ideas 

and prepared the groun for sup ort of the young Jamaica tandar d , 

ails&!•¥ the lively , robust an very professional uaily then challen -

ing the Gleaner. ~ ly the cheerful and inte l ligent assistance of' 

his wife , na , had lightene · , cons i d erably , the burden of the d.ayJ 

11 Her great 

sit was , 

orij-ctict more to help than all I di d , 11 he 

he wa s an e dgy man at t he heel of the 

has said . 
w--1..£.,.... 

ay '1.... -,. entere 

Oenha n ' s office • .,......_ •"'5'ts zw - To their anxious queries on 

t h e state of the city , he offered no co fort. ith unk'nd ly can-
worn 

d our , he observe d that even yesterday ' s hop e had/~ out. He 

could no longer ro ise a quiet city in return for Bustamante 1 s re ­

lease. Yes terday ' s failure to rant Bustamante bail had st £ffened the 

strikers ' resolve , an even convinced many that only a violent overthrow 
r 

of the system would do . 

This c rmnple the Board . 
1~r bl<l. n, 

In rising panic , they threw the ■-
't 

& to Manley • - a no made him a one - man Conciliation Board. They 



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s />f>vf-1.,tJ.. 
~ g oo ci c heer ~~~:d by t h e p owerfu lly p racti cal contrib tion 
of t he ~ f ee d ing p ro g ramme~ h e h a d set up with t he ~ Lfl)),,.tl,.4,. )/ 

ah+ i C?Ad,aG. I " Cl3ll8- 4!1f!1!ii ynamic , ~AAggie Bernard . 



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begged him t o go t o Rae Town . He should see Bustamante in ris on 
that the sys tem would stand . 

and get his as s urance/~X ~Oit§]!~.KXDfi:q So long as h e , 
i t ~ 

Hanley , was assured , J•I ~ would J I t heir fears . 
' a, 

The missing e ssential wa1...,, r ooted sympathy f or the wret ched 

condi t ions of t h e oor . Whi l e t he arch conservative London Times , 

p erha s :from n ew informat ion , was scoring t h e " long years of n e g l ect 

b y t he Co l oni a l Of f ice , l o c a l g overnment s and employ ers " for the 

"standar d of l ife of t h e West Indian l abourer" whi ch was far below 

even "ha l fway t o ler a ble ", the J a maic a Gleane r was b l as ting a way at 

t he Coloured Socia l We l fare Soc i e ties in London and Ge orge Pad-
"' 

more * for observing that "while Tory poli ticians sing of the glories 

of the EXllXKMXKXXXXJO{ Empire on whic h the sun never sets , for millions 

*Padnior e , a Tr i nidad i an , was a j ournalist , intellectual, 
historian and fighter f or black rights . A r oli:f i c 
wri t er , he went to lie in Ghana whe re he was much 
honoured , a nd di ed t here. He wa s one of the important 
architects of b l ack consciousness 

( of other ) Br itish c i tizens ... the sun neve r rises. " 

he de :fa cto. i:f temporary abc ication of the Board had been 

ex ected by Manl ey . He had been c l ose to the action in a l l area , 

with the strikers , t he K1ng 1 s House strategists , with t he Smith- Living­

stone axis whihh he was meeting with an increasingl y s moly eye , and 

had correct l y j udged the :fut ure . He had seen Smith and Li vin stone 

before t he Ti ng ' s Hous e meeting and put them into arranging an 

interview with the i r client in ae Town prison . ( us t amante and 

Grant had been tra nsferred :from the Su1eton Street ·ail under cover 

of early morning darkness and a 
4
0lic e/military escort bris tl in - with 

arms . ) It ap ear s that while Livingstone l i ked t he i s ea of the 

Hanley- Bustamante me et i ng , Smith d i d n o t. " I n :fact , 11 1anl ey says , 

"Smi t h spent two hours tryin to get Bus t a ante not to see me. " 

Hurrying a c ross to run1blair (his lands n early adjoined the 



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King ' s Rouse X grounds ), fr/anley had a quick meal and change and 

was ready when the tele hone summons came from t he _prison. Beh ·n 

the iron doors an high redbrick walls , t he cousins met an ' spoke at 

length for the first tie in years . He had Dl:OCXMirlKXMJOOi been co 

s u lted b y Bustamante around 19J2 , j us t b efore oing on one of his 

voyages to Cuba , Manley has since recal l ed , but they had not talk e d 

since 1934 when h e returned . They h a d assed on t h e st r eets of King ­

ston for years without a nod . 

11 Well, orman , I ' m so g lad to se e you ," Manley relate s as t he 

firs t words t hat n ight at ten o ' clock i n XlO( a e 'Iown . 

enemies ho have d ivided us . Let us forget the ast. " 

" Okay ," 1-1anley sai d . 

n tis our 

The release of the two men was s t age d with the strictest legal 

rotocol so as not to damage t he syste . Manley would go to the 

rison , t alk with Bustamant eK, and lat er assure the court in session 

11 t hat in my jud ement , as the p erson in touch with a ll the strikers 

i n Kineston , it wa s bot h safe and essential to let hi out of j a il. " 

He kept the loy oin by talkin XXX S i t h , Bustainante ' s counsel , 

i nto overn ighting in Kingston i n stead of hea i n out to h i s b eloved 

c a aren<.lon constitu en cy for his weekl olitical fence - e nd i g . 

Gr a vely , and all according to the book , the two men l a i d p l ans for 

the renewal of t he habeas corpus app lic ation on t he new evi denc e from 

Manl ey. Saturday ' s si tt ing in ha mb ers was of cours e a formal ity , since 

the application had already be en grante by the r ea l power• sit ting 

in Kingllli ' s Rous e on Fri day n i ht --- a lthough all this wa s no t 

known then save b y t h e pri nc i p als in t he cast. ail went to Bustamante 

(£250) and Gran t (£50) and they were released to a roe ing, j ubi l ant 

cit . 



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! le gend 

than 

1sses 

1ati c 

a 

was 

by 

intel-

L • 

C PTER .T ENTY- THREE 

A triumphant mo torcade emerged f r om the Ttt11r=el!'41:~"t eni­

ten tiary gates i n the early afternoon and drove the ile to the 

Number One Pier . With t• anley , Busta ante and Grant in the rocession 

were Smith , Livi ngst on and solicitor Allar1 "\lynter. Edna Manley 

was :K.l:H~ waiting at the P ier with Sie right , Ansell l art an 
~~ 

Willie Foster Davi5.t:nrxX:XXDrOCXMX llllof:ficial a..N:.tJi~MM e l egates 
an2m11 

from the mi dd le class declaring nnx i ntent to :fo llow t he Manley 
) 

lead in forging a link with the folk . As it turned out , t he mi ddle -

class support would be t h e b i n ing strengt h of Manl e y ' s eo les -­a t ional 
-tt:o 
~ did 

Party in the years y et [ ~ it is at least arguable whether 

no t ali en ate t he mass support which adult suffrage was 

so soon to cata ult i nt o supre me i mportanc e. 

The meeting on the p ier was a short one. · anley and Busta-

ma n te left for the Conciliation Board where , Manley dryly commen ted , 

they "greeted Bustamante like a b rother . 11 So b roth erly in fact 

that t hey agree to pay doub l e :for overtine on the do cks thf ough ..._..,. 

they would no t budge f rom the two ence an lour strai h t-time 

increase. 
us t an ante was 

I t was a gain anyway) and/XlDEX~ «IDfiM W:Dlt ab le to re t urn to 
cvi-.d c~Ak 

he h.-X ier with a fresh success to match Manley ' s . t that l at e r 
, /Jr<€" 11ft I\. 

me eting , the s t ri e was called off .A A t ime had end e . And begun . 

The worke r s had won t h eir f irst clearcut vi ctory . A n ew 
s-repp <l 

kind of loyalty had emerge among them i n which need 7-· aside 

fo r rinciple . - isorganised , broke and hun ry , faced by rifles 

and machine guns on land , a called - up British cruiser offshore , 



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SUP1'12~ 

Thus was b e gun t h e us t ama n t e l e g end 
o f n e gotiating , more ~ ~s t u r e t h a n 
s k ill , t h o u g h p ostur e e:n c omp asses 
a skill , a n d a ubie ty s o dramati c 
t h at at times i t cons t itut e d a 

a g i c wh ic+ ev e r wore of:, and was 
on l y s t al l e d i n two e l ec tions b y 
t h e o t her g eriu s o f Manley ' s i n tel ­
lec t a n d h i s org a n i sat i on men . 



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and a hostile, mostly mindless employer class with the economic 

power (and a kind of legal vigilante .KP status which in emergen­

cies was invoked) :for them to bear and use arms) to bring them to 
small folk had dug in, 

their knees , the ffli:X~KX.lUOIJGiNK holding ground with the 

stubbornness of St Elizabeth mules. What was even more rewarding 

was that resolute, discerning leaders had been found among themselves , 

men and women capable of resisting, and yet , in spite of their 

betrayed and exploited generations, also capable of trust . 

It was a good year for Hanley amll Bustamante to be ready in. 

And a good year for the dead ones, the executed resistance leaders 

across three centuries , whose in memoriam was the courage and the 

hammering spirit of the dockers and the sugar workers , the firemen 

and the banana carriers , and all those others who made t h eir stand 
seized 

and singletnindedly ~FITJ?wt- the t i me. 

On the face of it , the coal car party had a jolly time , with 

congratulations passing among the leaders. But even then , on that 

railroad car (to which Manley with an athletic bound had led them), 

the lines were being drawn. There were already a :few well defined 

ones, NllK such • as Manley noticing what he saw as Smith ' s studied 

avoidance of crediting him with any part in the successf'ul bail 
tuppenny 

application , and Busta 1 s one - upping the Manley/:X~ increase 

with the promise o:f double overtime - - - a request the shippers 

had denied Hanley in the earlier negotiations but which had been 

agreed to on the Friday evening anu kept quiet at :Manley ' s insistence. 

Odd little quirks occurred , such as Bustamante addressing the 

workers as Comrades - -- a word that was to become anathema for its 

place in the PNP tradition --- and Manley advocating the forming 

of' a 11 /,abour p arty ", a ~ form which Bustamante was to preempt 



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~ rs/ 

for his own political force; and~ the country being aware 

for the first time of the cousinly bond between the two Shearer 

descendants as revealed by Bustamante. 
ll)fl{ 

~ll~~n~XXXSJUXMXlfflJI:xJilll1X:JOOiXKXJi 

JfHXJOCMXXX~XK«KD.:DDXlfEBfrmDC~KXIDUID[XlDHil)t:x.x.xnouacnKX:X 

~:XXKXJIIDilOOOt 

The meeting ended. The crowd surged forward to the l(XX coal 

car, lifted Bustamante , Smith , Mayor Anderson and Livingstone and 

bore them away on their shoulders. The main gladiator is left 

in the ring. He would not Dx:Ill%DX allow them to shoulder him. 

It would have seperated him from his wife. He once said of this 

moment , 11 I go home sadly. The first round is■ over. 11 



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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR 

On Sunday May 29, Hanley called in the Press to hie Duke 

Street Chambers to state some "planks (in his) platform for permanent 

improvement. 11 Although he was to again categorical~declare 

that "this is not a political j{llCXX)f campaign", he added that 

it was a "golden opportunity £or forming a labour party in Ja­

maica." KMn It was "not to be a Party which will supplant any 

other organisation working f'or the people of' the country. 11 He 

thought that its first and most importail.t £unction was to "co-ordi­

nate by Xll af'illiation 11 all the existing organisations of' the 

people. Thus there would be a single central body "keeping in 

close touch with the active groups working all over the country 

£or the good of' the people," 

This puzzling if' graceful sweep towards a one-party colony­

state would draw im1nense strength from its a£1lliation to a "trade 
I\ 

union with all their members, the citizens associations and all the 

leagues and associations which are working to a common end.X" He had 

the potential strength. Workers' delegations from some JJ places 

of' employment had already taken tl:ei.r cases to him f'or presentation 

to the Concilliation Board. The f'uture passionate exponent of the 
rule 

two-party~ may have presumed that the forming of' his "labour 

party" would bundle the employers into their own political con­

clave and create the antithesis the method required. Whatever 

his reasonings, he pursued them in his own style of urbanity and of 

sometimes showing the steel. ••It is gratifying to know that many 

employers are negotiating improvements £or their workmen without 

the need XU of :further strikes," he could say nicely; but also 

sound a note of warning to those who had not noticed the new wind 

blowing: "There is no doubt ... that the hour has struck f'or irn-



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.w,--

DlBKX 

provement (and) it is just as well that employers recognize it and 

do their duty promptly." 

The Sunday conference was also made memorable for the uttering 

of the small credo (or the heresies, depending on where you stood) 

indicating his political road. And many of the perceptive, and the 

guilty, caught his drift and looked to their defences. 

"The country has got to realise that there is going to be an 

all-row~d increase of' wages (everywhere) and the cost of it has got 

to be met. This can only be done by increasing taxation on the 

people that can best afford to bear it. 

ttLuxuries and amusements have got to be taxect;and the taxes on 

food have got to go down because the cost of living is, in any event, 

going to go up. 

"Income tax has got to be increased. 11 age rates in Kingston 

have gone uprnd are going to stabilise themselves at a higher rate. 

This means that the tendenc¥ of' people to come into Kingston to look 

for wor+s going to increase. It can only be stopped ,by a) pro-

gramme of land settlement and improving living conditions in (the rurals) 

"The necessity for the development of' agricul.ture and other 

local industries is imperative as an immediate programme. We have 

been talking about it for years ... and doing nothtlng. 11 

He called f'or unemployment relief meanwhile, an "immediate 

necessary" measure. And that ended, Manley turned to what he termed 

his "planks in our platform f'or permanent improvement." Among 

ml7/J2. :> w-e.>t 
several o~ we required• industrial insurance, old age pen-

sion, minimum wages. And he could hardly have endeared himself' 
pukk.t>t.-

to the ~helmeted, upperclass bully-boJts whom he exhorted to 

offer their Special Constable wages to the organisation fund of 

the incoming union since "who better than they should appreciate 

that with a strong trade union, special constables can sleep in 



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their beds. 11 

In the odd ways of the entrenched and the privileged , the 

series of strikes in 1938 , while roundly condemned for 9 rough­

house ways , was acknowledged by them in private and public1f, as 

bound to yield some good. The Jamaica Times weekly paper had it: 

11 But there is every likelihood that the recent trouble will lead 

to a beginning being made of social and economic progress . . . and 

that therefore good will come out of evil . 11 So , yet , a strike 

for social and economic progress was evil. 

An early good out of the evil was lll[X:JOOOCllXYXXNK that 

an houn was cut from the old 10- hour labouring day for Public 
.3 D U,,..'PJ 

Wroks Department workers , and a 25~~ increase on their ~ a 

day ~ - And although the award applied in the instance 

only to PWD people, it was a pacesett er. Private sector employers 

could hardly ignore that the state was setting the example . 

Both Hanley and Bustamante were conscious of the looming 
Sf/C()L~ 

demand from the lljiXM.llOC exploiteds that there~ be swiftness in 

squaring the old imbalances
7

and so both counselled patience_;to 

the barefoot victims. "Rome was not built in a day t II cried 

Manley at a Trench Town street - meeting . "Rome was not built in 
in Mandeville , sixty miles 

a day ! 11 cried Dustamante/')Df1'~~!ii.X'.~~9:M :IHOCl'i away , that same 

afternoon. 

June broke hot all over the country, with every town 

and big estate under armed protection of police , military regu­
new 

lars and volunteers. For that lovely/heft to the PWD pay enve-

lopes was not going unnoticed. As the demand for a likewise 



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consideration increased :faster than satisfaction, violence whipped 

the countryside from St Thomas? westward to Trelawny. The earlier 

battlefields at Frome and in Hanover, now a little spent , a little 

slower to challenge the bullets and bayonets , fared quieter. But 
was 

the combat style of the Kingston strikes/xxxx quickly adopted by 

the country cousins; frequent invasions of the country towns by 

hundreds of workers from outlying sugar and banana estates marching 

down the once sleepy main streets, overturning garbage cans , bang-
sometimes 

ing on automobiles, mJU( aiming their anger at the instant enemy , 

the~ shopkeeper/capitalist in their roidst. Manley , now 

the "labour ntectiator" of the media , and Bustamante• who in turn 

the press had made " labour leader ", were companion troubleshooters , 

going everywhere at short notice , to quell the protests by their 

presence or by promissory notes. 

The mobs were monstrous children/capable of fearsome acts 

on a quick- rising anger) and equally capable of marching in step 

to 11 We are jolly good strikers" sung to the tune of We are jolly 

good fellows. -And standing like statues at para de - attention , _... 
staves and machetes shouldered , at the raising of God Save The King. 

8 u t c1 l'h?l .... +e... 
Fortunately , the ~tanleyJ!:-omily that 11 Rome was not built in 

a day " was an e:f:fective letterheaqlon which both he and Busta wrote 
:fieldworkers , 

their notes to the often obdurate/~ pressing for three 

shillings {JOi) a day upwards , ;~lai~ the need for peace and 

patience while the data they gathered was being processed at the 

Conciliation Board . In the west , A.G.S.Coombs , head o.f the small 

Jamaica Workers & Tradesmen Union,~ strove tirelessly to hold 

down the issues to some order; it called for considerable skill 

in places like Savlamar) where carters {sanitation) were paid XDOi 

sixteen shillings (~l.6O 0 :for a 64- hour week . * But neither Manley 

*Coombs ' skill was uncommon . In Montego Bay , his 



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~ 

oratory so drew, that •shore duty marines :from 
HNS .Ajax were joining in applause at his meetings. 

nor Bustamante , struggling to keep their :feet under an ava­

lanche Qx:xll~lllOilOUlK o:f demands, could see over the heads o:f 
lines of white-collars 

the crowds at a :few thin XDCJiKllx:KMXX:KKifiillX:lfK on the fringes. 

These were the 11 clerks 11 , an inclusive, self-styled label which 

alternated with 11middleclass 11 and had been adopted by citizens 

in "clean II jobs. Barrister Campbell, a squa \ gnomelike battler> 

whose formidable scholarship included a brace o:f N9.tll }IScs in 

separate disciplines, had :formed his Clerks' Union and gained 

a reputation ll :for e:f:fective pugnacity. Elsewhere, their cause 

either received impoverished help, as :from E. Barrington Williams, 

a tall gangling :fellow who ran a little known ogganisation called 

the social R,Econstruction League, or had their noses rubbed in the 

ground)as at the inaugural printers' union meeting with Busta­

mante :flailing at "Jamaica's great middle-class :for their spine­

lessness" which made them live 11 in constant :faar, despising the 

lower classes) and in a dilemma to know where they socially be­

longed.* But what they were in a :few years to prove was that they 

*H .E.Vernon, a legislator, was making a plea for 11 50 
to 75 acres» each for 11middleclass farmers." 

belonged in politics --- although their emotional attachment to 

Manley's PNP was to discredit that party for many years in the 

eyes o:f the mass voters. In the meantime, several of the more 

thoughtful and public spirited had aligned themselves with the 

new urgencies generated in Manley's activities. 

Manley, with N.N.Nethersole as his deputy, had previously 
-¥ 

called a meeting in the o:ffices of Dr J.L.Varm~~here a number of 

committees were f'ormed to study reconstructive ideas and o:ffer 
+., 1/~4, ~ ~d,,-a,.,_ ~t.d. ~, Jh,~~l Vi" .'.7it1-7t,h'ca ~a 11~.i 

,.,,_ t..Al.:t.- .·, __ rf .. ~ r,.,,,cnfl'-' bl':h..lL 



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rs; 
their :findings to the Conciliation Board . Five committees sat 

on :finance, nutrition, adolescent & adult education, recreation, 

employment. Manley himself never attended the early meetings . 

He was too busy :fighting brush :fires over the countryside)but he had 

previously mapped the strategy of "social and rural reconstruction" 

for the groups to study. The division o:f definitions into social 

and rural was not maladroit ; rural reconstruction reserved a right 

:for special approach. Plant diseases had battered several great 

:fields into abandonment. There were country districts 11where the 

sight o:f money is an extreme rarity," said a Jamaica Standard 
~ 

editorial; tllhere were hundreds in districts 11who have not known ..__.,,,, 
(paid) work o:f any kind •:ror years. 11 No wonder the p anger lasted 

among well 
so long JOOW:A the once~ mannered countryfolk. S0mething like 

panic gripped the gentry in the rurals. They took to making for 

strongpoints at the :first shout in the valley.* 

*A rumour o:f a march on Frome sent the English expatriates 
and some local whites racing down thf road to Savlamar 
where they took re:fuge aboard a ship7Iiint€he stream. 

But while he was logging 111any miles in the uneasy cow-itryside, 

Manley was not neglecting his town base. Along with Nethersole , 

now engaged in a kind of wiion activity a:fter all, he led demands of 

the {ater Commission workers, :for plumbers, masons , fitters, carpen-
the significance o:f 

ters. As l'llPlwage claims were won :for workers,/~ ~ lflfill.~ 
on 

Manley's commentary, insistent and steady, fi the inevitability o:f 

higher taxes, seemed to have been lost or ignored by the labour 

leaders. And such taxes, he said, should be adjusted that the burden 
II 

fell tmore heavily on the class of the con:ununity that can bear it. 11 

He had his precedent. Trinidad , which had undergone its own labour 

riots the year before, had seen a hike of ten percent in its cost 0£ 

living. He ureed continuousl¥ that a comprehen~ive plan £or relieving 
unemployment be f'ormulated. Above all, land settlelllent and industrial 



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acceleration and to intensify our agrarian development , these had 

immediacy. 
seen 

Now that he and Bustamante were~~ as the real 
b
7
y_a.takeover tk as the people ' s representatives > 

leaders lilXX~Nl<l~\..n.- .n...n-..iOLAIIUll.wf'ILA,ll5.AA~.IIV.....,.XXJ[~ from the elected 
I'\ 

legislators , sudden and absolute , they had tacitly been given a 

quasi legal status by the Conciliation Board , assigned to settle 
likely smoulder spots. 

disputes and tackle/Xlla( XXIIIKKXBxax•ax Events were however 
which would 

occurring/nu!X put into motion circrnnstances to set changes in 

the political course. 

world War 11. 

A new Governor was closing in , as was n 



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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE (C\ 

become bvA.y11,1, 

Jamaica had/ItJil: used to~ its dead in the weeks since 

F'rome. Some ferocious police and military work ( and of their 

sabre-rattling auxilliaries of "professional men and other leading 

men 11 ) had le1t several dead on sidewalks and in candfields. The 

ailing of Governor Denham had passed almost unnoticet{ in the 

daily reports of clashes between the ragged battalions of unemployeds 

and the state forces. The series of crises aggravated an old 

stomach ailment and Edward Brandis Denham died on June 2, 1938. 

He was buried at sea of'f J'ort Royal in a magnif'icient phosphor-bronze 

casket from the Arthur Hendriks Furniture Company. (In those f'olksy 
wRlt£ 

days, there were no commercial undertakers and your dead .am iced 

at home$ .) He was the first governor in nearly 150 years to die 

in office. 

Denham had been a quietly determined man , uncolourf'ul but 
:tD 

liberalXXJ(Xb(n:x:lXMI! in his relations with the people --- a quality 

not frequent among his peers. He had taken to :uoucnncx Jamaica 

in that strong way of' leaving shy tokens in K unexpected places 

--- such as his campaign £or exporting Bombay mangoes>which he 

thought the best in the world and worthy of his coined name, D 

Jamangoes. His death was one of' the turning points in the 

1938 revolution. 

True, t here was Islington to come; and it did just a f'ew 
.) 

hours after Denham ' s death when 
The elected 

into demonstrators ./ ~ XJOOOUOf 
was to make his contribution 

four were killed as police fired 
member for Hanover , Dr Veitch, 

XD~JOClClOtX by leading his little march on Lucea ---

and back off at the entrance when he saw the armed forces. And a 

mini -havoc at Lacovia*)where in a night a mob broke down 14 pas-



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the .17th century ~al 
*Unlike the big one in/ft where a black sharp ­
shooter named Diego Pimienta at a Lacovia breast ­
work , scored lOilOfXXJ a high kill count among the 
XNX.tJil{DQtX:NJOi English forces under Jackson. 

ture gates , uprooted pimento trees and blocked a river. But the 

troubles had peaked . C . C.Woolley , the Colonial Secretary and Den­

ham ' s acting successor, had hardly moved into King's House before 

he was announcing a million dollar land settlement scheme . The 

plans had been Denham ' s , announced without any reference to his 

legislative council. Laviiy acclaimed by the press , the scheme 
I\ 

had of course its neat little rider that nothing would go f'or -

ward until the country returned to 11normal." But ll in any case , 

it had more to recommend it than the negative plan for the migra­

tion of Jamaicans to British Guiana (Guyana) and British Honduras 

~Belize)• then being led into discussion. ---Manley welcomed the land ref'orm as " the best piece of news 

I have seen for the people of J'amaica since I was born . 11 It 

seemed that he knew even more about it) for at Islington he hinted 

at the possibility of a $4-million £our- year J!O]{M land settlement. 

He suggested that any land scheme be repaid by the settlers over 

a 20- year period itso it would not break their backs . 11 

What had happened was that the Denham land plan had only 

just beaten Manley ' s Rural Reconstruction Committee*out of' place. 

*Members were Manley , Dr WE McCulloch , a nutrition 
expert and social thinker, Graham Hawkins , N . N. 
Nethersole and Miss Hay Farquharson . 

F'or within two days , the Conuni ttee was reporting its own proposals , 

similar in that it rested on land use . In quantity and quality , 

it was f'or spending :foutjtimes as much and :for uprooting the old 

~W conditions by a "complete reorganisation . " His ten- year 

plan )lwould commence with the immediate spending of' a million dol ­

lars , the only amount which they believed could offer any real 

early solution of' the unemployment problem "or achieve the genuine 



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and basic reconstruction of the whole island ecot1.0l..;.)." 
:four categories: n 

e saw t he settlers coming from DillilfXl(~lOiXXthe out - of­
already on State- owned land 

work; the small :farmers/~lllUfl{XN"XXK who needed credit :faci -
similar aid to 

lities , agricultural education and marketing assistance;/small 

settlers on their own lands;fflfii and estate labourers who should be given 

plots f'or their own use;> close enough to their places of employment. 

The closely reasoned plan went into details of financing which 

would come from some rather modest tax increases on income , luxu­

ries and entertainment , presumably out of the purses of "the class 

of the community that can bear it. 11 The report KJOQCX~ pro­
posed 
~D.nQt compulsory acquisition of the properties &given over ex-

clusively or principally to rental; that is, rented to small farming 

tenants . G. was the season of reports . curiously , an almost ident­

ical document was turned in by a committee from the arch conserva-
-trvff. )ff tive Jamaica Imperial Association.UXXJ§.~ Sadl'l the --..e was ~ 

~ ~ f being stated :@I!!' turnul t ~ a prelude to change. 

Woolley , a mildly popular man o:f good Establishment metal , per­

formed conventionally in the post for a few weeks. He recommended 

to the legislature that a "tangible recognition" be made to the 

police , but was silent on the militia --- perhaps because they had 

talked to Coombs in Montego Bay about their low pay. Then at mid-June , 

alcolm MacDonald , the secretary of State :for the Colonies , annowiced 

the sending of' a Royal Commission to investigate the troubles; and 
appointment 

the~nn1q of a new Governor . Manley was cool to the idea of a 

Commission. Assessing blame was not now important. Time and energy 

could be squandered in searching the ruins. He saw that 11 the future 

depends on ourselves . .. the people of this country ." * He did not 

*Neither , perhaps for di:ff'erent reasons , did H.A. "Cork­
:foot " Simpson , the sitting member f'or Kingston who "person­
ally ( did not) think the Commission will do any good. t t 

comment on the new governor , Sir Arthur Richards. 



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129 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 

The new governor w:Mn«xll was an old Colonial Pacif'ic hand of' 

a vaguely Oriental cast whom Manley thought to be of' mixed (Eura­
which 

sian) blood. His last post was in the Fiji Islands, a point/XMKX 
considered in 

the irrespressible Jamaica Standard/XlfliX...~ZOflfXXDOOCUD 

an editorial:, warning that "head-hunting also exists in this island 
( sine e) 
~ more than one governor has lost his head l<iJOfKNKli ... here 11 • 

, it added , 
On account/no£ a certain group. 11 Heanwhile, Bustamante and Grant 

had been freed of all the charges lodged against them ( d efended by 

J .A.G. Smith) . The Crown had withdrawn its case. 

The triumph brought a new surge to the demand for a union. 

Barbers, railwaymen, hotel «HJOUfX~ employees, workers of every 
and 

categories were meeting in schoolroomsj lodge hall~ pledging their 

threepence and sixpence a week dues to battle the old exploiters. 
a 

It was/good wine but it should lay on solid food, Manley hammered 

on. From press and platform, he pushed home the idea of more 

and more: more employment and more wages would come only by more 

production from more resources and allied to a political awaken­

ing to the national crisis. 

It was good f'oundation stuff :from him but carried no news 

of immediate victory to the labour troops. They were looking not 

for strategists but for combat leaders. Fortunately there were 

others who caught his meaning and were eager to fall in behind his 
of 

assumption of the continuance/ff his leadership since the days 

of May. For it should be noted that Manley ' s role in the :front of 

the May revolution had not come on popular demandJ as on a sigh of 

relief from the agitated rich and professionals. Although he was 
0 

a f'olk-here (athlete, scholar, gallantry medal winner in the war, 

non-white), he also had establishment ties (corporation lawyer, 



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King's House invitee) and lived among the upper crust in Upper 

st Andrew. (Bustamante lived in Duke Street and ate in proleta-

riat restaurants such as the old Arlington House.) His choice of 

people to his committees reflected nothing radical in the lot. If 

he had held ambitions of instant mass acceptance, these would have 

been brutally shaken by the Pied Piper actions of the dockers tpe 

day Bustamante was released from Rae Town.If when he was 11 rushed off" 

:from the coal car "in (the) enthusaistic crowd" as Manley himself 

puts it. 

The truth is) he knew X:mil: his popularity would never be vulgar, 

earthy, rooted in the 11rootstt . Nobody would name a penny jaw-breaker 

sweet for him as they did the "Bustamante backbone." Yet in those 
/ 

crucial times, he worked harder and more effectively than the rest, 

to establish the 11 New Jamaica" he saw more clearly than the rest. The 

11 New Jamaica"* that would follow would be his creation as it could 

*'l'he title of a marching song later usecfat his 
Jamaica Welfare meetings and rallies. 

be any single tf}UfIDOi man ' s. But the next round would be far more 

gruelling. He was 45 years,~X«:X:1:MXX thin and strikingly handsomej to 

<""""\ 
m? f ~t:, aloof as a pine on a mountain.• yet he could be jovial and even 

'-" ;) sl~ort 
funny . He was long on wit but often hurtingly/Mnll in temper. He 

had a p genuine liking for~he company of clever people who did not 

feel imperilled by intelligence and hard work. It thinned his circle 

but strengthened his mind. He was a man of' utter absorption, obe ­

dient to the demands of' himself. "You cannot move , or hold , or bind," 

he once said of his law practice , "unless your whole self is his ­

trionically engaged in the real sense. Mere words are nothing. 11 He 

spoke for all the disciplines that attracted his genius , the law, 

agriculture, sports , sociology , not least of all for politics. He 

was shortly to meet a man as politically "engaged " as himself. 



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CI PTER 'TWE:t-~TY- SEVEN 

O.T.Faircloueh) who avows that his 8 - year residence in Haiti 

convinced him that Jamaica should be self governing , may not 

have been the first to see in Hanley the 11natural leader" of' his 
~ certainly 

country[ ut he was/ahead of his fellows in doing something about 

it. Fairclough, a hardshell not given to sentiment , had seen in 

the maligned black republic,) that 11 the average Haitian , man for 1 an , 

of whatever class , literate or illiterate , was a better human 

being than a Jamaican) " became convinced that the cause ~ 

lay in Jamaicans being "colonial and the Haitians being a proudly 

independent people . 11 

to 
He had returned to Jamaica in 1932 , a young man :.tx whom his 

island of the ' Thirties must have been challenging to . sanity. 

The return lit no fires of loyalty in him . He was made more obdu­

rate by the systenff paternal racism which gently but firmly settled 

the bla cks at the foot of the table. Poking about the mores was 

entering strange country . DJi Self dislike was endemic . The sick­

ness was cultured in the Ji1000lll early years , in the schools , where 

black schoolteachers selected white children for the front of the 

class. and gave them the prime parts in school plays . In the churches, 
.) 

white plaster saints and Caucasian Christs ensured that the faithful 

knew whomto look up to. The Haitian experience had wiped his 

earlier memories of the ]O(ll~ twilight in which the black 

Jamaican intellectuals existed. Confronted by the old indecenc~) 

he woul<ihave fled to Brazil but for lllOCMiln a light pocket . The T- his 
urge to run grew) when , in reply to XK applicatio:_ (supported by 

~.Q.P g.r~-Qe~ad:a:lsJaie2 ~ cffen m a ::pos~.nm ts .bi 1i:e 2c 

~ ~ 



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·top grade testimonials) ; he was of':fered a janitor ' s post in 

the white & mulatto staf':fed King Street bank. 

In 1936 he 

Fairclough 

Party 11 but desisted when he discovered the existence , obscure 
identical title. 

but legal, of' an inactive faction of'I\.~ ~ 
,. QR4)IA,, y~ i.d(L'(' 

Ue saw his mistakeAwhen Bustamante 11 took it up with nuch success." 
-fl&;(:; t 0 

Fairclough . judged-A Manley was the one man/ vhom Jamaicans 

0£ all races~ and positions on the social slopesjwould 
Cl'T'~6V 

address allegiance. There was wide acceptance of' him as the A..,._ 

~ "with greatest wisdom , the person to wh!lom you would give 

your hand and go out into the dark 11 ~ 

Approbation :from Fairclough , a hard) of'ten j~alous manj who 

had not a mawkish bone, is of' vintage value. He saw this belief 
only 

in Manley not/as a brown)' middleclass - gape at the towering accom-

plishments of' one with whom kith- &- kinship could be claimea, but 
with 

held that he was as popular/XlIDUQt the peasantry_, in whom Fairclough 

himself' :felt rooted. But he was soon to be rattled. For his talk 

with Manley discovered that 
placed 

If 3 ~ y!<.a r-- o Id. 
the/\~ · lawyer ' s reading of 

Jamaica ' s problems/Itll the blame on the 11 social and economical ) 

rather than political (and) was not very moved by my observance 

that social and economic problems come :from politics. 11 however , 

the meet ing was not entirely unproductive. "He offered to take a 

subscription in my Public Opinion newspaper " which Fairclough was 

planning along with the political party. X That was it , J n 1936. 

But Fairclough was not finished. A determined, energetic 

man of immoveable will , he walked up DUSke Street to see his 

second choice , J.A.G . Smith; but the touchy little lawyer/legis -
a/ai> 

lator,\had his own ideas. He was a formidable Anglophile.> and the 

troubles, to him, lay not in Britain__, nor in colonialisn) but in 



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I '-{-6 

the calibre of' her procons uls. Smith declared he had no quarrel 
tiAAf.tti,d wAo 

with the colonial society; his criticism was Lat Britain ~ in-

sis ~ on sending "fifth- rate " officials to her colonies . Bri­
t:1-fflp,;. sH(; 21 r _. 1-~-r 

tain should be sen i ng the~ I 1 & t 1 I••·•• , Ii into the Howe 

Service . 

Two years were to pass before F irclough again met with Nan-
h

. ~ is Hanley 
ley but he pays tribute to NKJUl[)CO( consistency ; for meanwhile/M]C 

had founded Jamaica ·-1e1£are , the movement harnessed to the I•• 11W 
t>F 

raising ~social and economic levels. Then , on the day of' Bustamante 1 s 

release , he was at Number One Pier , standing close to 11anley when he 

sent out his call to "all people of' goodwill to enrol " at his office 

for service. 

Fairclough is credited with~~ found■ine the Peoples 

National Party but has always denied that he is a Socialist; he 

was certainly not a Conununist , al thou~h , as a young man he had been 

attracted to both idealogies . He regarded himself as a "huma.nita-
humanist 

rian ,"a regard which would have struck an accord B with/Edna Manley 

to whom he had been introduced at the Pier? and at whose instance he 

was invited to visit at Drumblair. Both ·anleys were by then readers 

of' Public Opinion and with her lllOIMJ' enthusiasm f'or fresh ideas and 

active people , O.T . Fairclough , the J4- year old political thinker• J 

would be a lively accession./ He went to Drumblair next day . fo So 

*Fairclough regards that visit as his first real political 
contact with :Hanley --- although N. W. was absent from 
home that day , likely at the law library in the Supreme 
Court building catching up his case work neglected for 
several days. 

did Bustamanee . 

speechew in the 

A few days later 
-rf/117 

countrysideAllflti.a 

when Manley began his 

included a call for a 

series of' R-oftJ:..C1bE 

olitical 

party , Fairclough wrote his first signed new5paper article intend­

ing to hold him to the de'e-fi,kration , as he puts it. It did . He was 

asked to visit the Manleys at Arthur ' s Seat , their holiday place in 
~KXDKx~.n:x«xnmooc 



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Clarendon , to talk about forming a political party . 

Was J,' r t-lanley a Socialist then? Did he plan :for the PNP 

to be a Socialist party? 

Fairclough who was closest to Manley in the DX init i al 

discussions and certainly the co- founder , with him , o:f the PNP , 
') 

said there was never any 11 large idealogical " K talk between 

them and he did not think that "Socialist " ideas were strong 

then . But he adds: 11 I have a strong feeling that since he was a 
very 

man who took a brief/quickly , he was ro:foundly influenced by 

(Sir Stafford) Cripps coming here . 11 

Contrary to a belief widely held , Cripps did not come to 

Jamaica for the purpose of providing the PNP with a prestigious 
1/iAv,.J/u-l.; 

beginning . He liad ,\. in :fac:_;, _... incognito , on a private visit 
his 

for the wedding of his daughter to/D adopted son , Lucien Weaver. 

veaver was on the island doing a book with an Hungarian dietician 

named Szebaly . ewspaperman Fairclough found Cripps on a tip 

:from a waterfront Customs officer X and with a little difficult~ 

f'rom the holidaying Cripps , set up the meeting with !Lanley. An 

interesting side issue of the Hanley- Cripps meeting was that 

Manley , then troubled by a stomach ulcer , was put on a vegetable 

and :fruit diet by Szebaly and also soon gave up cigarette smoking , 
~ fl~c.e·ri~,sm~ 
~-- ,a 1Ma .4.shared with Cripps . 

Four years ~~X older than Manley , Cri ps had entered the 

British parliament in 1931 on the Labour ticket . He was also a 

lawyer and had been Solicitor- General in the Mac Donald Cabinet.* HJ! 

r*lie2¥---------- - - ----------,.---,,..--,,.....--,,-,--,,,.,,..-,----MK«XWOOC was later to be British ambassador to the Soviet Union 
:for two years at the start of the war and signed the Anglo ­
Soviet mutual assistance pact . He s :erved in Churchill ' s 
wartime Cabinet and was minister for aircraft production 
and later Chancellor o:f the Exchequer. He died in 1952. 



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Work on the creation o:f the PNP was now well in hand and Cripps 

sat in on the early Constitution meetings/including the momentous 
conference in the 
S~IDf.XllXfQ{Ef Silver Slipper Llub on the Sunday morning pre-

ceding the evening lawiching in the Ward Theatre. His was a 

''considerable assistance II con:firms Fairclough, in the shaping 

of' the PNP constitution,and he delivered one o:f the two main 

addresses at the f'amous Ward 'rheatre conclave. 'l'he other was of' 

course by the party's Leader-designate, Norman Manley, K.C. aft 
- f: P:. A CE" --r.t.L old Ward had never witnesses a larger crowd in living memory. It 

was a vindication of' MXJ[KXll.Xli what, according to ·Fairclough, must 
have fJ) ew,/e't > .s 
S!/been _../\change o:f heart; a new conviction that the people were 

ready :for a political solution. In so doing.)he. had ch~ated the 
increasing 

predictions o:f several in high places, who) with/~li.'Nl])CI: stridenc~ 
divined not only a public 

had/«MKXX~:O:XXUXmDXD.liKX disinterest in politic~ but, like 

the Gleaner had invoked heavenly deliverance :from it.* 
/ 

*A 1tlJO[ll(J![X recent Gleaner editorial had ejaculated: 
"From complete self-government f'or Jamaica, good 
Lord deliver usiB e do not think that even one 
political step in advance would be justif'ied. 11 

The Ward meeting had Noel Nethersole as chairman. Nethersole , 

a lawyer, former lU1odes Scholar , bon vivant and All-Jamaica crickete1:; ~ec:tx 
was a close~ of' Manley 's and more than a :fair example of' the 

11hopef'ul signs" which Gladstone Wilson had seen.** Bustamante , 

Legislator 

Walker and 

**Father {afterwards Monsignor , deceased) G1adstone 
Wilson , then a young Roman catholic priest and reputed­
ly the most educated JamaicanJand of immense intellect­
ual influence at the time, in a much talked about speech 
three months before , had lashed out at the indifference 
and 11 typical snobbishness" of' the middleclass who "un­
less an adjustment takes place within their ranks; l o:f 
thich however there are some hopeful signs / J may shortly 
:find themselves bound hand and foot. 11 

c . A. Little , Ken Robinson , O.G.Penso , Anglin Jones, C . G. 
c:::::: ,all of the u minding middleclass_., browns and blac~) 

C . A • Is a a c Henry A 1 • ~ ~ 21.liHl!L sat on s ta ge . 

Cripps for his part spoke eloquently on 11 t he birth of a new political 

partyf,epresenting all that is best and most progressive in .Jamaican 



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li:fe," He was caustic on the morality o:f colonialism , declaring that 

Bcolonies existed :for the Imperial needs . "That is why sel:f- govern-

ment is withheld XJOOOI ... especially where the numerical majority 

of the people are not white in colour. " 

11Many , 11 sniffed the Gleaner , cautious but unrepentant , "mar­

velled at his candour ." 



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CI P1'ER TWENTY- EIGHT 7 i'> 

Mr Manley ' s speech at the Ward inaugural was a personal and 

political manifesto. It caught the imagination of the country 

with extraordinary power. The ideas were sinewy , the words 

tough~and his propositions for solutions uncompromisingly blunt 

and direct. The acclamations roared from pit and gods of' the old 

playhouse , echoed by the thousands who p a cked the concourse and 

park at the theatre front in a phenomenal display of support. 

He acknowledged the herculean~ problems £acing the 

sleeping country but posited that to shake it awake , jil]{ politics 
The true ~XJOCtX 

was f essential .~XXX~ DCX:»KX:x::EDOfD awakening should 

not to be towards the old colonial hogwash of a happy contented 

peopl;> smiling and smiling in the su1:,; but to 11produc e a people 

with a national 
IN) 

and all share a 
If 

spirit. " For this , they should possess_, xxpmnxl: 
~ 

political organisaaion disposed to A_, own desti-

ny. It also now appeared from his speech that Fairclough had been 

off target in thinking he had left Manley unmoved by his passionate 
He 

prognosis of politics as the cure . ifkKMJlDJOO@OO( had indeed been 

moved to spending " long time and energy" thinking and coming to 

the p olitical view. 

Manley ' s strategy was to face his detractors (they were al ­

ready in position) squarely in his speech , dealing first with the 

press which had charged him with being a Communis~or having Red 

associates; And by even more obs c ene footwork , with seeking to 

dl.llllp the leaders of the trade union movement . Asserting that he 

had never consideeed himself to be a labour leade1;nor wished KXMX 

to head a union , he pointed out that the new Party was pledged U 

to "raising the standard o:f life of.' the common people of this country 

(and) the labour movement is essentially involved " in the programme . 



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~ 
if/ 

A 0 tl e tag , hJ <..lenie • ny nowlecte;e 0 Com uniet Otl{; 

0 II a an X lai e , h s wn eli . E~ 0 .rot 

th· t J .:mi.ca wi 1 di cov r er elf y at t e tin " 0 b rrow 

cs 0 ·a1 yste 1 f' other cou trie • i.th t ta y 

i r nt and total y dif'f' re t soci 1 true ire . 

Ae ii d ain l a to bid that / natio al unity ould 

co ... e onl i tho co le ur ta en on n cono C ide t witt 

th C un ry . II 1 :ff t will be wa te l a t.U e s th • 
a ·e 0 ' th peo le are teadi y a e long a p t h in wh ch they 

f l m r nd ore h t tl is is their home l tl ir co 1try on ( o) 

th ir e nsibili·y wor f'o it :fu ure . C lo l paternit 

hn bro own e se o:f i.1 de e <.ler c and re on ibi ity an 

croat d 7(! ir Q :fo:... h 1 an as s t ance a1 i , fantile lab t oi' 

t. ug t; . . . benevo entl • 1 d (b s ) still ater. • wi tl 0 

i a. tha 1 co e . ,, 4 saul 1,t 

II a· ~ 1 hard u ·t cl i wn, 
,,. 

0 d 0 ,o. i ti a or ani a t 0 a d t i ·icu t t· 0 u isci -

li . o d elo u own ca C ti - our own po er OU 0 ill • • 
> f' t or lea rship , n til out 0 OU ow.r , ople i/e ca.n s e :r 

on.ibility r ini t rin u Ori at' air .~ G Sep te b r 

l • 9 b , the h year and 48 th 'Y a t t h anc pa· i n , a 

th lave wer ~ i g into t ir r vol t hich sat 

'ltt.>i:it.4':'.t~~~~U~EN,. 9 'uJ.l f' ed . 

.nl mi 

t: l i th o 

- ~ p/1(€: ­
he a c lling r te polit c pa tic p t ion , Al bY1¾t.l-1-\... 

ul of t e f' i a c en me w ic t ne,;1 r er 

J . re la hed u t a t t h cor or• tins ad wer 

ro .. 1 n- ht c n t olle both King ' {OUS a ci so le l ~isl tor ) 

lobby n the b c•· tair nf luence ct , rne t h·t ,. he a ter o t 

' l.l not .fa e cl C in nth ir ow :tithout a an a 

Tl y were t eon wh ook u ck u on what they eg·rd a the 

,:} 
igl t . 



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The offh an d i s missal of t he ins tit u tions , g roups__, an op inions; 
of t he nine t y percent b lack p oor, pe asan t and p roletariat..., b y t h e English 

.) s .:> 
~ ,At includ ing t h e "liberal" F a b ian / ocialist., j ~ 
p reaching equ ality a s t h e y p rovi d e d Imperial g overnors a ri' senio1( ..,..., 
c ivi l serva n t s to t h e co lon ial cadre, dreiw ~ h i s mor dacity i n one 
o f t he s low, c rving cuts whi c h I h a ~ invent e d by his 
comra e "Cra b " Net h er s ole. 

) 

" I was s trongly struck b y an ob • ser ation ma e in a s v eech in 
'----" t he House of L0 rds by Lor Olivier, a g oo d f riend o f Jamaica ( h ear, hear) 

who is claime to be a socialist (an d who blame ) Colon ial g o ernors 
( f or) not c onsulting t he~ two most representative bod ies i n Jamaica, 
t h e Cha mber of Commerce and. t he Imperial Association .:f ( La ughter). 

" .J'hat - XNJ](."}t a conternp t~af:Ji@f~Hof ou r d emocratic ins ti tu­
t ions , '' h e told the gu f awing aud ience. L(oiivie r h a for a long time 

t h rou a-h , 
eld h i s tory b emused as he s trod e Mt Brr MDC split sea t an all. 

Th . t in 1 9 01 , t hen t . 1 . 1 t -. b • ir y-seven y e ars before, jllll acing Co 011.ia Secre ary.) --,. a s a F a ian-
~ p,... ~-kJ.. -~ ~ ~ 

S o cialis t/ he ·nadAc hair"" t he Pan Af rican Association ' s f ir : t u lie 
me eting calle b y visiting organis e r, H . Sylve s ter - Williams ana the 

ii-Take i n i'ootnote. great Dr Robert Love . One of t he earliest f i ghters or full d emocra -
tic ower ~ blac Jamaican s , Lov e was born in Kassau , Ba h amas}in 
18 35 , ecaml e an Anglican ~~X~XX (Episcopalian) pri est, p astored in t he 

-.:,.,- w e,., ,::,::4'--0, N · Y· Ameri can South , st u ied medicine ~n •rnrked as a d octor in t he Haitian 
Army , came to Jamaica in 1 889 . He f ough t f ormlil. ·-ably for a black pre -
sence in t he Jamaican parliament , f oun d e t h e Jama ica A ocate news ­

a pe r and d ied in 1 9 14 . He ha , / an inf luence on lar cu s Garvey who took 
h is g r eat cry , "Afr ica for the Africans", wi d ened its scope wit h 111/.t .._ 
h ome an l abroad t " an started a continen t on t h e roa to f ree o 

AC.Ro -r1-11: SefJS 'i<,E"1J'?ll:V~ ~~ and a ra ce sown ..:.i::tlc•!!IB•~~ to i d entity and ,(t>ri d e ., 451~ ) 

*Sylve st er - Williams , a Trinida~ian barrit ter living in Lnn on , 
was t he uncle of Ge orge Pad ore , cele bratea writer on Af rica 
and. clos e associa t e of Kw a me N wnah , presi ent of Ghana . 



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beautiful past of eace and contentment , of' freedom :from a itation." 

They were t he verandah romantics 11who love our thatched huts and 

the picturesqueness of Back 0 1 Wall ,"* s with Cri ps , Jilli 

*Back 0 ' Wall was a shanty town in Kingston ' s ~ li1KB 
wi3s, end off the Spanish Town oad . 

his lainspoken avowal that he too had 11 f'el t those sentiments 11;;> 

b randy 
must have tinkled the/snifters in his clubs ; for he was af te r all 

one of the privileged , NllX of' c ountry holid ays and racing at Irnuts ­

ford / who h a d lived wi t h t he barefoots about him long enough 11 t o 

become complacent "'~ because , as he add ed , 11what you see everyday , 
J 

you re ard after a t i me as belonging to the or er and nature of 

things ." Bu t i t spoke immeasurab ly o:f the man who with all his 

immunity from need was placing himself' amon the conscrip ts. 

"We are not go i ng to allow the old spirit of' complacency to 

return ," he cried. 11 0thers must live , and whether we like it or 

no t , the old s irit which covered inequality with sentimental 

kindliness is gone forever . 

"The new spirit must live and struggle . 

11 Di fficulties and dangers are its hazar s; more life , 

its aims . 

11And every man who calls himself a true Jamaican must work 

to keep it alive and to encourage the masses of this country to 

reach up for be tter things and to work to achieve them, 11 

£ ,r::.19c<5 -
' he accomplishment of t h is would be his life hereafter 

:::,() 
and

11
he explained the Party blueprint with great 

' 
11 the 

care. It wou 

,;, 

o erate on old and well t ried rinciple of begi nning with 

s ma ll groups that for,u the cells out o:f which the ( ore;anisation) 

body is built ," he s aid , opening a word a ssociation that was to 
SI/I.It:. E 

haunt the Party ' s f u tur e; ~ cell was the c urrently emotive 

kindling for s read i ng a Red scare . Anc when Crip slater in the 



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evenin addressed his hearers as Comrades , the old Bolshevik boge 

took on new hair , ( The Party would in later years faced with ower-
:, .,) 

ful and tireless foes , take the pra matic turn and cut its po l ic 

coat to s ui t the e 1 e ct or al c 1 o th) Eij]l,IDU!i:M.Nl'OOI~ 

The PNP as he outlined it , would be a olitical organ with 

any numbe r of affiliated grou sJ from whom the Party ould require 

only the "duties of u utual aid and loyalty ." Its sides were adh e ­

sive enough to hold t h e trad e unions , the citizens associations , the 

schoolteachers societies , and the aggressively searching National 

;form Association and the Progressive Lea u e. Me bership fees 

were a shilling (10¢ ) a year lus whatever could be volunteered 

11 to the limit of ( one ' s) ca acity . 11 

--~ c::> A C 
It was an extra ord inary evening in the Ward : tiers 

Jht9c.f?-d- J,,y._ 

from floor to ornate ceiling , solidly acked and 

of faces 
et. ~ile>ice... 

I I ft? IL 

unctuated caallillp by a. sud d en ~~ throaty roars as he showed thern 

intent , a,.,..,,{, the vision . 
.ova."' -H,.e n la. 'f 

received~ in the same 

ou could hear t he rattle of 

the trams switching into Kin Strees and the clipclo of an occa­
hackney 

sional horse - _.......8-1"><1'- plying for hire around the Parade . He brou ht 

them a vision of a high but scaleable mountain and many who rnre 

there remember with an embarrassment of emotions . * 

*St William Grant , already being shouldered aside and 

piqued at being denied a seat on stage , had moved into 

the Victoria ft~f~s where he he l d his own meetin . 8 v r H,sn y 
w e l. )) '"1"Al<t, N C'TG. "f"i-1€ r,IJX, tJIJn,61:, Poll VtGN U,c.'16'R1FJ A CGN'f'v /J..Y B~FPl2c wc,v t-b 

-.=- llEN h lhe1> Poll- t::i nJ.J-r 11-r 11,r h -4r,_, , ,.., /Q77. ' 

" I a ay b e talking as a visionary , as a foolish idealist , 

but if this Party is to succeed.) ( it must be ) based on f'ounh tions of 

a thorou hly lanned and widespread e ucat ional cam aign among the 

• eople . . . to b e taught the Cons ti tut ion and what sort of Jamaica 

they should aim at f'or their children . 

~ e dont want a foolish electorate at the mercy of every 

d emagogue and unable to unravel the tricks of undisci lined oliti-



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cians. Nor can we ex ect great things of (our) people until we 

have raised their sense of values to give them somethin to work 

for . Only education can bring our eople to realise that this is 

their countr rt3-nd that the can and must work :for its betterment 

and for their own.'' 

1-litherto their ol it ic s had consisted of 14 elected men , 

usually in d i saaray , facing the welldrille corpsmen of nominatetl 

and official status who were ex ected to , and i d) vote XX as the 

governor directed . ational issues hardly existed) and where they 

did , rew little public rotest. The " ten- shilling voter " went 

to the olls WXM wi th a shrug and a grin , st ill c huckling at the 

sallies of the hiretl politic al tout :> whoJ in election years ..:, a peared 

at the street corner with his three- pronged oil lamp - on- a - ole 

haranguing the virtues of that year ' s client. Tonight , they were 

hearing that in a Party , they could demand " iscipline " f rom the 

men put into office by the Party . 1r Manley turneu to another bad nub . 

" It has always been the llll.conscious wish of the rivileged 

to revent the con~on peo l e of the world f rom becoming aware of the 

ower of disci lined organised political lif'e as the chief interest 

of their own rogress and uplift. Education in political a re­

ciation ( and) in the practical needs of everyday life and how they 

touch on political affairjis a first essential in)an efficient and 

T people 

disc i plined Party ." For there was "a growing number of/who woul d love 

to see everything settle back into the old j ogtrot . (They) rophecy 

failure for this moveme1t ." 
scene as it stood between the haves and the have- nots_, 

It was the ID'i~XXXX: -~ .................. ~~nlOUUct» 

brought under frank scrutiny by a man who was himself' elitist . 

.Wififii .......... ,., .... a Vh'1flftil{ • H i'J1'flil1IW:..ttI ,fflwtl'rffl lilf:bl 1ffi1tl0tli 1ffi · •:=xxN~'lt..n. 

onstage had in it the seeds of the eo 

wa s crackling into li:fe· , Wl1\1!;M rftJW 101 -1 1WM.ilti!W l1M 

. the Rest , a tussle in which the 
-XllM.KlJCDHlXX:lL X discontenteds would slit the f'atcats 

for a ortion . And Manley and Bustamante , together on stage (the 



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famiJ.y gauntness causin a startling resemblance) / by their re -
Or so it 

sence were d e claring an intent to form a com 10n front . Kg n n 

...,...,. .. "'..,.._,,~ ...... M.lOQtIDOW{10CK X~.!f;:J.:Y.:1-,L,;t}.!"!Cj~:!,".!:1'/i.Y,... 

And whatever may have been the secret fear or hope of' the 

OiIDOOWOctNxxq~ ........ .....,,.,..'-""-~~XKK Xllli n<XxnllX:t,......_,,....._.. .. ,H.n.~ 

S t Andrew gallery- dallier_, or downtown J.Iarxist -

Xirn: • • r~~n ~X}fa'il{ .. .__,,"-'.., 

the choice of' the Party label left K_~ in no oubt 

whom it would represent . It was to be a mass part . 

Party . 

11 0ur lar er aims . . . are to be fow d i n the name of this 

It is called the People ' s art~because it will unswerv-

i ngly ai at all those measure s which will serve t he mas es of 

whose interests 

the country --- Hi:iifflb i i i:ii mus t p redominate above a nd eyond 

all other c l asses . 

"Then it is calle atio1al ( because ) if' this little island 

of ours is to be consolidated , together , and b ettered , it must be 

by d eveloping the i d ea of' Jamaica as a national whole . 11 

He would have brought some comfort to the foxtrot ters of' 

the Glass Buel et, Halfway Tree I s gli tterin nigh t club ~ 

&I-~ where the rich drew behind its stucco walls to esca e the 

ac c usin stares of tie wretched , when he asserted , " I do not say 

that Jamaica is today ri e for self- overrunent but I clai t 1at 

we must start a movem ent working which will help us to become ri e 

for it . 11 

It was n ot that he was having nisgivings but he was by 

trainin and tem erament a man of' preparedness , and exc ellenc e in 

what he d i d . The aths he had pur ued were taken only after 

thorough physical cond i tioning , mental labour and seeing to 

his spiritual bearings . !ie was saying that 11 the more effor t , the 

more d isci line , the mor e honesty we can thro, into that work , 

the quicker " the country would be ri e for it . " I a ree , 11 he 

said , 11 that it is particular har i t he condit ions which exist 

today to develo our own self reli nee and ind ependence to the 



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point where we can claim the ri ht to freed om in our own affairs. 11 

He believed t hat 
v Alfi w IM/f JJ E. 

political A~~ 

{).).,~ ~ le 

the /\~ of self d iscip l i ne was a A aM of 

He laid the blame on 11 the remark a b le and rot -

ten Constitution " that was so much the " erf'ect instrument for the 
in 

degradation of olitical life , it cannot have been devise d / - error . 11 

He said to accla atori shout s : " It i s;> in i ts very d esign..) a 

retence and a shadow of the reality of d e ocracy l It gives the 

illusion of powe~ without the reality of responsibility t t turns 

decent men into rancourous critics t It be trays enthusiasms and 

destroys hoe !" 

Condemnin the bad franchise which allowed j ust 60 , 000 voters 

in a o ulat i on of 1 , 200 , 000 , he bluntly d eclare that the system 

led to futility , corruption and bribery . 

"There can be only one sensibles stem and that is to g i ve the 

vote to XNli all the adults of the country t" 

enthusiasm and 
--rH4T l>'lftbe 

A report described the ovation as of' "unparalleled 
/~ 1 s t-lE:ARE/1.S ) 13y 

duration. " ---.(ce l ebr ated ..._" a s ontaneous deci -

sion -'\Ml@ ■kb his s eech the first political ad dress ever sent to 

the bookbinders■ . Cir~ulated islan wide , it was studied and quoted 

a the promissory note for the new Jamaica . 



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' ...,-1 4 

C TER T:W ◄ NTY- INE 

N . . Neghersole , ~ rum led , urbane and looking like a 

malicious professor , one day took the financial fabric a art 

showed 
and liltlOf.OC its weakness. Baring his fin ot' "a most remarkable dis -

e 
ere ancy ", he revaled that a third of the country ' s wealth was in 

the pockets of less than one percent of the peo le . 

a third of the 

nd that X K 

income went into the pockets of this less than one 

others , t h e 

ercent. And that t he / more than 9~6 , paid taxes "vastly more in 

pro ortion " than the wealthy. Puckishly) he pointed out that in 

fact , the rich paid one - tenth of the taxes . 

ethersole was to become the first finance minister in the 

first PNP government 15 years later , in 1954 ; anl in five years 

to cast his stam indelibly on the economic future ith his advocacy 

op 
and laying the :foundation for a Central Llank . In that earlier 

,1 

*He d ied in office in 19 , ourned by olitical 

colleagues and opponents alike . 

analysis , he brou .ht out that that less than ha l f of the se for­

tunat e fewJ aid any income tax at all --- and then , only two per 

cent f their income . In irect taxation accounted for the balance 

of the government ' s revenue includin . over J - million excise on 

rum --- 11 the oor man ' s drink . fl The reason is that the rivileged 

classes have re~ resentation ( in the l e islature ) an the poorer 

classes have none .X You will never (change) that unfair inci ence 

until the peo le of the country have the vote and are entitled to 

(choose) their representatives. " 

He was a staunch advocate at the time for an adult suffra e } dkt{_ 

~ consider in • that he , Party Leader Manle and most of the leadin • 

~ 

activists of the Party Fi~ d • among the favoured and franchised , 

it was a courageous admission . It a l so could have caused the recan-

among r:-::: 

tation f:. some of the earlier comrades . r eA. .!'0"1f S'Llb BACK. • 



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Mr Manley ' s launchi ng speech had stated a warning and a hope. 
) 

Ile had cautioned that "so soon as ever a leader attemp t s achievement 

in this country , others press and surge to tear him down ." His hoe 

was that the Party would make Jamaica 11 a real lace and a real 

country . " The first would be swift; the latter not late but 

lagging . Within months he was havin to consider suin one news -

paper for a "peculiarly vile " libel . But causing even more con-

cern was t he apostasy of early colleagues . He co men~ed that some 

were scared and o t hers apathetic . Personally , he wao/goin stron . 

He had moved his dreams into the realities of the fleeced > 

quashie whose trust he had to gain while 

not f'ore oing the occas i onal ( ing ' s ·•·ouse d inner; a feat of 

balance somewhat ove rlooked in these later <las 0£ t h e trad e union 

when 
cocktail circuit. Nba(X]![ XlOf d elegates are equally at h ome in luxury 

cOJ;,. ~ / 

hot e l as.Aat the factory gate . 

But if a few earlier su porters were weak ening , some better 

timber , young and already seasoned in the field , were at hand . The 

National eform Association (NRA) h a d d issolved itself into the P~P , 

led in by its :founder , youthful , intense leftist Ken Hill , his 

brother Frank , y ounger , of harder angle1an equal eloquence and 

onl a little le s an efficient or aniser , the lean boyish lawyer 

. ich ard 11art , a fiery intellectual , and others . They were t he 

P. eole whom Manley once d escribed as "a united collective team of 
I\ 

vigorous and able men ." They were , he has sai d , some of his ost 

,w-t{~~ 
valuab l e supporters . But the worklo a was a al l i n , w·B:iire~r the 

aid he got . He was :ful ly i n the courts as he was being relen t-



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lessly ~ drawn into poli t i c s. There was increasingly l ess time 

u:J: 
to s it und er the old yoke tree .llil:l!H D Drumblair ,-,.ail with Edna .'to 

tal~ about t he future . r, uriel His sister ( Dr M: anl e ) was back 

from Britain where she h a d be en in ractice for many years. A smal l , 

n eat1nut brown woman whose enteel g ood looks an b eautifully modu­

lated v o i ce d isavowed her uiet strength and mi ~evous humour , 

they were c lose in an unaffected way. Ile commente d with rid e and 

gladne ss that the English years had not d islodged h er essential 

J·amaican . 

His own next year would b e thoroughly unset t led by a full court 

slate while app lying his fur ious energ in building t h e olitical 

p a rty , a task which was proving tou -h er than had a eared . However , 

with i n a year there were over 150, party grou s across the country . 

The i dea o:f partisan olitics h ad been ~ ~ a cce ted b y the 

middle and even s ome members of the upper i ncome levels , but the 
~ ) 

workingman , who saw h is d isabiliti es in the facts of the economy 

as it af:fec ted his earnings , ave h i s main ear to the r omise of 

ayroll i mprovementD by way of the union . It soon d evelo ed t h at 

the PNP was identified wi th the white collar wor k er . But there was 

no other political arty alive so the effect was only acadeinic,'{jx ­

ce t for t he arty i n Ki ng ' s .ouse , /. an inscrutable mandarin who 

was proving ade tat the mart i a l arts. 

DiiK The overnor , Sir Arthur Richa r ds , was a man who 

absor b e d ower like a sponge . Dictatorial and vindictive , he sought , 

b efore his first year was halfway through , for such massive p ersonal 

control that his usually do cile legislative c ouncil at one time 

ucked under t he saddle for a few hours .It wa s to do with a new 

law t o restrict the r ight of holing public nieeting:s at the will of 



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the governor . So solidly did the 14 electeds opposeJ tha~ Richards , 

for the first time in the Council , gave way. But not really . ti 

• leasant little chat in rivate with the Attorney General 

brought them to heel ," leere the Jamaica Standard , Ne thersole , usuaS lly 

Ull%~ well mannered as a bishop , found him 11remarkable for the inten­

sity of ( his ) i nvective and the manifestations of' angry emotion . " 

Yet Richards was a man of progressive outlool _,who was ublicly :for 

adult suffrage , a lar er legislature and a Jamaican civil servicel[ 
Constitution 

of' fewer ex atriates . But his Smith/Commis mion did not endear him 

to the p•p reformers. The proposals 

diate adult suffrage.* 

d i d not Jrovide for i mme -

*A House Select Committee h ead ed by 
been a ointed to d raf't and submit constitutional 
pro osals to the ritish Secretary of S~ate f or the 
colonies which would be , in essence , no differen t 
from the pre - 1865 constitution which had guaranteed 
re resentative gover~t . The Smdlth roposals in­
cluded provis i on for a two - cha ber legislature: a 
Governor- nominated upp er council and an elected House 
of Assembly elected VY the same l i ite elect ­
orate until the question of franchise was settled in 
England . Power would still remain wi th the Governor 
who woul d rule through an Executive Committee of X» 
Ten , half o:f whom ,ould h e his I( civil servants or 
other appointees . 

The roposals brought severe rebuke from Hr 1anley , d irected 

at what he called the "chastened Council " sittin under the 11p resi -
( { f.J '1F17;F!._ HE "1Cc.-•e.,b 

d en tial i mitation ~,•dU!• a. If 7 I L years..., • W 

criticise by :his Party colleagues for his de endence on "ex erts 11 .. ) 

l.c,,,/,d __________________________ _...,....,, 

~ - do\\rn t h e d ictum to icharcls that the forming of a Constitution 

should be left to the legal experts. He was especiall acid on 

fellow lawyer Smith> who.) he inferred> ~Sta: was cluttered with c ant and 

scra s of half for otten Consti tutional Law . He dismisse an ~ ­
proposals ~or what he considered 
.A.>a•""-'-',....KKIU'~,.,.....,,._XMXX1£ filOQr a diarchal government an referr ed to 

a failure of the Ceylon government . You could not rule if' wholly 

excluded :from the body that sanctioned your lans . JI The procumbent 

approach to self govern ent left him livid. 

11 owe want self government ever at all? Then ask :for it nowt 



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148 

To ask for less is poli t ical childishness . Do we offer any compro -

mi ses? No ~ Let the Colonial Office say what le ss they p ropose 

to do ." 

His anger was in mid - June,~ before the war in Europe¥IDtK, 

~ rum:«~ a happ ening t hat would soften the hard PNP line; 

but iranley was XKJ&X adamant in his d emand , XU if no t for an abso ­

lute independence , t hen at least for !lresponsibility in internal 

affairs a lthough he was willing to concede a veto powe~ to 

the g overnor . He trench antly chided his critics , who cited the 

island ' s small s ize , that Newfound l and was s elf governing 11 a popu-
) 

lation h alf as large and twice as p oor as J·amaica , 11 

£. l==> A c... G'-
That he had the guil e and i ron to lead.-,was to be establishe 

earl y because of a Bustamante blunder . From J\lontego Ba , Busta II 
had called a general stri ke for the sole purpose of oustinJ rival 

two - year - old 
unionist A , G , S. "F'ather " Coombs whose/Jamaica Workers & Trad esmen ' s 

Union controlled the northsid e port . The shippers , , ainly the United 

Fruit Company , i mmed iately ducke d behind the an ling "Father " Coombs 

who was not only able to shut d own the p ort , but above all , whom they 

wilily saw as a MB boom to sp lit the rising Bustamante wave . I t 

almost worked . Gove or Richards i n Ki ngs ton s l a nned d own a State 

of Emergency e d ict , shut off' wire service communicat i on between Busta­

mant~ and his w-lion office s • i n the c ity and elsewhere.* The ship )ers 

were elated . 

*A cau t ious ostmistressj who k new wh ere the ower lay/ 
h eld back the Busta telegrams l:1ai u ~til her superiors 
had ruled on whether to d es atch t h em. Her su eri.ors wen t 
dpstairs to ichards . 

Th e trad e union 111 ovement seemed read to found er . Busta 
..> 

who throu hout his career was to sense danger with uncanny acuity , 

felt the wri gle alone; h is a n tennaef3-n tl sent for Cousin Nor111an l'f g 

1 ~~JG!!R~ ~ t..M ~ Olft ~ 1~.:{j. t could be that Manley ' s kno~­
le u e 
lfii l:q of Richard s ma d e him resist usta ' s ) rodd ing to ma k e a run for 

London and reports the plight of the CT i,, union . #7 i • t an rate , 



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149 

Manlet( refused to embark f or Lond on and settled f'or a short trip 

t o King ' s H0 use. 
Iii I W .s.l-1 PP£1::, 

'fhe infant labour revolution '7: f Me: close to d isaster 
f._• bad I\ 

be cause of Busta' s wildcat style and ~~ lo gistics. rafting :ft 

the military into manning t h e essential publi c s ervice5..;and pro­

v i d ing p olice escort for t he hordes of hungry unemp loyed s ready 
so 

to risk b eatings~ t heir families could eat , the lid was put 

on t h e union -- - and then t h e employers turned savagely on them. 

Employees displaying the slightest union loyalty were ruthlessly 

fired. ' 'he lack of understand ing or awareness of the ~ ~ 

social and econ omic vise that force d t h e barefoot rebellion a gainst 

the system . 7 was r esp ons i b le for such d ismal rationalities as legis -

lator Harold Allan turning strike- breaker by i n viting city wharf­
hustled 

owners to deploy their ship s to Port ntonio . hen Bustamaute /:~XifK 

over to organise t h e ort An tonio workers , he was c hased out of town . 

The workers were being divided and f alling . It was t hen that Manley 

entered t he affray with a irtuoso performance. It established wi t h 

certainty t h e continuance of' organised lab our i n amaica . 

Manley h a d a g ood reason for calling at ing ' s Hous e i n stead 

of tak ing t he long safari to London . e went to see Richards b e ­
, ........ -~ 

cause t h at brut ally efficien/ ~ khad succee e i n recapturing 

power f or ing ' s House from such old bastions as the Daily Gleaner 
( Rich ard s 

company a nd t he I mp erial Association. / :pm once told •lanley t hat h e 
11and , 11 

woul d break t he power o f the Gleaner , / XXN.n}t Manley says , "he broke 

them. 11 ) As the sol us man i n authority , h is ego was enormous. r-1an­

ley , the r esourceful courtroom p ract i tioner , went i n sid e that ego 

wi t h sur g ical s k ill. They talked for t wo or three days , several 

hours each day. l ichards was angry at b ot h employers and union 



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although i t was Busta who bore the brunt . At one point he was 

for lock ing h i m up , but Manley d rove along with persuas ion and 

tac t. h ey reache d a c omp romi s e. ichard s agreed to p ound 

s ome ins tr ctions into t h e erployers which woul d take t h em off 

the union , p roJJ i de Bustamante agre ed to r anley ' s propos e 

Tra d e Union ( Advisory) Counc il to act as h ones t b r oke1 for t he 
to 

bring some ord er among the conf licting groups and/ensure the 

unions , 

honouring of labour X~ cont racts . n exchange ·or call -

ing off t he strike , e p layers would be or ere i to raise the siege 

t h ey had fastene d aroun d the lab our ovement . • Und er t he p r essure 

of' i i n en t collapse , Busta yiel ed; but he l 

Richards ' proviso that h e rop h i .s n a me fro 
, ...,, 

out a gains t another 
U (A)C 

the BITU . The/<tilJtZ 

accord i ngly ca e i n to being ; ... was s h ortlived . After mon t hs o f 
quit an founded his own set of a dvisers. 

uneasy sharing , Bu s ta ttll :DUC:XXOIDGO:lXXK X«m~~---K r~"Q(XXOCU~ 

owever , t h e forming of the TU(A)C was to bring into active parti ­

cipa tion several of the younger men who h a d for years b een studying 

trad e union ~ll'OCKX~Xfi t heories and were eager to go into prac -

& 
tise : en/XO Frank ill, Ken St erling (wh o was to t u r n out a 

sup erb org aniserl and an i mportant f'igure i n international t r a e 
like Ken Hill , a 

unio is1;1 ) , rank Spaul d i ng (a:fterwards/ 1ayor of Kin gs ton) and 

others , all ~ to be of i mportance in the political course . 

So unionism was n ot only saved by t he as y et unannounced 

ociali5t , but also• tacitly en o r se b y t h e Colon ial ... regent 

who years later was to accep t a socialist p e erag e . few month s 

earlier , ia n ley ha wond ered of Richar d s : "Does he know what I 

really t h i nk , or I h e?" They res ected but d i n ot ne cessarily 

like each other . They were both men o:f stout e gos; anley has 

owned to " a great sense of superiority to ost ... t h ou h I eep ly 

a dmire all men o±~ proved worth and value. 11 

to 



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CHAPTER .THIRTY 

Ri c hards ' "worth and value " --- he may not have wanted it so 

~ es ecially f'avourable to a ra id growth of nationalis~ of a 

kind . The Jamaica S tandard.J?A:eK;aw;rc-. in the swmner of' ' 39 , ,Jll& Jlif4. 
~ -"'~ t hat 11 Britain woul never have won the last war if 

the press hau refused to criticize the government of Hr Asquith ." 

The a er was squirming under the strictures of' the governor who 

was n ow soundly into the intransigence whi ch would mark his re -

g i me . J:Fe was muzz ling cit i zens and legis l at ors by ""'lo!) r:nJ:La.1)'1j 

public meetin s./and choking off' debate ~~ilia;ijifll:l•IRl•••sa he con-

sidered controversial. Underneath the :facade of' Oriental i er -

~ 
turbabilityJ had been ex osed nerve end, of v · olent reactions to 

--- :r~ dv.>dC/UA)l.(,, 
o osi ~ionp- tt" shocked his sub j ects. His bitt er rebuke of th~ d o 

crit i ~ relief works ( fifteen cents a day and a hot noon lunch 

f or swamp c l earance ) ratt led the few friends he mi ht have made . 

at.>0 
ervin A.to alienate was his ~ l eeal k i dna pin of' wuch dis -

parate eople as activists Bustaman t e , Yen and Franl Hil l and 

ant· - lab our newspaperman Gordon cot t er under wartime powers of 

unde• termined etent i on . He woul d uni t e as never before (nor 

sinc e) , the island po ulation of blacks , b rowns , whites , Jews , 

Chinese , Indians , Arabs . The cautious and the b ellicose would 

atch their ifferenc e s and a pear jointl y in public for one o:f 

the most unusual civil rights rotestsever mad e. 

But it was wartime. Richards could invoke hiss ecial owers 

an( virtually rule by edict . 

Manley , himself' a veteran and aut hentic war h ero , and aware 

of' t h e broad s t reak of' s entimental Empire loyalt runnin , throu h 

his f uture olitical const i tuents , issued a statement d ecla ing t he 

Par t y ' s op osition to any act inimical to Britain ' s war effort. It 



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was apparently survival and honest senti, en t. * He ,as aware 

*Mohandas K , Ghand i had no such qualm. His All-India 
National Congress executive at the llahabad Decla­
ra tion promised not to s upp ort the British war effort 
"unles s Great Britain revises her pol icy an · accepts 
t h e Congress ' demand for d e mocratic ind epend ence for 
India . 11 

that , as h e put it, the "act i ve and intellie ent 11 PNP pro aganda 

h a d tt irritated " some . Yet , he added slyly , it had d one g ood ; h e 

1411 was n ot saying tha t t h e walls of' Jerich o were down , "but at 

least the men R the t 1· t • t tl • " rarnpar s are is ening o 1e noise. 

Wi t h no le ss seed and enthusiasm, Hustamante was also .fu l ­

filling a Gl eaner backslapping re iction t hat h e would be "ac ­

tively r ecruiting on behalf of' His 1a ·esty ' s for ces a ~ no d i stant 

da te." 

hat Manle would n ot al low ,as the dea t h of the y ear - old 

revolution or a . ;WSpi?Tffll~~ !iHtll!i'. falling back into 

t he olG laissez faire . And thi s would hap en , h e saw , 11 unless 

vigorous political life develops an can a ll itself to a strong 

l abour or anisa tion .'~ A quiet remark which makes it c l ear that while 

it wa s earl yet , he saw the rowth of o u lar poli tics in X a.lu[~lf 

ft a Party & Union al liance. 

OLe han , the mass 
07-v ~e c,U.,.t-"t> 

em loy~ 

'l'he theatres of ac tivity would be_;.1 on 

i n the urban and l antation b ounds , 

and the small self- em 
I\ 

loyed cultivator , t he great peasant culture 

of which , unlike most of his con f'rere , he was so de e ly aware. He 

was working at the f'irst in a k ind of' Christian d i lomacy, being 

m~ is e as a serpent and harmless as a dovel J s i ce alreact labour -

l e a d er c ousin Alex 
f ront and alone~ 

' ru{ 

1 
to t he 

was d i sp laying a strong inclination to march in 

p romised land . here wa s n o doub t , at D that 
~ 

moment i n time , whom the ma jority of the workin • class would have 
'\ 

ele cted to be their Moses . 

But among the hill peo le , the inte ·rity of Manley ' s i n terest in 



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them was unquestionab le. lle cen tly b efore t h e ' J8 uph eavals , whil e 

b e was yet shy of politics, i ndee d haci rejected it as a p roblem 

s olver , he had , by his own ·enius , created the uni ue Jamaica 

Welfare in the i n terest and :for the enrichment of rural life. I n 

the _s1:1-bsequence of the fresh look..J ':-nd the new thinkin~ jolted into 
a ctivity .:,.lolori ittl U,'11~-k.blu.,; J 
-~ by the Mark Vlls of the I j lttrz Q' e,,, h e was i n sist i n 

d ay ' s politics , oor as it was , with no p ower to 

tha t th kl a 1 7 3 I I I 1 t h e p eo le ' 

be d eployed to make landowne r s of t he d es erately d isadva ntagea 
-fo.,,. t. i' rn) 

"quarter to two a cre• cultivator . 11 / u nhap . ilyA t h e lo alty t h.is 

may h a v e gen erated was not sufficien t l y stron t o resist the Bus -

t amante cam ai n p ropaganda in t h e ' 44 general election s. By t h e 

of 
timeA. t h at fat e f u l year ~ , the i r on y was in p lace ; t h e same smal l 

fanner whom Ma n l ey h a d s o d ou h tily ch a mpioned in t h e voteles s year ~ 
'f:, l a.c.et( . ~ -~ ~ 

had succumb e u to t he a it ro wllichA :W I l!f:lN the PNP • 
-~ '-

ommunist re a ators waitin to obb l e ui:feven ~ miniscule uarter AWU14 
acre .j But that was et to b e. 
fil fil • I liLIIISC, So here he was now rousin 1 SU -

Jortin the famous Ord e - Brown R 8 port , a docwnent he regard ed as 

the closest} of any official survey/ to his own and P a .nty views . * -/12_ '1-7'f.Ltl' 

*Ma ·or G. S tJ. Or de - Brown , Labour Adviser to the 
Colonial Oi':fic e . 

' S SHc91.H--b ec 
·-t/-.ttt" • £,and settlement ·s hould J8i 3 b e people sett lement__; /\ a stroke for 

,and not 
social reconstruction{~aR TT an exercise to ease employment. And 

Wl<.OtJGAJt;'"'.!S 

functioning , the Ai • • -• 

WNO 
b est~ to s eculators , and 

he charged that even in this und iscerning 
{;iC. I~ '1'Ell/r£-b WHO .!Ot-!) 

was •• ■ J 'Jl.. by the handlers/\= - IP it the 
BEn­

the next ~to fimers of me d ium ros eri ty , the scrub going to 11 the 

men who really want help. 11 

j(U ■ P .. 

± I-I.I .... flikll ■I . t 

P A €-====:::::.. 
2 r: _ utia::fl L 1ror :ii:;mlv . 

s t I J g: 18 tr: ,, ·cr 01trisit1 a 

H1g O:ili ::bq 

I 
I • • f DI Iii I iftus!i0111i 

• ' r=@s dtQ' I lfi' ' ii .. ' - I liilliif1i' I iiiR. . , 

I lbii: Q )rt i l ll!J!l!L • 1 2 · [ Th~ memo -

randum which he and Nethe· sole had sent to the concil iati DoarcJ.} 



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plug in the need for a overnment labour adviser__, gaine d the suJ -

ort of Richards who ressed for a f'irst class man in the post; 

C::.Of.JCVll.li;t:.; 

an insistence with which Hanley •~e:• ilA especial l y a:fter a letter 

from Lord Olivi e r in which the gre arious e - governor let d ro 

to his :friend that 1ost of t i e aJvi s ers sent to the colonies w re 

"ignorant and helpless ". * Th e c oncern f or quality con t r ol was also 

hey got a good one , ______ Nornan whose skill and 

enthusiasm established a useful and active Labour 

e artment . 
e1 tering the ocal political system b y t he se l f regulatory device INHc~c 

IV 

W mWh*:', ~,~ . .-.J.,.l!ii@1lll lf P1•9 r oil!awm ..... wJdf- iglll■ffl ru•·•q _..ll!lli 11■ Tlf1illl? 7 

:di£ .. • . IL i n • growt h . 
::t.Wlllf!li i:!iMIJ: iiiia;....,... 11 _.._,,.. . The lonely old Xllttr Utt. thun erers.:> 

with their vituperatives :fully r e ort din the fellows 

who in return f'or a good record of Ay es to a governor ' s ropos als 

coul d successfully scout the corr i ors buttonholin the English senior 

civil servants :for constituency :favour~were still in the Le islaturej 

but ending the i days . A cadre of youthful , intel ligent , vi - orous 

men and a henomenon in politic s 

ac t i n to a new kind of rhetoric which 

thenDI, women - - - were re ­
, TH C.A1Jt,OQ. 

~ s s ok e A. not only 

--•-t!ill:■1111•·•111f1•1za,.,L11t:d!!iJl!!'iiiitl!,.-!1"1l .... .l.Mlilllillll!ih11a•-.r of "gove nn1ents so obviously out to lee in 

131- 'FFt..y 

the good graces of the u per classes'')but ..... of a p rogramme of 

non- progress d eliberate l y encouraged by a "Colonia l Office still 

pli nt to the wishes of the ( British) vested interests ." ~ 

that 
~ Wishes , k in short or er , had killed the h opes of a t least 

f'our Jamaican enter rises before they could start: cement , cornmeal , 

cond ensed milk and a public transport service . 

The blocking of l o cal entrepre1eurs from the important ser-

ttMd. fi pt ~t:WW,~' 

vicin anu manufacturing vent res in the co l onyA ~ {from ·~ 

sho ing fo1 merchand ise in the cheaper competi t ive markets outside 

the Empire ' s tariff' wa l ls , nay have been a reason fo the P TP at ­

tracting s irits that by tradit i on ~ o have bee favourin the 

and not ~ tf.. A.$:t · 
conssr vative rie;ht --~ -- l eanersA Some , of course, s a ~ in 



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ManleyS) t he acknowle ged 

ment which could be used 

t rend - setter now in i entity wi t h a move­
r heal the ir frustratio s at t h e 

to I, 1 s r 
l 

• 3 SU ercilious Engl ish settlers , so l d ier and 
in 1944, 

civil serv ants . Busta , with d evastatin consequences , /was to se i ze 

the fact an ta the PNP for a "brown 11 an ' s arty ". 
lrn:t ~.,... 

~the n ass sup ort then b eing assiduous l y sought with some 

success by the h ardworkin you.n • 11arxists in the Part . But before 

this caine the Septemb er 1 940 internn ent of Bustamante by Richart.ls 

for fomenting strike talk on the waterfront , free d om of s eech bein 
r:::_· ·- • PA cc .-- , 

an earl y war casualty.* [!._ or exact l y • 17 months , Hanley ~ 

*Seized with Dusta 
tood with Hanle 

vice president in 

was W.A. Williaros , the man who had 
on the coal car, b then a BITU 
charge of the maritime division . 

_w-P,,:;, alon e) out in front , free to weld his arty into a oli tically edu-

cated , s trongly d is c i line organ isat ion> and to kee the Uniou 

strong and lo al to the olitical arty since t he hope h a d not yet 

b een lost that the ustamante Industrial Tr d e Union woul d be the 

mass arm, the votin machine of the P~ at the next e eneral elec ­

t i on J.wh"3:c h shou l d have c01~1e in 1940 Lut :for the war j . ~ 
~e IJt..11,,t-J ~ PflR..T'( ALLIAAl(E' iMi:. iT P;RS-r. _ ~LeC,t (!) N S, (A) 

J1i1 aa . .:5 ■r est suc cess b Lf 7 l1, li ■ iildl J - .it t h rough the TU,f ' s 

Ne t h ersole . 

nae 
(A) 

resi d ent of the TUC with ■ 
'\,) 

lori z el 

Glassp ole as secretary of what was r egar d e as a s enate to the 

union s , a cleari n g h ous e f or i eas an actions . In charge o f the 
was to have g iven 

trusted ethe r s ole , itl\.moil .XVU t he N a h i gh- visibility wi d o 

over t h e af1~airs o f t h e alrea y sprawling an growing BI U and its 

ma v erick unpre ictab le lea d er who was r unning it lik e a "Joe ei 

Court "* an gaining a reputation f or tiiXliiUlOff\ilftfilti)fM rictal come Y·** 

*A leg end ary c ourt set u p by i grant Jamaicans in a nama 
uring the c anal buil i .ng earlier i n t h e cen tury i th a 

J u dge_, Joe e i d ) who i mposed h is own :f i ne s and /or uniq ue 
senten ces . 

** Bu s ta on ce f ired h is ass ist an t St illiam Grant and 
h i mself from the lilnion then instan tly re - instated 
h i r sel l as leader . 

• -- - • ~ ~ - -~ • > > • M • • 



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A1c} 
~z;:therso.le was an unlikely man to win an election li,/f 

had it not b een held under t he old v oter roll listing only land ed 
and XX~Xj{D( x.liXllltK II ten- shilling " voters . * 

proprietors e was an inte ectual wit w 1 an unusual capacity 

*But under adult suffrage , he was to win an hold a 
_ S t And rew seat by v irtue of a i:ine organisation and 
■ f' iercel lo al XllX«llQ organiserslJ. 

for making strong friend ships . Throughout his trag ically short 

p olitical life he was no ted for fran una:frai app _,....! L1. als of men 
) } ~¥ 

an matters. At a p ublic meeting in Morant Bay) with Manley at 

his elbow, he liill~1Ui acknowledged the Party ' s " existence (through ) 

the ind ivid ual efYort and u ominance of Mr ,lanley" but went on to 

VO■JJ •• JC assert that t h e "intolerable cond itions" was the 11 circur ­

stance , perhaps above al l .. . tha t ma d e the org anisation and the 

f onndation of t h e Par ty so opp ortune and wel l ti ed. 11 l§;lif was tile 

convenor, no t the cause . T h e elements , alread y present, ha d-~ 
Ianley applauded . he other comra es seeme d quiet l y appalled .• 

C gat h erec, at 
~ l-11 Crab " wo11>by d efaul~ t{ aed tJh fk u fy c~ t le catalyst 

t!!!!:- ~eorge Se 10ur- Seymour , a tall , droll Jew who re resented t 

Andrew i n the leg islature , had resigned his seat to take up t he 
,u,~ new 

lucrative and influential - of' Chairman of t he/ r•rater Commis s ion. 

The . ayor of Kingston , Dr A t erson , one of t h e lea ing lights i n . 
f o (} vti.ta,.-f h tJ1 • l"--h; 

the ede~ation, of Citizens As:5oci,a tion , was put up/, by the F e d era- t£l 
/\/ -r..i ') fJ. t • /vi t lJ:.ft., /}-,,,.dR/'.UI>.. 1 a \. 

tion . , u stling , tire es s man wit i she political 

rep utation !J lit waged a campa i gn · t h at qui te out a1 oue v r e t h e 

f ledgling Party canvas s er s . In spite of a s k ille p rofessional 
rJatt..~ 'f"~ 1~ 9s a ..-;t, 

tout , eonar {aison on lss:iiAp latform) to i d entif' y with the s mallest 

( 11 t e1 - shilling 11) v oterj l an . the app earance for the first t i me A in 
a n electio1 ca p aign 

E\l KXlGOOCXX"1[M o f loud - speaker rigged cars , n othin • coul d 
IJJ-fA;~ Mk 

clear the upper-class taint fro~ e3'8t well - 1eaning fri end s . One 

newspaper e d itorial gave as his qualifications for rep resenting 

the p eople , his 11high social rating , 

of crick et. 11 The paper also went on 

an Oxonian an plays the game vi­
.{W c. , a.5'~ s Pl1i: 

to obliquely call i\orU;ljatl ~-&t 1'J 
..... ,ts.ft 
J1lll\)c.. by remin ing them t h at t he S t Andrew socialites ha t u rned 



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or 11u 
Gut in numb ers ten years be f ore to elect S e nour- e ym our , t h e 

~ k/1'.o #.Ji, icw<> ~ d.Jz,, :t( • 

weal thy land owner . A Dr And erson romp e d h ome b y a comfortab le mar-

g i n : 1 , 559 to 974 , 

But the Fed eration d i d not opp ose when the N p icked "Crab 11 

elevation ' 
f or t h e city coun cil s eat vacated b y An erson's/~XnnKK i a 

liiJ . lit l I St > and with only tn .epend ent s in t h e fiel d , t h e unlikley 
b u,. ~ 

b ellwether1~ a shoo-in . Now they h a d a voice, however s mall, 

in elected of f ice. "I a glad that we have •tarted at t h e b ot -

tom. of the lad der, 11 • anley sai d , "for now we will climb stead ily 

to t h e top until the Party becomes the instrument for g ood it i 8 

b ound t o be. " Th e cli b wou l d n ot b e ord erly a s was hop e b u t 

as a n i ns t rument for good , t he arty was e tti g c l oser . It wa s 

c erta i n ly on h an 
L-OCi<Eb _,. uP, 
----1-'JIUl!lt, 

w n£N B •~1/j/11/7..J,c /,Jf7S.' 
to save t h e lab our ov er· ent i'\ Ulftt!tOU\ W'ltSfll 



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7/ 

Cl P TE HI TY- ONE 

In Eas t Par a e ' s redbrick Coke "i ethodis t Hall one ugust even­

i ng in 1940 , Ianley stat e in clear language to those who had "no t 

h itherto ( s o ) regarded t he Party ," that t he NP wa s Soc ia.list . 
be!-1;..9 

arty was f ormed 
I\ 

He should n ot have expecte d t hem to . \· hen t he 
. d' 

its orig inal programme was no t / iocia list._ Its c laim vas reform 

t h i nking though 

berals . It was 

soures t p uck ers 

mus ed i•Ianley at 

it contained elements common to ,Jfo cialists a d ~i-
4111 +e. 
._;1 cal l to publ i c ownersh ip which .._. brought the 
/' (' !:,' ·9-a Y ,tt,.C~ l>\tJ ,Q,(l,1Af-{;, ~ 1IIE~1~~ l l>i ~ _ll;/}J', [' 

to t h e d s??PR>howiiers ~ - J ·~ 3 J w •· Yet , 
• ( • Aetr7M/1'_f!.~ .~Jttll/lt 

Co e , such a p olicy mi ght equa l l ~ ........... --- "Ti. A 

urely reform movement . So h e p roc eeded • a t this second anniversar y 

conferencef o a c r it i cal appraisalS of' some op tions . 

"ocialism is more than t he mere refo r m of the existing s ys tem . 

Socialis t s and Liberals alike may agree on t h ink i ng that social servi c es 

must expand as rap i d ly as c an b e so t ha t be tter education and f re e 

an more eas ily available e d i c al s ervices , b etter p rovis ion for o l d 

a g e an h eightened s tandard s of living nay ob tain f or all . But all 

these t h i ngs a re perfectly consis ten t wi th a c on s ervative p olicy. 

8.,~r t hat matter , they ar e not incons istent with a : a sci s t p olicy. 

~ ome countries whi ch stan d h i gh today i n t h e r ange of i m -rovemen t 

i n t he stand ards of living of the common p eople and in the evolut i on 

of social services are d ictatorship s i p rinc i le and ractice. " 

His thinJ h i ghb oned face wearing a light sw eat in t he ho t , crow e 

hall , he s p oke, ith emphas i s on t he consequenc es which could f oll ow 

t he adop tion of h is S o c ialism. 

111 hat I wish to stress (is) I o no t wish these proposals to be 

a ' op ted in a light h ear te XKKMDrn spirit ( but with ) full r e cognition 

of XXX t he • ~ ob lig ation to learn what Socialism is , to learn 



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~ 
how its princi les can b e applied i n this count ry and .r ow t hey may be 
NlOiXX:llIDtntllGXIl 
exp laine d to t he people ,tt 

F'or n ow his i nnocenc e was behind him; h e was already battle­

scarred :from encounters with a h ostile p r ess. He knew that in the 

long years a head , he would be opposed by a :free en terp ri s e establish­

ment of' consider able force and i mplacability . He foresaw that he 

would need a p ower bas e , the supp ort of an enfranchised mass ._ Ka:t 
HXllX..U o 

und erstood the issues and would bar thellrac ial route histori cally D 

always a vai l ab l e but d ivisive at this iflilMll S hour . 
,J ·("c;, F11Ci; J 

J!' or above al 1 , 

they mus t be pre pare d .. " b itter oppos it ion and d isapproB:al f' rorn t h os e s ., 
to whom ~ ~cialism was a more "real enemy " be cause it " involved a 

d emand :for (utter) changeI" i n social and e c on omic c on d itions . 

11 I f it involves anyt h i ng less , 11 he stated :f l at ly , " t hen it is 

some t hing less t han So ciali sm . " 

He gaine d intensified app la 1s e f rom t h e back of t he h ouse when 

he h i nted at nationalisation as a main plank i n t he arty platform . 

. o him , Socia l ism was not a ques tion of h i gher wages or b etter liv­

i ng cond itions f'or the workers , although t he lat te r was t he purpos e , 

but i nvo lved the comprehens ion of"' "all the means o:f p roduc tion be i ng 

publicly oi•m.ed and publicly contro lled 11 • Over the prolonged che e r-

i ng , he cried : 11 You and I , lla li of us , have been bred in a system 

in which all the means of production are private l y owned ! 11 t he 

sourc es of wealth in our country and i n the British mpi r e are 

privately own e d ! It is n ot only a matt e r of sayi ng you wi ll d is -

trib ute more of' the profit s of' t he business to t he (wo r kerst, but 

t hat) the business should b elon to t he workers !" 

H e 

f' or its 

~ttC 
saw i\the way t o insert mobility into 

, o 
mir.d les s ho l d ~ ' c l ass and race was 

a s ociety notorious 

through SocialismS sinc e 

ttwe were b orn into a s ociety in which certai n ta c las s e s unquestion ­

ably enj oy eno r mous privileg es• which uneer this system, will n ot 



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be op en to everybody ." 
g enteelly i mp overishe as that 

But this scion of lande d gentry ,A i1uo~~ ~file XXMXX 

.t ao b een , beneficiary of' arlHICilMMDH education on a lane out of' 

reach to the vastes t conceivab le majority, sought .. after solon of 
the d ay 
UtitU!llfj,\and now t h e courageous defe ctor from his class , wa s n ot 

as serting a wholesale caste - less s ociety. Hi s p ol i tical philoso ­

phy , he said i .e., Socialism, was ":founde d on a belief' that it is 

p ossib le to organise a g enuinely e galit a rian society in which all 

opportunities will so far as possible b e equal and open to ald 

persons , subject to the b asic ne cess ities of preserving society . 11 

h is 
The h eat o:f his day d ictated t h e d e ree of/prudence ; and it 

a reserva tion containing no guilt , 
was/~OCUxKn DOL'CX ~Mlifru N1fl ~~ k&~NlfHM but rather , by his 

and 
aud ien ce , judge d t hen J a boldness ; I\. KKM consequently prolon g e d l y 

I$ 
app l auded . eal i t~f amie" s ub ject to t hetl moment f . 

Some did not a gree with t he concession to rud ence of course 

and so ~ the stage was set :f or t h e players to appear/ i n order dcwJ,, 

years , some to p lay it c ool / acco r d ing to 
h it t heir lines 1~1)1/r?~f 

to/~: n with a pass ion fo r purity ; yet 

IJt, the 

ot h e rs 

t h eir reading , 

all safely i ns i d e 
I\ 

the extensive p erimeters enclosing t h e d emocracy of socia li sm . 

Suc h were the times , with a world war escalating i n Europe 

a n d vision s of the a p ocalyps e strong in men ' s mind , it was easy to 

see the old orld in ruins . In eed , ~ anley s a w t h e p o s t war 

g overnment1 d ivi d ed i n two camp s : social ism an d i e tatorsh i p , the 

on ly excep tion be i :rg the Uni ted Sta tes a nd that only f o r "a gene ­

ration " b ecause of it s natural resources an t he p ower to expand i ts 

economy and b ecause t h at coun-cry regar ed Socialism "wi t h i'ar 

greater aversion than :i.·azism. "* With the future t hus apparen t , 

,j(•He was ~ rticula rly severe on the U. S . at t h i s erio 
111'h e sy.!_st e m t ha t t h ey ( t he US) a i t o preserve ," he 
once said , " i s on e i n which t he thing they are s u posed 
t o call freedom is said to KllX exist at its highest 
p ossib le value. 11 e was not being unreasonab ly harsh 
since the record of lynch i ngs and assor ted besiBi.ali -



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ties by white upon black Americans as , a t the ti e 

.henom.enal. I t d not en ea1' h i m to the A ericans . 

Years later t hey wreake, as a ll vengea ce by i car­

cerating h i m on ~llis I·land , their i e rants en , 

while passin& t hrou gh t heir territory. 

he was cons t antly ur~ing Party 
h elp to 

embers t o s tudy all face t s or ocial -

i m and M XX~ educat their~ DJf.fi.X constituents. " I t is the 

busines~ (of' l ead e s ) to mas t er our own meth od ~ and our o wn in .:., and 

our own i d eal , so we may a t on ce ins ire our :friend s and confound 

our f'oes ." l)ut h t augh t t ha t , whatever it was , t he ideol ogy was no 

rigi d o a but a princip le to be a p lie to t he particular s ituatio . 

He mr:ned eloquently agai ns t X% the d oct rinarians . " 'hen eo l e 

ac cept a vie that has the convi c t inn o:f relig ion , you fac e t he dan _er 

of allowi ng your thoughts to be t i e d into n ea t little packet s , care­

f'ully labelled by other p eo le and pull.ed out o.f' tt e right p i geon hole 

a t tbe r i ght r oment •. . " 

l a lso h d to b ear t he charge of being b loody - mind ed and an 

anti - Christ , soon to be t he continuously carried cross of t he Jamaican 
f 

~oci alis t s, not yet i n :full yowl. but e rowing . So at t hat ef'i itive P 

"' 
con:ference (191io) , .tr anley s oueht to li~ cal h i s :foes , a nd pro-

t ec t himself :fro . h i s :friends , by denying any bias :for violence or 

i rrelig ion , while :frankly acknowledg ing t he e nee of s ome "int llectual 

C iuni s t s 11 about h i m. Almost lightly, h e d ismissed t heir otency . He 

took a b rie:f g l ance a t 
.ll }(lllf f:(lClfJDDi1ili "-their hereness Ill and p osited t hey ould be work-

i n for P aims n not one icts f rom oscow. 

Well, they id work with and for the Party , g ivin 

t a nce through the years o:f bleak opularitYfollowing t he 

s tro asis -

break wi t h 

u ta ante ; uild in { a cred i ili ty among the a s voters to ·1hicl t h e 

rig 1twing f arm of' the Party would have eck oned f utile l y 
.;, 

But t he 

t e would come whe n their 
Hu~,-u ; ·b 

otives bec ame susp ect and he woul f.., t h 

t hem AWRGad i nto the political wil erness. 



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TAFE Ii ATE. DU~ PAGE 174 

He wo uld have hel(i an awarenet>s also, close to him as it was , of' a cri -

sis being wrestle d with . The creative Edna a11ley, although taking to 

her wifely leeks wi t h publi 1., enthusai~m , hau her private misg i:qvi ngs of' 

politics .a There is, s h e tho ught i11 a splenu idly galloping hyperbole, a 

"complete extincti o n of the L- reative artist c uring wars etc ." The wars etc 

0 1' 1', orman ' s entry into p o litic::; was chancing what s h e re g art eu as her " um -
,.,v #/c /f .• .,; 

bilical c o ru1
11 " provi~ the specially translate d iug re (l ientsj the " one 
/ ' ().--,7...d. -f~ 4-<) 

contact with reality and lii'e /lf,Sll throug h ~ (the creative artist ' s ) 

tlig hly sensitive arH c elicately ad J uste u sensory approach ." 

Aud wh at happen::, t o 

(or she) ::,tarts " g etting 

throug h entirely 1·oreign 

the artist in politics? Oh, rougll, iwJee u . I e 
( 0)1..i/.. >1; ') 

emotional experiences c ramme u (1own 9 throat , 
/t 

and wrong c h annels " and a cr a ative uama6 e, or 

death, looms . E< 11a, e 1JJ inently tough when required , was not ar'rai u or lii'e . 

"The contact with life, however sordid , h o wever brutal, is essential; b 1 t 

it mu::,t be through the creative awareness, not through any o'tl1er way . " 
\vith 

T h is was how she tl10ught; and he was a sharply pro bing manA it!tHl1 I R 

r- ·r1ii""---:-:----...---::-----::-----:---:---:--:----:--:-- ' 
more t l1an t h "average 1. ello\\· ~ sliag g:, i n terest in intangi bles,,('11110 shook 

off like uew tlie e:xperieuces an<1 l,onsciou sness stn~gglin6 towart s per ­

ception. He would b e aware . 
okJ 

But, an, aware ~ of the deep a ud s trong f' amilv streng t h laying i1. 
of' whom s u e hau been 

h e r when she ::,poke o f' the "kindly t omesti ,~ go c " ~ particularly 
c, P 

blessec , ~
11 

tlie cr lmch er inch of the cows feeding near h er ni t.,httime 

or. 
win d ow at Arthur ' s 5,.,a t, ~ t h e ~ 1 out s oi' u o yia h laughter a mid s t t h e bar l<. -

DF 
ing of' tile do 5 s in t h e ,11orning , . a s tring o .f Gleaming f' i sh i n a sea - chili ' s 

I\ 
h an . ~, itt l LE 18v r G't...oijvi:AJ , µ o",,Jncll/.J , 

She was 

that the ol c 

. But he 

fort v that year . She had u iscovere d with 11 a a ctawning s u rprise" 
• ·:n...~- Ji t- .b,!..t; , 113 e~r f- t \f'f , 

uonsense o mu a ') was
1
,._"in f'act .. . a beginning . 11 

A ;.., 
would have looked iali' q u izzically, halt' am u se cJ ly at iler 

a nd wai te \ . For she had the daylight in Iler hand ::, and was u na i'rai c. . ::,he 

woul d g et around to politics .cu,,,. /4- fa&/,' f; 'u.' w{)uftl t1~11.Z.•· 6 12. ~ ✓tu,~- .e"?7~/ k • 

"Peri'ection i n narriage, 11 s li e said away f ro.,1 him , will 11 0 1. ly 

lead to s elf' satisfactio n and d ead con tentme 1 t o i t marriag e wit lt all 

t h e difficulties and dang ers tMaX . .. can make t h ese inevitaole step~ 

towards growth, worth doing ." 



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i¥ 
C TER THI TY- TW 

brave little meeting of the BI U exe cutive , a few ays after 

Bustamante' s detention , p ledg ed the selves to c ont inue the work 

of the union ; but if' t h ere wa s heart to it , t h e muscle was weak . 
sel f ' 

Th ose earlier d efeats coul n ot have created/confidence i n their _____ 

ab- ility to b attle thee p loyers . hey h a d been unabl e t o 

score gains in t he i slan ' s larg e s t X~lilllf:)t emp loyment source, 

the sugar ind us tryJ and h a v ing ~ allo·wed t h e msel v e s to be , 

as anl ey escri bed it , "dra gged int o" a st rike fr o which they 

had b een b arely extricated , t h e Union was as short of funds as &I{ 
leadership . ,Busta ' s slit with the P ay also h ave d a ma g e 

t he BI TU ' s i mage among the work ers b eca use of t h eir str~gt hening 

" d esire for ord er and pattern in their a ffairs . The o l d c omb at 
tactics , 
Xa'.:KUK¥. sup erbly su.ited as t h ey had be en f o r t e 'ays of l✓.: ay , 

h a d no t k ep t t he pay p a cket s f illed . Du es - paying memb ershi p ha 

dwi~ d led as their i n t e rest in p olitics i ncrease . anley could 

write to h is frien , W.A . Domi ngo i n i ew York: 11 feel sure t ha t 
~ ) ""' the workers are now beginni ng to h ave real confid ence in the arty . • 

~~x;~ g{-~~{~00~ 
a~ X • KX~~X~«xxnx~~ ~ • • X C 11 w e took charge of t h e • I U and told Bus t a so ," Manley has said . 

r\ The Union came u n der P P lead ershi p an , t he s p arl s flew as 

t h e youthful , i ntelligent an ' rell org a n ised arty el ements u t 

into p r ac t i s e t he theories t h ey had so enthusiastically stu ied 

in the recen t years . ~"he P rp s trateg i s t s saw sugar , the X:XX_ N1!X]{ 

<iJJ c ountry ' s heaviest empl oyer of l abour , as the industry ~ most 

rorni s1t . t o ~- organis e d power ; and by t he p resen ce of' 

sugar e s tate s i n a ll t he r al a rishes except -1anc hes t er , to be 

the mos t effect ive me i um f or spEead i ng a p olit ical g ospel among 

t h e country f olk . ~pl \.Jtv\ ,w'll,a ~ a,v"fa/L • 



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As in the earlier g lo a l conflict , sugar ha taken on warti e 
rnv;J1-r I O N 

i oraance as a :food stap le and • I\~ aterielf. 

Th e s te l y rising co t o fA iving brought a :le e d har s h i p and 01·1·ered 

an ind u c e ent to or ~anising . ut har agains t tl e s e positives 

were t h ree c enturies o f isolated communities l.ac ing in natio a l. 

cohe ion. I t h a d har d l y cause Harol Alla n any sweat to t al. t h e 

ort Antonio s t evedores i nto work i ng the shi s t he Kines to doc ers 

had strucl . %Kl£ 

The violen t o, position of employers t o t he i d ea o:f tra de unio tS 

was 1 f' a cons tant obstacle , active and viru ent a ter two years . nly 

tight or anisation antl total loyal ty woul d de cide uc eess or rout . 

Bt t t here was an even r ore d isconcertin g a v orsary to fac e . 

. 1anley' s rob i n noises about t l e low wa es on su,i,,a r e s t ates 

lad b rou,ht quick reaction fro C:' overnor icb ar s . . urpri s i n ly 

li ral in socia l t h ink ing as 1anley ha found him, he wa,s nev er ­

t helesc t he King ' s man in Ja aica , in the mi ddle of a worl ar , 

an h i s job wa to d e liver sugar t o }1ritain an other or s con­

cern d wit t he Alli e d DiY eff'ort . That bes ect cled viz i er woul d 
f);...1y 

t o r,.. · b jec ·t ~ isp l ayi ng t e leas t l eani n g to sabota ,,.e . Anc 

uru L ta ably c lear , he so a rne d the r / U heacJs. t an l ey • s , 

he h inted , woul d be the first t o roll. "It had the ean r s of a 

anley once r<!lll i 1isce , "but a nece s a r one 

if 1i 1 is1 was t o survive .~ 

lll. ][Xffl It was a c li:f:f'- hang i n g su~na.rio all the way whil e the 

coi: n t ry trouble ly a ited or hi to join. his cous i n us t ,a t e i n 

th a r my lock - u . I t was a tribute t o his grasp of' prac tica l co -

sequences t h .. _ t;te s oke and acte J his role as lead er with no lo 

i n t rust , anc yet stayed loose . It ha to be c lo .k and agger 

s ·t f' f' , a e lo tlra@a p l ay -d £or real , when he struck t be sugar i n us try . 



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177 

He lad seen how the BITU t lhro ugh lacl of' p l anni g was 

clobb erec in the loneshor s tru g le . he d i sarray h a l a s t 

He foun t he nion withou t :fun St s mall me 1bershi an i n con-

f p s i or . e countered ith t h ree p riorities: re- organisation , 
!.!~t;, r 

e eneratin loyalty ) ~ 
fa._wn.~tJ-- ff.2_ 

n a · tud y o.f strate i c locat ... i on 
·-......__,J 

f'or ~="-attack o t e sugar manu.fac t 1:ters . 

The ·arty ' s lon g and c lose work in the rura l s now s t ood 

t h e m in goo stea • rhey cho s e t homas f or t he firs t battl site . 

I t was i s t Thot as parish that t h e 
to name 

fi r s t constituent tructure/Jrn 'M. 

arty had establ.i s .he it 

~ a leg isla tive can i taje , 

~u o lph urke. 
you.n n ilitan ts 

A tea m of f'anaticil l.ly d e icated,{li'lt2:ZtMZilZ 

turne ' their obdurate tllllll,faces to t he ea tern p a rish . They 

ent ered unobstrusiv el.y and commence a back wind ow ialogue that 

.--
hard ly ever rose above a whisp er and scarl c _el.y ever wag e d i.n 

da y l.ight. SAcrecy wa the strena th . he threat of' J.char ' s 

R 
ower a n the f'ea i1 o f' e otional ex.ci temen t a mon g the stri ers/ 

IAITO 
t ha t cou l • as had ha :>p ened , s tumb l e t em ~ the paths of pol i ce 

bullet , a dc t he stri e - drill of' tact ica l i mportance. anl y 
communi t(e,ils 

f'oun caref'ul mer i n. the / ' J]{XU~ an 1 a ppointed t hem ele -

,a tes. l • l.ipp e cJ into the ill.a ges at n i ght - and swore t lem on 

h i s • &1'3 

drmll - mas tor/ 

J ai es Vorsionj b y lamp or c an leli , t. ~ E~ 

~ receive <1rit ten c etail s of' the time a con-

uct of' tl e s trike . T l e t rate gy not only gave the workers a 

sense of u.rp ,ae and r espons ibil.j_ t~ but a g roun ing an a belie:f 

iu or :ranisation - - - the nub of the olitical training so strongl y 

a voca te by ,J·nley in tho e early olitical year. he St 

"fhomas men were ins t ruct e n ot to ather i n ubl ic but to s t ay 

i n oors . y strike call., Manl.ey himself' had sworn some 5 00 

I eopl.e. ince 70 years before, men had been han e i n t e same 

a rish ror cons iderably less activity, t he exercise was not it.1.-



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1 

out\-> o ona.l eril . * I t was c a o agger stuff , b1,t it r k ed . 

*At t le ay Re be llion i n which almo. t 600 
eo,1e n assacre by the authori ies. 

becau e of' it , re- visite , shot 

n or canef'ield s b urnt . e call was a d e by t he orce 

activists the 
} 

house to ous e , 

s lip in · notice un er t he door of t he estate lab our r s' barracks . 
evice ~OXll ~ t hat assured t here would e 

t was a c l o c ~ork/ XXK}!i Xiattx «)~ o crowds , no mac etes , 

a silence in canefield ano s 

The strike was successfully l aunched and t he a.,.en aim ediat ely 

lengJ tined . Ont e li s t to follow would e t he vat u ar.field o 
i\ 

1vfl.,.Q_ 
,re , which , lite Frome , 9f!'s owne by t h e est Ind ies Su a r Com-

cold 
• 1y (Tate & Lyl e) . But t J e/· ~1'. ef'ficien y o 'f' t he "new" tra d e 

unioni st · ha rouse , a not her icy stron~ an . 
in which Richards and 1- anley ha paireo 

of':f 

' e political minuet/ ~.~,.--X ~n~- -~ X «~ 
,I 

took anot her t 1rn tlat aut n. . 
/\ 

ic, ar, s ha 

been in ➔ri t a i n and ca ·e back at the crucia l mo ent of' fa nley ' s 

rl eci ion to . hut u wn 1e re. •.ta nl e y wa s i :fact evangelizing 4111! 

. e re wit h the ow f"a il.iar blac i.ble , s e rin • t he ele ,ate to 

e re Y, 'lhen he was . u 1. mone l t o King ' Hou ~e . 'fbe s um·nons , con-

rE 
vey y 11otor cycle courier) w s rem tory; and bein • e ry a arc 

o f' U c h rd~s ' 

lost no time , 

' A. 

owe r t o nai l h i m u1 rt • rt i me emer ·e1 cy , h e 

e b roke o "f" and ro e har <l :for i . g ' 1 ous c , a r -

riving around mi n i ght . 

u ovcrnor Richarc..1 a ai rove , af t e r I uc t a l , to be .he 

t d eviou ) anip l ator , ho , i. -tanley never c;rew to l i e , 

he .oul d res ect as n i nte llectual o p onen t• e a <l t h e hor e -

*It was uring i.c ar s ' reg i ,1 e that , r . 
v~te to be coille t t orney ~neral , the l 
3 - r u.n, l ad er t ha t wou1 lea'1 t o , ie:f 

igh t hood . i t} e cline • . 

anley 
wer o 
ustice 

as iI -
t he 

I a 



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talked about the war and books and music and anything else 

that rose in t he conversation --- but made no mention of r, anley's 

Vere crusad e , for a couple of h ours. In the mi ddle of a d isserta-

tion on the merits of tank ,arf'are in Burma , ichar s suddenly 

broke off to say all tha t wa s fine , but what about the strike? 

hey sat in easy chairs at t h e open jalousies while outsi e 

0 
the ~:ronaoos ceremonial guards trftm e the concrete d riveway . ~an-

ley s oke ~ECI:X}CXDN with logi c and passion . He has since be -

lieved t ha t I ich ards unders tood . In 1940 , he placed Ri char s as 

one who h a d "a d opted t he g oals of socialism in the langua e ot~ a 

statesman and a thinker, " His priva te i d eology n o d oubt d ictated 

his rule. · He c reated his ovn system of' check s and balances which 

was erhap s misund erstood because of t h e auta.rch y p rofessed i n lis 

illchosen style . He d i d much to knit the society --- not by 
but becaus e of his 

weaving it s parts/~ starchiness. It came unf ixed at the 

f irst artisan hea t. he ranks he clos e by a lying h is d etentive 

2owers in d isregard of race or social place , broke when tho s e 

p owers were lost . I t could be signi f'icant that n one were p a. eke 
to 

off / :Di~ h is jailh ous e for their Sociali.st avowals , only C onmmnist 

suspects , a white man.;, and a wild , unmanageab le one. hat seems pro ­
is t ha t breaking an 

bable too~~~~~~llXLi.a....,.._,,........,=~ organi.sed group (i.e. , t he N ) 

which had p ro duced a work st oppage without violence , ichar s knew 

he ran t he risk of 
rm 14 p ecp/<2. 

retaliation,(~~ 

letting in anarchy and the consequenc es of local 

by .f.v., . """ f,r~ 
X~ID~ orces --- an act acutely awkward 

for t he British war i age as crusaders a gainst the Nazi racists . 

So;, with Manley, he reache d an a greemen t on a formula for 

settling the strike . 'hey fit t ed toge t her a sys tem that tied 

wages to the cost of living , prov i d ed i mme d i at e wage i ncreases , 

and set the sugar estates i n categories2 --- t he estates oul be 

classifie an .lb.he larg e sugar makers would guarantee t he small 

estates agai nst losses incurred b y the increased payrolls . ichar d s 



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oul d 11persua de 11 KX the b ig fellows to f all in line and the govern­

ment ,ould bear half the HM~NXM cash burd en* 

As ha 

* lth ough Richard s , later Lord Milverton , survived the 
eclipse which usually followe d the last p ost of a Col ­
nial g overnor , h is repudiation of t h e Labour arty i n 
the Britis h House of ord s at his resignation f'rom t ha t 
arty , drew t he acid comment in the House lobby from a n 

outraged Peer t hat "the d enunciation ca e from a man of 
no great personal ity or influenc e i n the p olitical lif e 
of t he country. 11 

een his s trike plans , the moves were covert : Manley 

solemnly negotiating for t h e BITU with t h e sugar manufacturers whom 

Richard s ha secretly summoned and enjoined . "We argue d and n e gotia-

ted but it was a ' s et han ', 11 Manley said with a twinkle. 

knew, the SMA and t h e BI TU , that we woul d agree . 11 

11 ,f e both 

I t was a t r i h for collective bargaining , t h e first in the 

coun try , and a tremen ous b oost to t he pr estige of the P which h a d 
R -rf. td: v/Po ,., 

lea ership the BITU lacked j t!ut a success ~ 
cast a h ea to 

p rovid e d t he 
PNP 

by t he ~ since nobody seeme d to have /UX.1iDDdMH¾Kji}'(Jfll1CUOi.Jl 
u,~ ~11(, ~ Pa1d·1 

the time when t h eA would b e irrevocably split . } anley , in later 
s~ct,·~ 

years , often spoke with quiet as• of those days of ascendancy, 

when , led by t h e NP , the BI TU never lost a labour d ispute. Their 
/JA,,v.;)-1-ev.t{ 

fealty was h is for t he t akin0_,•--~ t hey were firmly told "that their 

loyalty was to the BI U, 11 He was still convinced of Busta ' s d is -

interest 
()..,~ ) 

arm,l'(he 

in p arty politics ! 
w-ii-C. -tee.~, fOY l"h 

t he P P would be the p olitical ..._ 
+~ J:.,eli -l tu l 

Us a g ainst Them of t he I ■•a s true ture . e constantly 

exhorte d h i s p e~ple never to forge t t h at "the :>art t vou~ .. !ose its 

functi on if it ceased to rep resent t h e cause of labour%llXX%%f 

en But it was a tough kind o re res eting , ~ 
<:. l- /1SS € .t, AS ":.biRl.!;OLICflL -rR. 1ckS,1 

r e resentati~ were /\••• ·•••t - -
IL •• • £IA 

"''OH e of yo r ' e · t 

y-;:,;-: " {~ Al() 

L A d elib erate lie," he fumed , fia was personally res ons i ble 



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,. t 
! 

f'or Mr Bustamante not~ having been a b le to a ppeal f ro 1 h is d eten­
that 

tion order." Toughll, when t h e truth was/on your own initiative , you 
.£LI II 

h a d g on e out to search an d brough t i n 1,g oo d s ound h elp as t h e • rational 

Council f'or Civil Liberties of' Great Britain , and t h e arliamentary 

Committ e e for '[est I n i an Affairs in t h e Unit e d i ngdom. h ey could 
p 

n ot , of course , d o a da mn . A war ina d e the g overnor i nvulnerable . Ma d e 

l is p osi t ion so p rotecte d t ha t one of t he ugliest rep res s ions of 

human rights, in a Society long inured to jud icial injustice, took 

its p lace in t h e roster with easy ass urance. 

J a maican/American militan t name d Domingo. 

I t con cerne a b lack 



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~HAPTER 

W.A.Domingo was a Jamaica-born journalist who in 1940 

had lived in Harlem, New York, for 31 of his 53 years. Like ,..,ua!Jlt:t.cio.> 
&Siitl5 GlJ!!b.£4i !f 1'J1a t U s b 1£ J • Ii r his exposure to the American 

r earn had made him familiar with nightmares; as an expatriate 
4 

West Indian,it had awakened a super-patriotism for his C4 ribbean 
~ <!M-,.~ blt' .. ,k, a,,,..tl wlJ.£ ;.1/l'_,.. 

homeland.· - PC I t Ji; g 1111,w; a bone-deep Socialist 

a combination _,. likely to find favour in the u.s. , where better­

dead-than-Red was taken with deadly seriousness. A taut, blunt, 

outspoken man, best ,described as a pragmatic intellectual, he had, 

with fellow Jamaicans in Ameri,ca, author .Adol he R?ber.--t;, and the 

R,ive:eend Ethelred Brown, f d the Jamaica Progressive .League 

and the West Indies National Emergency Committee♦ - Both organisa­

tions worked for the heresy of independence in the British colonies. 

The League was to be one of' the key links in the chain of 
carefully covert ' 

friends.) I t hose boldly. visibl :> and the A.-. _ ; :a I 7 

who helped establish and sustain the • ••••• PNP 
W.SWL. i> 0 Pc4/t- i.f /1(/:;IJOWl-€'/JGF Ii 

through the hard years when f'ew ,.' s J 1 # e • 81! Iii n - I &gs f/f: 
V 11/f ' ' 1,<10v.J> 

sympathy the Party,and almost all~violently deny 

a card-carrying involvement. 

Domingo was a strong critic of the American racial -[p F 
policies,which, at that time, embraced segr ation1and degr~ation 

some 
of' ~ blacks with/enthusiasm. Exposed as he was to the • Ii • 

,.......,. A r - ~o:.1cc:r 
tricks • •••~ which his adopted land endeavoured to· an 

image of' freedom, he adopted quite early the habit of' Iii a 
P' t 1'. I rJ 4 ,....-----, s 

~a sharp eye on any avuncular moves maae by Uncle Sam in these 

seas. His watchdog WINEC was therefore ready to 
close ~ ommenced talks on ,. iases 

~in when Winston ehurc ill ) t J Jpis famous destrolilrs -~or• MM ■ MC 

., __ _ ,J ~ llli--•• ' ~s.i &c in> 
~ • with American presid ent Fra lin~ Rooseyelt, * WINECworked 

,,., 

.._ ./ in the corridors ~ O"'V] • "'-¢,n, of /}ni(1~-
furiously~ • • llillllii11j.~jii.-iiijilliii11111111•~.c,anct -with-
• t·f'· bl .dDomingq i oW'1i cl observeh t b t f ~r- ·tt j JUs 1 1a e pri e Ca if 'ILD t; a u . or • Commi ee, 

~ 1 1;0 the Americans 
the West Indies ttwould have been sold i lock, stock and barrel ~ 

- ~The Americans had waEte d more. 
• . instead of merely off'er1ng them as bases.Jt The eminent 

// historian Adolphe · Rob erts agreed that ttthe islands would have been 
.-----

ticketed 'undeJrdeve loped colonies' in the political sense and 
'-

(then) arbitrarilyl occupied" by the Americans. Domingo was heartened 
* 

by the success o:f WINECA••• ••e ·••• "four 
*~· 1 "'11.i.. 



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# *" E_µocl al an< f' a r reach ing ," Hoosevel t sai d of 

it . "Most i m)ort a t action ( o f 1J ef'e n se ) 
since t he Lo u i s i ana Purcha s e . " 



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mmnths ago (the w~st Indies' were) voiceless crown colonies . They 

st* ll are crown colonies but their nationalism has been recognised 

and their voices heard in a conference of American nations (for) 

now they have leaders . We(ha ve)succeed ed in forcing the 21 nations 

to recognise our basic human and political rights ." * 

*The ma n who championed the W~st Ind ies cause at the 
21 - nation Havanf a Conference was Dr Le opoldo Melo , the 
Argentine elegate, who argued that English , French, 
and Dutch Islands should be self-governing . 

~ mingo was one o f the brilliant young : lacks who contributed to 

the now famous Harlem R nnaissance as 1llfiB. director of The Messenger , 
~ ,~·------=-

a monthly Socialist magazine . The Messenger had a circulation of 

around 40,000 and was considered one of the finest American 

publications , black or white . It was quoted by the country's 

national newspapers and had a long list of prominent American 

subscribers . Domingo was the drafter of the Socialist programme 

which had the uneasy di stinction of be ~ published 

full in the national dailies when it was seized in 

a police raid. 

Manley had entered into frank and frequent 10UDt]p. corres­

pondence with Domingo, an action that was perfectly reasonable 

in 

since the P~-P leader found in the Jamaica-born journalist, a __,. ,¼ 

experience in thinkin~ 2 J g , . "Capitalism, 11 declared Do -

mingo in one of his letters, "offers (our people) no future ." 

Just private talks and thoughts between two people; except 

that, being wartime, the beady-eyed cen:sors in Kingston and Wash-

ington were busily slitting open every envelbpe and perusing 

every word . 

Wha t followed was not solely blame d on the Americans. For , 

as Domingo observed in urging Manley to work against racial dis ­

crimination at home, bigotry had gained as much ground in Jamaica 

as in the cracker South . At Newcastle, the Jamaican military 

hill-station, there were signs over the washroom doors indicating 

which toilets were "For Europeans " and "For Natives ." 

Manley and his Party were suffering thr ough what he calle 
frustr ations and 

the '' stiff , slow years " of political X~~~ obstructions 

and welcomed any assistance . doreover, with Party funds desp erately 

low, the American chapter of fri ends, already trained to political 

ingiving, in activist tithin~ to preserve their fraternities in their 

racially h ostile land, was especially helpful . [Tx,~ngo was @l~ 



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absolutely committe d to the idea of self government f o r the islands 

- - - not as a federation , but as independent units . Proven in poli­

tical and trade union organising, skilled and experienced in the 

media , he would be a Flel eS powerful ally in the PNP lHiK1fli?iffili2tkM 

pledge to blow up a storm among the apathetic colonists . j • 

w,o- 1 a• • • a ~ ,d-1 
The war was going bad/ for t he All ie s . & Domi ngo wrote Manley 

on a strategy for Jamaica in case of a British d efeat. He wanted a 117 ~; 

"fr ontal d emand" on Churchill, a hard asking for independence3 a s Ind ia 

h a d done . He was not skipping p ages in his b ook. Lord Lothian for 
R 

one had recently told a Pilg• i m Society meeting that Jamaica and 
J>IS '1"1AIGt:1~Hc.J:j 

Burma were on the way to self government . But such ~collaboration was 

not familiar to the s n oopers in the offices of the censors. 

It was O.T . Fairclough , t hat sophisticated and gregarious man 

who had haule d Sir S taff ord Cripps t o Drumblair to be the most impo r ­now 
tant consu ltant at t he Party 's birth, who - ) led Domingo t o Manley . 

He ·~ proposed that Domingo be invited .. Manley was in favour 

and so it turned out, was Doming o. But wrote Manley : "We fear taking 

the responsibility of asking you to come before we are sure as to how 

we could provide for youM. The Party is i • 1 [ desperately poo r; " 

Diffidently, he offered " the assurance of a salary of f.4 a week and 

something being paid after your arrival to take care of your 

expenses (travel)." He added that he would personally guarantee 

the first year's pay . "I can see as far as that, whatever happens 

,. to me, " he wrote s ombrely , thinking of the enthusiastic jailer in •· , .. ,. 
i g ' s House . 

The reply was equally quietly resolute . 

"I regard your invitation as a call to duty , one that a real 

patriot cannot ignore or refuse The salary offered is a sacrifice 

on my part but I know it means one from you as well . ' 

*SPACE* 1~op1;red by ,B,.:ra,"11) 
Meanwhile, a 1941 modifaca tion of the old colonial constitution, . 

conta• ning the adult vote/ but retaining and even increasing the English 

governor ' s power, ■•••■■■■•••- wa s being readied for local 

debate . Domingo, away from the scene, had written 

excitedly XlfXMKMl:M}r hailing the "new 11£ fl i constitution --- on 

information gathered no doubt from the foreign p res s . He was quickly 

put to rig_hts by _Manley who .• privately despised it as 
'--{WJ ,:,,,,qwt,,,,f<vj ?s° 

a sop to ~ I cy hunger for self rule . "Logical ly, 11 he wrote 

Domingo, "We, as a Party standing fo r complete self government_, shoul d 
set our f~ces against (it) but Jamaica is perpetually fa l sifying his -



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torj:"cal precedence and this is a very good example." He foresaw 

also that the elected Legislature would reject the 

draft ; n ot because of violate principles but out of resentment, 

and fear . They would, he said, be annoyed at the ejection of their 

own ideas ; and above all, "ninety percent (were) bitterly opposed" 
caveat . 

to the one-man, one-vote mm~e~ They woul have reason to : KK he 

calculatea that not more than three or four of the current legis-

lators would be re-elected under free adult voting . He decided 

that the PJ\'P would publicly back the proposed constitution since 

Ui'.ti it was "inf'initely better than the existing " code . ri L For now, !/J) 

he would consent to make the run o n the ungainly, fake -gaited 

"historical precedence " / of / Ii SJ full su:ffragE: 4i1ibuet with an 

English g overn or seated in the saddle caracoling to his art ' s aP~¼Fiee~s 

content . be a move towards a real political life . /It, would 

buy time 

self rule . 

a dis ciplined momentum in the march to 

Engl and was at war and woul d logically fold a f'ist over 

any political stirrings in the colonies . R fusal would set back ,.. 

self' government Nfor an 11 unknown number of years, 11 he tolu Domingo. 

J:i:othing daunted , Domingo was elated and even Jubilant. He reckoned 

that any move that would draw the islands closer to nationhood 

bony fingers of his adopted Uncle Sam woul twist the 

who wa s definitely clawing into the Caribbean . He packe 

his bags and booked passage o n the Uni tea Fruit Company ' s Veragua :, 

out of Xew York/ 

SPACE --

Domingo had wondered at the almost casual ease with which, he, 

a citizen of limited influence, had secured a c ivilian berth on one 

of the few ships still plying the Caribbean . He was unaware that 

the Jamaican ~ onnection of the American State Department , i . e . , 
- accepted 

the c olonial government, had z .&.mxitirl.Kli!xi.& the contract to be hit 

man for Washington . Fr om the time he boarded the liner in Manhattan , 

,-4,i,e.1-l 
he had ueen packag e d, nailed down and rea'--f"/ \ for delivery to the 

English judges o f ae the Jamaican courts . And as the Veragua nosed 

past Port oyal into Kingston harbour, encing the 5-day voyage on 

June 17, 1941, a police launch- - hauled alongside and Domingo 

became a victim . He was taken off in midstream and hustlea ashore, 

tried by a kangaroo court and thrown into indefinite d etention . 

Keither Manley nor PNP Secretary Verno n Arnett were called 
, by the intercepted correspondence , 

although/they were the two mo st involved , , 1 

as 

t,....-.-.-.-.-.-. -... • 11 Every scrap o f evidence refutes the charges against 



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Domingo," Manley stated, "and the / refutation is so thorough and com­

plete that one is forced to (conclude) the true reason for Domingo's 

detention (is not) disclosed .S" * 

~ ~ 0 mingo, who had a son named after Stalini and fighting 

in the American army, was charged with tmga Zff~ engaging 

in"defeatist and anti-war propaganda to stimulate oppo/tion 
s

1
· ting of 

on racial grounds" against the U . S . bases in Jamaica . He 

had argued that the United States would send Southern whites 

to the islands and create racial tension . He prove d true . 

Squabbles and small riots marked the progress of the 

American cracker soldiers in the~ treets and accomodations 

in Jamaica . 

The affair was disastrous for areas of the American war effort. 

Black groups, which had up to then turned their influence into prosec­

ut ion of t he war, fell away; boycotting such piO:x}D{XXXKMXUKl!iifXX 

pro-British bounties as "Bundles for Brita in" and the "Committee for 

Defending America by Aiding the Allies ," 

-SPACE-

Manley was deeply saddened by the squalid and cruel way in which 

the British and American governments had handled the Domingo affair . 
I II ., J_j 

'' Domingo cal\le t o Jamaica at my pers onal request 
11 

he said . "I sent f or him be cause . 

I was overburdened with trying to devo te most of my time to helping 

the trade unions, to build up the organisation; at the same time, 

tryin~ to prevent Jamaica b eing stampeded into rejecting the new 
2onst1tutiona+ 
~~~ff Xllll.nol:J proposals . I have no doubt at all that the government 

knew he was coming to work for the Par ty , and so far from warning us 

that his presene e was undesirable, I am absolutely certain that they 

took steps to secure that he should be facilla t ed in obtaining a 

passage to Jamaica in order t o arrest him ." 

Domingo stayed locked up f~ despite Manley ' s cons'iderable 

efforts to free him, incluf£ i ng ques~ ;, .ns 1 j_n the_ Br:i,ti ~h pjir}-iamel!t 11 . , 
I"'<} ,V,,f,,e,hl-, ~ ✓~ ,l.t(_ "'-- ~ fa.lt~ <X 

and caucuses in American politic s . ~ , ..a ~ r eas-~ t\return~ 

to the United States . Unabashedly Jamai can , he continued to write hard 

for independence but remained a reso lute foe t o fe d e~ation of the 

British Caribbean; a pecaddilo, which, in his declining years, saw 

him estranged in some measure from the devoutly federal 

died in 19 __ 



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CHA TE TUIHTY~ 

~AvN ,£ l}c/J.$ 
Mr Man1ey' s PNP accepted too many/\ • a• to be a-ll P/Vf..fy 

sife;JF id Cl ~ogica11y marching , $ ■ It brought together a~---· £ £ I 
of paper factions into a 1oose1eaf arrangement, and, according 
to Arnett, tried to tap them into J.ine through Socialism. "The 
Party was not organized as an e1ection machine," ,.- quiet but 8 B 
firmly dedicated Party secretary Vernon Arnett has said of it. "We 
were not interested in 'good' politics. We were a movement with 
new ideas, particularly that of self government, and we taught 
Sociaalism to the people." Osmond Fairclough, the original founder 

~ hact not foreseen 
fc,.r+y f O 1/t.rr, n,it11-t) 

an 11 0 osi t ion", the 11 (Juts II o:f 

'\when he took his ideas to rumblair. The f'acts of the day asked -~-only for food A face for the people , and so wages anc i entities 
~~ 

werel\.._ the Union (BITU) and the arty (PNP) set out to seek in the 
on. - a.,>r Ii{ '""' i & f unison the two were ever to knowj . ego -

O'l-1,~ 
tiationsA- ... conducted with 
p~d._ 

f},,J.., ~ po/;f,~.1 ~ Pa.Jtty 
ruthless skill . .... @ J ~ 

11-~~{ ¼ m its propaganda 
~~ 
... - pa Ia groups an 

as itA•••-- network of .. 

its claim for Hoe Rule . 
Hfu 

It was a landmark year for Manley, •••••• already towering 

prestige had secured a strengthened foundation by the 

union support which Bustamante ' s removal brought. Gains had been 

iaade in overseas liberal support of his olitical ineentions, and 

artyp1en could name - rop Creech ones and taffortl Cripps with the A 
Pt! 1£1'- up 

...,.. assurance of guests . And so the alarm rose among 

those whom 1,1anley called / the "old men of Duke Street ", the entrenched 

financiers whose old- line f'ai ilies controlled mos t of' the island ' s ,~1>1mcf!C€. 



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Old Duke Street was a street o:f whorehouses: a couple £vZ99/£98v9 sauo4d 

o:f big fancy ones once occupied the block betwe&i To~~~ $11% Ar~,, 
and Barry Streets

1
in tall, ornate :frame houses :fronted by 

handsome updown redbrick Victorian - ••••• stepsJ and 

several small ones tucked in behind the lawyers' o:f:fice 

coming alive when the last o:f the buggies and automobiles 

left/ bearing the daytime solicitors. (Then the brigade o:f 

evening solicitors broke :forth and the clatter o:f piano keys 

replaced the clatter o:f typewriter keys.) A high- class 

sporting house at the top o:f the street also saw service as 

a brief, d iscreet hostel. 

Old ke street shared its 24- hour prosperity 

with a :few places o:f worship : the :fine 

Jewish synagogue, a high- walled Ca tholic convent, a small, 

lovely :fundamentalistairostestant chap ~l with)( a clock tower, 
~ ~ ~ ...... li~A"- r-u"ti:,v¥. 

- a magni:ficient Presbyterian kirk~A Neithe r did it neglect 

its politics, since the seat o:f all governing , 

Headquarters House, occupied a prominent site, the :finest 

o:f a clutch o:f splendid townhouses on its length into Man­

ch ester Square. 

At its :foot was the only archi tecturally important 

harbour landing-place, the Royal Mail wharf, mo estly 

towere and castellate . And once it had Bolton's big stable 

and carriage- hire barn. But mainly it was :famed :for 

its :fancy ladies and :financiers. 

Duke • s treet had seen lineages of riskless backers, 

:financing, for sure pro:fits from mortgages, commission agenci s 
many of them 

and i mported staplesJ /monopolies b y consent or amalgamation, 

with monies borrowed :from the thousands of savings accounts 

o:f the wor~i~_class. 

turned awa~by7tankers 

And who would themselves b e :firmly 

:for lack o:f collateral. 

-SPAC E-

A BITU/PNP monolith would not sit well with the :financiers. The 

civil rights coalition into which Richards' efficiently repressive rule 

ha driven high and low, rich and poor , powerful Jewish solicitors and 

struggling black barristers, had lost its cause :for existence because of 

two reliefs: the easing o:f the enigmatic, unexplained, sudd en detentions 

o:f citizens, and the thinning in\the ranks o:f enemy subs when the Americans 

joined the conflict. Those dangers passed , now the heads of the authori­

ties and the profit-makers could swivel in the direction of the new threat, 

the P~-P ; - the Socialist provacateurs door-knocking through the sleeping town, 

rousing :folk to mischief in t h e streetsj rousing them to challenge an 

to choose and to change; the self-assumed auditors calling :for the books 

which had served a happy people for a century. 

Obviously, Bus ta was better . Wheth:er there was talk between ""6ir.. 

Arthur and the money element s is n o t known ; little , likely, since the 

great man was not one to flatter with an interchange of views, islan ers 

for whom he held a hardly disguised d isdain. But shared intents ma d e 

it first-rate in the end. , _ 4 



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"&€&9 l I l 212 t @' s tl I t I I I I :J s n s s s s n as s b 

'!to• B I l f . t $j I )]] ) ' 97 : : e a 
2 as ltt · ] REP flit!) did 65 t?(': t £2 the 
:q t su::ii e;;e]JF jpspt@ rw II II µf @srswt?n · 

l ichards , a __. fit political anima~ vho was later to l!lake the 

erilous crossing from a ory-appointeu Colonial governor to a 
because 

Labour eerage , was not one to lose his nose on the trail/~~LA..a:~f!.A of 
~ or 

concern - the other bucks . XX notwithstanding his enlightened 

- relationship with ~anley , a PNP overgrowth would take with it into 

power elements he considered too radical for .., cowfort . 

As · early as ._ September of' 1940, 1anley was saying that lichards 

h ad 11a do ted the goals of' Socialism in the language of' a statesman 

and a thinker." e was not an emotional. man. He understood power. 

ower should be fitted with a ·--- X snaffle --and he preferred 
~ the reins in his han le could , for one of the ••••■ times in 

his Ja •iaican career , agree with the Duke treeters that the balance 
.. ~uh'k.Ul 

neede re ressing. He Bust i 

Busta tells an engaging story of his release from detention; of 

being taken fror his co1finement for a recreational otor ride through 

the city by an army officer and being set free on a side street. He 

stoutly denied emy prior knowledge that he was to be freed. ~ 

However that was , at his rel.ease, he set about the NP , He 

depicted anley as an arch plotter whose plan to take over his union 
earlier been 

was barely nipp e <.l by his return. - Since :anley hadb( & 1 j]j }t:M!l!Ul! § 

constrained to complain of' "the old- style scandal - mongering politi­

cians" rumour .. that he was res onsible :for the labour lead er' s 

continued detention, Busta 's denunciation was acceptable to a fana-
Vo-f'IJ~ '{ . 

tically ded icated --~ "he lie affected the arty in its relation 



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• • - Aheld by his foes t 'hat Busta kissed hands, his knighthood 
already in trust (to which he would 
accede at his first political defeat; '-{M? .. t hen he was 711and properly consictered finished) • and came out with a sword 
that would be forever flashing in an 
I'm-against-communism crusade. What 
seems more likely is that his anti-Re d JlM.~d attitude was not~ a fiducial arrangement as a shrewd grasp of a function that woul d be comforting to the upper crust and 
sufficiently evocative to the faithful; thus securing the widest i:< 11r....,.,._~.-



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to the trade union movement and was desi ·ned to have that e:ff'ect ,n 

Hanley has f'latly stated . 

• He was, in rt, understating , :for the NP ' s future was pro -

foundly J!it af ected by the charge. The setback was to last a de ­

cade, until 1954 when its own .i.'•ational Workers Union ( N U) had 

wrung strength :for itself and was able to aid the boost o:f the 

Party into election victory . 

llile the arty d i u not abancwn or slacken its urban work , the 

hostility o:f .usta1 ante ' s city f'orces(through the pow:er:ful BITU) 

sent it under ground , moving curiously just under the skin of' 
from busta ' s bullyboys 

t hings . F e ar o.f ersonal reprisals/made its adherents ,in public , 
recognition signals: t h ey hi ted at their 

take to furtive nods anu ••••••••• •■II■■■■■•■■■- i dentities 
in cleanerz w lars it am,;;::::mr-, , 1 81 i 5 !! ff I I 

However , the Party could show its muscles 

at ~del eiss Park , the large open apron o:f concrete avement 
where 
I ii•,\ arcus Garvey haa made his headquarters years before. The 

ramshackle wooden galleries and stage became the :forum for 

airing P .. 'P opinions and ideas --- and was promptly nick-

named The Kr emlin.* nut outside the Kr em in ,alls , Busta •s rTh~buc ­

*On~of several . Any arty meeting place , including 
l.Jrutnblair , was dubbed he Kremlin . 

tio s forces swept the city clean. Beatings of ;p :followers were 

co non and only the unofficial bodyguarus of stonyfaced youthful 

activists ~ec*red the leaders ' sa£ety. 

If the streets were closed , there were other places into 

which the L cou u (or would}not Jenetrate. hese were the homes 

oi' artisans and clerks , in the suburbs of' Kencot , Jones en , 11-

man Town , ranklin Town , Hollington Pen , Four Roads and so on , where 



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(!_!}) 
nightly grou meetings kept the faith with the caution of early 

Christians lest they at t ract the attention of the strongar~ 
"Labour . "* development 

goons who had attached themselves to 

*Later when the PNP had acquired its own mass base , 
it :formed its own retaliatory toughs squads which 
becruuse as notorious as n their rivals . 

of the se positions could have produced a dichotomy in the "rea-

sonable II classless society of Manley's hope . The i was mainly 
divide 

to blame for an angst that for some time threatened to .ill!IJ.&m a 
wageworking ~ers) 

the 1 1ftl - At citizens (as distinct f'rom the/·111••••11J into 

-eckties versus ron Blues . * The l\"P , with its boast of "more 

$ *The coarse blue cloth used for workin clothes 

B brains" than the JLP , i ts debating society accents and wads 
VGG ' - ,b. S'f'/371.1.$', ..SO 

by ''blue collar 11 1prkers . _ 

of 11 brown men" in its fold , "•••••. Ji ;_ and,\ raised the secret 

d A Pl d esires o:f all but those in the back-sweating, day-labour ranks 

for an affecting , if assertive, l o~er b ourgeois rating. Working­

clas s would not refine its proud meaning until the rise of the 

unions affirmed its power. 

Manley frequented the group me e tings :for 

face - to - face sessions , wro t e n ewspaper articles ( for Public Opi -

nion). He was aware of' the sli age , es ecially in the city. His 
-r· ... ~ ;, 

deep affection fort armers an the ressures he kept up for 

land reform (through Land uthorities & a state bank) gained him 

ground among middle and peasant farmers; but the powerful voting 

blocs grouped aroun the sugar an<. banana estate system were locked 

into Justamante ' s unio 1. 'he legislators(w~ not his friends. 

His denunciation of the Smith Constitution , which woul have left the 

ulti power in the hands of' the English governor , had firmly 

placed his Party in the role of unofficial position to the elected 

members , many of whom , with a pragmatic bound , haa made Busta's 
' ✓ 

bandwaggon as the general elections under adult suffrage loomed . * 

*In a speech at the time , Ianley said : "The f'ear that the 
elected members have shown at the very idea of self govern 
ment , has in itself proved that these men no longer repre -

f sent the :feeling of the country . 11 



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r.v 
CHAPTER THI TY- F'_9UR 

Norman Manley entered his first electi on race at 51 years old. 

A driving wan whose energy was legendary , the six years since 1938 

had been remarkable even for him . He was always the most sought 

after attorney of his time , and his present political leadership , 

with the attendant publicity , cast h im even more strongly in the 

litigants' eye. Ee had fought some of his famous court cases in 

that time , ■ 2 -

·~ 1944, Doug1as , his e1 est son , was at Co~uwbia Univers ity 

in the Uni te u States read ing f'or a social science d egree . 1-iichael 

was a pilot in the r oyal Canadian Airforce. •'una had co1 menced her 

free rt classes at the Institute of' Ja aica two years before ---

a happening often used as the reference point for the flowering of 

--- and was e diting Focus , t he literary antholo-

gy that has so well served the country ' s young writers . In that good 

year , :too, she received th~ firs·t Gol d ,fusgrave Medal to b e award ed . * 

* rtre i•l as gl'ave was ru w1<1ed for excellence in the arts 
and first awardeu i n 1897 ( gold , silver , bronze.) 

gainst that background of wifely success and filial en-

deavours , i dol of the intellectuals and a grudgingly acce te flag-

staff by the left the campaign for the 1944 elections had a :flair , 

/ 



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yr< 
a ho_µe , a distinction that Bustamante •s hastily thrown together 

Labour Party could not atch. For all that , only the disengaged 

believer could doubt that the Labour arty , with its heavy base 

structure in the working class vote would win a majoritiof the 700 , 

000 voters who , under adult suffr age , would re l ace t he le s s t han 

20 , 000 on the earlier rolls . The franchise had come with the Bri­

ti.ah government ' s rocla1ation of a new constitution to the island . 

i anley had fought remorselessly for it an thus entered the election 

race with :fine panache•, to the anguish of the palace guards and the 

outrage~ of the lesser nobility of 

who would not forget he had couple d the 

econo ic exploiters 

DXP :franchise with the 

equally detestable self government doctrine. 
Bvr Twentieth 

9 I I I J)\_ the ] of Nove b er constitution)although 
/0a;,./o.'( 

giving some respectability to his colonial status , leftA- unsatis -

fied. ower still reposed with the Englis h governor, ruling from 

the Execut ive Council of five Civil Servants e,:. Ying ' s 1ouse a oint ­

ees, and five elected membert..* "hat was as isturbing , it provided 

-!I-The old Legislative ' ouncil was broa cned from lh 
to J2 nembers an renauted the House of l epresentatives. 
A new nominated Legislative Council fw1ctioned as a kind 
of House of Lords , with siruple review powers. Voting 

began at 21. 

an elected member with an outage; he could shirk his duties or be 

~ m~~ 
comfortably inept. l-._fter his inevitable defeat at the polls, . was 

to sum up the constitution : "Insid e t he &;xecutive council ... what 

is the result? When it suits them , the Leader of the Majority arty 

{Lus tamante) comes into the House anu says , 'I am only half a gov­

ernment. In fact , I am not government at all . IJont blame me. '" 

He added dryly that creditable le islat i on fetched the o posite 

reaction from the J p . "nd you cannot pin them down. ecause 

aside from the fact that they do not hesitate to lie, they say , anu 

say with truth that they are only half o:f' the 'xecutive council." 



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Strictl? they were less than half. he Civil Servants and the 

appointees would vote as they were directed by the Governor and 

the Chief Executive himself acing the ll deal. 
'vv{__~I~ 

Ever a man of the hustings, 1'\ campaigned tirelessly. He had 

the happy .facility of liking his solitudes, yet frequenting the 

market with apparent enthusiasm. But he soon saw that the bully boy 

tactics of the Labour ~ar ty militants in the city coul not be 

handled by his own supporters, consisting at that time largely 

of housewives , intellectuals) and effete clerks whose upward strug­

gles to escape the mass class had sadly thinned their bloods . hey 

had learnt to "behave themselves." And were thus no mat ch for the 

shirtsleeved hordes who sang as a statement: 11 •le will follow Bu s -
/Jianley 1 s belief in political planning and 

t aruan t e ' ti 1 we die . " I\ DUOi~ ......... ,.,.,."""""'-#'-L> ..... ,.._._. ... .._...._..,,.._.,.,,.._.,...,,..,..._,..-&·DXXKll 
organising was n ot one to find favour 

· ~ ll •• XDOC ll%1JfK /\. instantly with the tlnrecon-
~ 

structed inl.iividualism of a people who had never seen any . .-D:ltllliile to 
/( 

take their politics seriously. Planning had brought success to the 

union during Busta 's detention; but going for it at that time was 

a positive , quick payoff in higher wages and job security. It was 

now in the turn of events'S that the unions> which had been taught 

respect for organic politics through Hr Nanl ey ' s commit lllent to 

political education for the people , was to use this knowledge to 
/Y\ l\.. 

provide a fulcrmn that would catapult Bustamante into political 
A. 

lea ership. 

~'or it was the organised foreshore and sugar wnrkers who gave 
p fl.o pl~ 

the staunch core to the JLP 's loosely spread • , ~ 

the dockers especially sharing the legend of their Leader for 

jugular labour negotiations. 

uanley saw this as basic training for any troops he could ever 

hope to lead to victory at the polls. He told the 1945 arty Con-

ference: "This election proves that the group structure is (un-



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Hi s t h oughts on tfl{X.~Xllll NH lllO{ h onest civics ' ound 

ec hoes i n Edna . I t h e mi ddle of t he war , when the outcome 

was still unclear , s h e h a d reasone d t hat Hitler had f ailed 

b ecaus e a gainst "t h e reat unexp ressed nee of the mas s e s 

to erup t i n to lead ers h i p 11 , t h e :F'uhrer h a d "p ro du ced a 

labouring c las s that is not f it to govern . 11 Stalin and ussia 

h a d a d e t h e g ra e b ecau se t h e b ridge of a n " int ellectual 

mi a le c lass " -.Z·dc)t e f fec te t e trans it ion . ,ae 'li1.ere was 
~ 

great a greeme n t under t h e old y ok e t ee .. 

~ de_ d2c 

·overn und er t he 1944 ·onstitu t ion . He was in fact uee ly dissat -

isfied with it . "We despis e d it and were conte · tuous of it . 11 But 

BustaU1ante , less moved by the morali tlf:of' l iberty and inde endence/ 



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r 

I 

t ~ an the pragma of using what you have, picked up the despised ._...., 

corpus juris and ran like hell . At his retirement from politics 

in 1969 , - Manley paid handsome tribute to the practicality of' 

Busta. "We did not regard the 1944 Constitution as enabling any-

one to form a government ," he said; 11but the f'act is that Busta­

mante turned it into a government." In the far time , however , 

Manley was impatiently at work for the better Constitution which 
an 

would make/ZR~ elected Executive Council the "principal instru-

ment of power ," a phrase that would circle the globe as British 
followed 

colony atte~ colony into independence.* 

*Manley first used the phrase at a conference of 
Legislative Council members called at Bourne ­
mouth Baths in East Kingston to discuss the 1944 
Constitution then being offered by uritain. + 

Jfanley had organised his own constituency well enough but th1e 
v 

need to engage in personal combat with the speead of Bustamante- ism 
PA.IP 1)9,,,1 in the other constituencies the1\ were challenging ~ macle him 

an absentee candidate in his own territory and that took its toll. 

~ He ~ failed DXM.iK.XlUCOC:Ui)ij[X to win his own seat but he was 
~ lttM pA.•'lj N in no doubt of the value which had flowed into the Party by prob£• 
I\ 

into the nooks and crannies of the rugged home island. He saw that 
the Party ' s cell - structure would be D the heart o:f their future at 
the ballot . The cells or groups would provide the leadership spread 

required for more wisdom at the polls. He said that the "Bustamante 

mass - hysteria" or the 11 god - worship 11 of one man could only be an­

swered by people "who can find their own leaders and spread then 

wide and deep" through the communities . There was no alternative . 

No other road. 

Some of' the people closest to Manley thin.kW that the early 

months following the 1944 elections :found him at his most unsparing , 

of himsel:f and his comrades - -- save the period that :followed the 



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Red Purge in the 'Fifties. The ~arty had been clobbered almost in-
But not before he 

sensible./ D had seen his opponents style and the terrain they 

chose. He had studied his counters and would put them into prac­

tise.* There were no comforting words. Ahead was the tough work 

*One of the counters was to out-tough the Busta toughs. 
He said later: 11When they tried to drive us of:f the 
streets o:f Kineston, I and comrad e Arnett and a couple 
of others organised bands in Kingston that would :fight 
(our attackers)." 

of organisirig cells in every ~:MXXXJQf.XOCXXDa:lffl. town and village. 

It was at the post-e½action evaluation that he ma d e the farous "inf'il­

tration" d~aration. It was to give his enemies grist for year~ «< 
PtV P .. 

grinding out the charge that the~~~~ was Red-rid-

d led. It is true that the circumstances were inculpative, since 

1•1anley had himself' remarke d on the possible presence Ji o:f "intellect­

ual communists 11 in his ranks. But what he stated in the 11 in:filtra-
..--., 

tion" speech was no worse than the bes'Et W\iwi:1t advice at a Conserva-....__, 
rurals. tive rally. But it was set to go off into the heartlands, the beloved/ 

"In any movement that is good in your district," he told his 

phalanxes, "you should be the foremost leaders in that movement. The 

fact that you am a PNP member/does not mean that you must ~z~e with­

draw from other public duties in your district. On the contrary, you 

should be prominent in it. 

"If' you are a churchman, you must be prominent in your churchwork. 

In any movement that is for the good of your community, you should take 

an active and leading part in its development and progress. 

"Go and work and be leaders in agriculture• ... housing programmes 

... co-operatives ... work fearlessly. 

''Dont let them fool you about infiltration. When a man goes and does 

work in another organisation, his job is to do it honestly for that 

organisation and (so) honour your conscience." 



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@j) 
The message was uncompromising , much so :for his purpose . Out 

there in the social and economic boondocks were his countrymen 
in his own deeply :flowi ng wa y , 

whom he •••• loved ---

It was the way his emotions looked if you were not close up . The 

content was rich in scan . 
angri l y denunc i ated at'ter the ele c tion ; 

His O g •zdl a i • · • C the Bustamante personality cult --
blamed not on the people , but on the legacy of the Colonial years 

which had de stroyed the will and le:ft in its place 11an instinctive 
die ' , 11 

desire to say, ' We will :follow (one leader) till we/f J instead selecting 'to live by acknowledging growth and change. 
0 f "'l!U:tif818f;IiEIIJHMHE!ll!M:lillli18[HliJQHE¥1Xibhil a J)W&&L And s O t hi s 

him the outrage to a people done by 
■ ■ brought~ to the passionate cry at~ 
subjugation 
VD»RWit and vassalage; and it shook his hears rs : 

11 You destroy the institutions o:f a people, you destroy the 

opportunity for leadership and government among the people , and 

then you suddenly confront them with a :free choice l And they na ­

turally out of the depths of their despair , and the legacy o:f their 
past shame and misery, look for a messiah , for a Moses to lead them . 

Th:ere are no Hoseses f'or modern man and the promised land will be 

won under the :curse of Eden - - - the sweat of' our brows ! That is the 

road ? They will :find it out in time but let us hasten the process 

by the value of our work . 11 

The work he embarked on during those early years of full 

suffrage was ft 
from 

identity 1( the 

The Party now had legislative 
careful and imaginative . 

,t 1 led by 
five "Opposition" PNP membersia,(Dr Lloyd whom he con­

f .... - - ~ · --- ,,. • .... -... ' . - . ~ - ... . 

and 
sidered 11 one of the best politicians in Jamaica" ,jFlorizel Glasspole, 

another entitled to that tribute for his remark able achievement in 

securing the East Kingston constituency to an unshakeable Party- group 

f'oundation, 



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\ 
CHAPTER THIRTY- Fi-[VE 

Absorbed though he was with national politics during the 

first 5 - year majority of the Labour Party , the legal career of 

Manley , ILC. , flourished in vigour and brillia~ ce. He was boldly 

from that time too , endorsing West Indian unity . He had forcer -

tain accepted that somewhere in the future he would live in a W.I. 

F ederal climate --- and could not know that the rigour of it would 

prove politically appalling. He sent a Party delegate , Richard 

Hart , to that dayspring of the Federal reality , the Caribbean 

Labour Congress held in Trinidad in September , 1945 , who urged what 

was no doubt also his Leader ' s views , the • development of the Crib-
::i 

bean area an an economic W:WR unit. The PNP delegation saw as 

ideal for fe deration , a development and expansion programme <U;~g 

~~z~~ ttunder the unified control (of) a Federal. Constitution with 

responsible government. 11 As tuality would modify d r Manley ' s views 

a decade and a half later ; but for now he was cordially welcoming 

XJU[XJiX T.R .Marryshow , the Grenada journalist and eloquent l'IJ\.WlialuiR 

".Father of West Indian Federation " on a Jamaica visit , * 

*Federation , so long in coming and so quickly s c i:::;g_, 
been urged since 1920 by several West Indian conserva­
tive groups including the Jamaica Imperial Association , 
not :for the common people ' s benefit but at a quiet nudge 
from the Colchnial Of:fice who foresaw a saving in theDritisb 
budget :for the colonies. 

Although he was not a member of the Jamaican government and was 

making his li.vi ng :from h is p rivate law p r a ctice ( and ploughing back 

much of' that living into keeping the arty f'inancially alive), he 
or:P,c;r:JLLY 

was at the first modern and serious federal ef:fort_,when he attended 
I\ 

the now famous Hontego Bay Conference on c1oser Union in 1947 , callect 

by the British government. He was there in the curious capacity of 

re1,>resentative on the multi - national Caribbean Commission which had 



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been set up by the British , American , French and Dutch "landlords" 

in the Caribbean (and whose director of research was a young Trini ­

dadian named l)r Eric Will iams) . It was at the Caribbean Labour of 

Congress meeting in Kingston immediately preceding the 1'!ontego Bay ) 

Conference)that what some view as the IDederal kiss of death was 

inflicted on the PNP leader by an enthusiastic Eastern Caribbean 

chairman. coming from territories that in a real sense f'ormed the 

South American archipelago of small islands f'rom Trinidad to the 
of 

st Kitts - Antigua cap
7

and who for generations/inter- coastal travel 

had lived a f'orm of social and economic federation , and speaking in 

a country which could hardly be capable of requiting a passion for 

linking destinies with strangersQ a thousand miles awa0 whose 

neighbourliness had only been figmented by a British Imp e rial necessi­

ty , *the Chairman hailed • 1Ianley , then out of' power , as the 11 one who 

is well able 

It was 

• .. nor 

a 

to 

*Not w1til the establishment of the University cifi"=' 
lege of' the west Indies and the influx of dtrib­
bean young people t~zaatrIZ1iHl1 did J'amaicans begin 
to know , or in most cases , see their fellow iest 
Indians. 

shape the future we aspire to. " 
~ us·rA 

remark that woul<., not escape the notice of _. ti . .., 
A. 

extract his zestful support of' proposals f'or unity f'rorn 

f'ellows>who) froni the public platform/repudiated his constituents ' 

choice oi~ rulers with the idiotic assertion that 11we who come from the 

various islands are not so much interested how you feel about Korman 

Lanley" since , as far as they were concerned, • anley would be the F~d -
/J--i.-.d., /J tJ /?;, "':7 -J70 S,,.,..b'2R.fJ,,(/J" ( 

eral head , not Busta. 9't slashing attacks on "pauper islands " were 

not annulled by his 

establishing closer 

anger. 

subsequent votes in favour of the ,itsolutions 
-fl&_ l·<J.f! V\J1k) c,,/ ~i;..cl '1 IN. 

ties . ,\The e ast - South C~ribbeaners carried their 

~ Manley ' s contribution wto the Hontego Bay conference was a 

fineness of debate and reasoning that made clear why such articulate 



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leaders as Marryshow , Grantley Adams , Albert Gomes of Trinidad , 
F . L . 
Eilililk Walcott o:f .uarbado~and the rest saw in him the 1 one who would 

"shape the future we aspire to . 11 

In the narrower but more intense field of home politics , he 

was proving a formidable if unofficial "Leader of the Opposition" 

outside the Assembly. One of the major preoccupations was with the 
ax effect that ~'ngland , embarrassed and bewildered h. its parlous 

,=-,sou. Ft't. , 
postwar/\ ~A_ would have on the Jamaican economy. Manley was 

relentless in pointing out the major defects in a Colonial sy~tem 

where decisions of deep effect upon a people l were made in a capital 

half'way around the world,~ He had no doubt that any 

British move to ease the economic strain would be guided by a consi­

deration of what was best for Britain. He declared at the time : 

"The West Indian problems are a signal example of neglect and ad­

ministra t ivtncompetence ; D a modern proof of the fact that no people 

can become a nation save under their own leadership and by the power 

of their councils and their decisions." 

He was , as usual , being pre - eminent in both fielGs of present 

endeavour , m politics 111D --- and law. h is courtWtm appearances 

lost no frequency in spite of' the daily increasing hold of politics. 

Spectators packed the galleries at almost all his cases, from bizarre 

murdErs to dull civil suits. One case of the time (in a career of' 

particulars) was the trade mark matter concerning the Vicks ~hemical 

Company and its product, 1Vicks V9porub , solo in Jamaica since 1919. 

Ae;ainst Manley was his fellow Wl!,;st Indian, Sir Lennox O' Reilly of 

Trinidad , appearing f'or the d efendants , Cecil de Cordova & Co Ltd. 

O' Reilly , 

Barristers 

a tall , truculent 
::r Cl.M,,.JM e.a..., 

whom litigants , 
I\ 

white 'frinidadian was one of the Outside* 

unable to secure Hr l"lanley' s services for 



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any reason , were be i ng obliged t o re t ain if t ey woulLl o~fer 

*Sir Uugh Wooc;ljng , later Ghaucellor of' the W. I . Univer sity 

and the younger, O ' Heill:y; W?X'O others , both oi' J'rinillad. 

a 

mura.s,. xn&, xm_ ·:t· ~ xn n ~~ 

Re PLA CG /hctV-r 
to the brilliant .Jaruai an. It was a 

in ,fll.ich n.ei thar l awyers gave quarter , a policy oisplayed in t11.e 

ianley (to a wit1ess , drugg~st 

·ave you known • entholatwn? 

1 itness: o 

(l ' 'l.eill.y: Please d ont leao , d r Hauley 

f'igh 

tanl cy : : was not leading. I asked l im if' he ever knew a prep a ­

rat i.on called M~ntholatt-..u . The answer is eithe yes or no . He 

sai s. , No . l>.Lease do :not intert'upt mo 1..umecessarily. 

JJ e won the ca.:;e and the a,;)peal to the Privy council in Lon­

don at whic1 he appeare •** 

.--.,..._"'"""'sc:rihed by · the Lorri Chancellor as •1the best arg e:ut • 

I • have ever heaAd in a tra e mark case." 

. •a ley in :full courtroom £li.p;ht was un:forgetaab.le. Like all 

great courtroo la .,ryers , his cases wex e c.linl.eal experiences o :f 

practice anu experiment. :rn the letter of Lle law, he was of' great 

1:,' 

strentr,th, an omrdvorous road er and poatessor of a f'antastic n emory, 

but in court , his cool incia :i.ve mind and quick c:Lea.r thinkine 

enabled him to seize :i. eas and work them w • ti grace and ease f'or 

his own causes. Of' no cl :i.smissable account also was a gift f'or histrio ­

ic &) whichs combit.t.ed with native good looks , persua.sive eloquenc<":,; 

anrl tho p an.ache of wig & ilk gown, was kn wr1 to disarm and capture 

the tou ;hest jut1.ga am jury . Sir ,fohn c'~berry , a f'ormor u bie:f Jtis -

tice of Jauaioa . has said of hiin: 11 Perhapa l is reater•t lege1l a:ttri-

but e was the ability to di carGl trivia and quicJ, .. ly see points wl:lL;h 

?) 

h.e co l d evel.op . ~ i!. - ~ )Cc JX~ih., ·_ 0 nn ~JW{ H..li~ 

..,Carberry also discloses a 11anley au ex·sti tion . •11. e 



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always carried a lucky charm in his breast pocket in court. The 

charlll worked i'or him but he worked hard f'or the charr:i. 11 

And that he did ,. i hrough long spells of' little sleep and in­

credible applications of' trial-and-error rehearsals until the courses 

the case could take:-were examined and cleared . Later , when the pres ­

sures of' politic.s · began to interf'ere with his case preparations and 

he 11made slips in court" as Sir John Carberry puts it, • "he could 

usually s1Jot them hi1nself'. For example, there was a case in which. 

he went of'f' on the wrong track completely, caught himself' and then 

said to the court: ' This is what my opponent woula have saia. Now 

I will present my own case. ' " 

One o:f his "own" cases that brought hiru political felicity 

was his successf'ul defence in England of Donald Beard , a Jamaican 

R.A.l<'. serviceman on a murder charge. Heard in anchester, Eneland 

in November , 1946, thi case gained him t:eemendous goodwill among 

the new and growing migrant Jamaican population in Britain_, and a ~ 
o±' 

feedback to their voting KXMXtiCGOCXll]{fil{ kith- &- kin 

home. But in his criminal practice , the Alex~nder iuruer case in 

•.1.andeville eclipses most . His winning defence of the Rae Town 

socialite charged with shooting her husband was described by trial 

Ju$tice S Sir Adrian Clarke as "sheer genius." IIe must have lost some 

sleep of the normal allowance ( :four hours a night , D 2 a . n1 . to 

6 a . m., except when he luxuriated in six hours , mi night to 
w11trr HE c.~1-LE"b • 

about every ten days in his simple system ofA "catching- up") 

6 a .m. 

as he 

studied the elaborate ballis t ics by which he be:fuJdled the opposing 

proctors. Naturally , the sharp young attorneys of his day , on t,he 

ladder's early rungs , were not allowing him out of sight. They took 

to grabbing at his coattails , waylaying him in the Supreme court 

library and at the uoors of the robing roo111 . "So he started going 

on Sunday mornings," Sir John once reminisced, "until the solicitors 

caught on to this too . 11 So r-,r ~Lanley deveJ.ope the oddity of 



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185 

choosing his books and standing by a window to read , rather than 

at the af'f'able lHfWtiw:filillililil.lU! tables. When , f'or the better light, l!YfflrlN 

they sought the same window , he would politely move to another. 

Even those brash young men at length accepted the hint frotn the 

K.C. , that he was decidedly opposed to his brain being picked. 

He was essentially a solitary performerj not because he had 

no faith in the band but his purity of' sound required the advantage 

of' the concerto than the grosso of' the symphony . 11Hany (of' us) 

leaned on him in those early days , " says Sir John Carberry of the 

time when they were young men in practise; "he leaned on nobody. 11 

Douglas Manley says that at Nomdmi , in the evening concerts on 

the mouth organ , 11we would be banging (the rhythm) on a table but 

he would be the solo performer . It wasnt a band. I think he was 

a solo person . I dont think he was ever really a team man. Not 

really . He was an individualist . " 

His judgement was severe on bad courts and in privacy he 

described some judges as "jokes." He once ripped into a Court of 

Appeal as 11 a lazy court , entirely ignorant and none (of the three 

judges) reading more than a page of' a textbook . In fact , they 

are scandalous. 11 One curious facet of' his court work was an in­

tense dislike to appear in murder cases --- an~ yet these were 

the cases in which his labour and genius turned probable losers 

into fantastic triumphs . He found that homicides demanded, in 

his words , " an. intolerable degree and intensity of' concentration 

and nervous energy " except he was personally convicted of the inno-

cence of his party. As he once rudely wrote : "When one is adverse -

ly convinced , it becomes mere prostitution and the artificial sti ­

muli (becomes) mental Spanish Fly . 11 But the ambivalance of the 

lawyer to the facts of' his trade , moved him to exclaim : "Yet , it 

must be so ~ You cannot move , hold , bind , unless your whole self 



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is histrionically engaged in the real sense. ;iere word s are 

nothing. 11 

Elbows in , gown of goo d material but torn and flapping , 

wig set squarely forward on his forehead , face profiled to the 

light streaming in at the window , athlete ' s body poised f~2«aEe 

or swaying in the intensity of his mood , N .W. 1anley in full court ­

room flight was an actor totally histrionically engaged. For 

many years , his juries and judges - - - were moved, held and 

bound by this unmatched a dvocate. 



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tiom~ 1:.oal o :f the hostility to,wards the P '.P f'rom the Old 

BaroHc[;E! of boardroom and plantat:f.on was a 1e to, a) the 1 arty' s 
on 

land use !)T'l)gr:arnmo, an b) the i:r.reveren-1; plat.form pokes ;;_111:. the 

.uose o:f that sacroes cow, the Dri tish '•,Cl lire, b.r th , j rn a tJ.ent 

yotm(~ irnepressib1os of' the Party. A typical roaotion .,._ came 
wealthy social worker 

:front a/ l1 t'f lf lin1ir!Jlftf•' if of the day , Ai s ,,!ay Farquharson, wh , 

' with ·C~ .rm womanly loF.,ic, lace< her dis. ent wi tl a look- what - you- lost 

ta unt at the f'und s - con.scious Party excJ equer. n1t .hai ,ens•" ;:;lte 

,\/rote, 11 tbat owing to actual and anticipated ex:pen<liture thi.~ year , 

1 $hould not in any caHe b able. to give ore th.an a cou,;,.le o.r 

(;Uineas to the Pr ; hut i aoc i tio.o. to thi ·, I f iu u} ;::,el.f' ::,;o 1r,uch 

~--, 
in o,_ po,,i tion to what I un< erstanu to be some 01~ the J1.airi. te.ne:fts of' ._. 

tbc ,1a rty, that it noes not seen possible t! at .l coul.u conacient.lously 

subscribe. 11 

forcibly acquire anu 
l!ar charJ;e t 1at the P .. ·P planned to/ctivide the comrtry lands 

into ~)lot~ o:f t'ive to ten acres f'or et tlemcnt y pea.·ant 

was sharply dm iod y Han.Loy. 1'he fi'arquho:::-son allegatt.orn; J'ur-t,1or 
particular f'antasy 

includ d the/.f~ ~ - 'lhich was to become a erodine; agent i.rect.eu 

at the 1arty's struct rin{5 of' rural voters :l.nto its rank.s, when sho 

ci-cnd Wthe instance of' 0 our chaff'eur (who) has bougl t about 2.5 acres 

i'or- f'ar,11 development; anu archly asked: "'\1ould iorthy enterprlae 0£ 

t .1.ds des c:r.j.ption not b discouraged? 0 

:resumably, Socialism woulc c.:o thi . o the hui couraeea" other 

sco:r(':)S of' thousands o:f Vaeeless Ones should f'irst ind ncm- existr;w.t 

jobs at comparative pay a.ri.t buy intn ti.u r,inor lm • eu (-;entry. 

1:ing'a H u s e \·ms also in the ca:::t o:f 1.;he t'e1 tasy, in a role 

calculated to up 8tae-e tl e P ,P e:fi'ort to attrat1t school teachers iHtO 

party po itics, i.e., into the P ln a ueadpan perrormance boi'ore 



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a teachers ' conference in r ingston ' s St Georges Hall , Governor 

.J.icharcts exhorted that they bear in mind the words from . acaulay ' s 

Lays: "When none were for the party and all were for the State . " 

It d i d not escape Manley what the wily strongman was up to 

as he was , from vhitehall to talk , or bludgeo1:,back the upstart 

blacks into line . 

sent , 

ttrhe simple fact is that his Excellency deliberately used the 

oppo:etunity to indicate to the teachersr hat it was not the wish of 

government that they should interest themselves in any way in the 

only political party in Jamaica , the People. s Lational Party . Shrewd 

observers have not failed to observe that His Excellency never miss&es 

an opportunity o:f deni~rating our efforts. ~veryone in touch with 

:feeling in the country knows tha t the teachers are very concerned 

with the question of the attitude o:f government towards the arty . 

. ,;,os t o:f them , alive to the dif:ficul ties and troubles of this country , 

would support the ~arty for the reason that it o:ffers a means of intel -

ligent politi cal action on a defined policy for the good of the 

peopleW (and do not) share the upper class view that for some peculiar 

reason . party politics , though necessar y for other countries , is 

bad f'or Jamaica , 11 

Richards was the de facto ruler , the effective government of 
-t.a-a.c/..a..y-,t > 

the colony . He was the Employer . The-1\careers , their professional 

existence , depended on him --- as in a sense ct id the future of the 

country , since , if indeed he had turned loose Bustamante to break 

the olitical solus of the Socialist party , he had antipodally changed 
~ 
4'.l&Jt political destinies . Like Richards , Manley knew the powerful in-

fluences exerted in the communities by school teachers . They would 

supply the cadre of leaders in the :first stage of' the march up the 

road to political independence. So he struck hard , al~ost reckless ­

ly , at the all - powerful Richards in a bold bid for the cont~id ence of' 

the p:r:_o:fession . 



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.. 

'1 'ronouncements from the Chief' Exec1 tiv~ ( :i.~ f') F>no:rmout'l 

,,;roi.6 ht . A ld.nt f:Oes almost a. 1.' r a command. 1.t i well known 

at the work~ he }'arty aims at ,Joint; in r.eeard to po itical education , 

and in regard to building up a 1:iain"le O1~ ci tizeu:;;hip arw res_)onsi -

bili ty, will. bo. i'ru ·trat",d 1mles::; it wiws the support of a ::iu .. 

stautial rn.u• her o.f the teachers, w-ho, out~(1 oi • heir schools, 

aro tile leaders o:f tl:10ut,;:ht a.c;.,.., acLivi1.y 1.n th rural cornmu:aitie . 11 

~- ternly be c monished t he kint; • s proxy: 11So long as (an elected) 

e ,·ecutive governn1erii. does not exist iu this country·, it: :i.s wrong 

1·0r t;Over.nmeut to ap11ear to take sj_de. in regard to such polit ical. 

life a& c oes exi.-t . n 

'/he icharus hi ·e h.ad been proven thick and whether t~1e .fanloy 

ll ic1wn pene trated was a matter 0£ conjecture. .i:n any case , the w:ind 
either he 'Hi.chards 

ha· turned anct J10wever/U ttlil ·,naklur~ thought , the s :l.:x. yea'l'.'b to 

194l4, ••;ere to i:r1·evocably spell out th eround rules by which the 

,Ja,;iaican politic al game oult- b ul - ye1 : two sic.: es j_n a cont eo t an 

an o. cilla tory succossion. ''rue, there wouJ.d be a few attero1) ts at 

wll,Onint; the :field • but these :f'orts ,;ere crushed each polling ay. 
two- party 

'l'he country would quickly settle in the :fact that/~ poli tic'!'l 

wa~: in to stay. 'J.'hat their pol1•:;ica.l :future was being .sh.a >ed by 

"th<i 1)~,i"J) or JL. , or, .in ·tile realism o:t tJ o ·e days, t>y ,lan.ley or msta-

ma to. A :fe~-, ery special J.ncl pond en ts w 1l•J !.lake it .Cor awllile yet, 

notably PoJtl.ana ' l:l • arolu ;\.Llan ( tmt w t o, in. the lou-e • voted wi tb the 

,JLP). nu t not or long. 



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f i 
I 

I 

CHAPTER ThIRTY GBl/"1!,1i[ 

fit 
The Kingston of the 'Forties was a compact municipality of 

firm innercity boundaries, familiar faces and easily distinguished 
" 

partisan affiliations. Exits to the middle -income foothills and higher 
;) 

had not yet been unlocked by the mortgage insurers. Busta •s inti-

macy with the heavily occupied "downtown ", his strongly stated iden­

tity with "The People 11 , * outran all the intellectual t,_anley could 

*Bustamante lived in Luke Street, took his ease in 
Arlington Louse , a modest watering place at the corner 
of East Queen street and lark Lane. 

do . ! anley, K .C., was not a quickly endearing man . It was to take 

more experiences and disappointments than he had known up to the 

' orties to make hiru the mellow , even twinkling politician the 

nation knew in the after years. He loved his home and family with 

intensity and was apt to be irked at even an innocent reach into 

his privacy; a fierce protectiveness that moved close to obsession. 

"It is a strange fact that half' of' me is glad and half' resents any­

one here at all, 11 he ](once commenteu during the absenee of' hia 1{if'e 

in SI.gland. "The house and I and the absent Edna have a private 

life. Beople interfere with it. 11 His political speeches did not 

send running feet into the streets; not up to then. A popular 

dance-hall jump-up was named the Bustamante Walk; the Lanley lope, 

a common progenital trace shared with his cousin, managed to evade 

the culture. The PNP profile was cut off at the knees in the effort 

at avoiWding street floggings. In fact, it was the prodigality of' 

JL followers in laying on punishment that spurred the PNP to the 

final successful challenge for the streets --- and the votes ---

of Kingst on. Percy Hil i!er, that excellent reporter and former 
now defunct 

Gteaner Farm Edito:;-.}when (with Aimee Webster) he edited the/Carib-

bean Post, in a 1948 article accurately set down the onset of the 

PNP "Pioneer Group II upon tl ... e Bustamante forces. 



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,,l'he Group had been f'ormect out of' a security need against rampaging 

.tI.J · mobs which at that time controlled the suburb of Jones Town, a 
•. 

~ ming beehive of' narrow street~and small neat ahouses occupied 

mostly by artisans. As their bahevZiour pattern JDtllf tightened un ' er 

an en:forced regimen of care in moving about the suburb, a kinct of 

discipline was i mposed on the PNP minority. The beefy waterfront 
seemed 

boys were still bustamante's, a ready shock-troop that 8iH!U18 to 

spring out of the ground at the slightest indication from "The 

Chief," It was suchtl a response that in February , 1946, sent the mob 

marching behind Dustamante (and his sidekick antl finance minister 

Frank Pixley) to the Mental I ospital bent on b:eeaking the PNP - called 

strike of hospital staff. On the way, the mob beat to death John 

Nicholas , a PNP member, caught alone and in the open. That outrage 

serve d to harden the PNP supporters, ~ho, though d i screetly conti­

nuing incognito save at group meetings and rallies, were soon, in 

ironic emulation of the enemy "Chief", packing hideout guns at their 

gatherings.* 
weighted 

*The JLP - ~iiildlilCIS0tl2t!~ Executive Council promptly banned 
the carrying of guns, a «aJ~ff weapon whose neatness 
and easy concealment more fitted the jacket-wearing 
tradition of the white - collar PNP, Cornered, Nicho­
las had fired, killing azzEE one of his attackers. 

Bustamante and Pixley were indicted for manslaughter an a 

trial was held in Port Haria; the request by Bustamante 1 s lawyers 

for this change of venue indicated :for the first time Busma's 

nervousness that he was losing his city. Freed of the charge, they 
under escort crowd 

returned/BMOiliMWHfi of a madly celebrating tiiiiailii( who recorded their 

elation by taking licks at every known PNP head in the way. 

It was on this ground of authentic need that the protective 

Pioneer Group rose in Jones Towztnd was ready on that warm October 

nighiin 1947, to challenge the JLP :for Kingston. 

Hanley was talking at a mass meeting on Ox:ford Street as it 



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intersects North Street . The campaign for the munic,fal elections 

was in high gear . Manley fought to gain control of the Corp orate 

(metropolitan) Area where he had in 1944 gone down to humiliating 

defeat . suadenly his s p eech was beine; interrup ted by a rising mur­

mur from the crowd. The ranks before the portable platform opene 

to allow in two blod d pattered men. They stumbled forward and 

in the short hush , the men reported that they had been beaten while 

passing a JLP meeting in Rose 1'own , a tough , seedy d istrict near 

Jones Town. That report triggered the explosive fury 1tllllft bottled 

up by the chagrined P NP !'actions. 

1anley, the ex- soldier and lawye1)had long ago recognised the 

importance of' rapid communication) to his Party and union strategy. 

Bullied and harried as they were , PNP :£all city folk had deve -

loped a regiment of couriers mounted on the swift ubiquitious Q bi­

cycles of those years. Silently , a squad of ~~U~Z messengers on 

the edge of the crowd cranke off on their machines to "tell I(en' s 

meeting about it; " i.e ., a nearby meeting in support o.f ii lenllll 

I ill' s candidature . Behind the cyclists, the Oxford • street 

meeting turned in a spontaneous descent upon the Rose Town meeting. 

Nobody tried to stop them. Nobody coul d . 

The confident , swaggering Rose Town fellows , whose scouts haa 

warned of the approaching PNP marchers , turned eagerly for the fray. 

But when they were struck with equal power from the west where hen 

Hill ' s people had secretly swarmed up , the swagger took flight. The 

encounter left two dead aw.l 37 injured , all of the JLP. The PNP 

casualty was seven hurt. 

The event was II tragic but out of it came some good for on 

election day , while the parties marched and countermarched glaring at 

each other, there were no pitched battles. There was now a strong 

ma n in each house and violence , as a policy, was, for ..a a period..> 

in d isus e. And Norman anley also won his city. 



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: he evening W of' the poll count for the 1941.i- elections) when 

he tasted his first defeat, Hanley , impatient to get on with his 

work , had turned to Edna and moaned , "My God , another f'ive years 

to wait. 11 He was not a waiting man. Impatience played a part in 

his achievements , a characteristic that increased with his years . 
He was a man who drove himself to exhaustion , even if' , in his case , 
it took longer to reach , By now he had picked up his destiny* and 

*One morning in 1944 after his car had somersaulted over a precipice on the Gordon Town road , as he walked away from the wreckage in the Hope iver ravine , he 
remarked to his helpers (in an island proverb) that 
"Han born fe hang cyan ' drown." 

was carrying it with the grace , wit and driving intent of the man 

on good terms with himself . He intended to take over the politi­

cal leadership of the country and was chafing to get on with the 

job. 

I eanwhile , both f arties in the House had gained by going through 

marriages of convenience with two curiously disparate men. The small 
Pl\TP bloc had been increased with the addition of 1:t'red "Slave B0 y 11 

Evans , a colouri~ul character who had won as an Independent in East -
now declared his affiliation. Evans , a e rn Westmoreland and ltllt!t~l!t1!hfi-itl!teti:llltli~i:l!ttlhl~#l§i-•1.bt•li•!h!t tall 

fine looking man of mystic bent/ combined with the earthiness that 

was sure fire in the rqralsWWU , proved a vote-getting machine. Le 

would considerably strengthen the Party's western approaches in 

ensuing elections, leaving his safe seat to another PNP selectee 

and crossing to the ne • ighbou.ring constituency to whip the ,JLP incwu-~ 
bent}~ C . C .Campbell who later , as Sir Clifford Campbell , became 



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~ The JL I s choice for spouse was a suave, solid politician from 

Portland named Harolct Allan (later Sir arold), also an Indepen­

dent . Allan remarkably held on to his Independence even while 

serving as Busta 's finance minister :for both JLP terms. Uut 

the arty badly needed him . 

mentary ~ :~. 

he J was woefully short of parlia-

One of the public controversies which engg._,ed ianley ' s atten-

tion at the tirae was the famous Benham eport, an economic ::,urvey 

un<.lertaken by a couunittee of Jamaicans appointecJ Ly the governor 

and headed b¥ the inevitable English expert; in this case, ~r 

Frederic ... rnnham. ~nhrun was articulate and liked it. 'hen his 

,eport came out and was attacked from all side:,, of the political 

fence, Conservative capitalists and progressive Socialists, he 

took on all of them with what must have been a joyless glee since 

he had no hope of winning against both sides of the argument. J.:n 

one symposium, arranged by the J·ewish Literary Society in the 

Christian's St Georges Hall,) at which the other two panelists were 

, r ~anley and Gerald 1air of the short-lived but arch-Conservative 

amaica Democratic Party , it was difficult even for the voluble Een-
hearing 

haru to defend his effort after tt~lifti~IHt hanley dissect it an< 

tell lOiJ!WltlUfJtllfUfH. an overflow audience that 11wha t is puzzling many 

of' the people who have read the 1leport is not what is wrong with it 

but how such a document came into existence at all. 11 

Manley's vigorous participation in politics outside the jJouse 

was being matched by his Par ty's qualitative delivery inside the 

House and on Parish Councils e.;1phatically above their numbers. 

rizel Glasspole, the young (35) alert accountant who had won the 

East Kingston & ort Royal seat with a phenomenal majority and 

•lo-



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was just s.llarting his never- de:feated stay in the House , was 

pursuing his role as minority leader with the polished d irect• 

ness that woul d mark his political career . The pungent Wills o. 
Isaacs on the City Council was lambasting the likes o:f the Lord 

Bishop of Jamaica for "soaking" the Council £1 , 650 ( .) JJOO) f'or 

lands owned by the Anglie ans at Bishop ' s L0 dge. And with the 

i mprisonment of' party- activist , poet - writer- painter Ioger ?- ais 

:for his denunciatory "Now We Know " article in Public Opinion , 

and the death of Samuel Constantine h arquis :from an illness 

brought on by two years of interrunent , the Party now had its 

authentic martyrs . 

The PNP bloc in the elected council o:f the Kingston & st 

Andrew Corporation , led mainly by Wills Isaacs , was winning valued 
tak ing 

notice :for the Party by/audacious pokes at the Establisl:unent. 

Such Isaacs ' heresies as his motion to throw custodes of':f the 

rarish Councils was hailed as a break :from the Colonial system , 

now being rapidly discredited . In an election year (1949) and 

with t h e severely limited publicity the capitalist - owned news ­

p aper gave to the Socialist ' s tiny uinority in the House , the 

PNP ' s verbal d ominance o:f the City Council by Isaacs , Hrs Iris 

King , :-:r 0 el .,J ethersole , i mmensely bene:fi t ed the Party. Signs ot' 
in 

disarray h~Q the JL faction on the c ouncil, and better yet , 

rows between 1 .ayor .t--. ewland and Social Services _inister Frank 

P ixley, top rankers in the D JL , gave comfort to the PNP . * 

*In such ill repute was the ~SAC , with accusations of' 
graft flying about , that when the JLP - majority Council sought "a :few days loan " of' :i:, 26 , 000 to pay :for a coal 
shipment , nervous bank officials phoned the Colonial 
Secretary for his okay . The furious Council voted to 
change bankers. 

N . W . . anley • s law p r actice , however , brought mixed blessings 

to the Party . His retainers often d eposited him on the sid e 

least likely to guarantee his opularity with the proletariat. His 



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skills were not always available to the prosecuted ; he was some-

times required to join a Crown attorney in working for the locking- up 

of a lo~ er , the sympat~- arousing "little man " . And at which time ... 

his most loyal political :followers a mong the poor , his largest 

constituents , suffered bewild erment . Sume political obsrrvers of the 

time insist that the two rejections of the PNP at the polls was 

because the ma s ses could not identify with Corporate Lawyer Han-

ley. His appearance for the Crown in a 1949 rad io fraud case (the 

d ef'raucl e d company was his client) must have been a reluctant duty. 

Needless to say, he d id it well and won. 

Another &1\DDUU source of unhappiness was the takep ver of 
-~ h is beloved Jamaica Welfare by a Social Welfare Commission, a dozen 
\.../ borne 

years after his talks with Sam Zemurray had "32-ES.0.i! fruit in a social 

organisation without preced ent in the Colonies. By its stress on 

self- help, it had inspire d people to build houses at onnett and 

Labyrinth etc, establish community end eavours at Porus, Guys Hill 
in 

etc , and fostere d a season of hope m~ the depressed rurals. 

~ ~ un for nine years as a private project on fund s 

from the banana companies , the government had entered into its ma­

nagement in 1943.) upon Welfare ' s acceptance of' a mandate from the 

Committee of I;evelopment & TJelfare (C ::)&1~) to carry out its pro-
ssion 

gramme in Jamaica. Now a . new (1949) Committiif1S'4 was sending the 

earlier concepts out of existence and putting the politicians , i.e. , 

the Bu s tamante administration, into the saddle. 

Busta made no bones about his reasons f'or desiring control 

o:f Jamaica Welfare. He charged in the House that it was being used 

as a propaganda arm by the PNP --- although such of his own 1.ayal ­

ists, as St :8lizabeth 1 s Cleve Lewis/ d enied they hact d iscovered any 

laches in the conduct of the Welfare officers . Lewis , anurbane 

political survivalist asked instead that Hanley take himselfW off 

the Board , a little gambit that would certainly hold :for Lewis 



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t:J,l tf(l,/l,,:, 
the goodwill o:f such influential voterA._ as the field officers. 

!-:anley was himself' working the "excursion circuit II with per-

sonal appearances in country parishes e on one-day Party outings. 

At the same time, with sure political savvy, he was lacing together 

the rural st Andrew constituency he had :failed to capture in 1944. 

A new warmth in his public relations was replacing the old courtroom 
i!xafziza<&~ 
exactness as he joined the Party excursioners on the train trips to 

country towns. His love of' :fun and mischief', carefully unrevealed 

away :from l.Jrumblair or Womdmi , was breaking out with more frequency . 

Jut it. was a serious year in spite of all. .JL lready the elctoral 
" 

o:f:fice was brushing up its :final list of' electors and the liouse was 

passine; iHhJ aiaendments to the electoral code. Busta was also doing 
_ fotJJtwddt 

his own fast:tepping ~ hrough the countryside --- and bitterly com-

plaining about the expens lilD of' politics as he had. to "pay :for the 

travelling out of· my own pocket with money I brought :from abroad." 

Odd as it may , the virtual >rime minister of the country was receiving 
State 

no allowances f'rom the ~ save his salary. 

Never a place :for kindness, acrimony in the House increased 

as elections W drew near. .r'antastic accusations and personal abuse 

took over the nialogue , to the extent that in desperation , Ulric 

Simmonds, the Gleaner 's political writer, strongly advocated recall-

ing the Afternoon Tea of' the Crown colony years. Simmonds was an 

anti-colonialist and a short-drink man himself'_, but he urged the 

return to crumpets if' it would "help the members to get to know each .. 
other better. 11 

The world was alsoI getting to know Jamaica better through its 

as yet sketchy tourist industry; but moreso , through its artists. 

:!:Its writers, poets, painters. l~EW DAY, ~he novel of the 1:orant 1,ay 

~ic tor Stafforr' Reid 



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uprising, had impacted on the fledgling nation to an astonishing 

enthusiastic acceptance (a tale told around Gordon and Bogle who 

would become the first l' a tional Heroes of Jamaica in independence .. )., 

Langston Hughes , the A.1.nerican black and great folk poet , had broueht out 

his anthology of Afro - world poetry with Jamaica ' s contribution 

strong in room and quality , including works by George Campbell , the 

Jamaican poet with the greatest influence on Manley. Edna Manley ' s 

" school II of yow1.g painters whot she had so considerably helped to 

bring along , were 
> 

anu even bettefs 

now reaching into the country ' ~ consciousness; 

original canvasses were now being bought by lower 
for all income wage earners. A deep , if somewhat private love 121~Z!'Zf!EJ 

art formf made the period 
repleni sh his spirit 
~ off the political 

a rich mine for r . W. ;anley in-taz which he 
And 

stump . / 1.Jrumblair was goo to go into; 

the music, literature, paintings and sculptures was a safe- house 

for the si,irit of a highly civilised man who require above the 

olitical caper . 

The 19Li9 general election was fought against the back­
fed e ral 

ground of' :R%i!x sp:ir,n talks and bauxite investments , two matters 

- that would 

dubious value 

profounc.' ly influence the future of Jar:iaica but of 
•r,//fT f EA' >.5 fOu11,r6 , 

in A • I I • t J:,'or these were not yet elections o1' 

issues . The Montego Bay Conference of the year before had ended 

with ~usta still folded in his hole , knees flexin0 , eyes shifting, 

ready to take off in the direction best for his leap. 
L._ w I _L y; hlA(;) \ ~--1anley was also as ~~~ he a pealed to the paro~~~ 

side of his constituents . (ihe dlicSliili>e plans of the Reynolds mining 

company to obtain ~10 - million (U.S . ) from the. arshall Aid Funds 
with ) 

for working the 20 , 000 acres of Jamaica they had bought hard 

cash Jaid to the money- poor St 1nn 

the l'P propaganda. Neither would -
farmers , would not ao rauch £or 

11,,/jW 
the cement company , 

" 

c ould 



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l ~9ou r-in tens i v e 
engaged i n raising $ 2 - mill i.on capi t al i n London :for C1/' factory . 
t h were c re dits i n Bu sta • s account s . Cement and b a ux ite 

woul d be t he nucleus of' t h e i s land ' s i ndus -
However , 

trial emergenc e; ma s sively assuring to t he :future. 
n either wou l d be 

d e "-
relevan t to this election . Tomorrow was a fa r d ay . he rewa d _ 

Politicf 
of record was now . The politician who would be durable and yet is an 
res onsible , art , nui 
~ Zit ll?P-EHdif-KMiW must stradJ:d le two la d ers to h is rooftop : a 1.1ora -

L ~t..tt.i' fc',, ~ , t h e d evi ces and t h e durab les. ~ - - , li ty. 
and the concep~ To cop e · wi th fi ck le .1:mbl ic appro -the 

val , he must kiss hands or s lap wris ts where and when it does g o od . 

kind of' ti1J.ting though t to be a g i:ft.) but occasionally 1 arnt . 

. if . Hanl ey , often frosty , never ebullient , learnt . 

{jie ,vent i n f or }! a~:t~ orga n isation ; Party a n d camp a i gn fi :cg ;aB\i:Z 

mobili s ation t hat , in the end , g athered t h e m more votes t han Bus t~ 
> 

an d s en t t h em c len ch i ng l y close to 

---- ezy;z s A E 

he enthusiasm of t1 e Ed elweiss ark crowds as they approached 

the ele a tion , was exhilarating . The :fun ru i gh t break out into 

s t one ..,.t h rowing, with t he b i g new White busses o f t he J amaica Uti ­

lities Com an lumbering ast the Park ' s lt lip e n oad gate;> as 

the prime targe t. But t hen it mus t be consid ered t hat ,nos t of 

'lithe bus crews had been or anised by t hat enemy union , tl e L I , 

The stree t - corner me etin s were heart ening too . <' i ne , strap-

ping s i nging and some bursts of' e l oquence by v isiting young 
gues t 
gB.Bxx s Jeakers suc h as a re cent l y robe d ritish Guianese lawyer) 

intransit home from t he Inns1 named Li nden , orbes Burnham. 

ustamante , also a i ming XU for t he younger v t es , h a d c ho s en 

f first ele c tion candida te , a 26 - year - old Union executive name d 

Hugh Lawson ~hearer . 

-r~ 
Of no small consolation to • anley around this t i r 1e was the 

h ie , nip on t h e nose given by a British court to the London 

f' q rced to run a retraction and pay datuages for calling t h e Plead er 

a) Conuuunis t. t ob ere the stridency of the Re d - baiting newsRheets 



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E a to ok t o it with ele gant z est . She ,, ev en more · 
than Norman , h a d years a g o reco gnised that "Jamai c,l" 
n eeded "b i g p eople people■" a nd h a d no c onfusion 
t hat she a n d N . W. were . They c ou l d , had and d i d 
ramb le t h e b a l lrooms at Myr tle Bank , Doc t or ' s c a e 
and Shaw ark , walk e d o right t h e rare ear t h i n 
t he En clo s u r e at K.nu t sfor l ; h a d f lown a s be f it te 
t he f ete - s et , t t e p re - war se a p lanes o f P an - A1 ' s 
sze 121k~ re co r - b reak ing " Jamaica Arrow " f leet (J h rs. 
20 mins . f rom Ki ngston to Miami t ) . An if b i g 
t h roug h h i s f i n e i ghly- pa i d slt :i:.2:Zs rni nd , tey 
were n onethe l ess peop l e . zg And as proo , t h ey b ot h 
lme w h ow sh e wor r i e d t h at Kor an shou l d seek to 
" t ry t h e trains II o:f t h e Ne a n d ert h al Amer ican Sou t h 
on h is j ou rneys f r om New York to 0.zat.nz t e I• iami 
sea - p lan e p or t , t h e one - time p opul a r mi xe trans ­
p ortB"DEH mo d e . They were s ymbol a n d eng i ne , 
f lag- bearer and dril l - s ergeant a n d i f she watche d 
le s t t he g o s s houl l s tr i k e ( a p rii i t i ve f ear up 
ou t o f t h e f ey Cornwall woman), e r lif e - j o an q 
vi tality d e - ob eahed it . For t h ey h a d come at tl e 
t urn of t he year when k ing s tak e t he f ie l L . 



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rl:'6tT 

uf:,i.O'N 
for a time both/\'1:l'ec:a:4. and abroat.. Another consolation , in a 

hair shirt way , was that his insistence on moee power to the 

people had sent vibaations to Busta 1 s sensitive political instincts ; 

the Labour arty contrived to go to the cow1try on a platform 

of Constitutional advance . 

The JLP amendment would drop all officials , except the 

Governor and colonial Secretary , f'rom the Executive council. 

Eight ministers would be appointed f'rom the House , cons ti tutiug 

an elected r,1ajority in the Executive. The residential code 

.cc 
that required members to be elected only in their constuency of' 

I\ 

domicile would be removed. The power of the upper Nominated 

chamber to delay bills passed by the Elected House would be 

reduced from a year to six months. And it was good political stra -

tegy to invite pub.Lie comment on the proposals be:fore the House 

v,rrG"b , 
e~m Jvsii.en .* 

* .... ublic comment however turned out to be less than good when 

controversial l.lritish .. P Tom Driberg , returning home after a 

Jamai can visit , made a H0 use of Commons speech excoriatin~ 

what was to him , questionable politics by the Bustamante 

government. Only Lady olly Huggins , extrovert wife o:f 

replacement governor Sir John , and i. . W. lanley , got the 

Lriberg approval . Driberg hoped that 11 those people will 

have the sense to elect the kinJ of government " whi ch he 

itnp l ied could l>e had from 111•1r ~U:Slhl~ Norman Manley , l . C . , 

a potential leader of the highest intelligence and inte­

grity , the finest and most brilliant man in the whole \est 

Inaies; " and counselled that " if they do elect (him) they 

will be ta.king a great step towards ... the :fully sel:f­

governing ~'ederal lJominbn o:f the "!{est Indies whose birth is 

not :far distant." In view of the unpopularity , a r , at best , 

indif'.ferenc e :, of the Jamaicans to Federation , the Hon . I.ember 

:for Maldon , Englanrl was not his usual clearheaded self . 

Another gratification for h.anley was the growing favour of 

the farmers t o the 

licy , he said , had 

Party ' s stand on agriculture . 'J.'he Party po ­

/>Y-v p(J.l.et,( 
be en ~ J?.Ci8 ed. by farm ers and accepted by t he 

.t>arty planners. 111,[y Party has taken great pains to teach itself 

the wishes and the neeos of :farmers ." But he kept a strong patrol 

in the back pastures>where the wire - cutting plantocrats unceasingly 



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fears. 11 Iy Party does not intend to nationalise lands nor dis -

rupt established and productive eff'orts . 11 Fortuitously in that 

season , he "{j)oved that productive efforts of farmers came in various 

guises . 

I.t was this way . An Hanove f small f'armerJl was convicted f'or 

using his coco - macca walking stick on an officious busybody of 

a district constable and fined ~40 . Both were Hanover men and 

knew each other well. The farmer had been arguing over the sale 

of a cow4XXXX:XllX.ll:nlllXJ!XXXIDlXllOCKl:*)cXDX~ when the constable 

attempted to arrest him for disorderly conduct. The farmer reck­

oned that an arrest was the kind of disgrace difficult to live 

down in his small Hanover district, so he fetched up his~­

macca and delivered a blow for respectability. It was , after all , 

a "civil matter," as Hanley pointe<l out in court , and unworthy of 

being handcuffed for. An unimportant case on the face of it , but 

before the Court of Appeal 

Manley argued for two days EflESZ~~ZZH.8ZjifiZUH!'iZtnK~ZstiiSZ~ that "if I 

believe a constable is going to arrest me illegally , I am entitled 

to resist. Nothing in the law says I am to wait unto the arrest 

is made." The court of Appeal (including the Chief Justice} agreed 

and reduced the fine by half --- a necessity to secure the consta­

bulary from excessive exposure to walking_sticks. It was a land­

mark decision; the judiciary had d eclared a citizen ' s rightW to 

d ef'end his good name. 

It is doubtful that legal fees ha<..i importance in the case 

of a humble peasant farmer. It is likelier that Manley could not 

resist d isentangling a knot in a law long interpreted in the 
advocate . 

interests of the wiel ders. He was that kind of/:IIU!l!:BIZltaZ The law 

was only as good as it was used for good. 



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f'{,'.,..__o-­
CHAPTER ·THik.TY-:Mffl!T 

, <;.!- 1~(11,,u:} /l-MU1e,a,,,.. e-"'~~.) 
■ J tr f Q r {c1aire Boothe Luce_,~ told the girls 

in 1949 
of' 1ontego Hay High School/that her ''favourite saint is Saint 

Augustine who was a black man from Africa (ana) one of the 

giants of the world. ti llXlll:Q:xl]OcXXXlL noanouur A winter l sea­

sonl visitor to Jamaica , Mrs Luce, a pro1~1inent C~tholic lay­

woman , confessed that whereas until 200 years ago everybocty 

knew that Augustine "was black, they dont mention it very much 

now. 11 ITowever, J\''rs Luce, who had a formidable reputation for 

speaking out, allowed as how she always reminded them 11Iof' it 

for only the masses can do things (and) the people who are down 

are coming up and the people -who are up are coming down.W It 

will take great wisdom (t~ prevent) bloodshed." But , she added, 

as Colonialists 11 the British are not so bad ." 

Especially when the neighbours were watching . 
~ f_ I, ic. dl'f li.t/>hUfl 

The British West Indies, ,._. •••• in the arms of the U.S. , the 

wealthiest state in the world, were half' naked, half' educated and 

half' starved. Selfish greed and long neglect had turned them 

into an embarrassment to their British owners, into whom they had 

fed fortunes f'or centuries as the "sugar & spice islands". Anu the 

neighbours were seeing it all and talking. [c1aire Luce was the 

wife of the founder an(1 publisher of Time , . the most influential 

newsmagazine of' its time . 1fha t she said was_, oi, soon would b8j the 

U.S. public posture. A war had just been £ought and won against 

the Nazi imperialists. The United states was moving into its 

leadership role and learning to speak loftily, archly, above the 

herd. Britain , quite bled by the conflict, knew that the 

time had come to wash her hands of' the islands; after a decent inter­

lude, a few new gift~and proper murmurs of regret. 



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~XXXUKnn 
~ .American public conscience , unpredictable as a Texas torna-

do , was entering upon one of its curves of high- voval morality 

a quadrant that would lead C D $51]8, from Marshall to 

arshall . --, 
C it would start 

S:Xxnl:~ at the General George catlet t far shall Plan f'or the 

economic wresting of' Europe from the Soviets , to the Thurgood uar­

shall- led assail in the courts on racial savagery in the south*. 

*~ arshaII , a black American lawyer , argu ed all the im­
portant civil rights cases in the USA i n cluding the 
watershed Brown vs. Topeka ~ducation Board in 1954 
in which the Supreme Court rejected the 11seperate 
but equal " doctrine which had held the blacks to 
second class citizenship for generations . He was 
the first bla ck American to become Solicitor Gene -
ral of the U.S. J and;i afterwards.., to sit on the su-
preme Court. 

,,-,,,____________ -r~ 13 ,-11,~ IA. ·S-doll~\cJ u.'l)u{t£ 
'§1 & I pi:Ga, 018 i ;OB O, IN lbcter the Marshall Pl~ ~ be distribu-

• 1 
ted among the wartorn nations of Western Europe, inclu r the United 

Kinguom , for economic recovery41 ~ o the British lion was resigned to 

lose its roar and be shoved into line. It heeded the American hint 

that doing something about the eye..so,;r~, ramshackle settlements it ---
had caused to grow so close to Uncle Sam ' s property , would not go 

,-. 
unreg, arded at largesse time. Like Congresswoman Luce , the U.S. \../ 

was recognising that those who were d own were about due up . In this 

henisphere of freedom , everybody knew that the only significant ter­

ritory still held by imperialists were the islancts of the British 

West. Indies except f'or the handful of 2£ F'rench and LJutch .. 
islanas. (The A,merican- held··Puerto Hico continued to b~e unctefina-

ble until 1952 when it moved from the • vague 1tAruerican Territorytt 

to the 11Commonwealth of Puerto Rico"J in the fact of U . S . suzerainty 

over ~t-he islapd , a term as precise as "over there ."•) 

Shedding the Caribbean portion of the Eu1pire became a British 

activity ~ the Hontego Bay , onf'erence on est Incies fetferation J ~ ~ ~ C.~'1.1~ 
--f\had been firmly coaxed into session by the U.K. as a prelude 



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to independence . uard on its heels came investillent grants fro. 

the U . h.' s Colonial an d JJevelopment Corporation for the fundine of· 

incustries that would create revenue. Jamaic a hau a I!!ark for 

:;:.4- 6m to be used on t omato gro·wi ng and canning , a col d s tor a ge 
UN\.tl r.l--aM-~f 1..-1 ~ct:u,l ~ t:<-dctt" -l-11fr.p;.e. 

plant•, irr igatlhon scheme s ; •••••••••••11!11111--•--••••• f'or j;t::3 
~ own "c olony " ........ .,. , Turk ' s I s land , t o help fix it s salt 

inctus try . 

The general aim was for an independent Caribbean domi n ion, 

a seperate and equal member of the British Commonwealth, t h e i ct ea 
S1~0.u 

of t h ese seas of Bo l ivar and George Washirfton harbouring colo-
1\. ~ 

nia1s having become repugnant to .. neighbours . F orgo t ten was 
W•II · 

the British/American harassment of~Domingo and ••• oth er~who, 

during the war, had been agitating for jus t s u ch a no t ion . How­

e ver tha t may be, nobo dy for e saw the final outcome: the foun<lering 

of f ed eration in a sea of l ittl e n ations snaggle-tooth e d with im­

portance, each jealously guard ing its own s mall sovereignty. It 
British 

was a situation not unlike that of the other former/colony to the 

north tilfiil after its 1776 war of independence, whose several bicker­

ing states might have broken apart but for the necessity in the ma 

face of common peril to hang together, or seperately. 

~1CJOiDCmXMXJOC.DXl:DlEXllK 
While Manley worked at and waited the outcome of his second 

election year, he lived as fully as he ever d i d . The rose gard ens 

at Drumblair, his music and books, lost no claim on him. He sat iu 
(the old 

at the Mt,01 bicycle races at Town Moor/ ingston Race c ourse) for the 

"Manley Cup" run-off. As chairman of the Jamaica Boxing Board of 

Control, he welcomed world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis 

visitin g for exhibition bouts at Sabina Park. He was a dance-floor 

athlete, long legs flailing awkwardly like an untidy shot-putter 



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at the "Manley Honour arty" they held for him one Saturday night 

at No. 5 Upper Musgrave Avenue (at which they drummed up patron­

age by a blunt slogan: Are yo~~s friend? If so be there to tell 

him sot~t). 

The number of his friends was increasing. thanks to some 
::rt...P 

gaffes by the JLP. The}' had begun alienating the civil service 

by what Gleaner's Ulric Simmonds called "arrogating to themselves 

safeguarding and overriding powers" and exhibiting 11 a strange com­

plex whenever the civil service is mentioned. 11 And they voted 

funds for public endeavi,urs with the down-the-nose severity of 

grand-aunties .J, or, to quote Simmonds, "like boutj.ties handed out 

to subservient people by a benevolent" JLP. Another agent of 

their growing rejection by the public was a pararloid objection to 

criticism --- a lurking disease of political parties. It was this 

that led Speaker Aitcheson to a violent outburst of illtemper and 

scurrility when he attacked Manley who had written a critical ar­

ticle in the Jamaica Times dealing with the House debates. 

Mr Manley, for the opening of his election campaign, chart­

ered a British cAribbean Airways plane to fly 25 Party members to 

Mont ego Bay flllil on one of the Party• s beloved "invasions. tt Pre­

~~uqfoly, they had invaded by bus and train and great thundering 

"Mack" trucks full of sound (drum• s) and fury f: 11113 ( clashing 

coconut palm fronds). And while still in . modern America, the 

candidate's railroad coach and the whistle-stop was still a Yan­

kee norm, so progressive was our own PNP they flew up in airplanes, 

flying the campaign trail. It was the opening to an imaginative 

campaign that flung their rivals into a tailspin and put holes 

into the Bustamante legend. 

Montego Bay had never seen such crowds. While the Party 

leaders were aloft, long trainloads of supporters were snaking 

into town from.._ Kin~ston and Po~t An~nn1n ~~--



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Manley's devotion, between elections, to his political 

:future was~ ta.king in dividends. Denied the :fre­

quency of access to the newspapers which was enjoyed DXX by 

the party in o:f:fi¥e, he had kept his party and policies in the 

public eye through the :forums at the party headquarters in Edel­

weiss Park, and the streetcorners and village square meetings 

where his theme of power to the people struck rousingly at 

:frustrations and inequalities. At Barnett Street, :for the triumph 

of the day, he stepped into the saddle wearing his own special 

riding out:fi~ of city tweeds and waistcoat, and led a massive 

"victory" procession through the streets o:f the northside capi-

tal. The equestrian adventure also had its sly reasons. It 
Alex 

showed that 65-year-old Cousin B0818 was not the only macho on 

the :family tree. {jloW141/l17 > 

- ~h Manley and Bustamante, :fine horsemen 

in their youth, were now city-cast and awkward on the short :farm 

beasts. Not vaquero stu:f:f at all) 

, ~ +&, c.. i-tr) 
Bustamante /\.was panicking. Ken "The Whip" Hill, a candidate 

gutsy beyond 
or rare eloquence and g~ta~ ,~~Z safety, showed every sign o:f 

pulling his West Kingston seat :from under him. With the residen­

tial qualification :for candidates now removed :from the statutes, 

Busta could place himself in any constituency. Anywhere seemed 

better than :facing the capable and harddriving Ken Hill. The JLP 

leader was sending shivers through his colleagues as he swung about 

seeking a safe seat. The whole city was now uncomfortable for him. 

His Minister of Education, St Thomas' Jehoida MacPherson, saw, in 

the increasing :frequency o:f his "Chief's" visit to his consti­

tuency, and the damning with :faint praise of his efforts in edu­

cation, a clear indication that he was being plumped up :for the 

sacrifice. With his close and nower~ul ~r;en n _ T ~ga~ Pa~~an+. 



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they told off the Chief in no uncertain way and killed that little 

plan. The disarray in the Party was so far gone that ZUXMinister 

of Agriculture E .R. D.Evansywho had walked out of the Labour Party 

but who could not be fired from his ministry since Busta had no 

such "cabinet" power, was being sued for slander by !2Z%tlli! Chief 

Minister Bustamante. 

The Manley-led cry for "Elections before Christmas" was meanwhile 

gathering momentum. Petitions wer fired off to the governor in Execu­

tive Council claiming that later elections would allow no time to the 

new government to prepare a proper budget before the fiscal year 

began on April 1. This was the front office explanation, the parlia­

menta~Y objection. What was more to the point was Manley's fears of 

an enormous porkbarrelling by the JLP over the Christmas season. Be~ng 

~ the season of goodwill and so forth, a tradition of "Christ­

mas work" had been developed in Jamaica, an arrangement for handing 

out special work projects to unemployeds so they could earn their 

"Christmas money." Manley saw the probability of a runaway season of 

vote-catching bribery by the Party in charge of the purse. 

Pausing to pay a gracious tribute to his courtroom arch-riaal, 

Sir Lennox O'Reilly, the eminent Trinidad barrister who had died in 

the sister colony, 11 a man of remarkable advocacy and a profound law­

yer," he once again plunged into the campaign to short circuit the 

Labour Party plan for• post-Christmas elections. The PNP was play­

ing it rough, hitting hard at Bustamante from platform and parliament. 

Among the weapons was a newspaper write-in campaign complete with 

tear coupon. 

It may have got to the JLP Leader, a man with a short fuse, for 

before long he was to explode in the Legislative Council during a 

constitution debate that he was against self government because "we 

have not proved we are• fit and proper persons to govern ourselves. 11 

• 



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~ 
It did not occur to th{Chief that as 

-4::8 
he was the most likely candidate --

~ 
head of~ elected governors, 

~ a~ set .. v-Jle 
blame --■t'- ncapacity.u & -

rule. Surprisingly enough, he was at the time supporting an 

independent candidate in the Eastern st Mary constituency, a 

chunky mulatto land baron named Roy Lind~who saw self government 

as a breakaway from the XDQ(X¥1£Y Commonwealth. But as Florizel 

G1asspole asked in the House: "Am I to understand that because 

any nation asks for self government, you are breaking away from 

the Commonwealth? Am I to understand that Canada, New Zealand 

and Australia are breaking away?" 
~ 

Glasspole' s passionate polemics was~at the unthinkable: no 

proper, i.e., orthodox, politician gave thought to dumping the 

Mother Country on her• racist butt. Elsewhere, the reality was 

different. The breakaway was already established in the minds of 

several Jamaicans, the black and poor, who, in a prelud e to the 

phenomenal back-to-Africa movement of later years, were opting 

out of their British citizenship for settlement in Liberia.* The 

*Laws that did violence to the poor were not profi­
table to patriotism. A new ord inance d eclaring it 
illegal for a canoe to approach to within 100 yards 
of a tourist liner in the harbour without being 
invited by the ship's master, lost a Jamaican fisher­
man his canoe and a narrow escape from imprisonment 
or a hefty fine,only, as he was informed by the 
Bench, because his was the first case und er the new 

, statute. 

West African 8ttt,SS8 republic, first settled by freed slaves 

from the United States, had declared itself willing to accept 

settlers from the British Caribbean colonies. 

Mr Manley's proposals for• constitutional change would abo­
non-elected 

lish the Legislative Council (the nominated/chamber) , two a ddi-

tional constituencies in St Elizabeth and St Ann. Each of the 14 



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~ 
an additional 

parishes would elect/S member tak en on a parish-poll rather than 
the normal constituency divisions. He would remove all nomina­

~~ 
ted and ex-o£ficio~£rom the Executive Council, leaving only the 

FX!-?1'.~~ Governor (and electedt{ffMiH*.IQi},and h8:_,without either an original 
or casting vote. Busta on the oth2r hand wanted the ExCo to 
include the Governor, Colonial s ecretary, two nominated and eight 
elected members. Power, in both proposals, would reside in the 

differentia 
elected members. The GBMNilJfiINN lay in Bustamante•s circumspect 
call for a monitor by his former masters of the way he wielded 
the power they~ han~/~~ over. Th e 1944 constitution had 
been an acknowledged experiment by the British government. Now 
in 1949, both PNP and JLP were a greed on one principle: they 
were against the continuing resid ence 0£ authority in King's 
House. 

This was the only area of accord. Partisan violence sprouted 
all over in that last springtime of the 11 experiment. 11 All. Fools 
Day that year, the fiery Wills Isaacs, a KSAC PNP Councill.or, 
joined t h e "jail. martyrs", i:mstainante and Pi x l ey, when he wa s 
pulled in on charges of inciting to riot and assault against the 
J LP 's Hose Leon* Defend ed by Manley, IC C., he was freed of the 

*Years later, after a falling out with Bu s tamante, she was elected on a PNP ticket and was a minister i n the d ichael Manley government. 

charges and escap e d the "exemplary sentence" the presiding judge 
later confessed to having had in mind . 

·c 
The popular sppport for Manley against postponb~ 

~~tL 
4/6 the 

elections W'!r~~ momentum. Tens of thousands of write-ins 
for the straw-poll floo d ed the PNP office and al.most totally 

against delay. It was a triumph for Manley• s insight that; against 
ridicul)he sensed the common man's interest in the issues and 
pushed for an opinion poll --- itself an object for levity sa.ae~ 



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since that windsock of client p reference had never been hung out 

beforeJand few thought t h ere would be a significart res onse. 

In a sombre way, h e was al s o tasting another kind of triumph c;r 
6 the take over of Jamaica Welfare by the hostile JLP governm ent. 

His farewell speech to h is staff in the wood en hut at Mona (once 

a wart i me barrack s for Gi b raltar refugees and a t the t ime~• 

in use a s the est Indies University's first build ings ) showed a 
·½ 

d epth of patriotism that dumbfound ed friend and foe/tas it would 

again, a dozen years later, at that other, more final, p oll, the 

referend um that d eci~e the F ederation. 
~ 
~\ t h e Mona s p eech, 1•ianley d eclared himself i n support of the 

chang e which was "a per f ectly sound and good one." He sought to 

isavow the minds of hi s friends that the "chang e&s have been brought 

about wi t h some desire of hurting t h e work." However, to heal 

wound s and streng then h earts, h e showed the success of the venture 
the whole support of the organ­

in the fact of public f und s being now XXllf][nllXji)illX~ll 

isation; and this in spite of t h em being "constantly and falsely 

accused of using your various offices for subversive political ends.I! 

I can a s sure you it was not your fault. It was mine. It was mine 

for holding as I had held for many years, the 

Chairman of this organisation and leader of a 

dual position as 

~~<1;_9 political party . 

. ~ 2Aaz:A!92Z&h€.!Ck:..9'02 :C:WU!l!!sli 'Ci I CJ& -05 -OU rte: 6. i. a.t 

--- , c w ~:zst:o~oc & ee,rme,: t1i1 ♦ 

The fear of guilt by association drove many anley supporters 

un erground. The mi d leclass civil service, the clerical an sup er-

visory people in private employ, teachers- and other holders of 

access 
·f< i\t !},, J. oR ~ /J 

positions " contro~ tRi1i1t influence« i Ji\ the mass voters, 

attached their allegiance to Mr Manley and his Party --- or so 

was reasoned by "Management" on the premise of their own kind 

the wholesale exploitation of a bottomless employment 



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.c,LSA : faite " COL _; !~ ... 11 as its shown below . Vic . 

~ {ti: , 
Edna's f ear t h at Welf are wou l a b ackfire 

h a d co1 e hal f way tru e --- ten y ears late and no t 
from t h e source s h e ha d f eared . Fro s omewh ere 
i n h er Meth odist - Chr i stian g en e s s h e h a d p ick e 
up a p ath olog i cal f ear of Zemurray , t h~~~ 1f 
Fr u it Comp any 's c i ef . She was • l '\.- of l!!Ki"

1
~ 1 e e t h 

ni c s wh ose f i ne st g eniu s h a d i mpu gned t h e ew; and 

ma d e Shylock a n a me to lay unus e d in t h e lis t s 
f o paren t s c h oo s e from . T,W' s involvement 
wit Sam Zemurray at t h e b irth of Wel f are l a d 
t hrown h er into a i nd - s p in o f oub t and d i rest 
t h oughts t hat ma de h e r b loo d g o 11 COLD ~~ .. . 11 i n 
~ terror t h at e r Norman was " i n da nger fro 11 

t h e II He brew . I t h a d n ot , o f course , p roven 
t he Bes s ara oia ea s ant , t hat child 

a n ley ' s p ers uas i ve 
i cs. 

- -- · - --- .. -~- - - ----- - .... - J:" ...... 

a ccu sed of us i n g you r vaJ 

I can a s sure y ou it was 1 

for hold i ng a s I h a d he lc 

Chairman of t h is organis e 

~ 2•uz::,:gas:011~ 

The fear of guilt b) 

un erground . The middlec 

visory people in private 
·t-e.~ 

p ositions " contr 

attached their alleg i 

h v 



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~ 

pool be£ore the rise 0£ the trade unions. While the pay-bill 

hol'-Y,!, dig-ya labourer could play the big-tree man, £ree-swinging 

in the power of his union to support him, the neck-tie brigade, 

trapped in its nervous rush £or security and respectability, kept 

its Socialist thoughts and yearnings carefully from public showing. 

And since silence is not a virtue on political campaigns, they were 

of little help in getting out the vo1e. Manley was to be in the 

predicament/during the Bustamante decade, of finding ~ays to hold 

his friends while admitting they would be in better health elsewhere. 

Therefore, more than ever, his presence was needed in the House to 

11 take the Comrades home. 11 * 

*Adine Apence, a newspaper vendor an ardent PNP worker, 
was shot and killed on July 22, 1946, at the corner of 
Beeston and King Streets aaezaig~t a£ter a political 
night meeting. Her last words were a call to other PNP 
adherents to walk two 0£ their fearful Party members 
home: "Gentlemen, let us take the comrades home. 11 



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l l ---

CHAPTER TH:ERTY-N~ 

( 

The feeling of a win was strong in the Party. ~ 

The straw-vote was pulling in undreamed 

41' response. Party Secretary Vernon Arnett pronounced that 11Bus-• , 

tamante's mass following is now smaller than ours. 11 Arnett was 

a cool, shrewd analyst of the political scene. His prescience 
~ 

was dependable. Manley went harder into the fray, with Edna~very 

far from his side. 
in 

~g we13:., and/tliiUl steady hours.,., but also making 

the rounds in her own able way, with quietly impressive speeches 

as she judged beauty contests or unveiled the Hector Whistler 
~ 

mural at the Palfisadoes Airport . 
.y 

The five first years of living under the results of an adult 

suffrage had been exciting.· such dive~se entries into the cultur8; 

as a cement factory and a university. And a politically curious 

year too, with both parties strainin~ for recpgnition in the one 

---place their identities ought to be entrenched, the House of Rep-
"1.,,/' 

resentatives. 
~ , did not exist in 

But po 1 it i car· parties )UD(XKilDitiiJi~~ the Con-

stitution. 

Speaker Aitcheson, that stubborn son of the soil, frequently 

observed in the House on the Constitution's silence on political 

parties. His voice was directed towards Westminister, the arbiter 
~ His 

of~ political laws, where Bez Majesty's Loyal Opposition, although 

not entrenched in the British Constitution (since there was no 

written constitution into which it could be entrenched) did not 

lack official cognisance. The strain would, of course, be over in 

time. The 11 two-party system" was on its way in with all the 
} 

.... • •• .. 'I 



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illsuited , stab, pretentious trappings that mandated a division 

of the best minds into a schoolboy tug-of-war. 

Meanwhile the election was being fought. The battle took on 

the expected pattern of the PNP fighting on issues where it could , 

and the JLP wrapping a rousing emotional campaign around the 
Slh/1 o v12. 

-image of Bustamante • . The JLP chief had moved from West 

Kingston)where Ken Hill had proven too good an organiser/ and too 

equal a rabble rouser. Ruthlessly, Busta had thrown out his old 

friends from the South& Clarendon constituency: the fonner sitting 

member of his Party, Hugha Cork, and~ hopefuls including R.O. 

Terrier who once held the seat made vacant by the death of J.A.G. 

Smith. Manley was opposed by the popular Edward "Doc" Fagan. Ken 

Hill faced Hugh Shearer whom Busta had named his• heir to the 

West Kingston saat. Hopes for a peaceful campaign- weBe high. 

King's House had taken the 

Manley and Bustamante into 
~ltA,<.tci) 

,·,..,c..~v-no r 

ing thel(acsimiles in the press. 

step of literally forcing 

peace treatiesj • and publish­
/ b c1J,1 tl91- 19AJi) 

The ••••• statements, . front-
1\ 

paged , had the two party leaders undertaking to put con-

straints on their people. The historical and unique documents were 
Magna Carta that would remove the rambunctious hailed as a r ,t .. , t , . •• t , , · .. 1 , • r r ,. f ,·i · . f ,,i. ,. , ~ -T . 

r:._ 'b<}) 7 r::_ a nd elicit nice elections. ~t -., for all of a week.LSoon the 

stick-&-brick boys were rampaging again and street clashes a 

nightly risk.* 

*Bloody clashes at Gordon Town,during the KSAC by­
_Jla:1ECTIONa in which a JLP worker, Benjamin Taylo~ 
was killed in a PNP attack on a JLP roadblock at 
Maryland Corner, was the ominous prelude --- although the 
results ba~RIH~tcomfort to Manley when the PNP's Allan 
Isaacs J~i51ihU5B the powerful JLP machine lost by only 77 votes. 

Colour and excit•ment accompanies a Jamaican election but this 

one was staged against a sober background: it was the time that saw 
~ .J fU' t<{!)'-S of the start of the third great migration of Jamaicans, Jf I a living 



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in lands less economically hostile.* The new jobs rush~ 

4-The first two: the migrations to Pa_!}!lma for work on 
the American dig of the Canal, and ~he great movement 
into the Cuban canefields about the first World War. 
Steadier migrations had been continuous into the USA 
until new immigration laws slowed it to a trickle-by-
uota. 

l.fJHb 
was to England, the %U'1S .1• n ta; they had cal.eed the "Mother country" 

all their generations for three centuries. In light sorties at 

the start, it would flood to scores of thousands a year, insert 

and root a black presence in England that did havoc to motherhood. 

*** 

The Battle of Gordon Town is remembered as the day when the 

Cousins came closest to physical combat; indeed, they squared off 

on the steps of the polling••••••~ booth but were cheated of 

gaining "belly" by some shortsighted historians. ~ Gut of the 

fracas came the probe {by a Governor's Commission) in which Wills 

isaacs was to state his "philosophy" that 11 a broken skull or two" '? 
did not 11matter much in the growth of a nation." An utter)tance, 

1)£1/1/_ 
that, whatever its validity, was to~ • · him and his Party :for 

their political life. 

The one-man Commission• was the island's Chief Justice, Sir 

Hector Hearne, a lean dyspeptic Englishman of sour visage whose 

flagrantly unsupported :findings were described by Manley as "intem­

perate and unbalanced." It was an extraordinary remark to be made 

by the leading King's Counsel but justified by the clear bias in 

Sir Hector's otherwise confused Report. 

The trouble had begun at Dallas, in the St Andrew Hills four 

days earlier, on July 3, where PNP workers had put on one of their 

Su~day "invasions" for a saturation canvassing of the area in aid 

of city council candidate Allan Isaacs. At the end of a day of 

fwi and frolic and showing the PNP flag, the usual open-air meet-



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ing was slated £or the village square. Dallas was a JLP 4lr "Doc 11 

Fagan stronghold, with its own resident 11brigade"• The "brigade" 

was at that time a bit of political hokum in which (both) ~arty 

members were encouraged to wear paramilitary uniforms and parae.e 

behind brass bands. Uniforms, the political o££ice seekers had 

£ound, were excellent for psyching lukewarm supporters into ardent, 

even dedicated~ activists. 

No sooner had the PNP leaders began working at that other 
early 

artifice they used to gain/audience involvement, i.e., the reli-

gious hymn, than a distraction occurred. 

Thumping and booming down the rocky village street, came the 

JLP brigade marching behind a brass band. The JLP brigade had 

been recruiting their own votes ff on the sister riountain vil­

lage of Hall's Delight, and were going home, and were not to be 

deviated :from their right-on militaryI course by any invasion of 

city slickers. So on they came. 

The PNP singers eased down a little on Lead Kindly Light, a 

favoured starter, and opened their ranks to allow the JLP brigade 

widisputed passage. But one of two consequences followed. Either 

that they appeared to have given in too easily, or the JLP brigade, 

with pardonable pride_,desired to show the uniform once more , or a 

combination of the two. 

However that was, the marching columns wheeled about and once 

again thumped through the square. 

The PNP singers again parted their ranks but with noticeably 

less alacrity. 

And sinee what goes up must come down, the JLP brigade found 

it necessary to execute another about-face and passa down through 

the PNP ranks again. ThEre was a low rumble of objection but 

nothing markedly untoward. Until the JLP marchers did the marble-



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headed thing. They turned to march up again. That tore it. 

Dallas, in the rocky limestone hills, is superbly outfitted 

:for that oldtime Jamaican wargame, stone-throwing. Nobbly, 

hand-sized missile:,strewn like :fruit shaken down. The rocks :flew. 

The casualty count was seven, :five :for the PNP. And since 

the Dallas folk were better in the dark on their own territory, 

the PNP retreated, in good order, down the hil3/carrying their wounded 

and vowing revenge. 

They exacted it next day at Gordon Town, the village at the 

:foot o:f the mountain above Papine, stoning a JLP meeting into dis­

ord er. And again next day, on election eve, the :factions almost 

met head-on, seperated only by a police buffer zone. But tomor­

row was election day. 

And sure enough the troubles broke early at several places 

in the constituency with such battle names as Milling's Spring, 

Miller's Gap and Tamarind Tree. 

The Gordon Town war lasted all day, lengthening into skir-
strung together 

mishes/2%Zk!~ by rival name-calling, boos and fist-shakings along 

the Hope River banks on which the village is built. Wills Isaacs 

seemed to have assumed the role o:f cheer-leader, a man whose poli­

tical career had by then given him a :far deeper iasight into the 

instincts and moods o:f a Jamaican crowd , much more than could be 

had by a crabby high court judge; a foreigner whose contact with 

the Jamaican workingclass began and ended on the Bench. Wills would 

have played that village square all day :for all its psychological 

worth; hopefully to sway the undecided voter, often uncommitted 

all the way to the polling-booth. 

But a pair o:f probables, that Wills should have foreseen, hap­
the JLP leaders turned angry and the English-led 

pened: XlO(jlO:DQC:llJOatn~~DXJO£Xll!iJOO[D~ police 

:flawed his orchestration. When Wills, in his high carrying voice, 



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promised to fire the English officers when his Party came to power, 

the white fellows, long accustomed to a generally unquestioned 

deference, were outraged and showed it. The PNP crowed ~»H••• took 

like umbrage. And as the mood in the previously lively Square dar­

kened, who showed up but Busta. He had come, with Shearer, Rose 

Leon and others, and the cross-talk triggered violent reactions. 

Busta himself was struck by a stone after he JOOI shoved Wills o. 

What was evident from the Enquiry was that both Parties had 

been provacative and were equally culpable. The PNP was desperate-

ly endeavouring to wrest control of the streets from their rivals. 

They had been pushed around by the EZ Labour battalions who e~az~ had 

£%i!Zi1Za previously been IS able to field a greater f'orce of' 11 cloth-caps 11 

than the PNP by virtue of Bustamante•s hold on the internality of the 

4'L PNP 
worl.tB,' 111 y Only after the}\ had ~ secured their own base D 

among the pay-table people and establised a retaliatory. f'orce (such. 
strongarmers 

as "The Fighting Sixty-Nine 11 , S2:!l6f/Ul!ltill!!ll named for their head-

quarters at No 69 Matthews Lane) were they able to turn the tide. 

~ere had been intimidation on either side and though the Enquiry 

had got at this evidence, Commissioner Hearne's virulent Report 

a££ixed most of the blame to the PNP. Isaacs, to whom command of 

the "Sixty-Nine" appears to have peculiarly fallen, bore the brunt 

of Hearne I s verdic1;twhich, in a scandalous way/ glossed over the 

considerable ef'f'orts of the JLP. What was evident from Hearne's 
all things being equal, 

judgement was that,/in an Establishment assessment, the Communist 

horn-&-tail image of' the PNP would tip the scales against them. 

In an aftermath, Wills Isaacs resigned as Third Vice President 

of' the PNP. DX The indomitable Wills, in his resignation statement, 

while he B reci:ted his faults, stoutly def'ended his actions in giving 

back to the JLP some of its own medicine after "a long period of' 

time. 11 



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CHAPTER FORTY 

A few minutes past noon on Thursday, January 12, 1950, 

Norman Manley was sworn as the member for East Rural St Andrew 

in the House of' Representatives at Headquarters House, Duke St, 

and became de facto head of' the unofficial His Majesty's Loyal 

Opposition. He had led a dozen of his PNP comrades into the ma­

hogany panelled chamber, and picked up a sometime friendly Inde­

pendent inside, Stanley Albert Scott of Eastern St James, bring­

his vote count to a possible 14. The JLP had 18. But in fact, 
more Jamaicans had voted for 
...... ,.,_.,~~~~,.., .. ......,__,._,,..,J-» .... X .... X ....... lX the Manley party than the Bustamante. 

They had taken 4J.5i of the popular vote to the JLP's 42.7%. 

They had flfl swamped the city, taking five of the six seats, in­
lean 

eluding Busta•s old W~stern Kingston's after the ~flflltJ s u rvivor 

abandoned his once safe fief. 5;::--

The Manley men included the five f'rom the outgoing parlia­

ment: Dr Ivan Lloyd, F.L.B.Evans, Florizel Glasspole, Norman Sin­

clair and E.V.Allen. The newcomers were N. N .Nethersole, Percival 

Broderick, Allan Coombs, Ken Hill, Wills Isaacs, Donald Nation and 
fl'\P..,h.Otjah'f 

Rupert Wilmot. They had hardly settled on the highback benches 
A.. 

when they gave unmistakeable signals that the old Labour ~arty 

dominance was over. The preliminaries through, the offices desig­

nated and occupied during the first weeks, the House met for bus­

iness a month later. 

It was a formidable array that faced the government benches 

in opposition; gifted ambitious men who had fretted at the bit 

fmr five years• while, as they saw it, the Labour team plodded 

too slowly along to 
fr01'11 

escape the old social and eco­
l\ 

nomic poverties. Next to Bustamante on the government benches, the 
) 

most powerful figure~ was Sir Harold Allan, the Minis-

ter of Finance QZS who was still officially on record as an Inde• 



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L 

'AKE IN 

He had won an election in a styler hat was unmistakably his# 

own. According to Edna Manley, it was 11 f'ull of colour, an,1 drama 

and 11 ,peculiarly, "poetry." And she must be taken literally f'orliElll'lr2rr:Wll~ 

N.W.took to the hus t ings what had never been there before: 
al). a ·r eab~ n, u "1'Ef> 

/ ~ style against which the assaults of campaign vulgarity, 

usually a winner's warranty, shattered. Beaten on the hills in 1944, 
he became his own client, studying the whys and the whynots of it~ 

---. wt:1yJ 
._!jfi '7i~ stubbornly nnspacious people until he knew their - - -. -- -- ,. 

not as 01~ his old countryf'olk at Guanaboa, but tight as their sawtooth 

hills, suspicious of sophisticates ano other city slickers. They had 
solidly__ 

backed "Doc II Fagan • ■i'.">t1• in 194h; f'or his Cissi>fi mixture of 

fakery and f'un, the frank anar ~f turn to him, uot quite a medical 
~ 

doctor but enough of a medic.ine tt'an to appreciate the efficacy 

of the "home remedy" f'rorn the district balm-yard, and an exhortative 

platform manner that owed its accent~ to the storefront churches of' 
V€Ry 

Harlem, made hiu ~ acveptable. 

So Manley EE file~ carefully crafted his own new image of a man 

who understood and appreciated the old ways. Those were the days 

of' the movie ''theme song 11 and the 11signature tune 11 of' headline perfor­

mers, a kind of musical heraldry that created ins'fant identity in 

the minds and memories of the mM• fans. Manley chose an old 

evocative Ztffe fftgBZZZ%aaagzz~BZ ninth-night* air, There were ninety-an~­
*A post obsequies 0 , ake II helu on tlie ninth night 
after death as a final memoriam. 

and nine. One of his l!SliJJ campaign. helpers was a ' girl with a 

powerfully carrying contralto. She became song-leader and the effect, 

Edna remembers, was "amazing." At far distances wherever "it could 

be heard {people) on the street'"' (woulc ) say, 'Manley going to speak 

now.' 11 

He ·spoke with quiet deep feeling in contrast to the rousing 
. 1mostlv . efforts which preceaed .BCi~ IN~ ~ Ril him. With an eye on future clai-

ants to throne favours, he was caref'ul to omit from his r,JIIIIR:~ilt,~ 
lo uacious 

speakers' platform all the more • kingmakers so that ,arty 
h~ 

discipline and his own osition as ~eader woulc, not ;.._ coi::tpromised by 
~ it:~~ .fiiil" ~ kAtltL h.lto_....e,,n,,<n' le,,~r '!,\'!~~ ::,gut t n him in. 11 

e .... ows allowing as how~ ~ :P«r-= • ( . :mrtS'4)J;&~ is ca1.1p t, 

speakers were require to be constituent people. 1.owever, these in­

cluded such seasoned 11professionals 11 as Alan Isaacs and Vivian Blake. e 

He adopted the slogan "Time for a change' '' and drove his Vanguarc. 

motor car as hard as he drove himself'. One notorious nieht, 
election eve, he scheduled nine ceetings on the East st 



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-i-

Andrew plain, had Edna at the wheel and sazeztzzez a truckload of 

youths :from Four Roads, Earbican, Papine, August Town :following> and so 

blanketed the ~~ that f :frequently/ his entourage was caught in its own 

tra:ffic jam. 

He spoke quietly, easily, taking his hearers into their own needs 

and desires for a hope and a :future& 0 All the young, people eating their 

hearts out, scuffling around day after day looking for work. They too 

want to feel that their country needs them; they too want to feel alla 

the youne men --- that when Sunday comes, they had earned enough to (dress 

up) and go out and cast an eye on a pretty girl. 11 

It brought no guffaws. j Young, workless men, hating their sweaty 

Sunday clothes that had been sweaty since Saturday and before, :felt the 

rage and the hope. 

"And the young girls, they have their drean: s too. They want to put a 

ribbon in their hair and put on their ballerina ~ (skirts) and dance. They 

want one day to have a little plac efo:f their own, nothing very grand, just 

somewhere they can open a gate ana lock it behind them and walk through 

the little :flower beds with the roses they have planted themselves and 

lift the latch of their own dooz; and when they go inside and close the 

door after them they can talk to their man as they like. 11 It wa8 ~p ~ 
a,...(( 

~~,fumour ~ and created what Edna :t,..anley once 

describea as "the most extraordinary quality of a sort of young patriarch." 
- ~ ,then, 

They b egan calling h1m, A.w1der and wider, the Father of the Nation. he 

took to it and grew 0~ into the part . 
.,fta:t. .Lcaw:to of .lwo ~ 'f .J 

He was powerful on the ~ but the hills snubbed him. The people, 

inward and desperate from the denuded land, the broken own, terribly misused 

land,were close and resentful. It would take years to win them but win 
bloom 

them he would;and he would work hard at getting into/zux.x•:kbuu:xxµxlu:x 

the Yallahs Valley Authority that :sax&ci.xxlut:idd:i:bx changed the contour 
slo~ .-- -~ 

of life in that once tortured ~ of the C it; Mountai 
- - .S: PAC.<?.-

ending each speech with the James LoweKll poem: Onee to every 

man and nation/Comes the moment to decide, he placed the action 

squarely into their hands, bidding them~ walk into 

the valley of decision of their own free will. He made the poem 

a drum-roll and those in the street below knew the wor~s w~11 
churches ~"tic,.,o ~-vo.,:C::-~ 

since zt the na&t¥-·..,. had worked it into a hymn~ and thenAwould say 
it along with him so it developed great power. 



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pendent, an anamoly in the Bustamante lifestyle of total owner-

ship that was repeated in no other a~ea. Of Allan, Manley was to say: 

"In this inept lot, Allan is sensible and takes a line of' f'air in­

dependence. 11 He was able, urbane, yet proud and vain, with a 

capacity f'or hard work. In a kind of' incredulous wonder at his sur­

vival, NW once f'owid • himself' agape at the "sort of flimsy cur­

i:ain 11 that Allan hung between himself' and the JLP. §_ the old 
/+t..1,flftS 

House, ~ was usually unf'lurried ; but his oppone1.ts had not been 

Manley, Ken Hill, Wills Isaacs, Nethersole, that lot. On the first 

business day of' the new House, Thursday, February 16, as he went into 

his Motions, he was visibly wistuck. Once or twice Dr Lloyd had to 
procedure 

correct him on/J~EIJUOlll and for losing his place among his papers. 
imperious 

Reporters in the Press Gallery saw the tremor in the once UH~UX .. 
hands. The nervous anticipation spread~ through the govern­

ment benches as each strove ti f'or nonchalance or strict control, 

but anything to avoid looking at the man• whose thin blade of' a 

face watched amusedly from the left of' the aisle. 

In the streets, it had been different. Bolitics in the streets 

was mostly talking to oneself' before a friendly m responsive 

crowd where the only opposition was the heckler .alt who could be 

swiftly ejected or knuckled into silence. And where the errors -and f'alse statements had no instant built-in corrective,or/ ref'utal, 

known in parliament as The Debate. And now the most formidable ex­

ponent of' that legislatorial art, that giant of' the courtroom whose 

keen inteleect and tongue was known to flay/tough lawyers and reduce 

holy judges to errant mankind, the man whose legislative bodilessness 

had kept alive their hopes of' political immortality, from whom they 
I 

had been protected by the power of' the ballot box which decreed that 

none but their voices could be heard, was now a fully elected member 

of' the Consistory and equal as hell. 

No wonder Allan quailed. Even the Minister of' Communications 



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(Hon. Mr Bustamante), anxious to display his old hand status before 
--e ~~ 

the new ~oys, stumbled over the Rules and was gently pulled up by 
~ .... 

Speaker Oswald Malcolm, an in£Eequent dare on the part of the Speak-

er who lmew Busta•s imperial wrath. The House was all a-twitter, all 

over itself, but it was le£t to the lanky, inept Lawton Bloomfield 

to tweak the tiger and lay open his colleagees to be clawed. 

What had hp.ppened was that the Labour Party was seething over 

a neat upstaging masterminded by Manley, Ken Hill and their TUC team 

during the Myrtle Bank hotel strike earlier in the week, a strike 

they had guid ed to success. The exclusive old hostelry, sprawled 
.----'\ 

for two bloc~s between Maiden and Rum Lanes on the harbour front, had 
\......--

never !mown such days. 

Both the TUC and BITU had been lockeo/in a struggle for repre­

sentational rights. Although the indications were that the TUC held 

the loyalties of the hotel staff, the management*, in a surprise 

*Myrtle Bank was owned by the Issa interests. Abe Iss was 
at that xime a political £oe 0£ the PNP in particular, 
being the leader 0£ the Jamaica Democratic arty, a hastily 
put together party to attract away some of the middleclass 
PNP support. The JDP, badly battered at the polls, was soon 
to be permanently abandoned. 

move, unilaterally settled with the BITU. Mr Manley was at a meeting 

0£ the city council's Roads & Works Special Committee when he read 0£ 

the settlement in the ffternoon Daily Express. He reached across and 

tapped Ken Hill who was also at the committee. Hill could not be­

lieve his eyes. He hurried out and called £or a Union meeting at 
after 

ten o'clock that night KDKXthe late shift. 

News of the impending strike leaked to King's House and Governor 

Huggins sent £or Manley. King's House was worried, £or Roya•lty was 

coming to stay. Princess A1ice, Chancellor 0£ the new University Col­

lege 0£ the West Indies, would ve lan d ing b y R8yal Barg e - -- a t t he 



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Myrtle,,,,Bank hotel pier. Huggins indicated that he knew a decision 

whether to strike would be taken that evening and asked that it be 

postponed. Manley pointed out that the TUC was seperate :from the Party 

but promised to talk to the union leaders and advise the governor by 

morning (Sunday) whether the Princess should land at the Myrtle Bank. 

Duly Sunday morning at eight, N. W.Manley was at King's House , 

advising Zilat against a Myrtle Bank landing and proposing Victoria 

Pier XKKXO:~ (the official King street dock) instead, since the hotel 

had become 11 a centre of excited attention. 11 Later in the day at the 

PNP General council meeting (at which Richard Hart and Frank Hill were 

elected to the Executive , a happening that was to have important con­

sequences), the Party backed the strike but sought to have the R~ 

landing unaffected. 

Next morning, Manley spent a few hours with Arthur Thelwell,* 

secretary of the Jamaica Agricultural society, whom he found 11 clear­

*Thelwell, a World War 1 contingent captain, thickset and 
pleasantly pompous, was later knighted. 

headed as usual" and with "interesting long term prospects" for agri­

culture. Edna joined him after lunch and they went down to the Myrtle 

Bank for the landing. Huggins had not taken his advice after all but 

:fortunately, in Manley's words, "everything went smoothly. 11 After the 

landing he went to a c1erk's UKion meeting and then to the TUC head­

quarters where he was told that the strike was called for the evening. 

The earlier shifts were already on the street, putting out pickets, 

so he proceeeded to Harbour Street at the hotel front where he spoke 

to the crowds :for calm. Then he drove the five miles up Hope Road to 

King's H0 use, twhere the Governor gave him dinne~ and expressed his 

hope for a quick settlement but condemned 11 a trespass" on the hotel. 

This trespass appeared to have been unknown to Manley, for his 

already long day continued into the early morning when he went to 

his Party office to enquire about the trespass. He was assured by 



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Roy Woodham,L(_hat the TUC pickets had entered only to eject BITU 

strikebreakers but that all was now quiet. If it had been, it would 
sat plotting the 

not ZZZZ~ be for long. some hours later as he"-~ 

strike strategy with Glasspole, Ken Hill and Arnett, the situation 

blew up in downtown Kingston. The mob violence brought police retal­

iatory teargas 1fff attacks and Manley duly became a Union casualty 

as a few canisters landed outside his Duke Street office window. The 

Colonial army)with the stupidity for which it was predictable over 

thre e centuries, launched straight into the act by a seaborne inva­

s•ion from its Port Royal base to the Myrtle Bank hotel pier. 

they 
In full battledress ZZ attacked the strike pickets on the pier. One 

picket drowned and several were injured before they could get out of 

the way. 

All this was doing nothing for the hotel business --- although, as 

Manley was to observe, the Americans 11with a very robust democratic 

tradition and very familiar with strikes" took to it as part of Z~% 

their holiday 11 amusement. 11 The hotel tlllmanagement called a truce 

and a conciliatory meeting began immediately. Manley, Ken Hill and 

O.T.Fairclough argued for the Union. They were still hammering away 

at a work resumption formula four hours later with Manley about to 

collapse from the effect of the teargas he had inhaled. The nego-
A huge 

tiations had moved to King's House in a mounting tension./~ 

crowd had blocked Harbour street in front of the hotel and once in 

the night, Governor Huggins was for calling on the military to disperse 

them. Quietly, Manley pointed out that the soldiers were equipped 

not with riot arms, but rifles and machine guns. He would have a 

massacre on his hands. After a short uncomfortable silence, Huggins 

~ed to Manley :uuaz in a direct appeal for a solution. It was 

clear to the people in the governor's office that Huggins was handing 

over.ZB! ManSley had a condition. He would want a free hand during 

the night. The Governor looked at Police Commissioner Calve~ The 



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poli€e chief seemed eager to hand over the whole force to Mr Man-

ley. 
fN" 

the little matter It was all downhill after thatjexcept .... 
~cf.. 

of aftypewriter breakdown ~lSmost derailed the · deal. Manley 
ik 

had asked the Governor for an 11 p.m. deadline £or )l settlement. 

The negotiators - moved fast and skillfully/and the letter from 
c,_l)IJC.I~ 1fJT10IV 

the Issa interests setting out the terms of sill J was due by 
t.J-1.¥1"• s !JM,"t > 

soon after ten. Up to lO!JO, the letter had notA!!dJSiti due to the . ........, 
busted machine. The Governor had indicated that if the negotiations 

..._/ 

£ailed he would be forWced to disperse the crowd aa..i in front of J?.i~ ... 
C I 

tourist island's most famous 
the 

resort. That restless/ 

crow- could cut loose and occupy/!~R mint julep palace. Ner-

vously, Manley called King's House and requested a JO-minute exten­

sion. He need not have worried. Huggins, who had his secret agenss 

g1u well dispersed, knew of the machine hitch. So everybody at 

TUC headquarters sat tight while Leslie A1exander, a battle-scarred, 
watched 

dedicated businessman-unionist,always splendid in crises, 
phoned in 

the tension levels on Harbour Street and/-..e frequent reports. 

:, 

The Issa letter finally arrived by police "Black Maria" and 

after a telephone briefing of the Governor, Manley went down to the 
~~. 

hotel and told the strikers of J I 11111 6 The terms 

• 

were not as good as Manley wanted and the crowd, filling the wide 

street with its edges spilling into the darkened lanes, -..w wr. com­

menced a restless murmur. It took all the persuasion of lawyer Man­

ley to argue £or its acceptance. Wearily then, he told them they 

had all done a gm~3 good job in forcing the Issas to a settlement 

and that it was time £or bed. He would leave Comrade Ken Hill to 

say a few words. But Ken, a man who knew his way with crowds, invi­

ted them instead to follow Leader Manley while he dealt with the with­

drawal of the pickets. It was a development unexpected by Manley but 

which the old soldier solved by leading the way in his loping stride 



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;s' 
;h and 
1g in 

along 

heady 

.. 
Harbour Street. behirld him. It was all 
,_ <3'J§t<~ I@ 
stuff,Abut as he neared King Street, it suddenly struck him 

at he had nowhere to go. "It was an amusing situation. Then I 

ad a brainwave and turned up King Street to the TUC office where 

a photographer jumped a camera on me and the crowd grew very ex­
BV"1' H.J.. w...tlf'ld t,..tL c~dl fkui ~. '1"~'"! u. ~"J 'fc f!O_ ..(~. 

ed , 11 ■■■■■■■■■■a,. He was still having the teargas head­
/\ 

after he had dismissed the crowd, 
-W.. y-r-tf l- (>,;(11,J: t1 ij/<(? ltJ 1----- ---- --1 

cooling night back to the . I J I 

[ji'u was sett1edll at the hote:~ Ken had mopped c1ean1yf 

thinking of the lessons he had learnt ! 

It had been twelve~~ years since he had played the r 

mediator between Busta and employers, Busta and the judicia 

0£ 

us-
:,.-

ta and the government. Since then his Party had lost two elections 

~ 
A. the House . He had been driven to gather 

his own worker-support to match Bustamante's union support. Tonight, 

in the Myrtle Bank issue, he had played the r o l e of mediator to 

• his --- always exacting --- satisfaction. He had defused two si­

tuations: a potential employer's obdul;acy and a conceivable discon­

tent among the workers. He thought that "people get deadlo 

do not see how small the differences are that often preven 

settlem~ 

G ut he also knew that the PNP-TUC future would go a route of 

obstacles, tough ones, if employers continued preferring to deal with 
~'f' 

the BITU. It had been so .... the M¥ rtle Bank strike. The growing 

strength and ange~of the TUC wo;ld create explosive confrontations. 

The government's Labour Office eemed to be labouring in £utility. 

The Governor, he had found in the night's dealing, was not clued into 

the workingman's issues and feelings. Unfair p ressures brought on 



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h ei ht e ne d by h is nervy wea~ 
t h e razor- e d ge s u ccess, the 

rush o f t h e comrad es s 
h is wak e ~ ar.e~4dzQI ; 

ss, 
sh and 



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his own words 
e was not a man who took delight in laughing at ■■Lia .Jut 

of 

horse-

perhaps in this half darki the penny-pinching city council's 
lights L --~·-··~-··· A.... street Zat.ii~SZK~~nrn:xm less dist inguished th 

/ buggy lamp, the court of closed buildings and eyeless wind ws 

and warm friendly piazzas woul allow its king's counsel thi small 

levity-:how five years agfone Saturday night, callow yet in p -

·tics , yet to suffer his first cl.obber at the poll.s, he had DI ■- f 
orn an outburst 

~to Edna in gUe of anger at some footling Party co leaguE:, 

that he would give up the business in five years. "You can say ,,, 
to a group (of pol.iticians) , do this because it is r 4ght. Thy 

just dont understand. Rightness, truth , honesty, integrity a e t h e last 

measuring rod s men ask of you. Everything is twisted, d istor e d and 

dra gge d down. I give myself five more years ~ and then I ' m c ming out. 

A.nd after that I 'll. live and act as my inner self bids me. 11 

Ah, well, mil.uds, he migh~ have said, imp ~ ,as he was 

a smal.l bow at the pile of silent concrete around ~ _o~n~e-h_a_s_t-+---""'-----=-
to re hrase his standaif not his integrity. 

onight had worked ou ell. He was anxious to be ome. na 
be worried. A fond glinft lit his eyes. He remembered how he had 

ed to the staring Edna five years ago to reassure her after his out-
11 No, honey, you go on carving~ That is true and honest!" So~~ 

c1~ Jl-+\. AWvr., ~~~1 ~ /:f,~, if "fth-.. n-..;;z;: lC ~ , /JAJ'b ··nu1r '.2>, Uu' uMJ\ t: 



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225 

the workers woul "breed mis chief and the people would be blamed 

instead of the causes." 

And so it was to bed for a short sleep before his first full 

day in the House as a member of parliament. He was planning to give 

the Labour .r'arty 11 a flea in the ear. 11 

Opposition Leader Manley might not have known it as he took 

his seat for his first debate in the House, but the flea was already 

well in. The PNP power in labour affairs, and latent power in King's 

House (vide a private dinner in King's HJl<>use~) was hardly likely to 

quicken the purest :feelings in the breasts of the Majority Party. 
the swift drub­

laughings tock of the BITU by IUU!22:Zilii%ili Ioreover, he had made a 
~ ~ 

bing ;.n the 1yrtle Bank affair. So no sooner than the Notices o f Mo-

tion was reached at the top of the agenda, JLP member Lawton Bloom-

fiel was on his feet with a notice of Censure against the Opposition 

Party. A few minutes later, in a try to quickly destroy any new in­

fluence the PNP may have gained in the recent prestigious negotiations, 

Bloomfield , seconded by Bustamante, was b ouncing to his feet again, 

d emanding a suspension of House business to instantly- debate his Motion. 

ianley had sat silently through the preliminaries which inclu­

ded appointments of several House Committees (all of JLP membership). 

After his short nighta•s sleep, he was fresh as the ubiquitous rose 

in his buttonhole . He sat the House bench in the familiar courtroom 

manner , relaxed yet alert, right knuckle at his lower jaw, the fore 

an middle fingers lined along his cheek. A fate he never seemed to 

rail at1despite its blows, past and future, had kept him out of this 

Chamber* in 1944 while his opponents went in on a universal suffrage 

*Hea quarters House, the legislative building, was the :for­
mef residence o:f the Officer Commanding the Troops in J am­
aica, purchased by the government in.:t",8 the 1 8 7os :for 
$ 5 ,000 when the new capital of Kingston took over from the 
J50-year-old S t Jago de la Vega (Spanish Town .) 



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226 

that was almost wholly his creation . Ahead of him would be other 
a. ::."'ty 1-i.-~ 

harsh usages. They would grow out of'~his style; that took to thorny 

principles i mpulsively, often h eadfirst, going steadily toward s the 
mild er men. 

isaster rapidly recognized by/D~XX Norman Manley 

coul not help but are. He used his resources to the hilt without 

a cost count. He love fast, p owerful cars, beautifully tuned, but 

was known to have been 

because he had run out 

for e e d t o coa s t :froJ1 ,·ewcastle 

of oil. ~ ~ 
to !Jrumbla' 

It was in character that his first words in a House d ebate 

was to legally tidy a piece of' rhetoric :from Hanover's J. Z . alcolm 

in a way that broke up his colleagues into laughter an d rew a reply 

from a Labour spokesman that was ind icateve of their misgivings £»:i~ 

for the :future. Furiously, the Majority Party spokesman cried la 

out that Xll they would "not be intimidated by any ,iinori t y 

The Bloomfield Motion charged the NP and the TUC with 

inflicted "a reign of' terror" during the Mytrle Bank strike . The 
~L.P, 

d ebate that followe d was curious , in that , the A j ai iJ :if :, left 
/\ 

its case to three limp speeches from three backbenchers. They were 

savagely 'slaugh tere by ian• ley who replied for the PNP . Only Mr Bus­

tamante a mong the frontbenchei;os j who were keeping a discreet silence , 

essayed ff interruptions; but these had no muscle and were XJa:XXX){ 

eftly twisted into absurd ities . Manley had expected the event an 

ha read ied his flea . The d ebate is worth retelling as the first 

s p eech by Manley in Parliament. 

Mr Manley : Mr Sp eaker, there is n old saying: "It i s 

an ill bird th t fouls its own next . " This resolution is 

in my ju gement frame d in language warranted by any facts 

before this an only calculated to provoke the very 

mischief' which i ' is supposed to avert If this House «xx 
e 

( considred) that 

ed which required i if 



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ut the resources were good human ones Jecause h e always trie d , and never ,tayed cynical . Af ter the no - quarter .944 general el~ctions, Edna coul d say ,f h i m in privaf'e: "He has lost nothing, ,nly gaine in wisdom and qu iet and maturity. He 
arrie d a lamp of trutg wherever he went; (he as UJ-ne, unforcedA_cif}eaut ifu l. " , i ~: had been g iven any rea s ons to oss t h e la p of truth. The e-ep-Manley-"ut ampaign h a d hustle t h e rich in hundre d s ff t h eir Z v erandahs an into t h e p olling )Oths . He had ma e ~ it now> in 1949, hard run but in tie. / 



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/tv 6€/VT 

If L, '-

1'1-fG 
'beM-113' 

Mr. Manley: Mr. Speaker, there is an old saying: "It 

is an ill bird that fouls its own nest". This resolution 

is in my judgment framed in language unwarranted by any 

facts before this House, and only calculated to provoke 

the very mischief which it is supposed to avert. If this 

House (considered) that a matter had happened which required 

investigation and if there were no ulterior motives behind 

the terms in which the resolution was framed, surely what 

would be done would be to ask that an investigation take 

place and then when the facts were disclosed and ascertained 

the matter could be introduced again before this House to 

express its opinion, whatever it be.~ut what is one to 

think of the Mover of the motion who introduced such terms 

as "reign of terror and vandalism", a favourite word 

apparently on the other side of the House, when there are 

no facts at all before us to warrant such observations? 

g is all very well to come here and talk about the tourist 

trade (and) of course the tourist trade is important to 

Jamaica. Everybody knows it; but those who, and they are 

not very far from me at this moment, those who provoked a 

situation that led inevitably to a strike at the Myrtle Bank 

Hotel, might have stopped to consider the interests of the 

tourist trade before they arrogated to themselves the right 

to attempt to deny elementary trade union practices. 



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{n organisation/oddly enough called the Bustamante 

Industrial Trade Union, and its leaders, were the persons 

responsible when with sublime indifference to the good of 

the country, and the proper development of trade union 

practices, they created a state of affairs which directly 

led to the strike. They must have known when they did, 

what they were doing; that it could have no other but the 

consequences that ensued. Had they cared at the right 

time for the interest of the island •••µJ/ 

Mr. Speaker: May I point out that the resolution asks 

that an enquiry be made. 

Mr. Manley: No, no, the resolution adds much more, it 

only asks for an enquiry to be made•••#( 

Mr. Speaker: It is part of the resolution. (To Mr. 

Manley: Please sit down Sir). It is part of the resolution 

and you are stating who is responsible for what happened at 

the Myrtle Bank Hotel. 

Mr. Manley: That is what the resolution says. That is 

what happens when people frame resolutions in ill-considered 

terms ••• 



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Mr. Speaker: The resolution does not state that. The 

resolution in the end is asking for an enquiry to determine 

the facts. 

Mr. Manley: The resolution itself, which you should 
tt ~) /4; ,.-4-- \ 

rule out of order, has assumed all sorts of facts such as @~U 

~ a reign of terror and vandalism became the 

order of the day. This House is asked to commit itself to 

a statement as to what happened and then to ask for an 

investigation as to whether it did happen. 

Could anything be more ridiculous? 

It is perfectly obvious that the intention of the 

Resolution is not to have an enquiry, but to get the most 

responsible instrument of government in this colony to 
1,t )} 

commit itself to a finding on facts not the evidence of 

an investi gation. Perhaps the mover did not appreciate 

the implications of what he is doing. Perhaps now I have 

called them to his attention he should be good enough not 

to demean the House further but withdraw the Resolution. 

r..fu... R..,~-t-1h-- ~, ifl{~/ 'y)()T //1/)tt ~lf}, . 

k:_ ___ If I may resume. I have heard, further, many observa-

tions on the necessity for preserving the good name of 

this country. May I say, in case Members on the other 

side of the House are unaware of the facts, that the people 



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of the U.S.A., a country with a very robust democratic 

tradition and not given to mealy-mouthed talk and mealy­

mouthed observations, are very familiar with strikes. 

I seem to recall I saw photographs in the newspapers of 

tourists beaming with amusement at what was going on, 

quite unperturbed at witnessing in a British colony what 

democratic Americans are used to seeing in their own 

country . Therefore these suggestions of hurting the good 

name of this country, which we on this aide of the House 

have cherished for so long in the face of so many things 

that make decent people feel ashamed of the processes of 

Government in this country, we yield to no one Sir in our 

concern for the reputation of our people; and we ask thie 

House not to behave like that evil bird that fouls its 

own nest by going on record in condemnation of your own 

people (if you still think them your own people) before 

the facts are known and ascertained. 

Where is the evidence of these acts of vandalism? Not 

one single incident has been verified of a touriet molested 

or injured. Not one single instance, and you wish to go 

on record tor -hole world to hear that some sort of 
· c~ J 

t MgA 21' terror ~~~e thie KetJoe" .. / Is that what 

you want to do to your country? Is that the reputation you 

wish your count ry to get abroad? 



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~me on tactics of that sort. Taeee are the 

-taizigs th.at httrt us 111 the eyee of the verld. These are 

~be things that hurt us abr~ 

A responsible House would call for an investigation. 

It would not condemn its own people with false charges 

before the accusation was made. 

Sir, I ask this Houiese to think well before it lets it 

,s,e atoand all around the world that something hajij)ened 

daresay there were certain 

instances of ebullient action on the streets, it happens 

in every country in the world when strikes take place; 

and men who sit on that side or the House and pretend-

to be labour leaders, should know it has happened hundreds 

of times by their own actions and not always without 

provocation. It is easy to come here now and talk about 

law and order, but who taught the country these things in 

the first place? 

I admire repentance, but I admire it more when it is 

not _..1.1 od wit){ Ml hypocri ti calf~ I congratulate 

all who wish to repent now but let them repent openly and 

with some sense of decency and not in this form. 



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You may injure yourselves by bringing the contempt of 

good minded citizens upon you. If you are indifferent to 

your own reputation that is not a concern of mine (laughter) 

and indeed it would not be surprising to me (renewed laughter). 

Men can only cherish those things which are of good repute. 

You can hardly cherish a reputation that does not exist 

(laughter). If you think this will injure the PNP and the 

TUC, allow me to assure you that you will fail in your mark. 

The reputation of the PNP has been high everywhere in the 

world. 

Mr. Bustamante: On a point of order. There is nothing 

whatever in that motion about the reputation of the PNP and 

the PNP has not been mentioned in it. 

Mr. Manley: With the greatest respect, I am amused at 

the state of confusion that the other side of the House ie 

thrown into. You say the PNP is not mentioned in the 

resolution. May I be allowed to read from it? "••• when 

disorderly bands of PNP and TUC sympathisers ••• " 

Mr . Bustamante: Not its reputation. 

Mr. Manley: Am I really hearing with my ears? (laughter). 

May I ask the Hon. Member for Southern Clarendon: How does 

one identify a person in a crowd or in a street as a Member 

of the PNP? Years ago when times were so very different from 

what they are today, it used to be imagined by my friends on 

the other aide in the House that the Members of my Party had 

a peculiar mark on their foreheads (laughter). 



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For the first time in five years of the new politics, the 

PNP was strong in numbers and quality; and clearly an overmatch 
~ / for the Labour benches. That was not to say the pattern parlia-
1\ 

mentary wins and losses stuck consistently. As the Majority 

members overcame their awe of N .W.Manley 1 s presence among them 

and shed their defensive • cast, they too got in their lumps. 



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j \,00 
CHAPTER FORTY~ ·-

And even before the release of the JLP .N£ from the 
I 

poor-me-boy mold into which a timidity, an old:fashioned count:ry 

:fear o:f the erudite,was reducing their~ puissance• 

inside the House, out on the streets the old vigorish was as po­

tent. In one overnight stroke, they calculated to avenge· the Man-

ley tongue~lashing by punching 

lower than the ~after 

a hole in the PNP treasury (already 

fighting an electionll),and chopping 
~,'f a limb from the TUC's proliferative hotel section which had~~ 

~ unmanned them. 

IUUOODQ[ Manley had planned a railroad excursion to Montego Bay 

by several coachfuls of comrades. The purpose of the victory in­

vasion was twofold: to pull in about $600 profit £rom ticket 

sales for Party ftmds; and even more important, to provide a psycho­? 

logical boost for the Sunset Lodge Hotel strikers who had been led 
But as it was, next day the Myrtle Bank debate 

out by the TUC.* DXnpcK~X~J!!XDOiJOIXXD * Manley had not thought the strif~ a good idea and 
had a.tvised the Hill brothers and W'bodham of the TUC to play it 
with caution. The employers were~powerful in the northwest and he K~ was not for putting the young union into a posit~o o be clawed --- and lose the nice plume they had won in the Myrtle ank 
affair. Nevertheless, he JOO[ sent down Florizel G1asspole, a TUC man of more cautious bent, to assess the situation. Uneasy, he later took off himself :for Montego Bay. His :fears were realized when he met a 11 glum 11 Glasspole on the road, returning. It was later settled. 

was not renewed and a government ban on political demonstrations 

was announced.LManley believed that Bustamante, still smarting from 
-12. the debate, had once more cosied up with the Governor and mano½yred 

the embargo. However, his stay in Kingston produced a good occasion 

as he was to meet the man who would play a profound part in the gov­

ernment he would lead at the next -- election. The man was George 

Cadbury, then the Economic Adviser and Planner to the Saskatchewan 

government. After hours o:f talking into early Saturday morning, 

Manley said of him: "He was a man of fine, clear mind and a good 



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socialist , " giving him the highest compliment of the day. "I wish 

had a couple of' that calibre here." It was a good occasion t 

ped to of'f'set the pet . the e~bargo. :rj),4 - • ■ -,R 
- s PPr~~-. - / / 

Manley, in a way, took the mantle of' his fell.ow barris 
lh f'4- ff() e.. . t,4 _$n-,~1t-, ~ ~ 

politician , J.A.G.SmithA .'~ ... putting a mindfi honed in the precise 

def'initions of' the legal law, to work on those imprecise 11f'acts 11 

w-l,..oaht.. 
& figures slipped into d ebates by lan-j smart politicians ~expert 

in the laws of' expediency. He was very unsparing of' ministerial. 
and 

motions "conceived in haste• za-mli written in conf'usion. 11 Where he 

differed f'rom the great c1arendon legislator was that he was a 

wittier man, possessed of' an easier personality , and backed by able, 
IJ £'reed of 

hard driving comrades disciplined in Party loyalties , Mnd JttDUOlX 

the repressing Ff@ljiMM weight of' a constitutionally imposed English 

governor sitting incef)e legislature, Manley's opposition was ef­

fective ■ in a way that Jag's could never be . If' Smith was a rapier 

in his time, Manley, the old artilleryman, was both gunlayer and 

blade. He not only had armament, i.e. , colleagues, to marshal as 

~ 
he needed, _as a trained enquirer, he excelled at working over utter-

" 
ances and revealing fumbles. He was too healthily arrogant to be 

pugnacious but he could destroy with grace and eclat. A couple of' 

High Court judges of' his time, despite the panoply of nigh absolute 

power that surrounds the Bench, were known to say the • Yes,!:!!: 

Manley (the traditional. invitation from the judge for a defending 

counsel. to rise and open his case) with a trepidation difficult to 

disguise. He took his understanding of' histrionics into the House 

and often seized the dramatic and held it tenaciously until the 

point was in.* 

*"Gully government , " one 0£ the slogans that was credited 
with helping to bring down the Bustamante administration 



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in the 1955 elections received its first creative touch 
in the early days of the 1950 House when Manley spoke 
about "the legacy of unfillnished gully works. 11 Repeated 
over and over, it stuck. 

One of his early legislative wins was the Unemployment Committee 

bill asking ZBKZ for island-wide schemes of productive works along 

with special relief through provisions of food, shelter ana cash bene­

fits. It was a horrendous KU%¥~ motion to be put by a Socialist 

minority to a legislature which prided in its Conservati e ag 

even if the label had been contrived through a desire to appear capa­

ble of an alternative idea. And especially after Manley had opened 

his argument with a denunciation of capitalism. "Nowhere in the world 

can free enterprise* deal with the problem of unemployment," he said. 

*He once described that bastion of ill system,. the 
United S&ates, as 11 that blessed land of prejudice 
and free enterprise. 11 

But he knew that the pra@Jlllatic fellows on the other side of the Cham­

ber would never forget, nor ever grow 1ffl9 unaware, of the blows they 

had taken in the elections just over. None would dare oppose his mo­

tion, however couched, if it promised benefmts to the unemployed. 

On •ther matters, however, the Opposition ~DIK received short 

shrift. One of these was the important House committees. The PNP 

was denied the right of choosing the conunittees on which Minority 

members would sit. When Manley wanted to go to the Agricultural Com­

mittee with Periival Broderick as the two PNP members, he was barred 

by Bustamante. The result was that the PNP functioned little in the 

infra structure of the House and so moved Manley to describe the Com­

mittees as "functionless, barren and useless." 



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,,-I' . AA 

CHAPTER FORTY-:PWO ~ 

An ugly old redbrick building belching £lame and smoke, 

night and day, across the railway tracks at the end 0£ Barry 

Street, housed the city's gasworks. Blacksmiths, bakers and 

all sorts 0£ minor industries depended on the coal-£aeled works 

£or industrial coke and gas. It creaked along on its 70-year-old 

machinery, with gaping holes in its ancient walls and was itself 

a minor miracle in that it did not blow up the railway yard and 

adjuncts. Like the railway, it was costly to the government, 

burni8g out its subsidies at some $40,000 a year to service abo 

1,500 customers and a £ew hundreds street lamps. The works were 

run by the city government, a body in no good grace with Busta-

mante since it was dominated by the PNP. He was therefore for 

scrapping th~outfit. 

~ 
J 

Manley, the ex-woodcutter legislator £rom Guanaboa Vale ar ed 

eloquently to keep the gasworks, pointing out that cordwood was 

getting scarce as the remaining forests succumbed to the axe. 

Fuel, he said, would soon become a real problem to the city ho 

wives. He got wide support, even among his opponents, when he ob-

served (in the 'Fifties) that electric stoves would never be on 

~. 

many shopping lists among 11 the ordinary people.>~ His 

advocacy stayed Busta•s hand and saved the ancient works for awhile. 

But even more importantly, since gas was to go anyway, it enabled 

him to put the future problems . of agriculture before the people. He 

argued for the retention of remaining woodlands as a barrier against 

continuing land erosion --- woodlands which would be sure to go if 

the gasworks were suddenly shut down.) 

c;-griculture was his greatm concern and he could talk and 



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used the old gasworks to make an early statement of his )wn deepest interest: the broadly employing husbandry of an island rith little or undiscovered mineral resources, and a#~ implausible .n dustrial hope. Believably
1 

he ha d already made up his mind that tenever his Party came to office, agricultural would ~•~~ receive chief regard ~~ .ei; »a.,. the.<.~ of his government. In is time to come, he woul d make strenuous efforts in• oil explorationl nd raise t · · levy on bauxite ·~~11@.::JSij(Jllt (then in production 
r . . 

or year s ) . But for now, the plough ran ahead. 



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I 

scheme through the night with such committed men as 
Arthur Thelwell 

an Harry Dayes (who had a pineapple pro ject 
for the east St Andrew 

hills) ~ . 
.,,,,.,.,..,,,, 'r~• --- al though , ct 

ue to the pressure of politics 

he wasz thinking of selling the 
' 

small herd of cattle he had kept 

at Drumblair for 12 years. 
It was a fine• , carefully bred herd 

and it took a long time of 
talks with his farming friend Rich 

illiams bf e ore the d ecision was m d . . . 
a e , a decision no doubt - ~p e d 

by the fact that the 
tyra 1 

Drlimblair mini farm . nnous Y claiming 
was /~n~ 

Edna's time. As ever , her work and future 
was f o r emost in his mind. 

An awakening creativity occurred in ~orman Manley's 

Jamaica, between 1938 and 1962, unmatched in any period. 

7~iters, painters, scupltors, dramatists, athletes, poets, 

dancers began appearing in numbers and quality unbelievable 

in a time before. It was a flood released, an outburst of expression 

previously dammed t)y the inhibiting banalities that had sum-
v.11,.,.;;ff/J.. !>IIJOW!, . 

moned them for service to the feudal lauding of _1 @i l ,.... 

They were the chilaren of the blue-eyed books w111,-11 

c.,ve/,J 'Tltc111, 

... the 020:tl'l. alien masters had .._ to school their ways . 

Utll:> ~EAi 
I" 

It r,.a,g unrelentlingly hammered into them that 11 loyalt to the 

Crown' was the highest reason for their existence; it fell 

pre-Biroshima 

somewhere between the J!I! il&l!$bJ pscz t &ZI! Japanese deification 

of the Emperor,and fetish worship. 19ettd • It had enabled 

them)without much pain)to sweat in the fields producing 

primary products for England~and bled them in her wars.* 

*The wEst India R
0 giment for years did outy in 

A~rica subduing black nationalists fighting 

against England . 

The re 5o pnitio3 of a national identit~ caused by the new ( PNP) 

Movement, was the cutwater tl f gr, ~ I I the appearance of 

George Campbell, likely Jamaica's most important .... ' national' 

poet, the Ivy Baxter dancers and the early and young Nettleford, 

then a , UCWI student at Mona, bullying 

his classmates into discovering the Dance, the writers Roger 

painters 
Mais and V. s . Reid, ~ I Huie, Escoii'fery, Dencham, Daley , 

the sculptor Marriot, and so many others. And in turn these all 

raise the snirits and tightened the nation an 

1"' I • 

guided the , energl es in ···---··· a way ti , -
0 ~~r : percep-

tive men S se~ and historians know. 



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_.. 
There was much Edna coul d not give up. e was a strangely 

onely man, a tragedy finely d rawn, and in the in(,f}ct of h is 

.ntegrity and intellect, capable of escaping :llil!ilil a t h e closest 

can. He was clumsy at d eviousness, uncomfortable in issembling , 

,ften un~illing f or c ompany new and unknown - - - and o f a great 

md Just belief in his cap ~bil;i. ties. "Fortunately , IUIII] JOIIIIJE he 

1a-s .learnt to ma k e people laugh , " says t h e 

?legant but tough lady whom he h a t he g ood .fortune to 1ave loves 

u JniJP!ift .JICLC!la::Ji; u 11; 11\ ,t ! r f24g;,ll1r#'A:' as 
1 rG:=w~ 

1 1 ye t 
1im. But t he re was/much ai,; work to do f or t he man . "We 're happy 

!lnd ful l of confid enc e and we aren't f i ghting a losing cau se ," 

,eaw. ~ 

she explained ,.,.t o t he a ud ien ce she best und erstood, Douglas and 

e~ • ' ,, 

chael,1 ,_ home from colleg e and wa r ; Douglas f rom Co l umbia and 

ndon univerbities, Michael f rom the Canac ian Air Force (Pilot 

Officer , 194J- 45) and Lo1don university. She coul d not give up 

for there were matters in the 11 cau se 11 t hat orly she, of the Man­

leys, could mee t. "This morning, people p oure d in . Women with 

$i3f 32ii(JP ( bungry ) chih ren, men j if M wa n ting (emp loyment) , men 
And 

to say t h anks ." IUF UlliPl!h! U IUT- ITTTJTXJ:2ilr t h e se were t he real 

drain on her en erg ies a nd emo tion s . G ai t h ," ob served E<,na ~-fan­

ley look ing out at t he Springtime h ills she love d , 11 i s a s tate 

of b eing whereby we achieve a harmonious sense o f reality. " Farm­

ing , N 5f'.%11'1f s c ulpting , writing , praying , t h ere wa s a sense of 

reality. 

She was about to work on her Christ, t he n ow :famous carving 

Ill TM?? w, -1ar R fe s t Street I s All Sa i n ts chur ch in Kingston . 



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The Constitution was splendid :for disclaiming responsibi-

lity. So long as the swing vote in the Executive Council, Man­

ley's old "chief instrument o:f policy", lay with the English gov­

ernor, the Majority Party could use it as good red herring to 

:flounder the trail whenever the PNP seemed• hot on their tracks, Of" 

~ :;to 
attack. And attack they did . From 

A.G.S . 11Father 11 Coombs' stricture on the :facility with which the ·~ 
government 11 gave away taxpayers' money 11 by appointing importees 

to high o:f:fice because of the "natural passport of whiteness over 

their :faces 11 , to N. N. 11 Crab 11 Nethersole's biting appreciation 

of' the nMinister of Communication's (Bustamante) welcome policy 

of' silent reservation in this House• as the unf'or-

tunate an willing agent of' the Executive Council ." 

Manley and his Party were in good :fettle/ ~ rf"or the voters had 

distinctly shown their preference :for the PNP candidates. 1111 

a I Rb& . l flTJ(j Q J I) 9 I The i-larty was on the 

verge of' receiving power and he would brook no obstacle. f.e was 

especially severe in protecting his £ire :from the JLP raiders in 

the House. The decision of the Majority P arty to establish a Yal-.,.., 

lahs Valley . ~and Authority{f)roused him to tongue-lash the movers 
~~, It 

:for 1 C to borrow our idea and disguise the :fact. 11 He 

tore into them :for opposing, and · even ridiculing, the PNP call 

·:for planning in government. 

if-The Yallahs, :flowing .... :from the Grand Ridge o:f the Blue 
Mountain, waters a broad valley down to the sea at Yallahs 
in St Thomas, then quite despoilt by the erosion which had 
turned the potentially valuable :farmlands into depressed 
areas. YVLA has since proven a successful rehabilitator. 

"You cannot teach yourself -not to believe in planning, and 

that the ills o:f this country cannot be cured, and that it is not 

the duty of' the government to cure them by measures of this sort (the 

YVLA), then suppose you can take the doctrine of those 

lieve in planning, and tackle the prob~ ou cannot 

who do be­

take our 



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wine and 

The 

;;;_ . .r-r • 

poui: into your wineskinl 11
- ------------~ 

(,f,qtZE I!!) ----- / 
Authority had been proposed by the PNP :fourteen yea 

earli er to do precisely what the JLP motion was putting into 

lation. Ganley' s passion was not solely politically inspired, al-

though the YVLA, with its B~ money-seeding,~ 

:farm-vote-catching potential must have disturbed; but he had also 

known an earlier experience. He had a strong, personal affection 

:for the Port Royal Mountains, the magnificient southern slopes of 

the Blue Mountain range. As a member o:f the Agricultural Develop-

ment Board , but without political power , he had watched helplessly 

as 11 a ring of merchants" drew a monopoly around the slopes' most 

famous crop, the highpriced Blue Mountain Coffee. He saw how they 

excluded the growing area from any State-run land recovery a 
'IA~ ~ -----......,_ 

kept secret their export negotiations~includinghprices.""--;~·~::::::::::::::==--

He was as obdurate- t3-gainst excuses from the JLP ministers 
perfD l>\41\ 

1 

:for any . ::1-ef:fectual"">..based on the shortcomings o:f the ConstitutionS 

which gave the Governor a voting e dge on the :five-by-five Executive 

~

.. ' 

Council. e drew an ingenious but thoroughly pragmatic i!iii'flO{lilgllff4 diagra 
•1. ?( 

He took the point that nothing done in the Executive Council was aw , 

unless so decided in the House . Therefore, the Hous e Majority (i.e. 

the Labour Party) could put a spoke in the Executive wheel whenever 
O.i ~ ot-kA. ~k 1'tlL 

it ch oose. Colonial Office in London could of course put a boot 
t,JA i'kl-\tA I/ 

in but he held that A • S a would never thwart the objectives o:f an 
. , ct:.f.ollowul -ff.-pf> 

elected majority. And so here~at home, the English governor would 
/>1aio'",t'f 

be most careful how he oppos ed thel\. .. views and could 
-~ 

be counted • on • £or s p eci~,l caution in the us> · o:fl\- veto . "It :fol-
.. 

lows that ~our ■■••••· :five representatives there have a J[ most 
Ho... t),dd 

powerful lever to secure what they want . "/\: that 

the lack of power lay not in the Constitution but in the leadership. 

[£hey were part o:f the policy making, decision processes, o:f the Col-



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). r 1 e no C: oub t f elt or wond ered wh eth er t h ef LP's Aut h ority, wit h 
s what h e consid ered t h e Party's tendency to f a v mur 

e old estab lishment, cou l h old t h e line tight ~ a g ain st e x ploi -
He be lieve d in h is own cr eation . "The two-p arty system 

J amaica i ~ a h istorical a c cid ent ," h e was to s ay at h i s 
i n 19? 1::i . 



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poured . And the skin h eld . For 
slatorial rap acity o f t h e lawmaking 
t u rned it into g oo d , n o matter h ow 

·rowne d up on t he origins . 



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oni al Office but were allowing officials of that Of fice to carry on 

the same old creaking, antiquated policies. 11 You dont even put up a 

fight. You just come here and bleat about embryos. 11 This was a 

ref erence to Bustamante•s habit of ruefully referring to himself as 
(~o which Manley retorted : 

an "embryo minister}," ~~:X ,._ 11 :I am not interested in embryos. 

They should not be visible.'..:) 

Be f ore his election to of fice, Manley ha been inclined to agree 

with the Bustamante "cabinet" on a power-occlusion in the Twentieth of 
now in this firsthand of 

November Constitution; but ·n testing/its layers as 

he worked inside the House, he saw that ingenuity could wring a profit. 

Anyway, although he was not tactful enough to turn away his eyes as 

one a f ter another the PNP-generated babies were led away by those 
in +IL 

cyni cal foster parent s/D the J LP, he gained in certainty of t h e wis­
A. 

dom of his party's ,OJ!UJBO( policies. The Land Valuat i on bill was one 

of these. 

Stea ily opposed by the lan owning gentry because of its inbuilt 

~ social consequences, the bill sought to discourage the h oard ing of 

i d le acres --- XXX](XDJflllE a practise much indulged in by th:e spiri­

tual d escendants of the post-emancipation planters,who, a century be­

fore, bought and then :fallowed the land s so as to force the luckless 

free dm en Hto accept- w1.d erpaid employment in the same fields f r om 
fled. 

which they had so eagerly,- at freed om,•/ Idled land, Manley• saw, 
caused 

was one of the griefs wh ich iPMlladllOI the age of discontent that led to 

U3W¥ the 'Thirty Eight troubles. 

But it was to the fight for a broadened Constitution that much of ,, 

his fire was drawn. The JLP had again declared its opposition to self 

government. I t was a stand readily understood since in the event of 

new elections, they were likely to be d efeated . The popular vote had 
4J. 8, 

gone against them in the recent elections: the PNP 's - or 203,048 

votes as against the JLP's 42. Jf~ or l99,5J8 votes. 



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It was a situation close enough, but better tha1:.,and bound to im­

prove upon)the straits of his brother Socialist (Labour) Party in Eng-

land. He had predicted that the British (Socialists) Party wou ld 

"squeeze home 11 and is forecast had proven correct. It was obvious 

that a win for the Socialists in England would brighten his day,l!ilOi 

as bearers in the Colonial system could conceivably, through friends 

in high places, lessen their loads. But he was not losing sleep over 

i)as were some of his comrades. Manley knew that the new full suffrage 

and the inevitable increase in constitutional power must culminate 

in the final control of their national destiny. The election-winning 

"little people II were superbly unconcerned about world trends. (.A , 
1' 

world which N .W. was then descriving as 11 a mess that grows grea r 

everyday. 11 ) To this end, he redoubled his energies in constituency 

work. The welfare of his constituents at Papine Market, at Tavern 

Level, and the dwellers in his beloved. hills, engaged his atte -
"Tfll<.E IIJ 

tion right around the clock.~ is daylight focus was necessari 

the House and his courtroom work, but his poWErful energies were 

sustaining virtually a nightly slate of IU{llllXll public meetings 

and group d iscussions in the .? arty centres an the rocky crannies 

of his farflung electoral district --- a terrain of unspeakable 

difficulty even on muleback. 

The range of his activities was formidable. On a day, he 

could sit on the verandah of the old Manor ~ouse hotel explain.Sing 

patiently to an impatient but well-meaning and influential foreign 

visitor why there was no wand at hand to wave up regiments of new 

schools, low income houses and factories, then stop in at O.T. Fair­

clough's City Printery to discuss a job for a fathe.r of five from 

Hall's Delight, a mountain village, then hustle downtown to the 

Supreme Coutr law library for a late afternoon research. But poli­

t i cs was never far away and intrud ed even into the quiet of t h e law 

library, broken one afternoon by an upset Wills Isaacs who rushed ■ 

in to complain about left wing activities in the Party. Trouble was 
coming. 



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' . 
i d a o e1oane n t h eir "d ark an u esp erate "__. ways b roug ton by social 

a.n u e c o o ic h arassmen t a rl a ngr ily celebrated t h e "wond erful shining 

excep t ions " , mainly , . it seems , t h e ,l y oung ones " lo1 g ing to be 

ce l ea s e d . " ) 



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CHAPTER FORTY-T~E 
~~ 

The rift in the Party occurred in the spring 0£ 1 50. Man­

ley had made an agonising effort to patch the factions. He was 

---

a man who thought that 11 the cult 0£ bluntness" was "a nuisance", and so 

ua he straddled the centre and strove to hold the right and left 

wings from tearing the Partyllllk apart through flaring suspicions 

and public accusations. He had never lost a strong admiration £or 

the energy and intelligence of Ken Hill, Richard Hart and the other 

ll«:nxll« neophytes whose c8:i~ dedicated young faces were 

turned to the East £or enlightenment. And while Kt(J(](J:X.:XXXX their 

Communism {if it ever really was) was the revealed religion 0£ the 

decades before and after World War ll)and Russia their Mecca, it is 

debatable that fierce nationalists as WIRle these would ever owe any 

real allegiance to 
&\., 

bears, 11 sw,tP black 

Moscow. "You dont, 11 runs a proverb 0£ their £or-

dog £or monkey." 
to 

They were not so passionately attached/Colonialism to seek a 

better form of' it. But they were devout Marxists, made so by the 
i 

brl.)(Sing poverty, spiritually and in material, that enveloped the 
plus 

folk people like an umbilical sac --- /KZH what Manley had years 

before railed at as "the damn indifference 0£ this place." 
0£ the left 

KJHt~~ The confrontation/with the Party's conservative ele-

mensswas approaching• but Manley was outwardly unruffled,~~ 
perhaps 

hoping/that a centre 0£ calm would create a winding down of tempers 

and a climate for X1f.XJi100£ detente. But, also, his law briefs B~re~ 
were denying the exclusiveness of 

as usual,/bulging,and political 

JiDXlDfHll1 affairs. Nevertheless, they were there and so was the grow­

ing friction, in spite of' dialogue and negotiation. 

On the right were Dr Ivan Lloyd, Wills o. Isaacs, Florizel 

Glasspole and Alan Isaacs as the main proponents. Opposing on the 



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left: the H~ll brothersbnct Richard Hart in the van. Manley took 
~ r 

a centrist position as did Secretary Vernon Arnett by reason of 

his pivotal post. When Manley was warned that Wills Isaacs was 

flirting with the Press, he stepped into the wings and waited for 
the 

the evid ence, . /\ leak that woul d increase their stridency. "And 

so he {Wills) did/and they filed in, the Editor, 'The Sentry' and 

'The Political Reporter'" he has said in a wry later review of the 

circumstances• XM.DCK and the JO(dl[Q)O( gunfire from the Gleaner's 

U¼Xft corral. It was obvious that the Gleaner columnists had been 

briefed. The regular mid-month (April) Monday evening meeting of 

the Party executive was for disciplining the right wingers who had 

taken Party rows to the hostile right wing press.•1111Manley proposed 

a mild warning but Ken Hill angrily voted to attacklllllllf on the str eets, 

-lf-More than once over the years, PNP rightwingers, - in 
a weird self-immolation, have taken Party quarrels to 
the cowitry's conservative and constantly hostile 
Press, i.e., the Daily Gleaner. Alan Isaacs, then a 
cabinet minister in 1976, was the latest when he used 
the Gleaner columns to charge the PNP with ineptness 
and Communist sympathies. He was fired by Prime Min­
ister Michael Manley. 

the hustings on which Ken {The Whip) Hill was king. Denying that 

he was Red and charging Isaacs with Gleaner-collusion, Hill flatly 

stated his belief that Isaacs, who was a commercial agent in pri-

vate life, had a soft spot for his mercantile colleagues, iiOQIMDJ the 

capitalist exploiters on whom with relentless frequency fell the weight 

of his lash. The case for tough disciplining of XXll.XXllX 11Wills-0 11 

found favour with the Executive who saw the~ newspaper 

stories as aiding their Red-baiting slanderersjbut Manley argued for 

an admonishing of Isaacs. Shrewdly, he pointed out that if Isaacs 

was bent on attacking the Party, notwithstanding their official decla­

ration of non-alignment with Russia, he would do so; and so there 

would be no gain if' their actions 11pushed him on to course." The 



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~ 
Executive accepted his reasoning and Ken Hill agreed to bution 2-{,{f 
up. But the volatile Wills-0 was feeling his oats. Within days, 

a legal colleague of Manley's was warning him that Issacs in-

tended suing the Executive for slander. It blew out, however, 

after a talk at Drumblair with Isaacs. He was further placated by 

a hugely successful meeting on Laws Street, in the heart of Wills• 

constituency, at which Party Leader Manley spoke. 

Altogether, it wasnt an easy season for Manley. A few smallD 

family crises made his calendar. Neither Douglas nor Michael were 

especially happy in England. For one thing, white racism was com-
unemployed ~ (Jamaican-

ing out of the closet asJ'\XKI 61ack~Britishers, in increasing droves, 
turned and jobs. 
D~~ their faces 11home 11 to Engl.and,.{ An automobile accident 

that forced the purchase of a new car, and unexpected family demands, 

had about cleaned him out. Given his lean sense of humour, he must 

have considered appearing before his own Unemployment Committee 

which was then at work. But a brightness occurred. Grand-daughter 

RAchel arrived to stay. 

Rachel, Michael's daughter, was to be his comrade-in-mischief 

for years. So soon, so young, at their first meeting he found her 11 a 

striking youngster. Good head, a great sense of humour, full of ima­

gination and make believe but hot-tempered and difficult." Fifty-odd 

years had lengthened his fuse and inhibited his make-believe, but 

they were otherwise identical twins. 

Vernon Arnett has given a version of "The Split" in the Party 

which is by several accounts a fair and reasonable one. "Manley 

worked very hard to Ji!i' preserve unity, 11 says Arnett. "He main­

tained close touch with both sides and was fair in reprimanding 

both sides for excesses. Wills Isaacs was the most difficult to 



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~ r 
control. He felt that Manley favoured the left. He made many accu-

sations of 'Commwiists in the Party' which though not made publicly 

became a matter of public knowledge. 11 

The growing rift was not narrowed by the publication in the 

Gleaner of a Richard Hart memorandum prepared originally for Party 

group circulation. Hart had outlined the role of the middleclass in 

a nationalist movement. They were to be replaced after independence 

was gained. The Party's right-wing charged that as selfstyled 
it was they who would 

middleclassers,/Jl(]QtXK~ be used and then pushed aside 

for a takeover by the left. Wills Isaacs saw this as a threat to 

himself. This might have been the 11 comparative long term" plan, 

says Arnett with a r~ish glint, but Wills 11had already conceived 

the idea of supplanting Nethersole as deputy to JKXK Manley and of 

finally talcing over from Manley himself. Wills saw himself as fight-

ing for survival as the Number One enemy of the left with whom 
{had) 

he~ occasional :flirtations in the past. He decided that the 

best way to save himself was to raise the Communist alarm. 11 

Politics is the fiercest art and Wills was engaging his creative 
declares 

skills as was his right. Indeed, Arnett/~ that it was "true 

that the left wing's aim was to dispose of Wills as rapidly as JDX 

n»n they could. He was seen • as the most dangerous member of the 

Right and they had a healthy respect for" alllllhis toughness. It 

appears that the thinking of the Left saw Nethesole i~ntually DUX 

ousted anyway as heir to the Leader but he should be kept there witil 

Ken Hill was ready to move into his place. 

It was a political catfight, yet all the clawing stayed at the 

base of Pompey. The gigantic stature of Manley was unchallenged and 

his own known choice of Nethersole as his first deputy was the ticket 

that would clearly be honoured by the Conference deputies as events 

would prove. "It is sign.ii ica1Lt, 11 says Arnett, 11 that in the seven 



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years, 1952 to 1959, Wills Isaacs, though known to be working for sup­

port, prior to each Party Conference, for a challenge to Nethersole, 

never once faced the starting gate. It is also the K fact that when 

the split came}the Hills and Hart took with them only a small fraction 

of their supposed following. 11 Isaacs read it well. The other side 

stumbled. 

The war between the factions did not erupt into a shooting war 

until the face-off at Shooter's Hill and then began as a union matter. 

Two T.U.C. stalwarts, Thossy Kelly and Walter McPherson , endeavoured 

to warp the bauxite workers into~ a separate union, a 

manq3vre imputed to the Right. Arnett, that cool observer at the 
Party 

centre of/activities longer than anyone else, points out that the 

T.U.C. had, :from its beginnings, been divided into "Glasspole 11 and 

11Ken Hill" :factions, the latter at the Left. The discovery of the 

Kelly- McPherson device :flashed alarm in the Ken Hill camp and the 

T.U.C. DDJUllU{ yelled for the PNP mother-lash. 

• Dutifully , the Executive called in a disciplinary committee 

to hear the case against the conservatives, who, in turn, laid coun­
rising 

tercharges against the leftwing and briefed a/young barrister named 

Vivian Blake . 

Blake's brief claimed that• proselytism for the CommunistslOOOl 

:rlJU1JU( existed actively inside the le:ft and that this was a constitutional 
~ 

infringement since it stoody tha1:_, accepting the Soviet •party•••fis-

cipline, they were, in e:ffect, renunciating the People's National 

Party. The agony mt pervaded every level of the Party and assaaina­

tionsof characters ruled. Naturally, so went the political credibili­

ty o:f several on either side. The Hills, Hart, Henry, Kelly and Mc-

Pherson , Dyce, Grubb and Woodham were axed, either by exp•ulsion n: or 
.ll-&~, 

turned to :face the .. 
.i~t.aR, 

•resignation. The PNP wiped its t,vAJl nose and 

• /\ 



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CHA TER 

The agonising break hdd com~and brought also the resurgence 

that marked the absen ce of the messianic young elements by shifting 

from an avowedly doctrinaire Socialist party to a pragmatic politi ­

cal compromise . Ideologies were rubbed of their edges an a cco-
For example, the 

mo ation of a kind ensured . / DI Socialist positions that would 

weight out of the system the private ownership of natural resources, 

b road utilities , or the uncontrolled input of foreign capital , were 

eased. 

It is questionable whether the Party would not have won the 

1955 electionsfwithout the wrenching experience many PNP adherents 

believe took toll of the intangible celebration of spirit , which , 

to them, had promis ed the good revolution. Fine slogans (e . g . the 

J amaica Welfare mtl)lmarching song : » e're out to build a new Ja-

, aica") that had held hope for the social greening of the country , 
suddenly 
a~~ajtlJ ripened into corn. The resurgence was of politics , not 

passion . .And many thought that "'Ihe Split was a victory for the 

shrewd and ruthless pressures from the established society to re ­

tain the race- class culture no matter what politics . 

"The attack of(these) forces comes in various ways (being) 

the combined forces of the Press and of all the monied interests 

of' this country," orman Manley has said . 11It is the most ruth-

less , unscrupulous and most determined. It is the combination of 

those who think they have something to lose and will fight t o the 

death for (it). But we will never cease to preach the need for 

unity and brotherhoo1and fellowship among the people. 1hat el■se , 

before God , ~an we preach? 

in the brotherhood of men? 

e, with a Socialist cause that b elieves 

e , with a nationalist cause that still 

dreams a ream of a united people , mixed in blood, teaching the 



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world that man is man?"* 

*In a short poignant letter to the Press , Edna Man­
ley, during the 1955 election campaign , to combaB t 
the racist rumours, wrote: "Sir, Since the subject of 
my parentage has come up on so many political plat­
forms, would you permit me to state once again that 
my mother was a coloured woman from Hanover and my 
father was an Englishman from Yor_k_s_h_ i _r_e_._ .. ___ ___ _ 

He had prophetically concluded, when the petitions for a 

probe of the Party's left wing commenced pouring in , that Kthe 

PJ(JtJOlM increasing popularity and power of the f>arty was MJQQOQO(lf 

sending into retreat the external forces against them; forces which 

had "helped to hold us all together. 11 He had worked hard to 

avert the internal disaster , but had founct , in his words , the 

affair to be 11 shocking . .. with fear and secret determinations 

rampant . " Two days before the General Council meeting to consi­

der the Disciplinary committee's findings , he had asked Arnett 

whether he thought another solution could be found . Arnett tol 

him the~ polarity was complete . 
, Arnett says , 

Manley/had hoped to hold Ken Hill in the Party, for whose 
strong 

work he had a l(DDXKllJOf esteem , at the decisiDon-taking spe-

cial conference;but what benignity there was soon left the hall 

under the tongue- lash of the man known as"The Whip. 11 Anyhow , it 

was not likely that a man of the idealogical force of Ken would 

have agreed to be the specia~beneficiary at a general expulsion 

of his comrades. 

But Manley knew that the left wing leaders were the pullers 

and gallop• ers of the Party . Long hours , rocky wages , harass ­
f ,rmn~~-

ments and discomforts on the road, were met with aplomb andA I iQ 

They held , by sheer performance , the main organi­

sing posts and effected great influence in the Party Executive . 

They were hardheaded and practical men but they had miscal -

culated their heft. And/or had not recognized the new 

settlings in stances wrought by the 1949 elections. 

3 & · 



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The aniey s~ami 

to its :;,everest 

political load 

eany a .i.egenu ct1•1us ~ J.1.1.::, t;V..L...L.ca. 

n his five years of Opposition. 

::,everal tant court cases, chief 

was the Vicks tigation. He ha won the lawsuit in the local 

court and all the way through the app·eals to the Privy Council in 

London. 

\, vn llis way back l 'rom Brl t Fe,ruar), 19jl, after ap_µearinb 

bef'ore t.1e .P iv) council ( t .e 

irst Colonial _ law er _ to ao ·o) ar .. d passing throu,:)1 tl e Uni tea 
KR- -fiM..:C. ~ ,1,1,\.. ~ yo.. 4/Vl > ,J States, Ar-. ,l .. anley uw erwe.ili.t one 01 the _µeculiarities .... ~ t.... 

r a'" thtl t larnl of the l're Efessentially tn.e o e 01· ti e ora, e. A::, 

, is f rier ... o ingo )ear, before, he wa~ erabbed oy im ,i~ration 

autnoritie , interro6 ate an• ht..stle ol't' to .c,llis Isla1 d, th 

.110torious America1 aetention ca1:1p in u !_)er ew Yor.K .Jay. ,Fe J.clt.1 

,ot iHtO I le\1il u airport at 12.10 L1 the a,'ternoon an · HOtice d 

witll ::,Olle puzzle.- t at he was pu~ oack 1..11.til 
Then he was ta_cen to all the ot .er assenger:;, were proces.;;e . 

the usual small oack room or que::,tio1J.in ij . ti 
i I • 

C]Ii..cre was he co liHg 1.'ruL11? LOHl,OH, where he .1a appear ea be · ore 
t e rivy ;o 1 cil. [!Ji. e He e. plai1.e d : 

t 1e r i 1e:::.t court in the ritish E .. ,_t->ire. i 01 er even ti .au tl.e 

S pre1•ie Court. [Li,)rnr than the S pre1; e ....: 0 urt? so e _ .. ind.a resi-

u ent ran it? 1at 1 in, a JO he (.1a,. le}) ,mv . : e was a 

};n1.:,'s ow1sel. 6,..' - 1 J<;n6 ' •;ou1;.::,el? ~1at's tlat? Ee wa::,," 

anley says, 11 a totally iguorant person vho 

1.ever l eard of' the Caritibean Coullltission ( the ' .S. was a .. e11ber 

,vi th r 1. tain, olla,1 , •'ranee) uor o.f a • 11 ger of an10 s 
eo,_J e in t.1e wor.Ld" whos e name"' . ,,, . let drop in a last uitch 

bic, to be ree. g;;inly his papers pointe out t Lat the intaansit 

Br tisller ,~as a emb,Jr of' tlie Ja aican pa lia, ,el1t, 

lea d er o tie lar~est political party in the c ountry, ar . as 

in the State::. .for a short lectl,re tour ef ore ret rui11t:., one. 

I- e was t; stle into a car, taken to tt e t erry, ani sl iJ.> e c. to 

the 1'ortre~:::,-_µri""ox, or. llis lan, where he was booke, ... lis 
.J 

lu 6 a:.3e ca ... eu a .;a1 , 1a1, P the o b lig atory prison soa J ar o towl:ll 
iuner 

a i ,a < to Ja d e ior ,is ..._ li. e a cou ict. To a.Ll i::, 

quest; ons or t e rea;:;o:n., he was tol,~ over auo o-ver: 11 1Ye're passi1 g 

tl rOll h i ~·icul t and trouLJle::,orne ti.,1es. 11 0 . a1 ley has I el in 

the b i...., 1all u J.lstairs as t ... e nours vore o .• to eveniug. Upstairs 

were the sleeping areas. J1e was tol e,l that the ligl t::, woulcf be 
f)ntf f. 

iJUt out at nine o'clock. l\ 't-:1at ~·orrieu hi111 .,10re tt_a anyt11iug 

els, 0 ] an ol ni ht owl 01· a wor.cer to e lo c h..eu 1.i l ... is r-_ at l ( le,vilr -f.o &J, c;. t/owul.-/b 
... lig tle ::, cell at ine. L 1.s re1 uest ·• /sen out uessa15 e~ 
was 
- at irst re use ,j uut a1 ter awldle lJ.e .va::. "iven ~;erraission 

11 J. I e;ou.l t{ i'i1t &o-1eone to o it." Always a tavourite with 

women, the olo charn worke, a::; the stewarc:ess 



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U1S 

on - I an American £'light a g ree , to s en< cat..>le ::, an p hone call1:, 

or lli s p li ht to 1 our people . ,, I sent • ,es s a b es to ( the {everenc1) 

Et h elre1_ b rown/ , falter W1dte (01 the NAACP) , the e"' Yorl<- soli c itors 

or tl , e Vic l,.s 1Jeop le wn o m l was to .:,;ee o n my v.1.s1 t t , iere 1or a 

a rep ort o n t h e rivy C w ,cil appeal, a d al ;,:, o one to ... Mr 

Gri11'it h "" , the S pcretary 01 s tate::s .for t11e C~l amies iH Lond owr .. _; 

with 1 •• 0 1.1 l J1a u :u.e. -che u i g h t b e1·ore 8' in t h e . ous e o i' Commons . 11 

{fti'e f ull wa1;; too heavy .,_ or Ellis I s larw anrl the walls 1 ell 

t;e .1.'ore li~hts out. I n s ome a s tonis i:uuent t h ey ,,,ought l i 1n in t1, e 

i-1all , C \g0 10i)isei f1 t.C t-p i t 1}i, fSSMi.,.EX t f I - was l'ree to t:!,O • 

" l t \\fas t h e f'astest releas e on recor , t l ey tolu rn e ," h e la ughed . 

.,ut Edna had agoni s e (.,. . Sh e recalls - h ersel.1.' crying_;_,. J-rN­

... n e was 11 all alone, since n o u o d y k new. I &tr g 5 le u not to 

suc c wnb in terror/u 11t r co u l not i'ail to ( i r•1ag1ne) it, lovinb 

s tran f e lon eliues s . " .---
t h e Jamaica Pro t;ressive. Leag • e, -he 

<' e( eral U.S . g ov ernment, ... 
//?"\ 

tl e only a g e n cy , h ich c oul , act i1 • . ni 6 ratio1. , 1att e rs, into 
'},., 

uua c c u stou e c, .:;pe eJ . - o t < a unte 1 , 1 e co ,IJ:J l e te h is lect ur e 
~i tyi ~ 

tou r o ew Yor h.,< e-r;roi t, Wa8ldn6 ton , ;Jroo k lyn a w e. Lon6 I s laHc. ar.d 
hLroic 

c a i 1e 1.10 11e to a •••• welc or e . As at El lis Island , he 
at noon ~ .f;.., s-,L.· 

disembltarked f'rom the ..;> lanelt to a waiting launch, ou.t this tiu e J I 
_ riding in the prow, a brown Viking with h is la Y,.(.fe 1 

triun,phantlyA ~ storw of' anger hac.. blown through Jamaica at ·t n e 

ind ignities •••• and so they gave hiill the welcome usually 

reserved f'or visiting royalty : across t h e harbour to the Victoria 

ier where thp usa13.,~s . che erect his U I 
e,V-> 'Wt, s cco Cl .llk, l!::1,Y2.{__>, I ,v(b Cf'-1~ F7-

fist - cl enc he d - salute •••••• the bow~ · of' the __. 

....... . 
vho haa blown the ba u whistle on him? "lt was not one in ew 

York . It was d one in J amaica. It came :from the Lustamante .Party , " 

he said . 

but it all worke t well in three years. It helped clinch his 

victory_j f'or few who saw coul d :forget the thin lone Jamaican 

coming home on the prow of' a boat . An<.. em barrassingly brief though 

it was ., t and_y sadly.::> on f oreign soil' , he had joine t., the exclusive club 

of ~olonial leadeDs who hdd d one their curance. 



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n 
-/4 i ' tcul ti, ~ 

kfic Lu > ~d.. 
M 

, ', : ti, /l f/J,va.lYV I de ~ tfwl V, 

~ {y ~ec,.M wh ,,tR,y wf,lo/_, 

"" 
' Yl--lh -

U J. r ~ ,..,, J, ftp f dfhNZ. Ul ct 

- ' 2 • ilJ,r 1 1k l:,v. 'f. • 
I( fi._ A ,..--,/ ~* f 

tlt.c,,e!,;le ~ , it ' // rlA.,..JL 

~~ - I 

vJl·c{ __ wlv.J 



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()d/ d"; t

0

~olofct'll ~~. /4;:J{ ~ 
,µ,t,rl <-f . .f-vcf ,...oftp . 

saidthat the 1940 choice of' Socialisw as the 1. policy 

the rei::;ul t of' pressure f'rom the left (but) a mano&,-re by the 

ader to fin,, a label ( that would) id e11 ti1'y tt1e pa:r ty 1-,'i th 

es an (o 1::,et) tl...e ,.tai';ical 'la.;ou1' wl icl.i. lusta11ante l c.1(. 

esta lishcr • W1~en the lef't had rP-covere. • i'rom its surprise , 

.f. 11 t l • tl tl • • 1 • t • l t · n ~ Ill 
r u y ~en a 01 ..r \,1 ~ 11s yiece o p o 1 ica OJ:Ji)Ol un1s1.1. ·ur~j.,/)J. 



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....---. 

The euphoria which followed the Popular win in 1949 

the PNP gaine d the most votes although less o f the seats 

may have made both left and right wings believe each coul ump 

the other. Manley laid much of the blame on the other Hill , 

Frank: he regard ed his gifts as an agent provocateur but had 

little respect for his competence as a leader .* 

*Richard Hart, • he found difficul t to fathom but un er-
stood his i eaolgical integrity . ..-:,;;-..,_ ~ 

The expulsion of the leftists,many think, signalled the 

stepback from IOI mother lode Socialism: the sturdy 
being 

of unbridled foreign money/let loose in the domestic economy 
to 

and/the entry of the octopus multinationals to ~ squeeze 

out the small local entrepreneurs. 

*** 

In the House, Man• ley h a done his job of Opposition with 

• zest an skillSJOfMKOK»K, in a style that ranged from the 

ery donnish) t o scrappy infighter , dealing out blows ith the 

enthusiasm o f the born brawler. For he brought to the House 

that explosive quality, contained by good sense, which positive 

politics is) in practise) about . The face -to-face d ealings of e 

two giant s , Hanley and Bustamante, restrained by the solemn 

• responsibilit ~of the House to which only the most marbled 

twit woul d not respon, gave Jamaica• the best e ected rule 

that the Constitutional lameness allowed. They had little alike , 

save the imperious bone both had acquired from a mutual forbear . * 

*A fact frequently referred to by Bustamante but 
studiedl y pla yed down by Manley. anley indicaaed 
his posture in a House ebate while knocking an 
unclearly written bill brought by Busta: 

M: I spent a whole night trying to understand 
what some of the clauses meant . 

B : And you dont know? 
M: And you dont know either (laughter) 
Mr Spe a k er: Yet ypu a~e both from the same stock 

\.laugnterJ 
M: But not by the same axe (renewed laughter) 



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An9 the antagonism kept the issues alive. 
·-~""·" 

It was, however, arguable that t he country would have been 

better of£ had the two abilitie s b e en £us ed into a single , po­

werful and undeniably irresistible force . In the absence of 

tha t ideal a lliance , the land stayed socially sick . A Majority 

party member , Rose Leon , once found it necessary to a sk the 

House for a debate on "respectabl e and c apable c oloured p e rsons" 
away 

being re-fused certain jobs and turned nn from hotels and clubs. 

The two who strad l ed our politics wer e proof of our capabili ­

ties. A q ual ity n our ruins had bred them . 

Manley the Socialist saw that in the las t analysis solu­

tions could be f ound only in significant and urgent c onstitu~ 

tional cha nges. From the outset , at the launching of the PNPS 
an 

under the "remarkably rotten constitution (that was) / almost per-

fect instrument f or degradation of our political life" , he had 

set his sights on self rule . He (and the Party) had nailed the 

earlier Moyne Constitution* and the (J .A.G. ) Smith Consti t ution 

*Lord Moyne head ed the Roy a l Commission sent from Eng­
lan ll to investigate and make recommendations for 
bettering conditions Di in the West Indie s , British 
Honduras an d British Guina after the 1938 upheavals . 

of 1939 and 1941 , neither of which had a dvocated beyond "repre ­

sentative" government . The 1944 Constitution, again by Moyne , 

mad e more promising signals but still allowed the English gover ­

nor's hand on the h elm with its 11 five - by- five 11 monstrosity; i.e., 
pivotal.. 

five elected and five nominated members with the. Gove rnor,. ~~ 
A 

~ -- ~ - Manley's entrance into the House was to at last 

give him a stance from which he could knuckle headsj and he pro ­

ceeded with une h us i asm. He was not , as commonly thought, satis ­

fi e d with the way his great crusade for full suffra g e had worked 

out . How could he be? He , once , and his Peoples Nat i on a l Party , 



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Party . On the other hand, he was pleased with the vigorous ap-

plication of the vote and that now "the greater part of opinion 

(was) for self government . " He had seen the risk to his Party's 

~:not chances of' ascension but would not speak of caution . To 

him, no country developing into a nation could avoid risks . E~~ 

He recognized that 
W W\j'fl¥VW'WV ~ilQIUSA&/a hazard existed in executing his idea of 

ministerial accountability . He had little respect for the poli­

tical timber across the floor of the House from him . He found 

most of them inept . * But the principle of the responsibility 

*He once confessed to having slept through an afternoon 
session waking only during a speech by his then , later 
arty colleague , opponent Mrs Rose Leon an thought she 

would make 11 a good caustic debater for them . 11 

of rulers to the governed was morally more excellent than real­

politik. 

his relentless pursuit of' the self- governing idea ept it 

alive and active in the House debates . An , in 1953 , an "advanced 

Constitution", reposing responsibility for decisions upon elec-

te ministers , wa s grante . - p ACE --
He was nearly sixty years old at this watershe d in his life. 

He had never ceased in his daily d evotion to the politics of his 

country since the day in 1938 when he strode into the Supreme 

Court roo~ to argue for the release of Bustamante. He had 

placed his private means at the service of the Party. It &1ltt 

brought 
aa~~Z»!~g a massive offense to his spirit to sit in the House 

while speaker , led by the House ma jority leader Sir Harold Al ­

lan, cited Xl{J{XWCJGC~ _Bustamante , who had been the Great 

Dissenter , as the proponent of self rule. Finally he spoke for 

the House records : 

x.XKDl{Xllx ~ucx,cx EOOCP:«tQOO(KXi(~~lOfUllnXJO[Xi&ii 

~ XDUEXXDXX~Dl{ll:DX1]ffl 



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"The Honourab l Leader of· t h . .do se Sir .dar l· All 11) 

has made) such a distortion of the historic facts~hat I for one 

found it difficult to remain silent ; though , by good self restraint, 

I d i d . :F'or (he) claimed that the constitutional changes which 

this countrtad won , both in 1944 , an again in 1953, were largely 

t he results of the efforts of .. . the Chief Minister ( Bustaman­

te) . Now, sir, one important aspect of this istortion of his -
~ 

tor,f_is that the ignorant accept the distor t:bn as is audibly 

evi ent at this moment in the House . (Go ernment member s were 

titt~ring . ) But I think the recor d shoul d be kept clear in this 

House. 

n • "There is 
~c,AJ:iviP-

only one group of persons who pioneered the agi-

1,,\1 n # tation for the 
o/ )',• 

1944 Constitution. That is the historic fact and 

statements , on ~hatever occasion, will alter the simple trut1 . 

"There is no single member her{pre ent in the Majority Par­

ty who lifted a little finger to win the new Constitution of 

1944. 

"There is not one that ever spok e one single wor in fa -

vour of self- government . ot one . 

11 ot one that ever stood on a platform and a dvocated a 

ministerial s y s tem. 

"Not one that a vocated universal adult suffrage. 

"Not one that a dvocated an all - elected ( Executive Council) . 

JI "Not a single one. 

"This record is the fact . I o not chose , by preference , 

to say these things . But ... how will historians studying these 

materials of these times . .. discover what the truth(is *?)" 

He deplored that "men are so driven . . . to d o adoration 

to make false statemnts . 11 By the time he was midway, the titters 

had ceased . 



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CHAP'.!CER 

The PNP won the election in 1955 by an 18-1 majority. The 

campaign was fought on two fronts: opposing the powerful JLP 

mac h ine with its arm of patronage sweeping t h rough e ery consti­

t uency; and against the Split-off f ormer comra es/who starte as 

strong challengers in the city. The Party fought on a battle cry 

of se l f-govBrnment now. They ripped away at t h e fragments of 
, 

laissez faire still clinging to high places; such as the attitud e 

o the Governor 11who, 11 d eclared laniley , "assure this House wi t h an 

ep igram more attractive than intelligent , that self government was 

n ot a s tate, but a process, not a destination, but a road ." 
neither 

But resolutely, Manley declared that it was iU!5%fi1Zi!il a process 

n or a road ; it was a way of life his Party was determined to achieve. 

He had always absolutely disallowed that there was any section 
ti.a 

of governing~his p eople were incapable of handling. He regard e d 

the Governor's resBrve power as an af'f'ront to people and cons ti tu­

t i on. He argued vigorously that all residual authority~ should 

l a y with the elected parliament. 

That was one sid e of' the campaign coin . On the other was the 

scan al-ridden Labour Party's term in which two of its prominent 

members h ad been jai led for dishonesty in office, and ~Z! others 

under suspicion. The slogan Sweep _Them Out which the Party had ad-

opted , inspired its fiel workers by the ring of truth in its ration­
a 

ale. It al.so carried/credibility to the und ecia ed voters. 

ot unexpected ly, it was the oustefllege Re ds who proved the 

bitterest and least effective foes. Lacking the following of the 

two powerful r i vals, az0 they launched into attacks on the persona­

lities of their former comrad es; an il l. judge strategy which lost 



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t h em latert sympath y an slippec i n to oblivion. They we re never 

a f;,, i to be politically important.* 

*Ken Hill rejoine t h e P ~ in 196J, serve d 

in t h e Senate, won a local government election 

an<.J served a term as Deputy Mayor of King ston . 

-- PACE 

On e lection night, J anuary 12 , Manley sat wit h Edna i n the 

P l•:p hall upstairs Ma gnol House at r o f 2a Sl i pe Road . I t wa s as 

at Dr um ulair, only more all toge t l e 5 - all at onc e; more p oet s an 

politicians and actors , more p ain ters and s p ort smen a n d merchan ts, 

more lawyers and j ournalists and mu s i c ians, t h e ca t c h - all o f t e 

11a n l e ys' interests ; rich , me d ian an, d irt p oor.> but lli •■ at 

ease i t h e knowled g e o f t h eir talent an\ work, in t h e well - b o rn 

quality o f t h e sel f - assurance t hat l ow e at the lively :-ranley l e ees. 

I t wa , n ot, from most, adulation , bu t the two were challeng i ng to 

engage , witty and warm to t hose t h ey lov e . The y h ad come to celebrat e 
&,a;-

ot a e le c tion victory • 1 & t he d i s c harge o f a eb t each h ad owed 

t he o t h er( f'or s event een ye ars since 19J8j t he realiza tio oi" t l1.e ir 

next year , Jerusalem. 

It was f ive y e ars sinc e the n i gh t i n 1 49 , at the las t of - h is 

nine meet i ngsll on election eveJ , ..,.,, ~ t t h e strok e o f mi dn i ght, 

this proud man , ung iven to p oigna n cy , ha t p a used , t u rne away , 

face th e vas t crow again , arnJ saiu : "To day, y ou will vote. 

Comrades , d o no t ma ke me s u ffe r in 1 9 49 wh at I s u ff ere d i n 1944 . 11 

They ha d n ot . And t hat year he won h i s f irst election 

victory . Bu t , tonight waste b i gges t of all victorie s , f or the 

arty was i n . 

---SPACE ---

Th e mare hers were conver g ing on t-· a gnol House . I t wa s a g :e ea t 

n i ght f o r an election , Jan uary- cool and g ood f or mar e :i.ng . The 

cel ebrant s of t he t,ro om were reporting • t h eir v ictory . Later, he 
"<" $" 
wo u l · say of t hat yi c t ory: t ha t h e ha d t he sati sfaction o f a work 

accomplishe aga i nst the O (, s o f a Party i n o f" f'ice, t h e g roup i n 

p ower wt o were able to name t h e game -ru les . He ha • o e:feate MSW 

t h o se and o ther 0 0 <1s . 0-~ h a come a wa y wel l 4!flllM fr or,1 h i s c oro uary, 

an ~ look ed f' it and well rest ed a t the en d o f t h e most g r u elling 

c ourse he ha c:..'. ever run . Lean and healthy, t he la s t tie h e had been 

ill was n early a y ear a g o wh e1 h e cau ght a chill walk i ng i n a Toronto 

rain . ( He Wlllt h ardly eve r wo:r£ a h at out~ of t h e army . ) He ha t, i'ouncl e d 

a Part , nurt ure d it , shape d it, and prote c te d it f r om some of t h e 



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savag est and mo -t res ource :fu l f oe s ever n fliiCS81flft motivated by 

f i nancial g r ee d and social power. He hacys een it almost torn apart by 

internal st r i f e . He h a d held it • tog ether by t he force ofis will . 

- - - SPACE 

His respect f or h i story , of its val ue to t h e past , present 

anu p o st erity, wa strong . He h ad n o p reten s e t o mo esty about h is 

part in creating t h e New Janaica . He revelled in h is atten dance 

a t the d oor, and , near the end of h is li f e , h e haL p lanne to b e guide 

through its corrid ors to his c oun trymen . ■ldP If Jl!MRWHill!Mlil!l!UtC The 

a maican e xp erience :I 1l)JIIJ 1e had p lanned to write a ou t, was, in h is 

opinion, unique in several ways. As it ripple d t hrough h is min an 

engage d h is wond erment, it ranke d us a nonsu ch a mong nations . 

h e was to ask : 

Onc e 

Whi h else , wh ile h olding "d eep trad itions of f r iendship an 

l oyalty to t he Imp erial p ower" would h ave 11 launche cfci Nat ion al move ment", 

i.e., the e oples rational Party , in t he mid d le of a war? 

An > havi ng d one s o, c ould have "secure i n the mi ddl e 

of a war , a br eak- t h rough with a new Constitution?" i . e. , t he 1944 

full adult suff rage . 
~. : I! 

And he would ask: Where in t he world had ever appeared, at t he 

sam e time, 11 a charismati c leader o f immens e p e rsonal p ower , " i.e . , 

Bus tamante , and "myself , a h i ghly successful barris t er an of great 

populari ty (among) all classes" to p roduc e a two-part y gove rnment fine r 

11 t han any in the worl ? " 
And to ask with a wry lau h f o r our 

. • - ·- . ' . • , - - "' - -

.rrtlll ]&I • If fl!@I *I I t 3 : all I t [ If Ix n••·- 9 t"lfl'-\li ...• , •• lfl■--
·"' ..... 115 f'l1~fiiilll7RF~t--- I tll ... 

11And ( which else }¼dil!i ; · I P► a member of a r ma •.. St x F e de -

ration bas e d on a law of t he Imper ial ( British) parliament , wh ich did 

n o t contempla te se e ce ssion,}ig~~rived a way of breaking l it' up and 

(become) a nation by t he ballot box . ... ?" 

- ---- SPACE 

He h a d come ou t 1' o :r> self g overnment and g i en n ot an inc h to t he 
f or p reserving .ix" .,v2t0 

pressure s .. a Colonial societyj s o a~cient I ■ sacred in t he eye s 
its ~ . 

of ~ ¢StWs:>Mi I t wa s t h e old est continuous g overnment in t he 

We s tern hemisphere . The 1955 e lection cam e in t h e J ooth 

O:Jflat }fJ c sv year o f En g lish rule. 

Onc e b efore t he y were married a na in Lon don ha d t h i s tiny 

fl at in S t John ' s Wood , t hey woul d s ometimes sit a nd talk i n a small ceme ­

tery. On e day he talke to her about h is uncertainty t ha t law shoul be 

h i s c a reer . He wante d , he said, "to do p ol i ti c s. " o now he h acl . 



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THE DAY O THE BROOM (2) 

I t had been a long d ay but less d isorderly than most had 

feare d . Th e ussian ship which h a d docke d in ings ton h ar-
p affairs 

b our ma d e no more / ri~ple in the ay's &fRI**• than a p ebble 

dropped i n t he Vo l g a. {Two elections later, in 196 2 , another 

u ssian tllllPfj whic _. steamed into port on Polling ay would 

be ere ited with blowin g t h e P:r-.'P 's show . becaus e o f' a 
a 

JLP - rigg e d h owl t h at a@ Commie tak eover was on .) Nobod y worrie d 

in 1955 t hat t he Re d s ha d come to town, f or the PNP ha d alread y 

cleaned h ouse . The zag , Sp lit h ad pur g e d them pure,* 
interest 

*Of mor e"'•8HiiUIIIIHI P was another incoming ves sel , 
the Fairsea, t he fi r s t all - migrant ship on t he 
Jama ica-En g land run . 

I t had been a long day but the camp aign had it s moments . Busta , 
./,,Y\, .R. til ; 
•tt the ~ J • t·e eling t he surg e fr om h i s foes , had hurle • all h i s 

weapons into. ~ ... battl~includ ing . a ir c raft to "b omb " 

the d oub ters with his Vote Lab our leafle t s . Bu t Civil Avia t ion 

in Mo~eg o Bay grormd e d the JLP a irforce f or f l ying wi t h out 
'----' 

permits . Tw o eart h tremor s were recored on t he siesmo graph 

at S t G""org es Col lege ; and a sma l ler one oc curred ( 1S J in May 
./ crgv~ng ins~e his own cons tituency_, wa s 

Pen wh er e Busta and h is --= o y guard -- rough e d up wh en he drove 
_;, 

h is car t h rough a PNP meeting . (Young kinsman Mich ael Manley on the 

rostrum at t he time, s ave d the d ay wit h a p owerfu l exhortation 

to allow Elder Cousin Alex through .) 

Jarman Manley h a f ield ed J2 cand i d a t es, one f or each consti-

t u ency. The Lab our Party s ent in Jl; as f usual they we re not 

opp osing Portland ' s a rold Al lan, their " Indepen ent " f inan ce 
i mp ose d by Bi g Business 

mi nist er believe d by many S o c ialist s to b e /i-H•• l4Et21•M11!Y jllJU tilw1 

at2!1Z@LZ&hlhbSB on Busta i n return f o r their s t r ong cash support. 

The PKP -ous t e d Hill brothers ' ••• party, the National Labour 
, selecte d three· 

P arty,~i 1 ti t stl ft t ::;: an the Independents , i n the last 

serious election try {,( t hat h ard y breed , turne d up with twenty- f our 

on t h e slat e . 

- SPAC E -

A e a yman I s land er once owed Norman a f ee and with a t winkle 

f ar ba c k in h is eye he took h is fe e in k ind : a row boat he name d 

Tom T i dd ler. One rough windy day, Tom T i d d ler b roke it s moor i ngs 



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a<,f~p eared. ~ nley adverti se the 
. , . 

and ..--™' loss of h is fine b oat ~ 

~irl:bt 1 man in Little Cayman p ickeo up a p iece of newspaper 

fluttering p as~ & - ,t D , • srno ot he ' it out.> and read 

tke a b out the los s of N .W. 's boat: and by t he great blue whale, was n t 
~ ~ ~ 

~t t he one which h a d washe a shore on the Cay m some time before? 

~ R Tom T i d d ler came home a gain a b oard the steamer Cimboco_~ to 
~ v 2 dr a matic / 

that ar d ent boatman, lr Hanley . '@: was a" .... d emonstration o f 

t h e p ower of inf ormation. LEY two a . m. the 
v tctory was clinched . 

• ;-p I rssuerrz:rniz Mer? 01 

the Broom, Manley 

informing the nation o f h is 

In t he dark early h ours of t h e Day of 

, issued a s tateme n t,~ 7:t.t~f:ci tts9 
tenet s 
•• tr and int ent~. Kow that the s tormy 

lill ■ • 11 campai gn was ov er, he wante the nation to 

lmow his intent~ a? d :
0 in1Ra.Eripcipl~r1 wh1,h. would gui de h is rule . 

.,.. 



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g man 

still 

.1 

"I stand now, 11 he l\ata said, 11 s tripped of rancour, or remem­

brance of hurt in the past , and offer to one and all to go for ­

ward from here for a be t ter Jamaica. 

"I promise honest government and fair play or all. 

11 I approach the task with a call for unity, an a prayer to 

God to bless our eople, our country and our se. 11 

(io:}t-<.E l g 
t e chose he very ou tset of power also to state in categoric 

terms that the Party was a "mo d erate socialist party. 11 Vli1lil8.i!./l)i 
,. .. . . . t 

r' . was preparing an open field , unbound by rigid dogmas. The Party ... . 
' 

d stumbled badly on dogmas, had almost fallen f' lat on its face . 

It had ~liXli!'.{X:llJOilXXH.I( found I its f ooting and escaped disaster 

by ejecting elsewise valuable players from the fiel d . The Manley 

game plan neected. freedom to explore outside of asserted doctrines 

an to accept if necess ary what he called "normal metho s where 

these are best and promise most for us. 11 ormal methods of course 

meant the old and abuse capitalist channels and essentially be -

spoke gradualism. But whether right or wrong, he could not be fairly 

accused of expedience since it was a position he had taken much 

earlier, fourteen years before. Then h e had observe d in ~almos t 

the same words that socialism was not a "rigid dogma embodied in any 

finally revealed biblical text•• but a principle of social organi• 

sation, shaped in the en to suit the circumstance. 

*** 

Manley was at the pea o his mental p owers at 59 years old, 
in 

and in godd political shape after 16 years in the arena. Years/which 

~:x.xnMXJilM he had gone up against Colonial dissemblers, partisan 

frays and intra- party foes . All ahis life, he had been a winner. 

As athlete, scholar, lawyer. Hi s political. efeat in 1944 ha for 

the first time sent him into the ranks of the losers. It must have krv 
an initial occurrence that irked . 11He was taken aback," O.T. 

aircloue h once wr l v rAm::lT'k Arl. 'T'h,:o rAhnf'f' nf' h; . D::l-r,t:v ::l a-<>;n ;r, 



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Le lookei ~raF? rwnpled and 

at ease as he .spoke . As a yow1g man 

he had loved 

boug1t Irish linen 

suits but he had a 

ripping his jacke t s .. 

i'or 



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1949 had placed him in danger of slipping from legendary to 

legend . a te had not seemed fair or graceful . He had sup-

plied most of the intel ect, vitality and faith which had pro ­

pelled the people up the road to self determination . His prou 

, hailed as t h e hop e bringer by the middlebrows, had been 

the apostles of planning in government and consequently 

11 bwuq l..f 
identified among the Red s by a reflexive society,itfnd'l~ close 

t o crumbling. The purge had left scour- marks that would be 

unhealed for years . Bu~ none of this was e i d ent the morning 

of January 13 , the first time since 1938 that the p ower of his 

cousin Bustaman e coul have been sai to be broken. 
still h eld , 

The PNP Aa~i to the chagrin of' its pragmatic adh erents, the 

reputation of being a home for intellectuals; projecting a rele­

vance to militant youths with a glint of Lenin in the eye . ( The 

thinking of the day made only the slightest referenc e to race 

relations in the country . Very little in politics/ did . A f ew 

in the local chapter of Marcus Garvey's UNIA ( Universal Negro 

Improvement Association) , such as St William Grant , had thrown in 

with the politecal talk around , but even less found anything in 

the game to warrant a real stake . It was the period of the black 

civil servant g oing on "home l eave" to England .) Clerks and cl.e -
c,(.._ ()..vf., ~ . ... 

rics , artists and artisans , this - the stuff of the PNP . Go -

ing to the polls for the JLP was the army of urban labourers , sugar, 

estate workers , longshoremen, whose enfranchisement ha been won 

for them by N . W.Manley. It had taken ten years f or them to t urn 

their heads to the left and see ~im and the NP . 

The turn of the mass vote had come of several causes; least 

of' which was not t h e sober ing intransigence of t h e Jama ican 11 s mall 

man" who enjoys swinging a swift chopper at the heels of' a hig -

stepp i n g neig 1bo r . ssues, while not unknown in Jamaican elec-



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tions, have a rarity. emocratic elections in the Americas , north , 
Caribbean . . 

south , or t h e /middle ,~MUl!itp rouse' an emotional enthusiasm of 

magnificen t proportions. Our tribal rituals includ e the XXXXXX.lllill 

• ~ assassinations in the north , the revolutions in the south , and 

the hymn- singing , briik,- throwing streetcorner conclaves of t h e Car­

i bbean . But the I single , universal issue that has never failed to 

influence.) wherever the f'reedom of political cho i ce occurs , is the 

co;;~~~/fill On polling- day , the le el of past concern with 

t ~~9<'1JSV•e&-- is called into account . 

If the public works have been candidly labour - intensive , in 

the interests of the mass voters, the chances of being elected in­

creas e. A politician ' s public work s is what politics is about. Ul ­

r i c Simmond s , then the Gleaner ' s olitical Reporter , commenting on 

why t h e JLP l ost the elections , wrote : 11 Too few members of the JLP 

paid any attention to their constituencies while they were in 

He pointed out t oo that 11 the PNP had to wa it until the event s 

had been dimmed in the min s of the electorat e before they could get 

their programme to penetrate the almost hypnotic speel which r Bus ­

tamante ' s exploits had woven into the minds of the people . " 
~AKE r 

Manley ' s reading of' the ec onomy combined h appily wit is o 

honest instincts , and preference , for a griculture. It was , an 

the livelihood of the voting mass . Many years earlier , wh en he wrote 

for Public Op inion , he stated that land was "the only source of the 

material life of a people . It pro±ides foo and shelter. It fur­

nishes work and wealth . Town should support country , and country , 

town. But poverty in t own supports nothing . It ble e s to death . " 

The PNP victory was not a week old when he announced : 111 e 

start with agriculture . " 

The island ' s hard times were perennial. t usands of women domes­
"-



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scandal o f JLP Minister _____ Si mmond s conviction for selling S tate 
ets through a clana e s tine sheet put out by a senior Gleaner rep orter 

Tr uman to C selective clients* , and frauds in the d ispos ition of bene-
- *;:,ev eral wi 0 uu:;,inessr1en s..1.1.'fereu. ulcers c urin,"' the .:,iru, 1onc.:;, -

Tru.1an trial anc. one or two be came devout churcL. goers as the 
investigat ions cont inue(1 b t none were ever publicl) t ouched . z0 
Tl~~ fix ~a:;, in(u~ita0ly , in . 

s by the Hurricane (1951) Housing ~~ ga~zg relie f a gency h a d also spread 
ench antment a mong t h e mi u d le-J amaican s upporters of the Lab our Par t y . Man-

h a d exp loited t hepiatter in t he House to t he d i sc omf iture of t h e oth er sic t>ut , Edn a loyally thought, with "a rama an d r e straint ", n o l:loub t quite appre ­
ciative t ha t t h e latter did great servi c e to the _fi rst 1 exactly as K . W. 
11 ou l d hav e wante d it . ~ -< 



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tics slaved for five shillings (50i) a week in the city, less in 
Ci 41,~,-td- ~fa M7P-rkful, 

the rurals . nine days to buy a pound 
~ 

of ham for ___. Christmas dinner.) A labourer's day on the farm, from 

first light to dusk , brought him 40 cents. These were the fortunate 

ones . igures --- such as th~ ere in the creaking British out-

posts/where the keeping of economic statistics was not encouraged --­

indicated that one in five was out of work. 

Manley saw that the solution was to multiply and increase 

work opportunitie1ata fast rate. He would start with agriculture 

but there would be hard economic planning as they went along. He 

needed people. People with a knowledge of planning ~ some s ort of 

• socialist dedication . He knew just such a man . 

He was not worried about his thin maj ority (of four) in the 

House. 11A majority of four is a working majority ," he said after 

the election . Neverthelex s , his Party had its doubt s . There were 

. nervous suggestions to offer the Speaker 's chair to a quie t , res ­

pected country lawr er, a Trelawney JLP man named Allan Douglas. 

" But in the rough realities of partisan politics , the thJ_ought was as 

fleeting as it as footling. Calming their fears , Manley s et about 

with speed and audacity to put a team t o gether . 

irst of all , he"wante a man with a very unusual combination 

of qualities and experience. 11 He knew such a man . n F ebruary, 

1950, he had briefly met George Cadbury , economic adviser and plan­

ner to the Saskatchewan Provin~ial Government. Manley was at the 

time preoccupied with the strike at Sunset Lodge hotel in wh ich 
~ ",.f__ 

things were going bacVf~r the ~supported ·TUC , . could comment 

on Cadbury ' "fine , clear mind 11 an on the pleasant fact that he 

was 11 a goo Socialist"; and even went as far as wishing "we had a 
f'i e-year-old 

couple of that calibre here . 11 Cadbury was one of' the/United ations 

Organisation's travelling repairmen whose skills were b e ing hired 



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~ to help square the lopsided world and raise the odds 

against future wars. Manley had kept in touch with ~im . He d eter­

mined now to close the contac) and , within a week , flew to the U .. A ./ 

~ ~ ~ ~, 

He was also visiting with his great and go od friends in that 

country, who, working through the Jamaica Progressive League , had 

so strongly supported his cause and Party . He had always h a d a spe­

cial affinityfor America; not W f or its glitter but .,,,, its knack 

of hustle . He held a great admiration f or black Americans; the skill 

and resolutio)(n with which they had begun the brutally punishing • 

task of teaching their white fellow citizens the meaning of the Re -
a 

public. In ~ time when the black Americans held small respect 
b/MhC; often ~ 

among the "English" ~ West Indies ,., he spoke/~ 
their 'l 

~ enlisting~!IN resources for th economic and political 

d evelopment of Jama ica , particularly i n tourism 

racist disregard of the black tourist market by 

Jamaica Tourist Board) also drew his D ire . 

*** 

and industry . The 
'7Jc,. WL t:lJ U%- YI -

the :ll'll~fund ed 
I) 

apparatus 
twas in Manley ' s c haracter that the first/UddSU of his new 

government to engage his whole attention was a Central Planning 

:BIIDD unit . 
the 

o thing would ent er/development streams 

without the approval of , or creation by , the unit . He ha set his 

eye on the magical figure of 150,000 new jobs in ., five years . He 

int ended a feed- in of '55-million ( $1 10- m. ) to generate the j obs . 
..-") hunge r ed @ unemplo y eds , 

tatistics were scar• ce and he/MM¥MPMNKl!ii0f for them : JUOi~ 

skills, the j ob - increase rate he should gun f or '---, and the state of 

the imternational money market ,here he expected slippery footing 

because of the Red - smear which he charged Bustamante ha~ mad ':, ag­

ainst the PNP on hi/4ve rseas visits . oP Ht.! rJfl,,vG" C,IJ.G/9 ·n v1,y,. 
1 1.. ' . ) 7" ~L~ v $G / 
l"'7 -'-0 f>"rr,.C.:t"1CA.f?f'f 1 (_4 ffe~ 
~,J"Ml ■ · :)\_with which.,\e wa s hardly t-,credited-' • 

made him step back from his well favoured 



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squarely • 
s ocial welfare subjects an face/K.11U1•x•~ the requirement1or pro-

uction. elfare required wealth, and wealth came from work and 
concentrate his Mn energies in the 

production. He would DXllXX~XXUXX~~K 

mo ing of more people from the flews to the thews of the socie y . 



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C 

CHAPTER 

½P(.,14- (&1 
The blend of caution and aggression with which ~ choose to 

launch his 

Today, the 

regime certified 
'fitzv-.. 

revolution seems 1, 

his commitment to moderate socialism. 

small, and calm, an not a revolu­
as the 

tion at all. Then , it warred -
They saw a 

loyalists saw it . / a scion of the 

against reason• empire-
of and 

system,/Jamaica college~ 
of 

Oxford, Flander's Field and 

Gray• s Inn , of "Upper" St Andrew and the Jockey Club enclosure, 
turning going 

from the Mother Country (England) and J g to wander 

in the wilds of America seeking aid.* It embWarrassed or outraged 

*A p~rallel• rra~t~on was to occur two decades l~ter 
whe*~i!c~6n,e~rile Minister Michael Manley/,aBas­
sing through a recession, 
I I BQIB! I I 

accepted l oans from its cAricom partners, 
Trinidad, Guyana and Barbados , instea of asking 
the, by now, traditional loaners, the United States. 

the gin-sling gents who still clubbed gamely alon~ , unaware that 
trade 

in the face of the new/realities unveiled at the Ottawa Conference 
and the subsequent 

hammer-blows from World War 11, England was for 

sawing off the "backward and impoverished" islands the instant it 

decently coµld. Such was the time , that Manley was forced to ex­

plain that he was "not turning my back on Englandt Not at all!" 

And all this merely because he sought an "expert" other than the 

usual Whitehall choice . 

Hia aggression was delicate. He never belonged to the 
had a erudition 

power- tool school of politics. He/- tough, sinewy - "-• s~~ 
that raided the tlll past for reconnaissance and ~s back in the f'r<ZSeKt 

e,e7-re/2. eqv,PP6-7v..:> • stlloN<H~R. rHr11v iSE"Foiee:. k --
■ I ! r action J( . Land, for example, 

Jamaica, an agricultural people and economy, belong 

generations past, present an to He was pas -

ut i~ 

H@ knew o f t h e ex - slaves. fli g ht to real free d om that had made t h em 
LI mes·7"o/ll€ s eek t h mountains . 'The yea r s o f h acking at t h e i n fertile C M 

A. µt. 
knob s a nd t h e d enud,_ end, the 



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equally worn people and eroded hopes. And knew that to destroy 

land was to destroy mankind. And said so. And - sought 

by a system of taxation, acquis ition and education to put it into 

healthy service for man.* Acquisition , would, of course , in Man-

*And even devising his gm cli~Feif awkward slogan: 
"Every acre has a use , .rile needs a man." 

paralleled 
ley' s democracy , be/■■■•• with compensa•tion , whether cash or 

government bonds , at market value. 

He was showing a great respect for capital and giving guaran­

tees of absolute• protection . The guarantees woul d be carried 

out] he had a rock- hard honesty in transactions; but the 
we~e 141.So --ro SET -r?1f? ~C:.{9./€' ci:,~ -n+e l.)N/1€.b !i.T't'I~ Au'bicNC(5 .. -rHE il'JOl<i-"b~· ,-. , ... - r , 

j 
f.J(:14)~~,) rJ€/9L'THtfS~'T .,..Hcfff!U: - OF Pi9-,q.oillf:J(;E 'f"OR.. Pool<.(;R COU/.ITl2.1e.r. 

;re 7ELL 1/.lf;l'h 1/ffJT rHE.> 
.... ,._.(PNP rarik:s had been 

cJ- /4d -fk- i>t o~ if7JZti..L ~ • .-.., 

L fl P/;-frlt 5 ~ ~ S. 
purged of It. 

J •••••••••irhe Commie tain> so irresponsibly spread by 
{;fi!bou/l, "7120 

the local opponents to Socialism , including junketing -

members, needed scrubbing . He was spreading the word that ,his Par­

ty would not only welcome private investors but would be a partner 

in enterpris e s ; wittl as fine an eye for the gatherable 
~ ~d.Ld- tc J.d£'4_ 

margin. Profits which - plough• back into '\ d G fields. 

~ .J PA Cc 
considerably 

One fiel d that was made/.••••••• poorer ·by ._ new Chief 

Minister and Premier Manley's entry into fulltime politics, was 
the 

law. The accession signalled his departure from the Courts 
~eem• 

and indeed every legal activity . What; •
1

peculiar is that he de -

parted with alacrity . The truth is that he had grown weary of the 

- practise of law . 
r'Yl eµ_ ~ 

He had been ready since 1938 to pull back · 

and putlt his energies j LL into social work. Jamaica Welfare 
Po.ff18t..E of 

had engaged his passion. 
J¼v ftel~ 

project ~ ould have ... his relish 

The - scope ••••• that 
A ~ ~~-t:i.Plv.J , 

but for the financial a •. 
He was still a wage earne:Ijof necessity; and the law 

paid his bills. 



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-
The high, square rooms of the Supreme Courts Nos. 1 & 2 in 

the East Public Building Block on King Street, ha d been witness .• ,· 

to his most famous triumphs ~ And even his oc-
&f/CI< £ • 

casional defeats? were often wrestledAinto wins in the Appeal Court 
where 

room a 
..) 

lation 

few yara~ north up the corridor/ I g airconditioned insu­
• The;re, in ,---._ · ~ 

blanke.fld /\the 
he had 

downtown traffic noises. quiet,almost 
argued the landmark case~., o,c, ~.J2c,.,v.J~ 

casual tones, almost always witli 

gaggles of lawyers in the galeery to catch the great·' sweeps and 
~ 0.£2 .tiio ~ • 2 _,, -

t n d the cap~city for the J!iicate and the particular, that 

marked his fine moments~ -rfJ/{E /N 'BcLtJw~ $' 

Now he was walking away and the country would be poorer~ in 
~'k_ 

its legal texture. Yet, the tasks ahead allowed no les ~ B was 
His recovery had been excellent from the 

up to - them. •••• coronary thrombosis which had hit him a 

little over a year ago. His brother-in-law Dr Ludlow Mood~ and 

Edna as his round-the-clock nurse had kept him still for the 
sr,u .. ~ 1,1,/c.; .t..1r6 /l{;1J.1A/,J 

healing ; but, as Edna said_, looking at her "He has a chronic 
tend ency 

for doing too mu ch." 
t/f2.-. ~ct a,lt! -ftL 'h.Rf ~ t.~~l 

The trouble of course was that there was much to do. -w:t..ilS!!I> • 



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tJt,l' ~-----~~ f 

2-He now gave up the law. No longer would he stride into court, torn 

robe :flappin~~ yes giving that :fast quizzical look at the ~ench 
to see with yhom he would deal that day, notes tidily tucke d in his 

'l wave 
hand , a loose arm:ful o:f books --- an d the;( ; o:f 

%H 1tWJh:iAt 'br apprehension that entered with him . There ... was 
no case 

he d i L not enliven . The Baird trial in London 
bn.1;x,.-r:"'1 k...- fl.A. -h,'d_, 

turne on the bloodstains on his client ' s shirt . Manley: procured 
'J IC 

a syrup o:f the approximate viscosity of blo od, poured it into a 

skinbag, and stabbed away as he sought t o establish the splash­

patterns to prove his case . ( Michael, in London, was h is assistant , 

hold ing the sheet o f paper representing the shirt, anG in Court 

when the demonstration proved his point . ) In the celebrated 

ALexander mu r d er case, Ed n a provided the clay heads into which 

he :fired bullets to observe the effect . She was 
a,(:~ M~f, ~utting 

:frequently in Court i ~ ~at11er~ y ~ • g her intuitive tech-

n iqu e to work for himj maybe watching J 11ror . u mber Three to 

see whether the :fellow was cool, warm,or hostile --
Il e could say he had never defend e d a guilty J client_) be -

cause he never asked whether a client was cu lpable. He assume d the 

customer was not1 and went out :for the defence) so convinced, he ,f tJ'-'it<t ~ 

&l,liP justi:fication ~••-••••-••••11119a 111\Iy grandfather," 

Ra chel, his :frequent confidante, avers, 11 once said to me that the 

di:f:ference between truth and legal tru tlt is that truth is straight, 

- legal truth is one that you can bend but not l.Jreak. 11 Rachel, 

with the o evastating innocence o:f a :favoured child, had asked whether 

when he knew a client to be guilty, was he not also g u ilty by en-
/:,1".9 \I il_ 

deavouring to ~Mi~aSl A innocence . 11 He told he • never wanted 

to know whether a client was guilty. He just took the evic; ence 

and serache d it . 11 

G ne of the world ' s more widely read men, he has saiu 

that expert witnesses --- doctors or other :forensic attestants --­

lost to h im because they had har d ly read since school . He counte d on 
~ } 
• - j and so he came in well prepare d . In Court, one o:f his strate-
gies was to appear to be dozj ig on his seat (the K1ng ' s Counsel bench 
insid e the Bar) until the witness, or opposing counsel, broke or even 
bent the Law of Evidence . 1 Th~B • almost :feline _, he would rise for the 
kill. J udges who knew h Thi1 ~anti 21BR~~g , an d quickly admonished the 
• offe er ■•■■■•r saving the sinner from destru c tion but also 
to s h ow that Mlli!'!!!!dtt was awa:l(e and alert . P eople had a desire to d o 
t heir best in the company of Manley . 



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C TER 

In six whirlwind hours in New York , his search was over. Re ­

gistering at the famous old 11black>)hote1/ Theresa in Harlem/ -
"?-

RX'.XN.EXXXXXXXX nnxx::::.~ 
rather than in the elaborately expensive do~ntow1:1 watering places 

·j( i---r 
that his predecessors (and succe~sors) usually chose.I\ he hustle d 

*And beat Fid el Castro by a d ecade when the Cuban leader 
also defie the trad ition by staying at the Theresa when 
he arrived in x-ew York for a UN meet· ng. . 

ahea of' his own and British Embassy aides through the o cy streets 

of mid - lanhattan, hi~ angular f'igure and XX loping strides always 

in front of t he pac He ate lunch in the UN building with Arthur 

Gol schmidt , acting Director General of the Technical Assistance 

Administratio , an talked into evening on the East Hiver . The U 

people reluctantly agreed to lend Ge orge Cadbury, the six-foot-five 

scion of the millionaire chocolate Cadburys , a uaker whose formi ­

dable credential i nclu e service under Sir Staf'ford Cripps in 

the British Socialist government. But lest anyone shoul think that 

his steps we~~ being guide by doctrine , Manley brusquely told a n 

interviewer on rew York's WRUL station: 11 Never mind about Socia-

lism. That is a theoretical i d ea . Practical development is what 

we w_ ant_. 11 C.t<-~- . ~~ ~~ . ~ ~~ Pl~~ ~; t-e..D_ 
(,\,~-f,-e..~ 6~ ~ ~ ~tHA-1:• 

In the preparation of this book , a few people have been intri -

gued by the question , that, had Jamaican been inedpendent then , would 

Manley have pulled up his drawbridge and tried for working out his 
~ kJ c,.{o! r'i\ c; ,--e. i.t b oV'dt,,,.~ C\.f j:><PJ:(i ble . . 

socialist fortunes at horn~ His finance minister "Crab" Nether-
- with 

s ole , •••••••••~at length thoroughly isgusted/9ll seeking 
~ 

loans a n d grants from the richer nations, broke down subs quent ly 

and d eclared : 11 I do not believe we should go begging forever ... 

the potential resources of the island are sufficiently great that 

we need not lose our self respect . Otherwis e , why talk of nationhood 



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. ,111 7>' 
fivt" au, , But Manley• s "practical development" had to face the fact 

that for decades , people had been voting with their feet LL& 

:flumUUOOUUili against the UD.tiiilffli persistent poverty . ➔igra-
~ 

tory waves freq uently swept the islan taking off great chunks of 

XMKXlJCM workers to Cuba and Panama , Costa Rica and the United 

States. And nearly at cres t_, now , was the long , disquieting run 

to London . The new black wave was hitting the Britons hard , 

breaking - forth K~ r a c 

lipp e d natives a nd cau~ muc h 

tribal coun ci ls . ) 
- - SPACE--

owls from the once stif 

i n t heir Wes t minister 

Manley rea s one d t ha t t he nee f or swif t s olu tions ou t pace~ 

t h e i d e o loc ical cause . One n at i o ' s social i s m was not necessar ily 

a n ot h er ' s; and nob ody ' s was f or expo r t . By h is magnificent , relen t -

les s r i ght f Gr the vote , he h ad s h aken the p eop le ou t of t h e ir 

political let ha r g y . ~ ow was n o t ime for polari t y. He r:iu s t meet 

the p roblems wit h skill an 

G o he took h is ma j orit 

every ounce o f will , ener g 

res ou r ce . That was it . 

our i n to t he House to g overn wit 

ca p ability . 

PA Cc --

A minute to noon on Wednesday , February 2 , they elected him 

Chief Minister at the official request 

His longtime friend an polit1cal 

the Chamber of him: 

of Governor Sir Hugh oot. 
-u . - ·,, ·~, 

colleague spoke -. in 
Jf\ 

" I need not , and ind eed i would be an impertinence for me to 

begin either to assess or to describe the various qualities which so 

eminently fit the Honourable Member for the p os ition to which he is 

about to be appointed . His qualitie s, his record , his reputation , 

his unbouna ed energy , his zeal and his remarkable capac ity for hard 

work , all combine t o make him pre-eminently a person who in this 

House should occupy the position of Chief Minister . 11 

s+ood > 
Manley , at the Majority- end of the h orseshoe benches , ~__.,-., 

lean and angular , to make his 

tentative cheers rose from the 

acceptance speech and a few 
Tb . 8, 

gall e ry but Speaker Coke JSl•liit 
/\ 



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reprovingly shook his bewigged head. (In Parliament, any sign of . 
,4A-'L 

life 4-t The People is frowne d upon.) It was on h ~s occasion that 
-::: 

Mr Manley made his unforgettable and much quoted words W con-

cerning The Case of the People , the time and place which curiously 
s ~ 

enough seems not to be widely known . 

11At this moment , we £ace a period of immense opportunity . The 

next f i ve years , we are to achieve full self government for this 

country . In the next five years , we are to achieve a F e deration of 

t he West Indies . In the next five years, we are to strive with all 

that we have , to maintain and a dvanc e the social and economic life 

of the country . .. 

"All my life, I have carried responsibilities on my should ers. 

I have spent my life on many cases . And now I turn my back for good 

and all on that life . I take into my hand s the case of the people of 

Jamaica before the bar of history , aga inst poverty an need . The case 

of my country for a better life and freedom in our land . 11 

The gallery stormed alive. Speaker Coke was on his feet , 2 in 

robes and full - bottomed wi g9 trying to still the gallery , a majestic 
majee tic 

figure·. He remained just that, a KZlilllf&Zlll figure . The People had 

come to parliament . * 

-l+"fhe take- over includ ed the remova l of the portra its of' 
the previous English governors which had a dorned the ialls 
of the Chamber --- a move agreed on by both PNP JI. JLP . 



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CHAPTER ~ ... (L ,• ~ 
Manley named seven members to his Executive Council (or cabi­

net) , Noel Nethersole (central St Andrew, finance), Dr Ivan Lloyd 
.. 

(eastern S t Ann, education & social welfare), Florizel Glasspole 

(eastern Kingston, labour), Wills Isaacs: ('centra1: ··,i~gston , t,rade 
... .,, . 

& industry), Dr Glen Logan (northern Manchester, local government 

& housing) , C.L.A .Stuart (western St Mary, health) and A.G.S . oombs 

(northwestern St James, communication & works) . * Besides being Chief 

*Other PNP members in the House were: F .L. B . Evans , ~st­
moreland; E .V.V.Al en, northern St Elizabeth ; Dr Eric 

,U 

Campbell, eastern Hanover; Max Carey , eastern Westmore-
land; Ken Clarke , western St Thomas; B . B .Coke, Speaker, 
southern St Elizabeth; Mn Melbourne (Ben) Cox, north­
eastern St Catherine; Jonathan Grant , southeastern St 
Catherine; Winston Jones, southern Manchester; Rev. 
Cyril Morgan, southeastern St James . 

Minister, he took on the agriculture portfolio_:_) 

~ was an executive arm of considerable talent and was to make 

a goo reputation for itself trough some sturdy legislation.U3~t 

the debates could have been more soul searching had the Opposition 

been moree!!MZZZSB penetaating. Relieved, howe er, by some h arty 

Jam ican ribaldry and * eaz flashes of wit*, the term left a legacy 

**On one occasion , in answer to fellow lawyer Allan 
Douglas' observation that the revised Law Ed itions 
would soon not be enough for the fast rising roster 
of solicitors, Manley replied that "apart from an 
insignificant creature known as the onychophora, I 
dont know any animal that proliferates more rapidly 
than the members of the solicitin profession. 11 

i,-,,r:..J,et 
of important laws and actions which were to markedly change the 

country's course . In his own minist ry (agriculture) , Manley zaZiB~ W 

increased the working capital of the Agricultural Development Corp ­

oration to over l . 6m ., much oi it flowing to the rice planting 

:JiX~ ventures at V~rnamfield and Amity . 
..- c, P AC.. E,-

From his new position of strength as the island's elected head , 

he was also engaging, quietly but strongly , in the F ederal cause . 

A task that was not herculean since the Opposition, up to then , was 



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$'PUl10JJ . CRR tbe /JAi tJotri,t-.110,<1. 

equally stout in support of the Pan- EnglishA 

-::['LP?_s Edl(in Allen said in the Rouse during those agreeabl e days , it 11 trans ­

cend ed the b i!nd s of party po-litics . 11 §.e unanimity 
ovl!"R 

was a••••~ a year old. The Fe era l proposal had been approved 

at the Z 1953 London Conference . ~ ley was such an ardent advocate 
(.;RtAJAl>lf,.S -Kt_ mo~~ 

of Antillean accord that1T . A . Marryshow , •••••• •••••■'A.Fede-
sg ~ a.£. , \ Al . \Al , 

ationistA exulted in a cablegram t o ~- at the time of the PN 

ictory : "Praise God from Whom all blessings flowt 11 

A questionable invoca~ion ~ 5 inc e the 

ts alloted two - term span , be swept out of 

backlas.a . f"t}-l<i3 l/v 

~ -4 The F ederation would be an experiment 

d:c, c.,-f'rP111 ~ ·~ 
~includ 81,_isl°and s in various stages of 

PNP would , in less than 
~ 

office on A..,_ anti - ederal 

in colonialism since it ~ 

legislative swaddlin~ 

~ l/'IO"):OR. -r'H~Et! 
to con-

stitutionally advanced ones . But whether the federal idea faded or H£~~> 

.. the drive f or self'rule in Jamaica was not being neglected . Man­

ley was mak ing it a matter of recor that Jamaica's progress to full 

ind ependence be allowed to ·continue unimpe d e d . Indeed , on his acces ­

sion to the executive , he discovered that a curious piece of over-

sigh t h a d occurred. A resolution from this country , at the time of 

the approval of the fe d eral proposal, seeking a firm and clear assur ­

ance of an open path to selfrule , d irected to the British government, 

had not been answered a year later. He immediately set to prodd ing 

f'or a public reply that would seperate our own campaign from this 

"strange (federal) march to Colonial status." 

A source of gratification fqr Manley during his second year of 

office was the election to the House of his old colleague and friend , 

William Seivright. Comrad es since the knobbly days of 1938 , Seiv­

right's earlier bid for a House seat had f ailed . He now came i n on a 

by- election . The tall, severely- elegant master- baker , of i mpressive 

d ignity and unquestioned integrity , a former Mayor of ingston , was 

hand ed the agriculture portfolio by Manley who could now devote him-



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%-! ·: (_§ oon Bustamante woul d commence to itch und er the Rneven h ~rn~ . 

t he p rop o sed f e d eral code would lay on h i m , the outland ish a ma l g a 

o f' sel .f - and s overe i gn-rul e d islan g overnments , all 

poorer , f a k i ng it to g eth er i n creeping squalor i n t h e richest hali~ 

11 • Manley • • ••••• .o o f' the world , n:n d LJ a dger - into t he statesman' s behav iour.) v ~ ) 

c u n ny - ma n , woula never be ... caugh t - d ead in. 



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self to the politics of change in the constitution . 

( he LP too had mad e a formidable gain with the by- election of Donal, 
was 

Sangster , later to be Prime Minister . ) Seivrightj an unlikely ocia-

list --- ind eed a man of seeming Conservative bent but for a start ­
evangelical 

ling JOO[MpllKXXI portent .UM He wa s a successful businessman and 
Manley 

would fetch capitalist savvy into the Cabinet . / 1111 was finessing a 

M«tifMGM situa t ion . 

No job is as nakedly up for grabs as is the politician's ; an 

like some crazy actor , he frequently pauses in the play to explain 
;,J -tu>.s 

h is role. aa socialist reputation had remained at a constant high 

in the rest of the Caribbean , even in the years when 

restlessly roaming ~ -,.. , z legislative j 
P\ 

he was litiXX 
l,.,~~?-o. 

L His pos -

ture had invite d such public accola des as Grenada's Marrysh ow ' s 

extravagant statement to a Jamaican audience t h at 11we who come from 

the various islan 7are not so much int erested in knowing how you 
look to h im as the one 

feel about Manley. We/\.~fiKXXtXtlOOOCXECM.:lll to shape 

the future we aspire to. 11 But these stirring alleluias from the 

found ing Socialist fathers ha d come before the 1952 ideological 

sun ering of h is own Party. Seated now in the saddle and faced 

wi h the practical job of winning the rae e , he was redefining his 

political road. Not • in content, but in d e gree ; the degree of 

..._ public/ private mix. 

o borrowing a line from his friend Sir A thur Lewis, the 

Wes t Ind ies University's v·ce chancello r that "Socialism is a b out 
_:> 

equality, ~n eclaring t hat "a socialist believes that the pur-

pose of human history is to achieve a society dominated by the con­

cept of equality , ' he set about stating how he would seek that equa­

lity. 

He claimed that "capital resources and investments" were 

the only capable tools to increase production and enlarge the na -
oney 

tional income. 1 an venture. The fact and the act . ew ·obs 



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would g enerate the new re enues his government needed to heighten 
-+t....a:t-

thefquali ty of life. tNobody questioned a I t I rr the life -s tyle ne eded 

heightening . It was true that prime rib roast was only JO cents a 

poun , but most household help made less than a d ollar a week .• He 

concedevto any outraged apostles o f the far left or right~ that he 

was not finding it II ifficult 11 or contrad ictory to in ite capitalists 

into Jamaica. For then , in given circumstances, he fully inten e 
launch 

to Zak! hi s government among the entrep• reneurs ; to d evelop D enter-
r ises or put them 

P~IDIBllllBJIDHll under public control. • 
J.,...--7 

Because he was a pract· ­
p oS!,:€~ 

cal visionaryA one of the rare men allowed by life to that 

winning c omb·nation 

coordinated .. 6 he 

min ~ 
of lllJUDii and willA in the arrogance of the well 
believed 
tiilllUUf and the revealed, one n ever knew in Man-

ley which came firs "9 ... ,.e coulc.J. knuckle the skull of the "mudd le­

headed ", who found him "confus i ng", an the 11 b iased 11 who were simply 

d ishonest. hat turns out is that Socialist N . . Manley saw ZRat in 

ca p italist in estment IOI the only road to prospe ity. I t was heresy , 

and i d entified so by the i d eological chaste; and a future spectre. 

0 I a m con t ent to remain where I am , '' he was o ever sayin~ 

~here these seeming conflicts are resolve by accepted principle 

and where practical reason may safely influence meth ods. I remain a 

Socialist because I have a conviction that the society the Socialists 

be lieve in, is just, acceptable and historically inevitable." 

Tl'l,i(tsociety woul come, he predicted soberly; 
C i..fi,) l. i<. LC£" ! 

then, with af. 
11But by then we may be calling it by some other nam ti 



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CHAPT 

Mr Manley i d a little minor adjustment to history by 

being t he first minister to locate a ministry outsid e of King­

ston. He moved his ministry (of agriculture) up to Hop e Ga r ­

dens in St An rew an earmarked a bulky eight million dollar 
But 

bu get for i t . aa0 h e turned to bauxite for his most dramatic 

modi ication:.,::...· _ ____ ..._ 

in _t _h_e_ w_o_ r_l_ '~ad been f'or years 

turning into gol in th pockets of the . orth American owners 

through t he ~~ rid iculously ow royalties Jamaica g ot from them . 

An an inept agreem nt signed by the JLP government had IJ irt al ­

ly guarant e ec the longest run for those gross profits. Manley 

found that on e company , Kaiser , h a d inc eased its gains in a sin­

gle year (1953/54) f rom f ourteen to twent - eight mil.lio dollars. 

Out of it , Jam aica was p aid a quarter- ill.ion ollars - - - o less 

than two p e rcent. He ..., ope~ negotiation s with all. t h e comja,,,M.lkJ 
.~~t fllt. ~~ ~ ~ N7Jta.U1.1o._, +ft.L w4'.N-- ,i-.,.., • .. • t(on the--itt Fi.er ha nd , ~ oil.pipe dreams/\ D - , Q I 

Tk ~~-t-y -t{j ,Pir. r t d +:;7+-i_,~ttf~·{ 1'!:- er::':;; ~., F~ -c ~ ~ \a :g:,e , 
' j oi:.lsfn. k£<J .. .<lA-1--,u ~ c,.,,,.d.. a,w.'J.0 . Me.(M.I t.'-i h 1.~ VL.o+iu.. Jf:, 'f-t.p_ o+.--a-n[: ..§. I 1 :; ® ti I ., • 7 I ~ i CL I • j j 

~ 1,L 1,t,.a.L. ,;~ ~ :.- b tt£t.Y,. 1T~ YIL~ ~ ticl>ic, b y -t,&-€-du..tj ' ~ t · .,Oct t ) M bl lS§ Bl I J e&gi &Ii J t g W@cP 95$ ?€ the oil explot"-
-Jto CL, p ·rot'I,\~ ~'(; 

-•-· -•A a 12} /o royal t t, plus 4~h income tax and other goo ies. * 

*An oil expert was brought own from Canada, another 
Saskatchewan man like Cadbury named James T. cawley , 
a bowtied bespectacled executive in th e Department of 
~ ineral resources to advise on royalty assessments . 

ne of the d iggers , -Base l e tal c orporation , headed by 
F . D . oosevelt Jr , had by June spent hal a mil ion ol- . 
lars , was down 6 , 000 f e et and had begun another hole be­
cau e they were convinc ed a Jamaican gush r was in their 
future . tI 

The explorations turned up hope but no gushers . Still, they gave 
an ingredient in a land, which , by f orce of its hope , %~zaz1aff~nx«~lJlJttXXXJlXJii:xnnMX~ Colo ial ex-



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ploite past , was apt to feel s orry f o r itself an 
usefully 

could/lay in a 

lot of . * It could have been towards the defeat of those ancient 
£3 1.1'1' c.t>u t.b 1'/IJ../<. /;8Pt17" 17, 

*One Jamaican who a no apt or se - pi y was A exander -
Bustamante . Once in a House debate, the following i~~g 
cousinly dialogue occurred between the two gra ndsons 
of -~i~aS&i~gSHi~~i8ij GraNdmother Clarke - Shearer : 

Bust a mante : I am f r om the gutter , fr om poverty. 
Manley : Dont insult y our parents . 
Bustamante : Is it an insult to come from t e gutter? 
Manley : hey were not _. t he gutter . 
Bustamante : They were . r(c ame from nothing. I am not 

lie you. Your people h a d money and 
property . 

neutralisations, the r acial battle- fatigue , that!~~~ a visit ~ge 

from Princess d argaret , sister of the ueen, as preceded by wo 
cal ers with credentials nicely judged t o offset the old imperial 
0ilatila:2: %fillUJiSIJllU~X]00tXl%dWJirWWW~Wal:lffl iJlXXIXXD11 

azzle. The heads oft o thoroughly black in ependent nations , 

resident ubman of Liberia and Presid ent agloire of Hait i~ ere 

invit ed , s raightfacedly , to grace the cel ebratio s of "Jamaica 
,qC5" 

JOO 11 , marking the l\tri- centenary of what was allusively calle 11 our 

association" with Grea t Britain but what was, in effect three cen-
) / ~ 

turies; English ~«n~ rule . {i;.t the protocol was i mpec ca le 

if the motive was suspect . If the ce tenary* really could not be 

ii-The celebrations had been propose by the previ ous 
JLP government's Donald Sangster, an ardent Anglo ­
hile . 

allowed past without a refer enc e , then a small euphenism , and a 

visit from a couple of the Brothers , of status equal t o royalty , 

woul do . (The African/Bthiopia n outlook of the astas ha not 

yet gaine strength . ) - 'f> /}- C C -
As ide from social significances, Manley was facing f ormi dable 

obstacles to placing a chic en in every pot . There ~a! ere few 

chickens an umer us pots . T ey must roust new roos s . 

igration had been the~ tra itional reply to t ough 

on The Ro ck . he anley family ha not been d iffe et . The 

in omita le 1argaret Manley had joined the rush to Ameri a hen 

circumstances prove too rugged for a wi ow and her four young 



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Chil ren . And~ children ha<:>in tur1:;>for one reason or another, 

Vera, Muriel, orman an oy;, enliste d in the English trek. ega-
,,, there woul 

tive or not , he was buying time when he made it clear that KlOOXXXl'G:K 

XJX10iX3~]Qt be no opposition to migration from this si e. "Re-

striction of immigration is Britain's decision , not ours , 1 sai . 
who were 

Bu t he promised t snap down on the loan sharks/charging exorbitant 

interest on moneys they advanced for travel tickets.* eanwhile , for 

*The gulf in the undersaanding o f the real Jamaica by 
the uppercrust is related in the English bishopt_gf p 
Jamaica (Anglican) Montagu Dale's observatioii?"tfiat ress 
1l)e knew of no reason for migration since there was no 
pverty in the island. 

at 
those who were staying :IXH1CkH homelUOtJl, he was struggling with the 

international sugar interests , teaming up with Trinidad's rotun Ber­

tie Gomes f or citrus talks i the United ingdom , arguing the case for 

bananas ( in London) --- an investigating the possibility of power-canoi 
sea 

which would take the lagging fishing industry further out to e aa than 

~ it had ever been since the Arawak Indians . e was also li ing up 

to the earlier decision that Jamaica 's socialism woul be tailored to 

its requirements. He sent o ff finance minister oel ethersole to the 
money 
DPDUD capitals of the world to talk up loans for a whole range of 

d evelopment i eas , f rom harbours to race & railways to 

real 

Blilt it 
«mcJJfA t e 

was I\. 112::n:as ~ fruiterers 1 mafia A that e was to 
<=-,... •• 

make his b ones. It was a wamm June , t he nuptial month, and while in il 
ston 
~1iZ churches alone , more than four hundred lovers were plighting theii 

troths under orange blossoms , the cutthroat business of marketing those 

oranges was about to p ut the squeeze on their future . The giant U. S . 

fruit corporations, with their powerful int~ .. ernational lobbies ~ hold · 
... _,.,, 



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gro es in lorida and California , American fruit was about to flood 

the 

but 

British ,-ark et in such quantities that Caribbean oranges would all 

L~KE t/jJ 
disappear .~ F our years be f ore , ten in Op osition , 1 e had warn e a 

Bustama n te of stif fer comp etition ahead f or t h eir c i tru. He had 

argued against the enormous expansion of acreage without a d equate 

research into increasing the acre-yield --- "not a quarter of first ­

class foreign production. 11 

{'.'~~-" W a!' ~" T H) ~{Yf y «Jt,o,-,~ 
While anley a111a .tle.:esc..::,w:e- in London~.,_.,-.;_; ikii '-better citrus 

ye vn t; , C,{Jl,(,M. ..J.rvi rh ttM- o t- B .t. '<f i' '2 ;s .> 
deals , a short, . scholarly ~ whose pudgy face hid a steel " - - - ,, 
trap mind , was out in oodford Square doing what n o other Trini a 

politician had succeeded at: causing a volatile , jump-up Port of 
;J:>()JJ NI S II l. y 

Spain street audience to hold still while he l ectured on the reasons 
1 

they should change their calypso ways. The Lit tle Doctor , Eric Wil-

liams , 1 Ph . D., was laying own the groundwork for his Peoples ational 
M ✓,.;., ~d > ·$o ,jirvi,.. -~ J 

!ovement (PNM ) since, although 11 they are after me" • he saw nothing 
,.) I\. " · 

worthy in any of the existing group ~ /JM~t_ M /!) .~ feimtJ,a.", 



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Le had a certain fondness f.'or America and 
they took to him . Christian I erter . the 
governor of ~assachusetts1 who later succee~ed 
John Foster lJUlles as U.S . Secretary of States 
in 19 54 was so i1i1pressec with fanley that he 
asked him to address the Senate. Six minutes 
was all he took to raise the 250 people in the 
Chamber to their feet; in prolongec1 cheering . 
Chicago gave him t.he full motor-cycle es c ort 
treatment. 

Even such an American curiosity as 
the Official Greeter who met him .I ~ 
at the airport with the Keys, as amuse~ly ~~ 

understood. "I will ••••••••••••• .'1.rl.~ 
( be back ) one day to ask for more, 11 he had W-) {!IL~ /1,t'r,.,,,;le,, '1 1~ , ,. 
toh. the Senate in 19 "> 4 ••••••••• •• , " ·(.JJ 
before he ~~ be came elected head . • 

le meant it. It was ~ evening in 
• the old Empire and brave men J &: should ,c· 
meet the horses ••••••••• in the morning ·L~vd:: 
---wiJ~(L ¾- w-n£~ f?v ~ ~n~ "ti -~p.a.... v.-tl '11J7).1,u_-,·,; -t/!,..1 .. +-



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CHAPTER 

It was a kind of London s eason for the Norman anleys:mil> Douglas 

was also in the city on a migrant survey mission for his university 

(College of the West Indies). hen the talks wound down.while Colo-

1 ial ecretary Lennox-Boyd left for long consultations with his col-
turned into a few political oddjobs. At their 

leagues , ~anley 
x invitation 1 he deftly engaged 
•m L EL 1 _j • I I a 

some 100 MPs in a question & answer 
IHI 3 5 

session An he 
on his programme◄ . 

got 
involved in the inauguration of 

that 
Racial Brotherhood , an anti-discrimination action organisation ,tt' ' 
had,in joint communion at the top, such disparate £raters as Sunset 

cellar club owner , Jamaican Gus Lesli~ and the Archbishop of canter-
Dr K a 

a 

bury, ■••••• Geoffrey Fisher . Leslie , /very successful and/notable 

social worker from his/club off Regent street , headed the group with 

the Archbishop as its patron . Manley was the main speaker at the 

Lambeth Hall launch of the Brotherhoocll . 
also 

The stately London sceneA 

A fine dance floor athlete, Lambeth 

actuated some Manl spects 

saw him gliding his waltzes 
& 

and foxtrots with Edna - the steps she preferred 
in those 

to the le s ~ -el-

bows of the jitterbug and charleston •••■ lively 
• ,,. ... nights at Nomdmi , and 

.l B at Drumblair too. [i o:e;an Manley was a I r •• fun seek e was 

not one to be whistled into t 
-,J.." I 

into his all fo Group, 
preference 

he stamped with hist 

were con tests of the one-on-one: track , the ring , horseriding. Br . . 
• j p-rDbabl\f, -f-0r k, f:>/a,ye..tl.) 'iv~ ,G;,, .s.o..,,,e,t,;,,,'- /x<-<d'1ie_r; ti!t.,iif/kt; w;1J. -~/qt::J 6,-;ll,t;"lll, >w"t-. 

'/ :ie(foathedj J •nsss It£ s ca, '1&1 ca . ~ j rt 11 s tz-s 1 bj 8~ illld& , he c 
'J •J 

fl 

.J~,-,t,,t\.L '-'R 
~ his Aigh powered car •••• apart really apart, down to nuts & 

. . ~I 
J~~ 

dispose them .Deli into military uni<"i's on a piece of ground, 

ork out a what~mig 
~ 

. " ' 
;r>. 

: ~•W. ~ 

een-done-inst 

a \ j who has be . ~ ;. o keep her c 
· TE : 

His Holy Thursday night at home all - night , 
t hree - pence - a - hundred sessions until nine 
o' clock Good Friday morning, were played 
with f our Jewish friends , Louis Alberga , 
Clinton Hart , and the two Ashenheim 
bro thers . No wives were allowed , ex-
cept Edna who scrambled eggs, serv~d 
liquor and coffee . The symbolists will 
agonise. 



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~ 
hen not heikening to the profundities 

Beethoven' or Brahms, he could whisk 
t t his harmonica, give it the preli­
nary tap on his palm, and launch with 

c companiment into his own tub tenor 
endition of Miss Mattie had a baby and 
id it on the rass/A busy bee was 

by and stung it in the- ass . 



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.. 

into helpless giggles recalling a morning in 
-~? 

the 'Thirties after a night of New Year ' s Eve revelry , ,{"s a cure for 

his hangover , he d ismantled and restored the fam i ly cars with st 

Andrew Pup( ____________ } , the fine little lightweight boxer 

whom he ■■■•••■■■••••• managed so successfully , squatting across 
puzzledly up 

the engine b l ock from him and gazing/at him/- ·-

can 

He could not have 
less 

be ­
/\ 

given 

hoped to i mprove 
rhetoric 

to A than 
: ._f 

on the engineering but nothing 
an 

~ auto block. Talk , 

. language, eJoquence,were , for all his adult lif.,e , h is tools. He us ct 

• 
them with care and precision. 

" •· l , 
He could cut to ·the heart of the matt r 

• 
with pungency;or stroke ••••••• an idea so fluently into an aud ience ? 

softly , . . ~ 
i t settled j undisturbimgly, to work. It was skill_, but it was also 

0-, 
faith in his compreh ension, ~~ man who 

He had a great respect £ j for those 
conviction. Manley had 

work ed to understand causes. 
\ ~ 

toals)and was scathi ng on 
in 

who used them for postu re rather than ~ settled 

the journeyman 
from 

judgement or} 

S~ H{,(_~~ Fc>a·t:>s. 
cJ eeprootea belief . Governor 

10
,.,b-.,

0
,....,,, 4.,. "'=- t;::»b-<L> <1 d <1 <..,b>'- Windsortlll 

*/.,. ·"" ''i 6"¥ plumes
1 

.. ere considerably reduced when ManS ley in t h e Hous e 1f haracterised 
• ' . t 

his Chief of s tate's sen tentious maxim that "self governmen t" was 11 a 

p r ocess, no t a state 11 , 1Hf as "an epigram more attractive than intelli­

gen t." 

* h e "'\ i n dsor II unif orm of colonial governors, of barreu 
and rosette u tailcoat & t r ou ers a n plumed hat 
somewhat like a musical come dy Admiral. ; 

t:.I2--- ,....._ 

[Jiis genera.tion ano the next would speak the rapt English of careful 
consonants~ nd aspirates elaborately measured within an inch of 
suffocatio1n . Slowly the tide would• turn , for better or worse, and 
the language, bombarded foraU_iar by the quality of experience 

and the facts of circumstane e, would venture beyond the fences . 
and discover the wealth that lay in Rasta & *rhetoric and the 

*RastafariaMEH are members of an indigenous Jamaican 
religion ,~ > while holding to a spiritual ___ , -Re:; ~-t'" , ) 
Deity, regardS the person of Haile Selassie, {the \....: 
late emperor of Ethiopia) il■■■■■--ro~· the 
mani f estation of Go d . 

c J ± survival jargon of a street - people ma d e self-relian½ by the 
p,J.t;,11 ·• 

siege of centuries . For the young blacks1 of the years
11 

a k 
~ ~ ~ 'f. /)..,z_ Sl,'l, . .'ti'&J I 

the • Nineteen- Fortie~ ~ the present an~ future were 

bleak. Jobs/ were scare e and mainly menial . The white and brown 

brothers had first choice ... fr om employers; what was left went 
particularly 

to blacks with the best pull of family and school . I t was ~---~ 

~dtl->\.-t~]t E w ~fKlack girls. Those naive enough to enter \ national 

beauty c ontests with a hope of -••• success, got their data shat­

teringly st~adied when the judges, fi-nclud i ng the od d blackl , looke d 
~ rancorous 

embarrass,:~•iill away . It took many XWJ I ;:A.demonstrations , i n cluding 

picijeting by such determine d fighters as •••• City Dentist A.B. 

Douglas*I and _________ ____ to insert the black sisters into 

s uch citadels of racial maladjustment as the I ifYif T T English 
later . *Douglas cnangect his name to Abeng Doonquah 

I\ 

white 
and Canadian banks, - King Street stores, lawyers' offices, 

and , God Save the Mark .as Manley would say , - on the staffs of 
J 

several high s chools . Those were sad years, and half forgotten now 

in a generation, and ~ •iZIZtl~ healingly so , but needed to abstract 
-a, ,--..., 

a likeness of then 1 and why, it was, and plot the prioritHies that 
set'tling I\ ilcf' uN);> 

will assist inAczrtt · ~ the society l on a keel of ZLi a sailing . 



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---SPACE 

a 

---SPACE 

This order of work, faithj and eloquence, quenched the flaming 

rhetoric which at one time ~►---=«f» weakened and threatened to 

wreck the Federal cause that became soi.,-. iAli central in his 
Federal 

new career. His role in the ~a:illi:lasaldt- issues began with an observer's 
status. When he went to the Montego Bay conference of 1947, 
history had plunged about in its usual ironic romp, sending in 
Nationalist Manley as a delegate from the Imperial powers: he 

went as a member of the Caribbean Commission, that peculiarity 
in which the four colonial Caribbean powers, Britain, Holland, 

France, the United States saw to the orderly, carefully controlled 

socio-political direction of the territory : frimary producing, 

import-consuming, totally managed islands and territories. @ e 

1956 London Conference, which he attended as Jamaica's Chief Minis-
held in the well-heated 

ter, was ~mzilrftlx•¥ &.-e:H z z a tta- Connaught Rood of Lancaster House , 

into which the delegates from the sun-islands scuttled out of the 
London cold (the worstFebr aryrggord among that land's bad Feb­

ruarys). The talks explo~ed the explosive portions of the Fpderal 

proposals: the choice of a Federal capital and the financing of 
the new State, ~~ through free trade, customs union and general 

taxation. 

Manley was the sole highly practised social innovator in the 

hard-eyed political gathering.M He had his Banana Producers and 
~ 

Jamaica Wplfare experiences. So Ahis early call for a Caribbean 

"Colombo Plan 11 • It elicited enthusiasm among the United Kingdom 

-lf'fhe Plan came out of a Commonwealth Ministers meeting 
in Colombo, Ceylon, January 1950; a cooperative of 
South and South-east Asian countries promoting develop­
ment, with help from Commonwealth countries and the USA, 

delegates led by Lennox Boyd, the British Colonial S~cretary, but 

proved elusive in conclusion. It never again came off the shelf. 



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is skills asg~~~fock that could have broken the 
Conference. He put in some sharp footwork. 

the world ' s most splintered federation, ~ five 
seperate colonial agencies, f lkl subdivided further among the 

over thousands of square miles of & sea, Leeward/Windward Groups, ,a pebbly scattering of isletsA •••illiill• pretty 
as jewels b u t baub le-poorf ,each proud as peacocks of its panoply 
of English governor and mock ••••••- parliament, the• delegates 
hao the edginess of relations at the reading of the Will. 

In a sense, they were writing the Will . Their scofflaw 
existence in the plantation economy that still guarded them from 
prosperity (bauxite in Jamaica and petroleum in Trinidad had direct 
benefits for only a few)1 instructed a deadly suspicion of each other. 
So naturally, the !!!!!!!!!!!!!I!!!■ f undering father■ ofthe federation could ~ 
b rrooney: from whom it would be got and on whom it would be spent. The 

cuv .... i> R..vr-1 IJ<l./l.«lrt~ 
first • on the proposed Customs Union) and the second on the 
siting of the federal capital . Manley wanted slow eustoms Union and 
quick Free Trade) and had no overriding preference for 
the Capital. 

It was protectionist politics, since his instincts, despite a 
genuine love, close to passion, for the federal idea, 
ordered him to stand near the shutters. Jamaica was industrialising, 
sparked by his Industrial Development C0 rporation, and its goods needed 
the preferential market offered by the home (Wpst Indies) territory. 
And, as he put it, Federation would cost Jamaica only £200,000 
for the first five years, "about half the cost of building a bridge." 
His stance was easier on the location of the federal capital, although 
he favoured a small island, and with disarming if unsuiaable 
candour, indicated Antigua, the island closest to Jamaica*in geography, 
speech, racial and cultural patterns. 

*About 800 miles east of Jamaica. 
His advocacy in the tariff affairs raised the most painful welts 

among fellow delegates. It would have torn the Conference, had he not, 
overnighting on a suggestion from St Kitt•s Premier Bradshaw, diffidently 
offered and as offhandedly ignorea, for an obligatory levy instead of 
unroofed consumption duties, opened the b¼:Ak next morning by refining 

i3-."(::<.~icur.1 
and fighting quite as strongly for /\mandatory taxation. It was agile 
politics/ and the unanimous acceptance of the Manley formula S aved the 
1956 Conference. It allowed the Federation to be born. J;-; ·v~ 

years lateyit would be said of him) by his East Caribbean 
allies ) that he killed the Federation through his Referendum. 



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--SPACE ---
setting adrift Saving the Federation did not mean he was his 

dedication to internal self government. Even as they flew 
south back into the sun, he was sheddin~ the federal coat he .. had _ in chilly England warming up worn I I 3 .; and a11111i11111g his stragegy for the 
shirtsleeved slugging with his old foe, Bustamante. By October's 
end, he was in Headquarters House, setting into Motions the moves 
towards a new Jamaican constitution . His proposal held the 8 • • dianoetic 

gaging a clinch. 

chop of a freethinking bruiser disen­
It carried a uniqueness, although it could own 

to a small likeness, in certain features, to the thirteen American 
colonies at the R07olutionary war. He proposed to, without delay, 
accede to a unit autonomy, a domestic self government for Jamaica, 
but also to stay with the field (the other Caribbean colonies) in the 

--- :::, l' A C "' ...,. run for full federal independence. {Fre was a man partial to responsi-
bility. He sometimes appea~stonished at his decision,during his war, hune ry, if shy,. to deny his usual , 7-~~my commission. Only the greater,.- and I\ ~ ~ had 
• well held in anger at the racist English attitude")( toppered his 
natural inclination to lead. He was impatient of timidity,and, at was raking his i overnment • s establishing this time, A•-~ Bustamante for carpin~ . I ,, ( Busta sought# o censure him . 
of a new ministry without prior House notice . if The affairs of -
Interior and Justice would b ~under this ministry, two items specially 
required for the inter nal respons~bility Manley desired, and so, 
likely to infuriate. On top of that, the irritant Cousin from Blenheim 
who had a great skill for bobbing alive • from political shipwreck, qot only was now;no ionger showing ._ humiliation at the shock of January, '55, 
but was wearing a knight's plumes*. The irrepresible 11 Chief 11 ~ 

~ Busta was knighted by ~ Queen Elizabeth in 19 ,:J'f. 
was now~ so strongly, he had, in the recent Lancaster House .sent in a!I 
conference,/remotely controlled - delegate, Edwin Allen. The hard­JLP 
headed, stubborn/debater was consficuously fed Busta's battle plans I effectively made the # f I I I through the newspaper columns~ . ~ martial old 

11 Chief 11present at the talks but with the distinct advantage of being 
bodily unavailable forX his views to be examined) for logic in its 
aetails . 

Manley, who has never managed to appear at ease with Bustamante , 
took skin in the House with a scathing attack on the Bustamante 
censure motion. The fact that he was right, am and Bustamante wrong, 
could have been obscured by the smoke of his fury had he been a talker 
of less grace . Even then, he was,wincingly, in the debateJ 
obliged to apologise for having indulged in addressing the Member from 



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- ·---------------
off-balance~ the old freebooter with a picture of Jam&ic~ life 

ike Sar 's banana-scrounging youth on the docks. --------------
J02 

South Clarendon as "Sir Alexander." It was a side of his character 
that made him a bad opponent. He fought from a full arsenal and 

in its root meaning, was known to manufacture new weapons as he 

fought. In the courts, in sports, he had engage d ruthlessly; why 

would it be different in politics where to exploit the possible was 
of an absolute 

an art? A warm host, last ditch friend, 
11 wo4nds, .. • honesty like/self-inflicted/'•---a h f'as an arrogant fighter, 
~ be -beautifully prepare«-- impatient to .. home. Yet, mind ed as he was 

" to himsel f_) and given to cut new ground for his ideas, he was a superb 

excutant of the interact. ••••••••(He was an inevitable Federa­
list because he accepted the One World hope,so movingly enunciated 

by Wendell ••■I Willkie, the •••• decade before. [Eis Socialism 
*Willkie, An American political leader and the 1940 
presidential Republican candidate. 

invited the participation of capitalist countries,although his own 

experience of Sam Zemurray and the ~~zee United Fruit company's 
intransigence at the organising of the Jamaican banana industry, spoke 
aa ainst this belief True, his accomodation of the Zemurray ~ 

~JtPT... ---started ,_ perhaps .- only because~ A' ~h d __. .i the great Jamaica Welfare; 1)1It"t V J I • 3 I ; 
•· " I\ - -

"It (is) a shibboleth to say if you - want inde-
pend enceyou must be capable of standing on your own two :feet. Independent, 

proud and powerful countries (today receive) aid in one :form or another," 
midst 

he said in the •••• of slamming the door on imperialism and demand-
ing self-e ru1C Ti( door WQUld set be ._ kev -locked , just s hut 
to ensure that comers knocked. i .. 
1 I I 1 I J J § § i -... Within six months, Governor Sir 

. . would Hugh_1Qot, that Methodist pillar, was giving the/4radual that/preced eil 
_. gosp el of full self-rule. xt ~<,'1.--t -t-i?-i11l.J 

the Q • C I I J Independence was not yet, but~ an 
advanced constitution from the Colonial Office wast +,-oV.M.ce..tl by Foot. 

It was a good moment for Manley,and,in a pardonable lapse f on the 
abandoned eve of what he called 11Self Government Day ," he his usual 

, on/ radio, a ¢ 2 I ~ P 9 Ill' 3 precisely cut prose to exult in high rhetoricl from the Apocryp~~ a. 
- It was not realll self g overnment ; that was some distance 

I • ~ l J b M I J I g ·11 g 
away; nor even full internal self government which would not come for 
another two years, in August, 1 59 ° 9it it was a gain and the F ~ther 

justl roud of the pre-natal rowth .. 
of the Nation was ~ 

'} D.,f ~ ,-od a mt;,--t",mf 
Whether the November 11th Armistice Day date t ad an influenceJ is 

uncertain , but for one of the few times, peace and unanimity £ J 2£,~\"'.tt.va//ed 
twixt the factions . r;:· 

L!:.,t was a good moment :for ManleyJ for he was 
presiding over a country that) astonishingl~ could record an economy 
expanding more rapidly than Puerto Rico's and Canada's, two of the 



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world's then 
/fastest growing brokerages, and more rapidly than the settled econ6-

And not alone because 
mies of the u.• K. and the U.S.A. ••••• we had been so low on 

the pole the only way to go was up; Manley had roused an excitement of 

the spirit. The burgeoning economy, the ebullience, • and the 

in-sight goals of full indepeneence in a Greater West Indies, was 

contagious. All partisans could meet on reasonably common ground 

since the leaders were either enthusiastic,or amiable,_ on the 

federal issues. 
---S .l AC .ti: ---

He sought to quicken the spirit by achievement. To turn a 

million countrymen into patriots, and rouse an ardour inconceivable 

for any reasons short of war. Manley spoke to head and heart, 

and, in this, was wiser than Bustamante, whose appeal was ever less 
s 

than cerebral, aggres1vely for the cooking-pot over the free-scope 

concept. 

But, debatable, at a certain season, a pot was more important 

than\a- proposition. 

SUPACE 

into self-determination;was conta­
The eagerness to fly the coo~ 

gious; it reach~d the parochial boards {later parish councils) 
right ore h~•ms- elf 

which set up a/squawk for/Piscal freedom. Manley,;an Ju.mnus of' 

• the parish school of politics, on the city council 

where he had won his first electoral success and chafed in the shaft 
• Pc;/1.. wft.J 

of it, its limited powerAa disc ontent to the man who would lead the 
A let 

nation, was not disposed anyway to ••• much authority to anyone 
,M domain , constitutionallY. 
fiilQp his new/- still Atrammellea . ••• •••• He 

was too sane to doubt, immodestly, that until the science of governing, 

with its political, administrative and financing problems had been 

lived with long enough, he was the man best left with the responsi­

bit lity. For that reason, he was not an enthusiastic supporter 

of the reforms proposed in the Hill Report ~. He had the strengtht 

*L.C.Hill of the Colonial Office whose Report 
proposing greater autonomy 
to parochial boards was hailed by the parish 
eouncillors. 

--- or the cheek --- to be detachedly objective 
political 

in spelling out what he saw as a peril to the/structure and develop-

ment he desired . "The way we are going is a way shaped by our circum­

stances," he said. Hill, he said, had - made his proposals "governed 

_ by English circumstances and English history." It would "be :foolish 

to change (our ways) because some other people somewhere else over the 

centuries have evolved a different way of doing things. We must be 



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J04 

very, very careful not to deny or frustrate our own historical 

trends." 

He was never for less than finding Jamaican solutions to the 

problem~hatched by the divulsion of the British Empire} ••••• come 

upon his generation ; for what they were living through was no less 

than the decline of the Owners, the unbelievability that must accom­

pany the crumbling of a super-power to an unrespected hanger-on• 

(N0 rth Sea oil for the upturn of the United Kingdom was yet many 

years away•)~, _ . . . . /-;Jhat would 

happen in the outlook for the Colonial gets , as they watched Britannia, 
shuffling through 

the once proud••■•"Mother country", § the corridors 

of nations) under the 

suitors( Manley was a winner; 
even 

his duty to acclaim defeat~ 
tact 

he 
if 

embarrassed half-looks of former 
NO'z 5,-r,,Jy,~rr, t,J11fl t.0,fe;d,l';, 

did not relish losing ,sor ~~~tit , him 
his integrity■& ■ ;

6 

in victory . (The echo of his famous 1962 election night 

speech conceding to Bustamante had hardly clied before he was telling 
and 

the 24th PNP Conference to "organise and organise" • wrestle back 

/■NP power to the Party .• The • was in disarray and a decade of wilder-

ness lay ahead, a probability he sensed; and cried his challenge to 

his Comrades that they set aside old cherished ambitions and seek 

- youn~ blood for the Party . J The rapport was not complete . ) 
in 

But • the late 'Fifties, the early years of his ascendance, elan 
were 

was strong, and the ••• ideas) those to which they held title, 

original and sole ownership,as the first proponents and practitioners 

of organised politics . 

The great land valuation legislation was one of - those ideas. 

The Manley family of Guanaboa Vale would have been among the first 

of the bourgeosie to bite the dust had there been a PNP government in the 
old davs 

/1,..wnen their acres idled under the wild-growing logwood stands and 

less than a burden of cattle . His days were lived where there was 
dewesne, 

room for long, irresponsible gallops on a family ~ g contrasting 

sharply with the severely restricted hoe-farmeron his • square of 

ground. Who knows if it placed in the observant~M~Rley's mind , a 

ttsleeper" that surfaced fullgrown and growling in the Land Valua-
The law 

tion - law? • overturned a JOO-year decree that allowed large 
bear 

landowners to ■•• a lightened taxSload based on the land ' s unim-

proved worth . The old laws had been written for, and by, the 

barons. To hoodwink the pre letariat. The .. hundred acres around 

the greathouse we . · n e lity less taxed than the wattles of the 

p: or . Tg e £f?Qf:;: • u ~~~f~ !~~l~q£~~~~ the 



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orKhave 

305 
barons to produce in order to - lighten their tax loads, 
aeE~Sz It was the gentler forerunner of the harsher, tougher course takea.At that time would be invoked a future generation would 

big land production the elicitory titled Idle Land Order to spur the/owners into • t · a 

-
their propert y acn uired by the St ate for the common weal. I 1 I & ._; I ! •■ . • I f 1 7 I Nevertheless, for his time, the land valuation legislation was rough enough to fetch to his of£ice the anger of an outraged gentry. 

He was careful in his handling of law, out of respect for it• • 
And a rogue use of itprew his ire. The inner certainty he had of 
his purposes,would, on occasions, set him among the Brahmins, an 
uncomfortable couch from which to fRIIPijj · F his beliefs into practice. ,frequently desperately, And so he would determinedly/remove himself from the priestcraft.Home, 
boarding school, the English army, Oxford, the profession he practised 
before the judiciary of English Judges-in-Jamaica, had ill-prepared 

.(r;ft. )N> Cr?fl//JIJ/t; him for the corner meeting. He had to learn - street • tal.k4 and "''Alt; ,and was always awkwara was never 
with it. 

ever able to manage the argot/ 
His i eneration would 
I not be walking about when much of the <-H IINC;E; 111c,v~~ 

1 

mores would Acome under heavy smoke, weeded to the gills, sha in the 
the formulae of is owy hemp truthfully. But his resistance to/ - "/I time 

was real, and ,in areas,mildly wildj and others had to put up with 
his By-Goo bridge bidding and his loneliness.a 

---SPACE 
His respect for good laws pulled him into one of the earlier 

crises that would give the PNP government more than its share, a strike 
in that bastion of Bustamante power, the waterfront. A franchise 
for settling labour disputes had beeu reposed in the Joint Industrial 
Council. The Council was made up of• trade unionists and 
wharf owners.The code of the Council decreed that the Spring of the 
year was reserved for poll-taking on union disputes involving the 
waterfront . .al The May of 1956, Spring fever infected the unions. 
The BITU and TUC refused to talk to the Council, or to the Ministry of 
Labour) - over a wage dispute .a Instead, they struck the waterfront. 

of worker discontent Manley was furious. On top of the obvious minus value7•••• to a 
government party come to power on working-class support, there were 
two other dangers. Foodstocks were traditionally low in that time of 
year, the tourist season being over and the build-up to the hurricane 
season not yet begun. That was one. The 
of a good law, arbritration through the 

during the PNP proven good for the BITUj 

i othe.t
1 

Council. 
regime. 

J he saw as breach 
a,o ti,.,,..~~ 8r.r.et 

It had ··••llil•• J J 

such kicking about 
of a good law had to be resitted. It was time to call out the troops 
-- and he did. Manley declared a State of Emergency and turned 
army men and machiner~into unloading the ships. It was a strong de-
, # f I 81* l J J j JS J 



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cision, not likely to en o e support on Blection Day. But al - have in rule, Amisread Manley's strength· as he may Cousin Norman had been saying misheard what/ • a few weeks before: "The business of 
the Opposition is to oppose (but that) of tqe government in 

WZ.,.,-tvr"ai:aie power is to resist the Opposition." Busta/\quickly capitulatel and 
the strike ended. 

Manley no doubt had calculated shrewedly that calling 
out the army would be popularly approved . The ships carried and 
cargoes of flour( saltfish, staples of the Jamaican working-
persons diet . A beef shortage a year before had cause c the 
importation of frozen New Zealand beef. Jamaican working-folk 
d i o not like frozen New Zealand beef. They had turned away 
from most of the 26, 500 pounds of it . 

---------- ---



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.. 

,,,,. 

ft· 
~ 

CHAPTER f C I L" C' J 
removing the wig and 

The Manley courtroom gesture of/running a hand over his hair, 
at the outer 

tugging at the collar of his robe and looking •••••• courtroom 

wall as he laid his case before the Appellate Judges with unmatched 
,--.. 

forensic skill, led one court reporter to rema- rk that the K.C. was 
'--' 

too modest a man to watch the befuddled and lightly desperate faces 

of the Justices clear with relief as he led th:em into the light. Z% 
In 

• the courts, he used his brilliant 

debating powers to avoid confronta-

tions with offended judges. The befurredm, bewigged men on the Bench 

were the last of the anachronisms in the modern world. Kings had 

lost their powers and popes their unquestioned command, but judges 

were still unassailable to all but impeachmen~~s~~dly):::IIIZ! 

hard to obtain. And, unavoidably disturbingjin a small population 

of overlapping interests and relationships. So it was a source of 

unease , but tolerable for clear reasons, that the final judicial 

appeal still resided in the British House of Lords for most • 

small former British colonies. 

N.W.Manley never had need for modesty --- that cover of the intro­
a native constraint, 

very/ quietly suffering • inbuilt and hated. In 1958, 

past halfway of his term, there was no call for diffidence; for the 

achievements of his and the PNP fiduciaries were pro-

digious. It was very eviden~ all over the lan~ that an upcurve was 

occurring. 

A savage kind of colonising, even for these seas, had left this 
-speaking 

largest English/isle the least literate of the lot. The •••lvisuals 

of . We stern life, housing, medical care, sanitation, 

were better only by Caribbean comparison. The first (1944) electe d 

government had worked a at impro~ -t;so much as their skills and 

finances allowed. The lot was surely better since Bustamant~ led his 

trade unionists into the Duke Street parliament. Braced by 

an intelligent and increased Opposition, "'t'he WChief'' had not done bad ­

ly --- particularly, charged the Opposition, since he hact swiped 

many PNP plans, modified them a li ttl~ and claimed them for his own. 

However that was, it was a fact that in the Spring of '5d, after three 

years in office, the economy under Manley had bettered: the country 

was enjoying a runaway prosperity in the Jamaican context. 

1958, was, for Manley, a celebratory year. The resultsl he des-
was 

cribed as either "excellent" or "good•", although he - sufficiently 

controlled to rate a~ ew successes as merely "moderate." He had insti­

tuted an Economic survey, a kind of Company Report, prepared by the 



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'?r ~vr 
Planning UnitJ that would become the economic chronicle of every 
future go~ernment. The Survey's overview functioned as a budget­
ary guide • .. close to infallible in its projections. And this 
first year, the overview was stirring. What did he see? 

"Whether you ask what is the total value of export trade, 
or the total value of imports, or the sum of imports and exports, 
or the level of bank deposits; whether you ask what is the level of 
bank loans, or the accumulation of small people's savings, or 
what is the size of the money in circulation; or whether you ask 
what is being done in development (as) reflected in power consump­
tion, or electrical service growth, or in construction which (is 
now) unparallel.ed, the answer is: nobody could have expected (so) 
much " 

He had a right to exult . He had put the civil service on its 
toes anctjroused a people to enthusiasm by his will and energy; by the 
extraordinary mind of an unusual man . A lift of spirit had come 
to the nation as infrequently some few may know. He could 

point to a jump of over 40:;o in the per capita earn-
ing. 

The upcurve had showed in the first of his years, in 
C:' 1955, when the country's gro•ss rose by £17-m. ( $34-m.) to £136-M., 

a hike of over 14%. The second year, 1956, it leaped higher, 
and higher still in 1957. It was genuine growth, since the cost of 
1 . . rose . only Q% While the ave3;agg

6
level of

1
wag es ro f e by 25%,•he 1v1ng & , • ,... & ; 

was quick to declare , (He was generous in his jubilance to observe 
that under the Labour government, in the years 1950 to 1954 the 
gross domestic product increased from £ 70-m. to f 119-m., "a rise, 
let it be admitted, that was significant," but not a patch on 
his own "remarkable thing.") 

He was outpacing every/ f orecast prior to his Economic Survey, 
shedding every historical restraint that had limited the economic 
movement to the short journey from hand to mouth ; and saving 
a few millions oli ars for ploughing back into developmentj a 
sophistication close to phenomenon in Britain's poor-me-boy colonies. 

But the year also belonged to Nethersole, his friend ~np ~olleague, 
I, Y. 1 ,Iv-..... ,t{_ 

the easygoing 11 Crab 11 , playboy from the western world at C~, 
bon vivant of the better pubs and clubs of Kingston, turned a 

hla Nft tbersole chubbily toug_
7
_nd efficient • Minister of Finance./j.l■l■l■l■I~• naa 

guided the economy, increasing the patrimony as he changed the old 
order, the heirs would never know it. Manley, with a fond look 
at the impertubable 11 Crab 11) declared that he was "rapidly and 



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effectively modernising (our) financial institutions, (proposing) 

a Developannt Finance corporation~(ingiate Bank . " Nobody-

~ had believed such "an improvement could have been achieved , " 

he said, adding ruefully, "I would not have believed it myself.tt 

The "courage and wit" he praised in Nethersole and his 

other colleagues, was also his. For Manley x,aa alwaysl(~ifiidhis 
P..~ople 1 ~~in~ 

own jl!f'77X9LJF~ JfflWfGPB 11 lli1m by what seemed instinct . He recognized 

faults, but placed his judgment above his knowledge, his intelligence 

over his experience. And
1 

so he had held together a Party that was 

eq}ecially gifted in dissidents and when it appeared to have been 

ripped apart because he may have waited too long to evict the apostates, 

he had·pulled it~» together stronger than before and whipped the 

entrenched Bustamantea party. 

What made the gains of those !aEzi year~in office so out­

standing was that the per capita income was notthe misleading paper 

figures that march across the pages of national reports into the 

pockets of a top few ; leaving the millions Bfilll~j deprived as before. 

His own estimate of the Labour Party years was that one half of the 

national earnings reached the jliHUl wage earners, the all but a frac-
But the 

tion of the Jamaican society./~ Survey reported that his own years 

put half that again into the hands of the earners. 

The proud Nethersole had also managed another little miracle: 
~ 

t -/he economy had racked those exciting results "without borrowing a far­..____.... 
thing, " Mr Manley said. "We have financed our way, kept off the money 

markets when they were dangerous." A style that was essentially 

Nethersole ' s. 

Manley noted with approbatlilon the g:eeat and steady march 

of the working class into the trade unions,as better jobs made 

them conscious and eligible. Membership had almost doubled. There 

were 150,000 in the unions; new membership was about equally divided 

between the NWU and BITU. And while he knew, to his wounds, that BITU 

strength meant more blows from his foes, he was patriot enough to 

desire the prospering . The radio or rediffusion in the living room, 
metao 

the mahogany becJland~iner suite, purchasE:tfon terms through the com-
, , supported 

fort of a sure income, •••llii.lJ11!!!i!.,B il8 what he saw as the continuing 

struggle to urge the country into this century. The stability of home 

and family)and an adequate income; had been the aim of his Jamaica 

WP.lfare; the reason for the evangelical buzzsaws he hac/turned loose 

on the countryside. It was a passion for his country , sometimes 

brooding~as it was disciplined by his ■■■••• understanding~~he 
forces waiting in the back-country, in ambush for the brave men.• 



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~3/'D 

6 
o~ce 

Republican American Senator, Kenneth Keating of New York,/spoke 
. Hs-was-eH-a-~a~a-ae~-wi•ke~~~B@Pi~+-¼H-~ke-~P¼B-e~-~P~easski~ 

n%ee-weP69-er- ee~a¼~sti-HaH%ey%ft-~Ha•-~8F•Fee -e~-e&~¼~a*¼smT-
nice words about Sociaiist Manley in that capitalist fortress! 
the United States Senate: 11 R cently I ~ had the privi ege of 

meeting a man who will undoubtedly play an important part in welding 

a new unity among nations of this hemisphere ... a showcase of peaceful 

cooperation which the Communist world, including Castro's Cuba, can 

only envy." Manley , he foresaw, was the man who would help to 

"square the historaic interests of the United States (with) the best 

hopes and aspirations of all the Americas ." One of his most active 
. ~ merhhant 

fund raisers were the Alfred eJi'I Seagas,/uncle ~ of Eddie 

SPaga, who would one day. lew-d te-r Labour Pa:pty and w_as . well on his 
be com ~~ if•: tea , ~ ~ ~ ( t?.Jb: 5r?ff54iQ5> 

way to ti~%~ ~Zla~s~ ~coI' thePNP7rader. ~ To some visiting 
i\ (tlf,•uf 

tL /)ufq_ / . *In 19~0, ~he/Seagas hosted a b~rthday party 
~auont'J" for him given by the Fund Raising committee. 

- t-t1'1.' rJ 

Canadian leadess, he confirmed his socialism but added that he could not 

adopt 11all the formal concepts" of the id_,Rlogy. He was cutting through 

the forest and listening for the animals. 

---SPACE ~~~z ---

He frequently escaped to Nomdmi. Houses have moods and there was 

a quality at NomdmiJ ZRzazsz£zamez0£ztzees~ a small and simple moun­

tain house in its frame of trees, until it closed on you and gave 

itself. It held a great deal of its owner in the quiet opulence of rugs 

and Mexican blankets and the simplcity of pinewood lockers and 

rough-floored z0ntr~ e0lil11l.ZZJ verandahJ in azex its excellent taste 

of fine books and music ZJ:0z':3E~ of Brahms, M0zart, Prokofiev.) and a 

rusticity of chamber-pots and kerosene lamps; in its qaiet healing 
sudden t4e Norman Manley 

silence of woods~and the/ria~ explosion of/■ harmonica licking a 
✓ 'Iii flor1-id l'I,( 

naughty mento. »~~~~% Edna once said he went up~with problems) and 

d own with solutions. ~E 

---SPACE 

came 

One of the more pernicious problems which Nomdmi no doubt assis­

ted to claar was the ~MJUO(XXJOOU system or ~D:O:lllffl schooling which 

had divided his generations, past J{ and present, into two Jamaicas. 
and condemned a majori~y to~ eprived class, 

That had built an elitist class,/through a terribly arbitrary matter 

of money. The mode of schooling in the island ruled for a primary 

system for,~~~ the children of the poor, training them for the bri­

gade of labourers and domestics, to hew and to draw, and reserved 

higher school,ng for the «~a2ZfiJ children of the rich who could af­

ford the fees. secondary and ~ university education in those days 

was an expensive commodity. 

Manley was never an overly emotional man, but one day in 1958, he 



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bad system would wrought. "You aee making a mockery of trying to 

create a nation if you do not to the best of your ability and re-

sources ... prow'ide (an) education for every child!" Jamaica, he 

said, • was "one of the wortt educated countries in the whole Caribbean 

area. 11 

He had substantially increased the budget for education and 

was •••• receiving - criticism• for it. But the 
extensions and improvement 

building of new schools, the ,■•. of the public 
libraries. the 4:rea , in ultimate , of free compulsory education through 

J • ■ ; .: I 1 1 . 3 • I 1 
; he t wo ef eTef t ii l f-.Z. ■ and even to the fina~ould 
const~tuent of higher (university) education for the professions, .._ 
engage• 

g 8 S his mind, _ energy and activity , powerfully.* 

*JLP's Edwin Allen, a schoolteacher and Minist:er 
oj Education in the Labour government before and after 
the N. W .Manley years ,

81
was anheoually great advocate of 

d t . f 11 e weifu~ea 3 = e uca ion- or-a . 3 _ ■ -

the competitive Common Entrance examination for - the 
limited places in Spcondary schools • in 

favour of children who ... 
sat from primary schools 

(usually children from the lower income group) as 
against those from private prep schools3 anct was 
severely scored by the better-offs. It substantially 
changed the pattern of education in Jamaica• · - He is 
today generally acclaimed •••• for his work, 6, both 
sides. 

~(}iAr;l 

Once when he wasAout of power, in 1953, around the time 

Queen's vist, he had been deeply moved by the intensity with which 

people reacteo to his ailing. His fan mail had been prodigious. 

He was comforted ; satisfied that the recent Party purge, and his 

work in Opposition, never a cause for commotion in the mostly un­

friendly wealthily-owned Press, and so not easy to assess for public 

impact, was gaining ground. He could listen and see, settle and wait / 

by such a nice inrush of. phone-ins and ••• letters, a slyboots d e-
the brow 

-· btt I 
lifht behind - mask of indrawn aspect and silkllt-smoothD 
111(!11 Ii I 
he wore when he was satisfied with himself. (He could also quite 

angrily demand his credit when it was withheld; but that was savvy 

of what counted in his business.) His threshold of satisfaction with 

others was high, often taxingly so, until it was discovered that his 

demands were proportionate to his respect. Footlessness prompted a 

disconcerting kindness. His appreciation of Nethersole has the point. 



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He demanded, and got, from 

that Nethersole , 
senior bull,could 

a 

312 

--- the fact, of course, being 
whom not even Norman, that 

to give of his skill and devotion 

to the Party and country he loved in his undemonstrative way. 

Norman was especially proud and gratified of what 

the man who at that time may have been his closest friend (and 

finance ~inister)• had accomplished in three years --- more than was 
~ ~ 

expected or . hoped for: a sound economy and a people in the 
They were two 

majority satisfied at the progress of th9lnatio X 
. . in their political - sa+ience: men of a certain likenessA Crab, of the dry w~ and incisive 

mind, of unquestioned integrity and a dedication so selfless, he 

was said to have no enemies. People - warmed to him with the 

assurance of old shoes. He was a good man to travel bY.---a9' 
' . for he had the wisdom of the guide wit~ no g & 

scarring 
• anxiety to lead the expedition. Soon he was to be _.. 

d the most tragic loss to Manley since his brother, Roy, was 

killed in France. Soon Crab would be victim of one of the more 
insensate acts of - political mob violence when he was assaulted 

- on the street near to the parliament buildings and 

los"i'" • an eye. Within a year, the hale and hearty Nethersole 

would be dead, 



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CHAPTER 

Manley's awareness of the historical forces underlaid his 

approaches to leadership and policies. He had grown up close to 
sharp enquir~nd , roaming 

one such force. ••• There is hardly any doubt that a/aiillli 
high school boy 
Y • • would have known that the mountains above Belmont 

had been the territory of Juan de Bolas~ the black 17th century 

. ~~ guerrilla whose reality had come to him in the forests: - to~ 
~shed a losing age and gain a generation.* The Juan de Bolas 

0 * Juan de Bolas, whose memorials arethe mountains above 
Guanaboa Vale, in 16~8 saw that the Spaniards were losing 
to the invading Engla h for the conquest of Jamaica and 
fleeing to Cuba, ultimately leaving the blacks in the 
luirch, and stfuck a •••• treaty with the English 
-- in return ~ their non-inteliiiiii~ference of his 
peoplet .• The remaining Spanish soldiers were soon 
routed with his aid. Juan de Bolas was himself said to 
have been killed by another black brigade loyal to the 
Spaniards. His political.sense •••• had signalled the 
~ommencement of the English-speaking Jamaica 

time had been one of change, with political similarities as his. 

Manley had grasped the truth, unfashionable as it was to many of 

his Afro -Saxon comrades and contemporaries, that race and colour 

were factors to be reckoned for --- and the more publicly, the 

healthier. "Goodwill is beyond doubt an excellent lubricant," he 

had remarked laconically in 19J8, "but pride and self confidence are 
better driving forces." He knew the battle to bring change to the 

land would face its greatest opposition, not from external agencies, 

at that time, but from the inner inertia of a JOO-year conditioning. 
hazy 

Walk the heat-•••■ streets of the Cit~•••••• the City of Duke 
and Church streets, of King and Tower streets, 

the buck-crossings on I the money high­

ways where tactics collided with culture to the latter's injury , 
see 

and , ••• the hunters clad not lightly against the blazing heat, but 
muffled under hats and suitcoatsM 

~for the cold and rain of London . 

~(:the males. It took a daring to be in brown; black was 

the beautiful suit, in serge or tweed ; 

grey was acceptable but~the .arker hues,fw°rey, however, - drew 
';black~ Sii for~ iveable, frowns at a funeralj * §3 ve~ navy blue, was 

~ rigueur/ . White was poor in spirit, unless in sharkskin or flan­

nel; later the linens joined the elite, but cottons, never.* 

*English expatriate• civil servantsJin their suits of white 
former flour-bag cottonJsupplied much diversion to the fun­
loving Jamaican public. As usual, the Colonial elite -- in 
their tweeds were even more English than the English . 



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J1 

Sports coats were passable if worn over grey 11bags", i.e . , trousers ; 

but not even the Sunday !Oorning $port~, the young moder 
~ ·;,.. 

ventured out of doors without a jack~t • ·!l~!'ll•••lll!!!!!l!!!l!lll!I~ Scarves 
'"' the :,'ft7'iA~,..1 '- -~tJ"l,llv-lof th~ ' were accepted in place of neckties· ~ '\ 111A' 

day of rest. Black lace-up shoes completed most of tf e ensemb · t 
anguish. •:• • 

a •••■lblack or grey fedora topping the~ g § 

A drab, pathetic lot, aping from every sweating pore the styles of 

England. Bustamante in his heavy morning coat and topper, entering 

the superheated little lagislative chamber to the frantic clapping of 
in the newspapers 

"\\'as much admired/for his "sartorial elegance". 

when he came to office, decreed no 

morning coats (or evening 11 tails") for his team, I although it took years 
for the more sensible 

before he released his own waistcoat ••••••••• two-piece suit$ .I * 

*A couple of decades lat:er, his son , Michael, on entering 
up'<~n office, was to lead the great break from the traditional 
nec"tie-&-collar collage to the more suitable 11kariba 11 suits . 

--SPACE 

"Loyal ties are potent reali ties ./}.nd the business of growth_.., involves 

a frequent and painful discard of the outworn and the outgrown] " Manley 
<fiJN<J,t.(3 

& C had cried desperately in his pre-war/lworld,::::: the:;qjali g l'.Q that 

drove down the hopeK of growth among •••• all but a few of his people . 

(!3ravely and eloquently he hactfopoken then, and 

bravely and eloquently he marched into the decades of the Fifties and 

Sixties. 

"The immediate past has attempted to destroy the influence of the 

glory that is Africa. It has attempted to make us condemn and mistrust 

the vitality, the vigour, the rhythmic emotionalism (obtained) from 

our African ancestors . " 

Above Belmont, above Guanaboa, - in the afternoon shadow of the 

Juan de Bolas mountains, the spirit of the old guerrilla fighter 

descended the rock trails and into the soul of this other distinguished 

son of Guanaboa: 

"Until the people have the supreme pride in their origins, and their 

significance, and their racial strain, you cannot build a country . " 

--SPACE 

As an identity aid, he had his public works minister, A.G.S. Coombs, 

pilot a bill through the House that provided for discovering and preser­
historical objects, 

vingA with a special significance: one of the categories "Father" 

Coombs should insert into the national psyche - would be identified 

under "Sites." The classification would open new • roads through 

the dis a atisfaction of the Jamaican people with the old concepts of their 

history; concepts which originated with the English historians • The 



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"greathouses 11 , churches, courthouses, al though laboure<.I on by their 

A:(rican ancestors, were in fact never occupied by them, save as ser-
. sunuay 

vants ; or;t§upplicants -••• allowed the/privilege of' worship-

ping the "white" god j f'rom the back of' the pews. The "backra" mansions 

they built in stone, survived; their own cabins of wood and clay 

seldom withstood the siege of' •••••••• time and weather. Their 
~ tged a,,.,.i re 

centuries of wars on the opprcoovi·o,t y attrition and ambush, ~built 

them no forts . Their cottage inrtustries of' the yaoba an the jippi 

jappa* required neither machinery nor f'_actory, but their own 
* ... ate 11.:=~,a ~ ... Pc:!li~ i~av":!b tJ£ stn:1. 

det ermination to escape the p over ty of body and soul,«- the bon­
the 

l emancipationl-without-obligation, brought.** By • curious dage and 

**The slaves were the wronged ones, but it was the white 
slave-owners who were 11 compensated 11 in cash by the 
English government. 

frequentl denies to 
ambivalence which 

wreath of' 

intellectuals • f d ; the 
rn t1h\ le. y 1 s 

freedom fighters, - _. pride and passion, 

quiet but intense, in the Arrican tendrils of' his roots, has 

• d - small. f' h. l • l gaine praise rom is peers. The troub e with Maney was that 
her-hois e d ho pe_rson: l pennc>~ s, . . .. .. 

~for h1s racruits. Juatice Qf' his cause 
marched to distan1; drums ,an relied}(_on the,'v • be t 

He approved of' the British Commonwealth/ for his time, but denounced 

such ... mind-oenders as Jamaican children parading on Empire Day, 

singing Rule Britannia .* Equally combative and imperious as Garvey, 

they 
in 

+ May 24th, Empire Day, an old holiday later changed 
to Labour Day to commemorate the 19Jb 
uprising by waterfront workers. 

b t ~tvrdom of' 
ruf'f'lerl each others feathers, u ~ucfi Garvey~ 

the cause of' "Africa for the Africans,at home ant abroad", 
in dµ e 5:S;as9n 2. g 17 educe c;-li:a.1" 4t£.<VU').f ,rJi"l"'ht:JYY t1t·~rveti . 

would/ - •• J - ., 1s homage;:~ s ~ WI\. 1 perp~tual recogn1-

tion 11. § s was a large canvas, a multitude of ideas and oetails , but 
..fv-am"'-, 

harmonious in ~ A dreamer, and a schemer for his dreams. "West 

Indian history is a modern thing and tradition is something we have 
l'r(/-1i 

to foster and create and its develop is a deliberate act of' intel-

ligence. 11 He knew the value of history and tradition. It had cast 

him~putteed ana booted ~in the mud of France , a brown man fighting ~ a. 
./ /YldJ'I)~ i.vaY- .,, 
~ white;~ (and perhaps effected two decades later the entry 

of' his son into another Imperial war). "In the dreams of' those who 

have not forgotten to dream," he said, was the hope for the time "when 

the false imperialism of' power politics and exploitation, ano the 

residual drosses of snobbery, and the designed nurture of iaeas of 
inferiority (will) have passed away .. ·" - - - - • - -



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f;jihis was his work. To find those men and women who had not 

forgotten how to dream, and to clench those dreams into action, aiming 

g~%al for the hope . 

---SPACE 

He had met his horses of the morning, strong, rushing, youth­
ful horses charging into the c1ay, free running with the wind in 

their nostrils, hard to control but of great promise, able to run 

the course if they held 
would 

terrible justice 
to the track . And life in its 

- not fail• to lead, and punish, 
wisely 

out its best gift : to be ■ • ?Jg 

him} break 
and favour~ an for him, ii I & 

remembered . 



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317 

CHAPTER 

Some think that Manley may have for gotten his dream when he op te d 

out of going to Port of Spain, to head the Federation . But t■•••• he 
~ - . ~ 

was livin g - his dream. He was settling deeper in Jamaica, :i:"S ~ his .._ 

preference for aisplay . His first l oyalty had ever been to his own land . 

FederationJ had , in his reading of world POLJ.'r-ICS , s~;po--~er more @ 
,,,- ~, ~, 

heft to whatever bargaining advantages i r 1 opena toApoor-, ~ 

nations . He could , and did, invoke a1 example of how strong the Carib­

bean islands were when they federated in sports: they ha~ trounce 

Great Britain (called "England " for the games) at cricket . fohat Edna 

called 11 the knotted problem of the site " for the Federal capital, had 

been solved after some covert pipe-laying by the Trinidad delegates/ amo 

the smaller Caribbean catechumens who for generations had migrated to 

work in that island ' s oilfields . 

Some opinions say he sta ed o t of a caution for the electoral 

process; the possibility of < e ~ at. Others close to the facts , s l ate 

. int e n eciue 
an apprehension of an a•u r war for the succession >with the 

. . ~,..dL J . 
amb1t1ousAW1lls O. IsaacsJ com1ng out on top; an accident to be 

avoided. Back in 1950, Wills had "attacked " him 11 by a false statement " 

an( hac "resolved to nurse a grievance against me . 11 Isaacs fondness 
~p;ta.1,it' 

for calling in the hostile press to help him win Party battles was 
r,:. OTJ..<J.Y,S' 

a flaw that left Manley uneasy. Still lJlj-•119 •••• saw a plain 
"- givr l'••• £~ave 

fear that his departure for regional politics m1gh1;A-- Bustt/ -

to grab the ••••■•• homeland . ~ 
~ clo 

rumbuctios /\ The "Chi ef " was being particularly 
c--

on the readymade issue of f°"ederation. 
~ 

in 

With wild hair flying like 

an old Jewish prophet, to the accompaniment of furious jeremiahs, 

Busta was ranging about the country) crying a jehad against unification 

in 11 a 
• f' ederation of paupers ."• 

· I 1 I & 

Manley at 65 was conscious that the sap would now thin, 

rather than ru~ deep. He was, in fact, feeling his years , and in 

one of his very scattered drifts into wanness, had wondered aloud ,~ 

4P frailty, and political succession. He could not_;, at that tim~ had 

seen either of his sons in the line of c esc ent . Both were youn_g, in 

their thirties, even if Douglas, the older, five years before
7
, when 

caus e d ~ 
he was Jl , had .- his mo t her nice chuckle of pride , 11 so 11,mature~ and 

/\ IJ. vJ, 
solid and a little distinguished . " • was too intelligent to fear 

futility. He knew that all wrr¥ N done, or attempted, had an 

effect on events . By the same token, the fact of moAality was to be 

met without flinch. Like the active , vibrant person he was, he 

would yield grudgingly; and also, being Manley, he woulo face the 

truth that at his age, as he told it, 11 the next job I take on might 

very well be my last job . I do not believe in a man continuing until 

he is almost senile. This 11 last job" was to be premier of Jamaica, 



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;i'i,v[tTd. fY\ kd\ rn¢. ~ 

r,_et.:, t""-.tl ....U:r-Pl-f:-~ 

~u ~ -- e ) tvr.d 

-1-ti,; ... 1 "l , ~ ll l ,.-th 

Y\tXTh, ~(,l l1W-ij ,-/ -6£,~d 

:-t. ~L~ d.¾t• )i .,iJ t; I 

;!;17 



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r 
Itf ook priority over the more prestigious Prime Minister of the 

West Indies_ , passionate advocate though he was of the Caribbean affil­
iation. He was carrying in his body~ ~ eath just eleven years away . 
Stress and success had come to him in equally massive doses . His 
~e, in his youth, had been 

# t hat had lef't its weakening . 
·ts 

times for/combatantsJ and that 

pounded by a sho cking bout of 

He hadf ought the ugliest war 

too ha d given him a pounding. 

typhoid 

in modern 

Because 
he went for excellenc e_., in whatever he did, his . working hours were awe­
some . They took toll . 

It is possible that Manley saw through to the enormity of 
making a nation with the material the British had made of us: the 

burnt-out foo d -lands~ d iminished by centure,f~ of forced production for 
export, ~ the dusty little towns that went for capitals , a&!li. the 
e ducationa system that stamped out caricatures of black Englishmen --.. 
from those it touched) t mhe books and newspapers, whose content had 
created a self-loathing to be felt for belief , the class structure 
that stratified the society rigidly as c e ll-blocks , the casual way in 
which grants-in-aid were applauded as funds earned and had become the 
source of revenue in the smaller territories; a gruel of beggars , 
spiritually and on the streets . 

-ha d also, a 
He - - disgust at the jockeying for power in the 

Federal struc ture. Not that he was above politicking himself, but 
was appalled at the gracelessn ess of the style. "The whole issue of 
Federation , " Edna noted at the time , 11 is cloude d with suspicion and doubt 
and d ishonest politics . " And, added, bodeful as it turned out: "P er­
haps it will survice, who knows?" 

b,is knowledge 
So he knew his years ans state / a simply: "It is here • 

(in Jamaica) I belieb e that I can continue for the remairt{it of my 
lif e ' s service to make the largest contributions . " -

(> lttllf( .focl.n(/S .~.,,_u_e(_ -kc, c:l.t?Udt,t,'>, , 
To many it was unbelievable ;\He was a dreamer of practical 

d imensions, a functioning intellectual who absorbed the hard meanings, 
searched, discarded and stayed with his decisions , alone, - some-

,_How 
times lonely, b u t secure . /lonely it would be, not even he had an 
inkling. 

--SPACE 

The great crowd that a spilled over the Half Way Tree square 
the night of the announcement had waited impatiently for him to descend 
f'rom Drumblair to say whe:ther he would stay or go . They had stood 
through the pump-priming speeches that had offered no clue1 for h e had ,vo; 
confided his dee is ion ,----- - (.A, ~ '8'7VU:fi.c(, ·--jk cf itht<:c.'t-lG 



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§!J 2 ,, SC 
staying . 11 

The reaction was disquieting. Although he drew cheers, 

for the first time since the see-saw days of 19Jb-44, ominously, N.W. 
unmistakedly 

Manley drew some boos, scattered and half hearted,but/of the baa stuff'. 
It 

had been an agonizing d ecision anc as lascerating 

# t is he arers. '1'i!t&b i.i&J 1 I 2 I • It I 1 a 

l • PL ti q ] J • £ I i j 3 3 L f I b .f 5 p . t C It hur t 
to whom 

and bewildered his supporters , _ Ahis ~ evious peripatetics on }<'edera-
tion/~ oul~ip9w • --g.se?amLtL§s h~&tlrat',e tier . It baff1 ;fte~~~rs I for 

his obvious and dedicated work on the federal i dea , his wringing of 
complex conferences ~ 

the issues through many/•••••~ and conclaves_, seemed to have 

passed unnoticed in the emotion been so much bull-rope . What 

of the moment was his practical reading of the job in Port of Spain . 

He saw the federal seat as easier to occupy than the Jamaican 
~ 

office. He described the home mission as a "har , bitter, tough fight. 11 

He turned out to be right on both counts. 

The Federation was never taken seriously by the Jamaican people, 

especially with the capital a thousand miles -'It south, across un-
known seas/in what was then , twenty years ago, unknown territory. With 

Manley in Port of Spain , the odds are that interest could have minimally 
_,v..h.e ~ 1 

increased but & - • unlikely . And as to whrwould have taken his 

place at home, the fates would have cried havoc , since Nethersole , 

perhaps, in his mind, the best candidate for succession, would drop 

dead in a year. 

Manley stayed home, ancl shooed in - Grantley Arams of Barbados , 

and the Federation was doomed . Sir Grantleyf /"is small island er so 
the detested 

insular he publicly deplored the necessity of living in/Trinidad, 

(His wife refused to take up residence. 

Its passing after five years barely wrinkled the thoughts 

of the majority o f Jamaicans . The "hard, bitter, tough fight remained. 

tled 

A3SR10Rf¥6 

*** SPACE 
No bugles led him into the battle renewed. 

some credibility_, and the Refe-rendum rattling 

.to a::i:-4 'f 
The decision had whit­,, 
around in the future, 

would destroy it among a majority . The bugles of • 1955, like the 

brooms, had been placed in the closet . (On his • long, youthful 

runner ' s legs scything through France, he had shared in tm last 

great war in which bugles, after nearly JOO years of battle use, 

would urge the courage and swnmon the sinews . ) He had • 11a vast and 
barren territory to be occupied, civilised, and brought under proper 



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" 

320 

amenities," a remark which rang uneasily like an Imperial soldier's 

raison d'etat. But this was n o n e o-pro c onsul's edict. Rather) it was 

a coming to grips with the gaav ity of building a nation in which his 

Socialist desires would not outflank the practical need for capital. 

It made him alive to the factors of what he saw as a functional eco-

, nomy: the orderly arrangement in which the State matched itefrenny 

with the private sector's . 

He was at the time under sniper _. fir e fr om the Opposition for 

establishing a bridgehead in the entrepreneur sector, through his Zero 

refr i geration plant. Zero prov idea cold storage for fish 

and farm products and came under Manley ' s own Ministry of Development . 

He was not slow in pointing ouS tha; rather than a State succ ess , Zero 

had been largely ~he output of a team 0£ business managers employed 

by the government . The complex gave valuable instructions to the indus ­
-f'/1.oltl 

trial thrust ~- i t s ice plant , freezing chambers and fishing-boat pier , 

) plac~ The arrangement t ook care of ~RI;)>~~5~R~e and ship-
ping ~ f uf i @• the lof istics oJ 2 ilgich a1.ziNJ■ 1 1 11 - baffled the 

business fur years . It would lead , ~1anley was convinced , to the 

important exploitation of the deep sea fields , hardl y then touched 

by the island's primitive fishing fleet of canoes , 

wind - &- oar propelled , and the rich shrimp and l obster markets in 

the United States . 

In an analogical j oke , Nature had organized the genes of old Sam 

Manley in his son , to tantaliz e t estalt freaks. Old Sam 

had lovec the law/ and the fine adve ture of penetrating foreign 

markets. The first ruined hi 
inherited the genes but bent 

t:"oR GvER.Y"("H1AtG 
woul be, woul d be;/\. A favour 

e seco nd assisted at it . 

to his own intelligence. Ye t1a1i,1,1■b• 
llbT ,IIC.1. fl~T"t!)G~T'Hl;"le. Wt>/11 . 
ression of his , always thoug 

f u lly uttered , was :" W"e shall see what we shall see." Di d it 

have a little more t h an appeare d on the surface? Di d he mean 

that d estiny would call the shots? 

Olu Sam was a c onfronter, a man never slow for a rumble, a 

tireless litigant. ( 0 1ct Sam lost most of his world's g ood s ou t h e 

hao save rl up some treasures in h eaven; ·l e g ave an organ to the 

Porus churc h 0 (V. W. ranley, too, liked comb a t. Neith er appeare d 

to have had great succes s when they totally a gree with their 

nat ural ten en cies . The Re f erendwn , t h ought by many to have been N" . W's 

too read y response to a Bustamante challeng e, led to q isaster at t h e 

p olls , when , ~y right o f p erf ormance and promise, the Party shoul L 
woN -~, 

have . hand s ome,/ £ · " J\ut f or now 'the reins were well in han 

and Ma 
the ab 
consid 

. , ' A e-~AliJY " 
was nicely seated . H e had been given g oo u rne 

n of t h e bicycle tax had raise the Party' s p 
in the 



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. . . '-"_. ~ Q ~ torically Bus-sugar-growing flatlands , ideal for pedal pushers.,( C ••••• 
tamante strongholds; 

the Sandy Gully flood control project in the Capital to provi d e less p ot-holed motorwa y s was boon to the fast-increasing car-owning class 
MS • • 7 I and bonanza to r"ho could be counted on not to forget. 

,.._ wage-hungry unemployeds~ (In speaking for a priority of the Sandy 
Gully scheme one day, he enlivened his disquisition * with the kind 

of piquancy that was a part of his flair, as - the elegance of lan­
guage and the histrionics: that once, nine inches of rain fell in fif­

teen minutes at the Palisadoes' Plumb Point lighthouse; and that at 
unseasonably named Pleasant Hill in St Andrew, eighty-five inches 

~ men, 
fell in four days.) ...,---.. a hard-swearing fraternity whose peri• 

patetic and gregarious ways guaranteed a wide forum of hearers, were 
believed to have been profanely influential in emphasizing the PNP's 

sympathy to the welfare of the man-in-the-street• --- after the tax 
on drays was abolished. It was the practical politice s of democracy; 
usea lightly, it was good collateral on polling day . 

In serious vein, Manley believed in a government that engaged 

in expanding the economy. He was nevery personally, a hoarder. tt efraced • 
horses, kept a fine home, sent his children to famous £&1 WA (and 

holiday 
expensive) schools, built a/mountain - cottage, drove high-powered 

/
civilization 

cars, went overseas for the ••••• that was absent from his Carib-
bean ]JI I I idyll . But when it came time, he would walk away from 

it all. Drumblair and the good times would go on the block , for an 
oblation. 

---SPACE ---

In the five years of his first term, his government disbursed 

the then unheard of sum of £149,567,000 ($299, 1J4,000) --- near1y 
as 

twice as much ~- put into circulation in the Labour Party's time in 
office. l•Iuch of his government's financial successes had been due to 
his very good Minister of Finance. Nethersole's sudden death was a 

blow the Party never seemed to shrug . 

~ ~ (j) fl-Cj i ?f '3:, -~r ~ 
~ (j) /A'j' cL 3>))-~~ 



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CHAPTER /-l 

Manley stood at an upstair window of Drumblair and wept the 

day Nethersole died. He must have died a little himself. 

''As a man, I loved him as I would love my own brother. (He 

was) a colleague of unshakeable courage and loyalty ... an inspi-

ration to everybody who walked beside himJ 11 '-KL -ft.Ac{ p<lii IA--- -rt:J.__ d.c~ ~ 

The shambling bear of a matad)by sheer goodness of characte::, ~­

attracted legions to his friendship/and majorities to his counsel-

ling. 

"It there was one man in(the)House who was admired, respected 

and loved by all classes of people in Jamaica, it was 'oel Newton 

Nethersole." 

Manley spoke • with the shock of Nethersole's passing still 

on him. Crab had been in the cabinet room at a meeting the day 

before, working on and explaining the budget due the end of the 

month (March). He hatorked massive hours on it.a He had the 

stamina of a bull. Like Manley, he could work through the night and 

be buttercup~fresh next day~ ready for more work, and play, a 

life-style he embraced with zest. 

"He was a man who loved life and (was) close to I)eople. Be-

fore l9J8, he was a wellknown and/~~l8ved figure to the field of 

sport. But no sooner than the crisis arose in 1938, he was among the 

first to come forward and dedicate his life to the forward march of 

this country.111 11 

Nethersole had joined the march with the same relish he showed 

for lighter enaeavours. HP. had become preseident of Ken Hill's 

R~form League and had helped to form the Bustamante union --- a 

job he did while Bustamante was in jail: the first two thousand 

names and £100 ($200) left over from the strikers' feeding pro­

gramme of Aggie Bernard and Edna Manley, were ready for Bustamante 

the day he was released from jail. Crab had headed • the TUC, was 

first vice president of the PNP --- and presided at the Party 

purge that ousted the Red-charged faction. 

"Look at what (Nethersole) has done in f (creating) an invest­

ment and monetary market for this country ... in the repatraation 

of Jamaican funds ... in developing the treasury bill issue which 

has had a most phenomenal success. He proveu .ha w.t1a ne t..l'lougtll. 

was true, that there iii. a large floating sum of money in this coun­

try on which people want an opportunity of earning." 



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·--3:t¾ .s 2- 5 
sc;....101-y 

Nethersole had stamped Jamaica on the PNP Socialism, a 

strong base :for Manley's • ideas of a •■■■•••• non- "imported 

ideology," and :for his own proud conviction that a self' generating 

economy was essential to sovereingty. 
movin in slow sweeps 

He was an extraordinary man, 
, 

somehow 
Q 4 ilZt :,.that secured the details and/completed his assignments 

with astounding speed. With Manley at his elbow, he had proceeded to 

pull into line the banking institutions, :foreign-owned every one 

.... -lf'l'he Government Savings Bank; begfm in 18J7, the year be:fore Eman­
cipation, was a lowkeyed establishment) working its funds in Bri­
tish and Colonial Securities and local JU.'OU(X Loan Societies . 

whose deposits and profits :flowed remorselessly out to the countries 

of their origin, Canada and the U,nited K4 ngdom j :further impoverishing 

the indigent island . • Manley ' s observation that the nor-

mal obligations of' a bank were, in Jamaica, discharged by 
J 

accident or goodwill, was - never questioned . Nethersole created the 

K Development Finance Corporation :for Jamaica's needs, - was 

examining the need :for a Jamaican I stock exchange, and, at his death , 

* 

had drafted the greatest of his monuments, a Central Bank - of Jamaica . 

"Noel Nethersole was quite/finique man . He had a calmness of 

character, a gift of humour, a sense of' justice and de cency in public 

life, a spirit charitable to most men and :free of' rancour to all men . 

Above all, a profound care f'or the needs o:f the ordinary men and women . 11 

The new land taxation law had its genesis in Nethersole's thinking , 

a law that took itsjcourse out o:f "the needs of the ordinary men and 

women . 11 He haci{removed the tax • :from bicycles and drays, the trans-

port o:f the poor . 

He was an exceptional man, a stayer in history*, whose grip on 

*A tribute so :far given only to National Heroe~ 
went to N . N .Nethersole when X.his statue was 

~ imB o s !n§ x U I placed outside theAu~w• en r l Bank of 
Jamaica ) on Nethersole Place; in downtown Kingston. 

life was at the base. The first years of' his Party in office achieved 

strongly) because he 

just over :four years 

understood the issues ~e severely. Brief+Y, 
rrl~ttY of c 

.... r 1.nance 
) 

he 

tenanted the office to the degree that his works still attract enrich-

ment, rather than the restructuring invited by many :factional 

installationsf at a change in rulers. 

=SPACE= 

He was not a tearful man. He may not have wept in years . Edna 

came in, unexpected, and he tried to brush them away . 

the question, and the answer. 

She looked 



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"Life," he said softly, shaking his head, "life." 

--SPACE 

From Edna: 
/ "And that great funeral, rom East Street 

(St Georges Church) to Half Way Tree (cemetery), a solid mass of 

people. And when they broke through the police into the cemetery, 

thousands of them, and stood so silently for the Masonic rites. 

Nnthing like it had ever been seen before. And Norman reading the 

lesson: 'And God shall wipe away all tears '" 



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325 

CHAPTER • \-v\"'.) '~ 
One day in 1937, before Mr Justice Cannon in Chambers, in a Corpo-

ration case,•• ~1 1 d " d th 1 b 11 . th t ~r pan ey 1 e unusua ya owing e pressure~ o 

bear down too hard. His concentration slipped; he moveu "from the logic 
+I+- 17FrellHAl2-'J:>S 

0 1 .... act." Naturally, he ,,\berated himself', •••••• •••••► He 

recognised that he had gone into ground too open; his position had 
he had not relied on his 

become "unsound 11 , because,•••• as he said, I Ii U Elf 
\ 

true case. It was bad work and he told himself so. He believed 

in true cases,and he sought his truth by a great 

impulsion of 

tw enty hours a day. 

body and mind. For seven days a week of' up to 
iq the courtroom ..:> 

He sought his truth/by pursuing it down the 

twists and swollens and givens of his fellow mortals. The courtroom is 
..Sr(r rt" 

the only corner in the civilisations of' our time where a ..._ from 
Pl 

veracity in the spoken word exacts a punishment from our fellows. • 

He was famous for his cross-examination5_:,which were h~rdly ever without 

excitement_) and as modelled as a wargame, full of strakagems, ambushes 

and camouflages ; •••• and most of' the time, when the/ came 

clear, a the drive to the winning finish. 

The strategies of his government bore a similarity to his court­

room craft. He hela{that in the last analysis, the amount of' money 

spent by the government was a major instrument of po­

licy in a newly developing country. •••••••••• So in the final 

of his first five years, • in 1959, - he recounted with satisfaction 

the doubling of 

1950, to 1955. 

his expenditure budget 

He had • put his • 
'PvN.bS 

strategies had succeeded. The 

above the five Bustamante years, 

policy to the test and the 

inserted into the economy, 
courtroom 

were the/questions. & ■ But his interrogation of the experiences, 
~ 

the deduceable facts and the extrapolations from .._. evidence.:, 

were ordering up new avenues for that drive to the finish. Office, 

the heat and the burden of it, had modified ~ direction. The needle 
to the right of the Eden left. 

of his ideological compass had moved further 12 I I & 

The fellow, who, in his youthful mid-Forties, had declared in the 

Ward Theatre: "No amount of economic good will make (for) our people 
a "political 

a real unity" unless there was g ■ organisation" of the people, 

was, in his maturer mid-Sixties, declaring that "national independence 

is not a question of political constitutions ... There aee no insti­

tutions more vitally important than those (concerned with) the economy 

and the monetary system of a country." 

He namec that last budget of the first term, the "Full Speed Ahead 



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326 

Budget," f or the evidence was in, the facts - were clear, the findings 

were mandatory. The drive was to s p enp to the maximum on development. 

Not recklessl Y;, or on counter-productive adventures but "wiser and 
a ~ 

better with every passing year." It was/zealous, evangelical decla-

ration of faith, optimism, and, in the light of the man's accomplish­

ments, a promise of success. 
that 

Oct as a dove's teeth has been the .fairly wide belief/Manley, 
acknowledgedlr 

while/a law hawk, g ided in dreamy isolation above the hubbub of day 
f>O I •t-"tLS.. 

day ...a::ek•~ A don whose intellectuality disqualified him for a place 
unable 

in the squabble , /to share in that painful but proud usefulness felt 

by 

by practical people. Those who knew him, knew Detter . He hactl,i hard 

realism tha"t earne d him the respect, sometimes awe, of his Jamaica wel 'I-

fare staff . He acquired a reputation of being a tough, tireless boss in 

his Ministryj t prtainly a ruthless opponent by his law ~ colleagues; 

and was consequently flattered by a generation of 
a /h1.·s eloquencei JU ; • The clinquants lacked his karat and 

His humour was of the people, broad as a Guanaboa 

imitators, especially 

remained imitators . / 
guffawing 

joker/on a barfiecue• 

under a full moon. Behind that distinguished brow, courteously inclined 

to a confrere, lurked such Rabelaisian ways as whether (one night at an 

important conference) the fellow facing him, "fat as a pig with a 

rotundity as W C spherical abd defined" was not undergoing some 

"miraculous conception . 11 

---SPACE 

It was no miracle that the Party ' s fortunes were rising . The 

economy had been well managed, the populace placated with more jobs• · 

The Party had instituted visible signs of departure from the irritating 

Imperial trappings . (At the House opening ceremonies, the PNP members 

in ordinary business suit ~were in cool contrast to the ridiculous 
..fn:1 .. -t.-ir11 i ·f'(,) 

top hat and heavy morning Y::utaways" sported by the JLP :ue 111: eaw ,ti The 

Party machinery had smoothed its run and was functioning 

effectively; even in JLP country . He looked around and saw the signs were 

good , A o Norman called his elections for July, 1959. It was, as 
a "brilliantly 

Edna Manley described it, •••••••• impudent declaration of an early 

election." 

He druLbed the Bustamante forces , taking 29 of the 45 seats (the 

House had been enlarged from its J2 seats) . ~hat was even more signi­

ficant~ e PNP 's capture of the popular vote : f ore decisive than ever, 
they had 54 . 8~~ to the JLP' s 45~o , 



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: - ~x .,...,.719 sJ 

CH.APTER 

-1.iL lJ;;. , I in that bright year, a shadow was moving around . The deci ­

sion " to stay home from Trinidad rocked the PNP , Many 

lost their l ovaltv for season: the el<lction for the Federal 
Parliament was rebu:f:fed by e electorate, believed of the PKP slilp-
port, inane · ve moo d ou nley's abnegation. Labour had the sur 
of the Chief 1 • 1--■w gallop; chomping ~'!.1..1- ..-. be in a :fight , they turned 

he 45 Wliliiit: Federal Parliament 

seats di~tributed among the i lan The Socialist fecteral party 

( the West Indies Federal Labour Party --- here at last the P:t\"'P had 

secured that elusive "labour " label ! ) included Dr Eric Williams' 

Peoples National Movement o:f Trinidad (f . 1955), Sir Grantley Adams' 

Barbados Labour Party (f , 1939) and all the maj ority parties in the 

islands except for St Vincent . The elections were held on March 25, 
we..:¼ 

19 Sb. The • SJ~o of the Jamaican electors .._" turne'd out, buried 

the PNP-supported WIFLP candidates. Bustamante ' s people, campaign-

ing as the Democratic Labour Party o:f the Federation) 

snatched 12 of the 17 Jamaican seats. What came clear was that the 
. against . out_ 

P:t-,P supporters, rather than voting ..... Manley , simply stayed/ -

o:f the booths . •••••••• The WIFLP won 22 o:f the 
w. 1. 

45 ,,seats . Some :frantic footwork brought in the three Independen 
i:>1" ti W I ,:-t- P 

from Grenada (2) and Barbados (l).gave the• a shaky maijority. Busta• , 
"- JI ~ ---- ,S~ a, ,~ d?,.ws,.te, 

who had p.ls~ ?ecided, to_ st1~ ,in 11--!._~aica , now; ~ · , i ~. 0 _
1 

;,,,... · $ 0 _ ~ 

i · ; T I - I _g .... 
~ /1.Lt;j-~ ··~ ~· ~\.C'- ·-""A- ~"'(.. ~4:.ld-~-- ,l,M. ~ ~"1,X. -"-"""'C,...-lc::tt.v? • I~ • , ' 

\)ljQ. --i-.,()(.~ ,:w._(IW\.... . ~ n1~/£ja•ra~ cw,~A.,i,~c.b/e; • - ~-* -~ Wk€>,. ... 

~ I 
p.4crJi..d. electio:Q. call would catch him o:ff guard . ·-rlL ?NP ~ ~ l~ ..t._~ 

.Jl.. ~~"(_ """'+: I ·-:;re,.1'\V&< r1, 1 tf bo, -::::::; _z- s PA <='... € .:::z. :::=-
-"7 · ~nley was a sensitive man and • vulnerable in his hurt . 

: He could be painfully depressed and given to questioning what he 

-- called his 11 intui tionj II h ut his inner unity enabled him to es-
cape / unharmed j to the extent that he hoed his row through rock, and 

little loam, and harsh seasons . For the :fact was , that , vastly finer 

mi as he had he was no match in wiliness with his Hanover cousin . 
his connective twenty-four,. with elective olitics, he led 

Of • 

t h e country :for only seven; Busta held that o:f:fice :for twice as long J 

--~• et the powerful mystique that uni:fies th~ two in the psychic 

~apparatus o:f their clients, occludes • qui f ktelling apart j both 

bowl - along over the years, indivisible yet irreconcilable.[!_he 

political "game" was no contest o:f skill or luck to Manley; it was a 

profoundly serious undertaking to structure a peopl:.,and natio1)out 

of , as he s ~w it, the lethargy and inertia resulting from a history 

o:f slavery and Imperial rapine . The notion of Empire was a crude 



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ideal that should be discarded., The crudities of that idealism, we 

of the People's National Party (will not) accept," he had declarecl in hi ~ that kin~ of passion 
• * po l 1 t i~~1slit~~r ..... as at~~ ~r~~~lon~~swo, ld i t f k . /,all thr? uf h 
r is ¢ J h i § I l 

. 
to politics. Law was his skill# iiiiiliiiiiiiiii t e profundit j es 

of/~fiffrage held his soulS ; toa structure a people and a -A ~ imilar in root as vow f and as ~!tvv ~ ~ 
nation by the vote ~ jj 1 • • solemn •••••,_ 
- 1)-- .~Y which " ........._ ~~•Democracy ceases to be an ideal,and becomes 

a necessity,for the realisation of the creative in al an, and of the 

e~;foJtu~ onary potential in every society, however chaotic and vague its 
/I'•'" 1 

elements may see:,t" A kind of dedi cation that left scant room for 

C political wind-stealingAonce he g ad JBit ship , 2 Q t =~ 
By 1959, October ' s end, ~ 

Ahe was complaining bitterly at the b'wildering spee~ with which Busta 

~ "'(l}Ke 
IN ~ 
::-cc '(fl()'(/:, 

v 
?.~ 

c ould switch ends when it suited him . The "Chief" on his break-out for 
power • was cracking blows right and left, laying about him in a des­
perate, early afternoo /~~~~~~~ammerung - out of which heAhoped fol I 

unit le0i s lature. covert moral 
a the prize of his 11 • ■ ] , Busta h ante had a . support A A 

in the high Pl\1' echelon; and of this ManSley knewJ but c~1ose to 
treat • quietly, convinced that he had their personal loyal~ "what­
ever their private feelings about aspects oi' the future . " He may also 

have been •••• misled by the profile of --public response: although 
obviously disapproving of his decision to stay in Jamaica,by a virtual 
rejection,at the 195b fe eral polling,of any responsibility to his Fed­

l'leral Labour Party, they had 1lturn e d out splendidly in the 1959 Jamaican 
;>t,..tP 

elections and given the,-\ a great victory. To hold a Rpferendum, then, 

on whether to keep Jamaica in the Federation, may have seemed good odds tc 
him. 

Norman Manley also desired a federated caribbean for selfish Jamai­

can reasons. }fe_, as he saw it, needed them . In an extraordinary confes­
sion of Jamaica's inadequacies, he was to tell his federal colleagues of 

the "deeper level of sheer naked poverty " and the "higher rate of unem­
ployment than any other territory in the C,,.ribbean ·. 11 He was not for 

fooling about with such a situation, for in it were the seeds of "riot 
and revolution ; " and he asked that the battalionlP of Federal troops 
on the Jamaican station.be doubled ·a predisposition to overreact, un­
expected as explicable .!f- In hot pursui~ of egalite , 

■ I D I t 1 1 • J I f • t I I the right to the 
better life for his constituents, and confident in his ability to see 

and lead better than most (all?), and truly knowing the strong , re­

sourceful, ruthless reasons orjthose who would nail down the U 1 ti 



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stability,328 
Uiter-servant status,disguised as ......... Manley, who knew time 

• ,Al!" with - some 3::ntimacy' by g a v ingcrg~~ to ~~.$lo sure with some frequency :t;tt~;;~ 
r,t~1't1Klii _) WHR. t1N~ Ac.~t:., 't,£;,-1·73_, V 
~ ~ woUld brook no balk. He sometimes assumed a posture of defiance although 

he held as a schoolboy, 

A. 
a comfortable lead. A terribly intelligent bully 

T "IN *A small "rising" by supposedly RastllAfarian elements and 

0~~ 327 
visiting American blacks had~ een contained ang quickly put 

1 
• down; Manley, in a radio broadcast about 11 beared men" had 

hastened many wearers of beards to the barbers, caused some 
innocent hirsutes to be rou hed 

at .Jamaica Co i lege when hekchanged to the side of law and order- - and o
1
ecame prgt&c or of ~fie wea, 

1 • ••••• § his rectitude was devaatating. 

--SPACE 

There were real and great advantages in a fedeaal union, he told 

his Party colleagues. Foremp tin his mind was trade, but he no doubt 

would think of the old Jamaican solution, the cyclical migration, that, 
~ 

since the century, had contracted .. thousands - men and women to 
several 

foreign lands ---Cuba, Panama, the United states, the United 

I 
J 

Kingdom, Costa Rica. The rich, empty vastnesses of British Guiana (Guyana), 

hopefully due for inclusion in the Federation, was a goodloDlk.ing hope 

/
Jamaican 

for a few thousand pioneers. Trade, however, gathered his intent. He 

was excited about a CAribbean common market and customs union. But it is 

an uneasy judgment to see any less of the insular in N.W. than in his fellow 
J 

satraps of the Ten Territories.* He eyed the British role of midwife with 

*Antigua, Darbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, 
st Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Trinidad & Tobago. 

a similar care as the others and watched with prejudiced interest that the 

allocation of power to the Federal apparatus did not breach Jamaica's economJ 

he . sa t He liked to keep his options. One Monday evening in April, 1937, 

/at Drumblair and carefully argued with himself whether to invite in the 

Banana Jroducers Y Q into his Jamaica Welfare scheme (then called the 
* ~ Banana Trust Fund) and decided against bringi~ them in. He felt they would 

be nosey, would criticize and interfere; that i heir shareholders would 

listen to malice and contrive to wreck his Welfare. And that, anyway, they e 
were not big enough an organisation to handle' it. Twenty years 

later, in the larger case, he was still eyeing askance. He cautioned agains1 

interrupting the plan-flow "our party" (the Federal party) had put into 

operation for securing the Federal foundations; an apparatus, he bluntly 

stated, that would function no less, no more, tha~ the state of the financiaj 

health of the two largest units, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago. There was 
a. 

never any doubt in his mind about which came first, Jamaica OA, the west 

Indies. Nor how he would op; if the track indicated better going for a Un'1JL 

Jamaica , 

He was not selling Regional unity short. He defended the idea. He 



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J29 

used a very rational short-ball once to do it, bowled to his surrogate 

Federal premier.• "Men come and men go," said a sententious Manley to 

*Grantley Adams' bumbling p Erformance as the first federal 
prime minister was not aided by the tart criticisms, often 
deserved, f'rom his two more brilliant colleagues, Manley and 
Williams, either of whom could have got the IFLP leadership 
but studiedly declined. 

h C to is Party 8 S conference in 1959. "To argue that Federation is 

wrong because the leadership is misguided~is to put the cart before the 

horse . Dont throw away the cart because the horse isnt pulling . " 

Whether the horse was pulling would soon be only of academic interest. 

Nobody knew that ye~ and certainly thought less about it as the Jamaican 

general el~tions were on. The near debacle of the Federal polling,which had 

rocked the Party's support, had to be neutralised and re-created into pos­

itive backing. The rogation years ~ad begun, hardly recognised, but present 

in the Federal question. Manley had added lJ seats, enlarging the House to 

45 members. The fright of 1 58 had shaken not only the PNP politiciansJ but 

the stay-at-home and closet Socialists who had neither wantedJnor expected 

the technical defeat of their 'federal P:KP. 11 So they turned out in better 

numbers this time, and, on a 65~o polling, gave the PNP 29 seats,, by 54 . 8~0 

of the vote. 

---SPACE ---

No man is fully understood . His ways, thoroughly private and designed 

to dumbfound, adumbrate■ false starts, dead ends, wrong premises, faults,,,::;;;;; 
~ and virtues incomprehensibly mixed . In i•Ianley, the ruses riot . X 

Beyond genes and chance, there is the factor at the core, the unknown &( , 
A 

guessed at by the self's imagery, the hurting self)crying for tranquillity, 

or, foolishly, understanding. In the end, to the lucky, comes acceptance, 
Q~i.b/(L 

and then a disregard. Others become saints or lunatics. 

--SPACE 

It was a vibrant comeback for the PNP/ from the mangling\_;~ the Federal 

elections; and N . W. hailed it without modesty . His Party had given Jamaica, 

he said, "what is undoubtedly the best government Jamaica ever had. " It 

was a victory that generated the sort of vibrance quick to answer chal-

lenges. It was the kincl of win that could - make a man boasie and sum-

mon up sinews best held back for better programmed combats. ~ rush to truth 

is decidedly not politics, itisan ignorance of}he streets. A steady, 

cautious approach, with the back of the neck well covered, ensures survival 

for continued truth-seeking . 

Busta, revitalised by a long overdue overseas holiday, was not yet 

ready to give up. A man who had found the energy at 60 to enter parliament 

for the first time asks to be understood, if at 75, he declined to accede 
C /,l~AJ • -

to custom and his shoes for _. slippers. He was searching for 



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issues} and Fedez:ation was turning 

youngblood in the JLP named D. c. 

JJO 

into a very rich vein. LA tall, lean 

Tavares, one/~gyefge{hl9~2use revealed ,., 
the lode when he proposed a Referendum. It was instantly rejected by Nor-

man. He had just waged and won an election in which the Party's Federal 

stand had been a major declaration. It woulc be irresponsible to slow up 

the processes by -asking again. "Maybe one day it will come to that, " he 

Baid prophetically, "but not now." 
then came 

The Tavares motion fizzled but the idea had been lodged ; and i•q :biJ 

-p11r•11t¥1!1all!ii:1Zt>;. z,:M•urnel11' q: z 2dti::, the last ctays of May. 



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' 
JJl 

CHAPTER --:1 u,. -t: a l-tt., as 
. '~ ~ --) J a in other days , f/_l1f'/6vB1J 

In the last days of May, (<o5cl""ddtt}hiJiQ.nri;ggss, iliiiiiiili•llllf£11!£ .. llllllii._Jf in the world• •• 
PtVtv::i ·Fl~., 

In the Americans were pay-

ing an instalment on their 200-year-old debt to France/for Lafayette, 

l,.y agreeing to share their A-Bomb secrets; while cautiously shi_elding . 
p lc,u,s . & --<;e..rn I '-, I" 

ihe H-Bomba from their unpredictable Gallic friends.In London, ABuckingham 
Pc./(.:(/,Jl- ,, ., 

,, was acquiesing with the Es tablishment ' s proposal that stockbroking had 

the elements of dignity requ~red in a new job for:;-ephotographer who had 
(~ ~ 

married the Queen ' s sister ~ •••• Jackie Chang, his half-Chinese ers~-
'\ IN ffvt.. V,,ikd S~ka 

while sweetheart, was predicting that her Tony would returnj"I\Frank R. ~ 

Beckwith, an Indiana black, was seeking the u.s.• presidential nomina-

tion from the R~publican Party. In the last days of May, N.W.Manley 

was ruling well, with style and success. 
g e g ad helpeg to 

- The squalling Federal baby 
- i I I is ' ] .. 

• • • • • bring inbo the world, was quieting down, and even gurgling 

Customs Union of the units, that most controversial factor rated most 

likely to succeed in destroying the Federation, had been settled. He and 

Dr Williams of Trinidad were once again on speaking terms; they were 
w.1:1e1;ne.r 

working out ways to seal off the twin threat to the new state over/\inaus-

trial development plans and income tax •----• collections in the units 

should be Federal business. All good positive stuff. But the Bustamante 

hardening ~gainst a fed_era ted . West Indies was irking more than he cared 
( Ht: {/.c,,,,IL ) ~ ,,~ ~-&R-

t o admit. a C . I ; \ was losing definity. More :frequently he had 

been talking about Jamaica's abilityfto stand alone, and had even, a trifle r Jamaica s 
adroitly, gained Ian Mac.leod's public :fiat declaring iliiiilillililillli choice to 

defect i~ the quest1·on arose. i It turned out to be a waffle of significant 

scale; a fault-line that broke away unbridgeably wider 

when he called the Referendwn. In the last days of May lay 

the seeds of the defeat that would lose this good man to his people. 

---SPACE ---

If he seemed uncertain in the Federal seas, he was going very good in 
Jamaic~n 

home waters ; sSteering true for the ultimate cestination of/independence, 
AtU). alt.~ 0-f 
·A <lwhethery • in the course of the voyage, he would put into such ports 

of call as ••••••• a W~st Indies alliance. The infra structure forf 

vibrantly independent nation had never been out of his mind . In a flash­

ingly angry mood one day, in 1951, he had ripped into the ruling Bustamante 

party for "choking yourselves with shibboleths (w~le) Jamaica is sinking 

because of you and your free enterprise and your capitalism (which) we 

have had here for centuries, flourishing and flagrant since Bmancipation. 11 

i'lational 
t-For years he had urged that/industrial and agricultural corporptions be 

established, 11 the two necessary instruments for development." So indig­
Naxxxxa:s:xkax 



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nant was he, he had done the Uilllusuala (for him) and created a memorable 

metaphor, split hilariously anphibious: "You have/~8i to sail out into 

µgcharted seas --- other/~~~!ries have blazed the trail for ust 11 .. 
llfell, an at home in 

he was islander and equally11•••••••• wood and sea.) He 
had established a first class radio station (JBCB)with the primary ob-

Jective of' encouraging creativity in music an<J/drama, commenced the process 

of' moving costly, elitist secondary Jhooling to the poor by a massive 
I\ 

f'ree-place programme, established (after :\: .N.Nethersole) a Central Bank 

f'or managing the economy anci an annual Economic Survey f'or detailed public 

scrutiny of' the government's performance, f'ounded a :National Trust f'or 

the recovery and use of' the national • patrimony, sought out and 

brought into the credit area, by his Small Businesses Loan Board, those 

Jamaicans whom the powerful lenoing banks had ignorec, dis c ouraged and 

watched cestroyed; and not to be one-sided, established too, its corollary 

in heavy financing, the Development Finance Corporation; and forthwith, 
first J,, 

upon the/P?· P win ( in 19 55) ) set about establishing a Plannin°fepartmen t 

that would prove invaluable to the whole . (}~ney management was never to be 

his metier, he had left this end of' his leadership to - Nethersole 

and had known a while of frustration and worry when ~ethersole's sudden 

death revealed the paucity of' financial savvy in his Cabinet. The 

"terrible state of' delay and obstruction" in the 
discovered af'ter 

,•{:i.nistry of' Finance · · the 1962 def'ea t 11 dumbf'om.ded" him.) 
C..His stocks were up in the north fields. The 
-~gains accrued from his negotiations with the bauxite •••• mine owners 

(then Reynolds, Kaiser, Alcan) had raised the royaltly anc l income tax oy 
5 0011 

over ,. j'.f f'rom two shillings • & eightpence to fourteen shillings a ton 

(27/ to ~1 .40). •--•-••••--.-•••-••••••- Across the Atlantic 
he had gone to London, to Notting Hill, when the race riots flared, in 1 58, 

anu by his presence, cooled it. His stocks were up in the north :fielclsj 

out southward, the seas were stormy. 

---SPACE---

Wills 0. Isaacs, the 0ald, bustling) bantam e~businessman turnec 

Socialist politician, was the main Bustamante baiter in the P l\"P. His 

cheerfully pugnacious style had :for years - buf'f'aloed the "Chief". Wher 
L,,-

most of' his 111119 comrades avoi<ed confrontation with Busta, notorious 

f'or the weight of' his folk-wit that could rioc'le an opponent with ridi­

culeJ Wills' ability to meet him head-on, to give as much as he got, had 

earnec: him the grudging respect, and even liking, or - Busta. They had 
i sornethamg in common. Wills IA did not like the Fe(,e:tation. He was, how-

ever, the P} P's !1-linist er of' Tyade & Industry) anc the logical man to send 

to Trinidad f'or a talk with Dr Williams, that colony's premier who was 

showing rising anger at Jamaica's purposing to build an oil refiriery. 



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Williams saw a refinery, protected by a tax device, nQt.only as a 

spec1:fical1y 
breach o:f Fpderal plans for internal free trade, but/as a blockage 

to the :flow of Trinil;ad oil into Jamaica. Both Isaacs and Williams 

were men of short leashes. Wills later averred that the Doctor had 
< enied by +-/, 

insul~ed him in Port of Spain;/Dr William~bu7damaging to the already 

strained relations between him ann Hanley. Wills angrily left Trinidad 

with- the problem intact; not enough an incident to sink the Fede­

ral boat, but)added to events before,and aft~r, made the list ominous. 
machinery 

The weaknesses in the unif'ication •••A.had emerged imJBediately 

with the first sitting of the federal parliament, April, - 19jb. 

- Strong# in quality an, q uantity,/bB~osition, with such formi , able 

debaters as Ken Hill and Bob Lightbourne of Jamaica, Albert Gomes anu 

Ashford Sinanan for Trinidad, clearly would outpower the government 

spokesmen, who were not e remarkably front bench material, considering 

that neither Manley nor Williams nor other of • their f'amous men• 
was I there, . Busta' s Fe< s had a large and competent slate 

of professionals, who■, idling in an out-of-power season, had 

- placed themselves at his disposal ano wor. to Port of Spain. They 

were knowledgeable of House strategies and laid their ~egislative traps 

almost with amusement. Unsettle cl , the \[ajority members :fell back 

defensively. One early snare was the Ken Hill motion calling f'or a 

Constitutional "leap-forward." Considering that Ken had not only cut 

his political teeth in the Socialist P'-P; but had also been expelle<' 

from the Party, on a Red charge, the choice of a Mao Tse Tung phrasing 

had an edge. It was clearly dirty pool, as Ken knew/ that the Confe-
1
laid down, 

rence of '56A and since then, regularly ratified in debate, that the 

first five 

stitutiona 

F nderal years would be free from any fooling with the Con­
<:::~r1Hr"John Mordecai calls a "casuallv altered " 

--- except----:rnat)_s last minute mor'ification hao let in the 

phrase "not later than", in place of "curing" the fifth year.* Pounce d 

*Sir John Mordecai, Jamaican f'ormer neputy Governor­
Gpneral of the W. I , Federation in his book: TLe West 
Indies: The Federal egotiations . 

upon by the sharp-eyed Ken, it was only defeated by the government 

maJority after a torrid c1ebate . It also began the polarityfhich would 

spread from the House to the Territories. 

}tanley hac no illusions about the role of the Opposition in the 

Federal Parliament . Le saw them, the Jamai ~an element, 

as coming :from the JLP which had 11 a great irresponsibility which 111as­

querades as policy)" and even as " liars and betrayers .W" The intem­

perance of his language describing his political adversaries was 

the scope of the anger he containeu . For the Federal exercise was tear~ 1 

~1~m apart, at.J inside job guessed ~t. by only the mor efperceptive aroun • 
nim. Edna■■■•■•••• was worried and wondered 11 how to keep : 'orman 



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n the 

JJ4 
well and on his f'eet, to keep near the Almighty and to keep humble 

and yet unafraid." {S;~ knew that he was on an a~vil in his advocacy 
of, his obsession with, west Indian unification. He was to co1,fess 
in a letter to 1-dchard uart years later that he had been the first to 

embrace the idea and the last to •••••- let go. And as the debate 
it was noticeable that 

grew shriller,/the eloquence of exposition, the sweep of rhetoric he 
brought to bear on subJects across the canvas,f'rom a schoolteacher's 

shearing 
portion in the national progression to the •••• of prosecutory powers 
in an attorney (Jeneral' s portf'olio, lost much of its power in the 
translation to federal at'fairs. The ,1ream of many minds since fl-iarryshow 

was turning into a nightmare. 

If he bemoanec his fate at the hanc's of' inconsirerate enemies, he 

also had a hard-headed awareness of the ambivalence among his friends. 

He knew that some of his Ministers had what he delicately called "private 

feelings" on federation but also that they revered his leadership enough 
to be meticulous in toeing the official line. Pl t _______________________ __,':::> -

c:::: The trouble lay in the fact that he had forked his trail. 

711 

At least 
in one reading. He ha set out as a nationalist, ~uilding an ever mounting 

emotional response ;••- exhorting them, for the first time in their 
land,from the 

450-year history as Jamaicans,% to love the/ • slopes and blue 
to the hi9h-shouldered Manchioneal; but also to .._ see 

water at Lucea/•••■••••••••••••• beauty in the hammer of the 
a railway engine, in the shining swing boilermaker knocking clinkers• from Ii ■ i I ~ • ari I 1!!1 8 ; 

of a machete-man cutting his quota of cane, in the smell of river rush 
"'it: o~ task 

among the women weavers working~o~d skil l.4" in a cottage ••■•• for a 
words and anc • of their creative children. '! bracing for 

payday for a poor yard , The youth of 'Thirty-eight,now ••••• their 
~'P~ forties, had grown up and mature0 in the extraordinary year~~when sudaenly 

it had become good to be a called a "good Jamaican. " Many would be 
stubborn at the fork ~ tt.z_. /,~ • 

----SPAC'S 

On the last day of May, 1960, the Federal seat that Ravert Lightbourne 
hac vacate almost a year before to run for and win a ~t Thomas 

seat for the •••• Jamaica Labour Part~was placed in nomination. Both 
Federal parties were expectec to put up candidates. Only the PNP/WIFLP 
did. The JLP instead put in a bomb, not yet armed, but ready for detonatior 

Bustamante announced that not only would his Party ignore the Fpceral 

by-election but was rejecting Federation altogether. They, as Manley was 

to say a few days later, had come out into the open. 

---SPACE 

Manley - awoke early at Drumblair, a lifelong ~ountryboy/soldier 
hat.ii t he woulcl never lose . His ma tutinal course required a retrieving 

of the morning paper from the • front yard/ and an amble in the rose 



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garden to pluck the bloom for the day --- he was an inveterate wearer 

of the boutonniere.a But this day there was a stumble in the amble as 

:-. a headline in the day 's news struck. 

There was a while that he agonized alone over his decisions __ ; 
astonishing 

but in an a I g short time he had chosen, and was summoning a 

hurried c~binet meeting. At 9.30 a.m., he strode into the Cabinet room 

and announced for a R :ferendum . Kone o:f his Minister demurred . A few 
n 

may have quietly •exulted for th~Aat- had never been a total enthusiasm¢ 
to 
Illa a union with the other islands.~n the P~~ hierarchy-The bomb was 
now armed. ~ 

[!!ie JLP c1ecision to abandon the Federal parliament, taken the 

night before, had also b een the decision of one man, Bustamante; 

reportedly over determining whether the Party would throw in the J,000-

:funo estimated to run the campaign to elect Edwin Allen . Busta, in his 

role as a Federal foe, and doubtless by now genuinely convinced 0£ its 
a very useful 

ine~p~dtenc~alked at throwing good money 
pol1't1c1an • A ,,._ 1 - - -1'11 after bad. 

--- and/ 

The :Manl ey decision :for a Referendum may well be the consequence 

of I the fault and strength in the ma :he was a combative, competitive 

individual who accepted challenges .with an incautious alacrity that 

racked up victories because of his prodigious gifts of talent, _ con­

centration and capacity for back-15ea■king work; and because he ha the 

burden o:f an integrity from which he could not escape. 

---SPACE 

In the hour of decision he had granted himself that last morning 

in :May, he may have looked critically at the figures of the last two 

elect ions and seen that the gamble was worthwhile. Although the P:t-i"P 

had been clobbered in the 1958 Federal elections, the 
P.NP wii:i in 

the Jamaican elections in 1959 had - been on an increased majority, 

from 50.~; in 1955, to 54.8~, in 1959. Sut he may also have reckoned 

without the unconcealed apathy affecting some of his Party' 5 most 

artful campaigners; a syndrome that could affect the voters. His pro-

mise during the campaign that if Jamaica stayeu in, he would seek 

office in the E Federal parliament, was too little or late to 

cure the apathy. Only 5J~o of the electorate would turn out for he 

Referendum. 

And it was a gruelling trail that taxed all bis energies. 
followed 

The sophisticated city voters ••• fairly •••• the Party linejbut 

the crucial rural backing, retreated. Federal politics had lashing 

of logomachies to reason and argue over_ and drew interest in the su­

burban verandah taBlk-ups,and - among the newspaper reac'ers. But back 

of the mountains, folk found it ••■••■••••••• soulless. 
To show the joys - of iiving together in unity, Manley could, 



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anu die invoke ••• such parallels as England's effort to enter 

a 
the European Cornma n ~farket, from which ia. former hauteur was now deny-

ing her, or "the little republics o:f Central America" who were working towa 

a Customs Union - (as premier of an island :fa1smaller than the "little 

republics", his Jamaican-Anglo-Saxon frame of mind relegated them never-

the less to a diminished importance.) 
hard 

He was pushing for a success at the plebiscite, the 

first national manda~e on a single issue ever sought in the history of 

the country. He was entering the third cecade since he had moved close 

to the politics of' the people, t wenty-one years since he h&d formec the 

PNP; he was now experienceci with the moods . He had, and understooo pas­

sion in politics . At the very beginnings of' the Par ty, and always, he had 

hammered at tl1e need for political education of the people. Both these 

:factors had pulled the electorate, :finally, to the p.,_,p, and changed its 

image from the middlebrow repute o:f ' Forty-four to the populist victors 

of 'Fi:fty-:five. But the R.1.:,ferenc,um campaign was disquieting . He knew his 

onions and this crop was poor . The country-folk had not been 

educated into a \\est Indian moo<1 . "The history o:f natio11s is a history 

of amalgamations," he had told the delegates at the 1947 C~ribbean Labour 

Congress (that included T . A .Marryshow, the "Father of Federation") to 

rousing applause . But among the many notable absentees at that important 

eonferemce was a delegation from Hog Hole Bottom , or Top Fustic Crawl, 

or any similar citizens . /:Jtie politicians and public people and the 

educated skim knew of the other West Indies . HogX Hole Bottom did not. 

-----They would easil)l accept Busta's j 1 ibe at the Trinidad premier as "that 
L.---" 

hideous • TT Williams", and recoil in horror at Busta • s forecast that one 

day the little Doctor would be ruling them . It was straight Big Yard 

cussin', a form Busta was adept at, and it had much more conceptual 

clout than any number of' speeches outlining the advantages of' the Con­

current Legislative Lists, or the Veto Powers. {!i,ove all , the old team 

spirit of the PNP, the harddriving organisational skill;,which had 

powereo them past the formidable JLP mass strength, was absent . One 

researcher found that •••• Manley, at his hundreth rural campaign 
skilled and 

meeting, had still no platform support :from his/•---• seasoned 

city comrades . He had, in effect, disoriented them . He had celebrated as 
11 8 the basic policy of the Party", to build the special Jamaica, "a real 

home for its citizens . " That was in 1939, at the very first annual P."P 

conference . Even more profound was his declaration the year earlier that 

"We must recognize that this country has a destiny of its own, 

separate and distinct :from the destiny of any other country . " It was 

the theme and variat·orsupon which the Party activists had paraded at 



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3 

the barricades, nationalism a91n in their eyes . And yet a 

closer reading of the intellectual Manley, at that time in the 'Thirties, 

would have picked up the bale-fire in the 45-year-ol<l mover and shaker) 
on the threshold of his last and greatest career, to push a country, 

C.()! !1!>\ ,.):,, ' 'lit( e:. !+I.. /JJ,:t­
anciently submissive, into an■ aggressive twentieth century

1
i•!la• iit:a't 

w , 1-,1 
it-~ no hostility to Britain; indeed, saw, he said, "pride in the 

thought of an association between (countries) based on ... equality . " 
He was voicing a willingness to share a ''morally inc ependent" conso:btium 

with the British E,'mpire , an idea that could tangibly claim logic with 

the events brought to a head near a quarter century later . Feueration, 
was, it seems , to him, not a denial of Jamaican nationhoo( but an assoc-
iation of "morally independent peoples." ~ 

Hr lost the Keferendum by 8 ,2% of the 60.87~,; of the voters 

t 11 - 11 ~ _ 111•111 _ Hi ! I!! !II!! II IL ... ,,l!ii,, who pollec - 453,580 
from a voters list of 777,965 ~,:) 

C""fhe Corporate Area (the city of Kingst on/St Andrew),as expected, 

went with him; he was roundly beaten the • rurals. It presaged - the further happenings now only a year away. 
---SPACE 

It was f the kind of Manley plummet that came with the horses run­
ning across his brightest mornings. I<'resh from his triumph before the 

House of Lords judiciary, first by a Colonial lawyer, wined an< nined 
lly distinguisheu members of the Houses of l:'arliament, he had plurnmetted 

into the Ellis Island humiliation by some ugly Americans . From 
the golden boy of the LE I L Jockey c1ub, the pri<e of the brown-skins 

him 
a n d token-black of the whites, his choice of politics had sloughed/off 

1li among the troublemakers . £SJ& Leading legal 

genius for the landed gentry, the salt-fish kulaks and other urban 
I 

economic guerrillas, only his unrivalled 411 sk~ had kept him making 
a living off their i~ & litigious affairsm; ••• he turned politician . 
The horses had a way of running down on him. 



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Putting the people to such a tes{asked too much of their daring. 

It was a misread of their devotion to a man or cause, carelessly col­

lated, unclear on its benefits, alien in its philosophy of unifying 

the future with the strangers of the s0~t h0ast south/east islands, 

vaguely heard from in years past by the majority of voters. The (elega­

tion from Jfog Hole Bottom was as absent in spirit as in body. The 

result? A debacle . And i.f the word seems strong, even harsh, it was 

.·.w•s own choice of phrase for his acventure into the process of put­

ting a specific proposal to the ballot. 

"Why really did I decide on the RPferendum?" he would agonize 

later. "Why did I so totally commit myself and the Party to its re­

sults? Why did I not leave the smallest loophole for escape back to 

the old road, if the Heferendum failed? 

"The fact is that I cannot give any logical answers ... And 

we have paid the price for the ctecision and the responsibility is 

mine alone r(for)the Referendum debacle." 

No amount of conjecture by other sourc#s may negate ·the/man's honest 

judgmen.::, based on his own soul searc~ . IIe hat1 mac1 e an earlier cri­

tique of his decision>in the weeks after the Rnferendum, an analysis 

that amounted to no more than a ratiocination by an input of the Amer-

ican and Canadian experience in uniting their ~tates or provinces, but 

took no notice of the thousand peculiar and thoroughly divisive sea-miles 
what so many saw as sus icio even hostilit__)S 

between/ 22 Us and Them . Kor that was a na uraI reaction 

which often follows a political unifying of seperate states . And who, 

if allowed to vote a view , would likely opt for a return~o the old 

familiar fences . - After the 1776 American Rnvolution which created 

the United :States, some of those "one and undivisive" states were ready 

for each other's throats and threatening to bolt the coop; indeed, a 

hundred years later, proceedec to slaughter each other in •••• the 

most savage internecine wars of modern history, precisely because some 

wanted to secede . 

But Hanley had an enormous capacity for inquiry; could face what 
politicians 

other■/saw as his faults and his integrity recognised as his virtues . 

Whether what he saw could take its place among the "logical answers", he 

knew himself to be " a totally committeo person in whom every element of 

will and emotion and intent had fused into an unshakeable determination 

to stand or fall on what I thought was best for our future,as well as 

for the future of the West Indies." 

This was 4JA his judgment in the cool of the oay, eight months 



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339 

after l & what the JLP's Tavares had prophesied would be "a rude awaken­

ing , " 

He had, he said, given the people what was rightly theirs, the 

power to decide. "Standing on this side of the event, and looking back, 

if I then had the knowledge I have now, I would still have decided to hold 

the R'"'ferendum because it was the right thing to c o, whatever the outcome. 

One act of democracy in practice on a crucial occasion is worth a thousang 

protestations (of democracy)." The F ederation had been rejecteJ. Now he woL 

put into motion the plans for in epenoence. I-.e had "no doubt whatever about 

the future of our country, about our ability to sustain independence, alone.,. 

But first, there would be an ~ election. 

---SPACE --

In the way of the cay, Mr Manley had an ever quivering antennae for whi 
2 generally because of a 

"people abroad 11 thought of Jamaica. It was/-.( desire to appear respectable 
"civilised"; but in fiim, it was 
• • Arooted less in a regard for the conventions tha~ the know-

ledge that the path to U.S. and U.K. bankers was pave~ with under-developed 
Bt! f/CCl!l!b, 

nations who had dared not to behave as ~~~-~~ In putting forth his reaso1 

for the Referendum, he had spoken within a week of his decision, while 

the heat was still in him, of Jamaica's "shame" in the "eyes of the world" 

if the question was not resolved. In~ he distress of the present defeat and 

the future uncertainty, he was thinking that to delay 

the push for immediate independence would create "abroad" an impression 

or/indecision. He valuecJ highly the reputation that his"government enjoys 

a6road" . He <.!id not appear to have given much concern to the possibility 

that the JLP's winning momentum would be carried through to a general elec-

tion, if called too soon after the Federal "debacle ." If the 

seeming is true, he had historic reasons. Decisively beaten as the 

PNP/WIFLP had been in the Federal elections, with Bustamante's candidates 

taking 12 of' the 17 Jamaican seats, the PNP had bounced back vigorously 

the next year, retaining their rule of the Jamaican scene, and an increased 

majority. Yet, the q~astion of the timing requires a look. 

The 1959 elections had come fully sixteen months after the Federal voting 

which, in any case, ha" been a Wpst Indi~ ~ffair, with votes being solici­

tecl for a w/4st Indies Party, in constituer fi}f 8 
• I of quite differeat 

I 

demarcations . The 1962 general election~ came only six months after the 
the , ;:::::his plea. The smell of defeat -

.H ,.,i'erendum and ,.._, rough rejection of/\ _ 

still hung around the Peop~es National Party. He had misread, quite badly, 

the rural indifference, easily turned into hostility, to those whom Tavares 

had aescribed as "unknown people ... a thousand miles away." He hac.. spoken .. 
with uncomforable emotion on the gains and values of a W st Indies nation 



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which was likely to imply a Jamaican nation would be seconu best. It 

lookea like trouble. It was. 

J40 

It was a tribute to the enormous personal ~e prestige of } orman 

Manley why the - vote came close as it did: a 72?,o turnout with just 

1. 7~o casting the difference in favour of the JLP / who won 26 of the 45 

seats. With two years of rule• still on 

the books, Manley was . thrown into Opposition. 

---SPACE ---

He won his personal East Rural 't Andrew seat comfortably and led 

a respectable minority of nineteen into the H0 use, but the premature and 

rather brutal loss of power was traumatic. For weeks he withdrew into 

himself, reading little, co# templating much, virtually incapable of 

raising the vitality which had • astounded his t ap:at contempora­

ries for 50 years. As it was, the wisdom,/4fifet but open faith of Fdna 

in him, the great calm of Nomdmi and ,.- its peaks, commenced to work. 

He oegan, it appears, unsteadily at first, but procee(led gradually to 

exmmine the road that led to 

had riven the Party, := • : !J 
• now j the judgment, right or wrong, that 

1':S 2tctt21 sZZmtZa Jfli!! 2 g, •-
1 11

-
~ ------) its 

l& lb: EM t'x ect in half • 
the sinking of the admittecly 

second term of office, and hastened 
leaky Feceral ship; an act for which a 

year later, he was feeling such responsibility, he would not go to Tri­

nidad for their In< ependence revels.* He suspected that his welcome 

*Trinidad left the Federation ana 
became Indepenaent soon after• Jamaica. 

would not be caljrpso gay; in fact, believed he would be made uncomfort­

able; wondered why they had -. invited him. He was, after all, the fellow 

about whose neck they had hung the broken chain of islands, which, 

ironically, he had fought so long and hard to weld. 
His music 
Yusi I l • 3 JS 7 I 9 I $ .. , was a comfort in the bad 

~tr_ 
months. Music • his only non performer's patronage --- for if he liked 

horse racing, he was himself a superb rider; if he followed athletics, he 

had been a record breaker; and the avid ringsider was himself a fine 

boxer. liartok, Brahms, Beethoven, Prokofief, were Ill among his sought 

after composers. Nomdmi's soaring peaks and the belove pine forests 

and walking trails, the occasional visits of friends, and the intelligence 

of his family holding easy to normalcy and continuing the flow of affairs 

(including a few healthy therapeutic quarrels) worked the healing. []'e 

accepted that he had now "come to the end of a road that (haa led his) Party 

to power for seven great years." And looking back at its achievements, he 

was satisfied that they had served the country well. ''It is," he has 
said, "impossible to reconstruct history and entirely ic'le. 11 But he 



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lfl 

Q;jfdJ'li 
Jf/rA 

J41 

won<Jered what would have happened had he not placed the Party in 

public hock to the plebiscite, by a pair of pronouncements: RI-and­

my-Party-stand-four-square-before-this-challenge-of-our-times, and 

then his Make -no-mistake-(it is)-a-Party-issuer ~ exhortationf to 
would 

his reluctant colleagues. Af'ter a while he ••• quit the inlltrospec-
1962 tions, and look to the work ahead. A month after the •--~ elections 

he was telling himself that the Referendum defeat had been "an 
anti-government swing and not basically a vote on the real issue," 

of Federation . He was no doubt right for the real issue had not 
begun to be unc1erstood by most of the electorate. 11 And now we are 

out of it. Where do we go from here? 11 

He was a tired man; bone and mind weary from the strains of the 

past ,_. campaigns, fought so much alone, and battered by the worse 
of the few defeats he had received in his affairs. Those who saw him 

in those agonised weeks commented on his listlessness, the unaccus-
tomed - apathy, the tormen'Lthat obviously racked him. He was 
physically ill• with bouts of vertigo. Where once he strode the hills 

Ctn his long, bent-kneed mountainman gait, he was down to moving care­

fully, unable to place the balls of his feet on the rough paths without 

great hurt. But one May day, the 12th, the worse was over. At day­

h reak he rose and looked out at the pine forests and, he noted, 

"felt the sap stir 11 in him. 

I IH<G 111 

p,Ece fJN t-11,t.1 



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CHAPTER 

Edna Manley, with the instinct of a she for her family, built a 

house.It was smaller than Drumblair, and, in its style, as lovely. 

Rachel Manley, in the language o:f the young and defiant, nameo it 

Regardless. They were the two women in Norman Manley's life and both 

were acts of protection and love. The house had been begun before 

the elections, at the time that the Drumblair land was subdivided. 

The lot was at Nwnber Four Washington Drive (named for N. h' .). 

When the house was being planned by Edna, the i dea was opposed 

on all sides. "Everyone thought it was madness but I had that funny 

mad intuition that something would come up one day and it would be 

needer]. 11 Kow, it was needed. \{any years ago, when her own loneliness 

and pain had clri ven her back to England and Cornwall, Norman -
brought her back horn ~ 

bought Drumblai / and surronnded her with it and it had 

restored. Now in - the wisdom of experience she knew where to seek 

a renewal. 

"Two days a:fter losing the election, I said to Norman, ' Let 's 

move. ' An he said, 'No, I havent the energy. ' 11 ~ o while he was gone 

downtown to clean out his office, she said to hers~, " gardless 
n 

is finishec. Its ready. And I cant sleep in Drumbla1.r tor tr1e .Last me 

Knowing 1. s ne 1 ast t: u 1e. 11 

{P.e had engaged in preparing a prime minister's residence 
j ··•/ ilri" J 1 . *k 2 I , i? 3 7 I 3 a : 

while in of:fice, choosing the old Colonial Secretar11 s residence, 
a tall house of delicate tracery and tropica~ profi e, handsome in 

The house - beautifully 
fine grounds, called Vale Royal. / H I • C 7 1 g ·; • 9 • J modified 

by the time Bustamante was returned to office,._ was rejected by the 

"Chief" as a residence and instead, turned 

over to the dinisters of Finance who have lived there ~ happily ever 

after.*) 

*Jamaica House, a large vulgarly pretentious place built a by Bu 

ta on a portion of King's House land as the Prime Minister's 
residence,-. had, on the other hand, a curiously unhappy 

ef:fe.ct:fon itsfioccuAiefs.hBusta.livedtthere fnlv a short 
. oe ore e urni g o griyate ucKer venue nome; 2 t 1.me ' /\anu Mic a e.l an ey ou d no wait o move - , .. I' 

to more modest quarters on a quiet suburban road. Jamaica House 
is now used as the Prime Minister's office. 

So Edna summoned a :family council at 9.JO in the morning "and 

everyone said, move." So she summoneu help and a couple of trucks 
J 

"and we worked :fluently, efficiently and almost silently. ,t.t • three 

in the afternoon, I phoned Norman and said, ' Stop in at R0garoless on 

the way home as I want to plant a tree.' 

"When he arrived, the beds were made up and <1inner was on the stove. 

He lookec a little stunne , and he went back out to a Party meeting, and 
when he returned at midnight, the lights were on and the pictures up, 



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and he stood in the doorway with his nice smile, and saiJ~J 'I think I 

rather like this house. Its a friendly house and nothing bad me has ever 

happened here.' And we went to bed and slept like logs." 

The housei w15tilt by old friend (and the country's best known art 

patron) A.D.Scott on the spot chosen by Edna on the higher ground 

on Drumblair lands, modest, neat and managing to offer an elusive -

- sense of space and charm; although Fdna, coming from the great ­

house aspect of Drumblair , mistakenly thought "the world will think it 

a hard and poky little house. 11 Butjthe thought had a meritorious end.J 

asro "soften it and hide its small hard straight lines," she turner< the 

grounds into a magnificent garden anc.l filled the house with her "dear 111 

old lovely old furil.iture. 11 She brought over whole shrubs and young 

trees tieo to the roof of the family Jaguar, including a lignum vitae 

trunk covered in gorgeous orchids .. 'ooks of shrubbery and silvery 

white gras~and a studio at the end of a flagged walk, made Hegardless 

I in no time into an elegant uwelling. "Sometimes in the moonlight 1 

would sit and dream how it would all look some day and (now) the creams 

have come true, and even better, everything smaller, but lovely and 

gracious." 

She would never of course forget Drumblair "41.- • "where it was 

all giant trees and lawns and paddocks, where one's whole life has 

grown and lived and passed. Drumblair with the moon coming up behind 

the giant guango tree. Drumblair with a horse sadcled in the oawn and 

the cows strolling in for milking. Drumblair on a gala night with the 

trees floodlit, and the vast crowds, and the smoke from the barbecues. 

Druml.Jlair in triumph and disaster." 

The memory was lyrical but there was no sense of loss. "In spite 

of eveything, we have found something n·ew in Rpga r dless . We are very 

near to each other, Regardless 

---SPAC.t:;---

II 

And there was of course l\Omdmif to retreat to, to think and write 

ana carve aua work at being whole. It hac always been very special to 

Norman . The house had been designed by • him and Edna, in the high wood 

of cedar and pine and raking eucalypti; an intense beauty of light and 

sea e and the air at four thousand feet, cool in summer, fire & sweater 
of this retrea~-~- reached towa:rns 
ea and v1.gou3:,}'~•••1111IMllii•RlliiliiiliZill?il one of the sever al 

peaks in the frustratingly inconstant health he would henceforth 

know, his interest in politics returned, in a strangely prescient wa y . 

He began thinking of a succession; not from a morbid drift, but in a 

hardheaded lawyer's look at a cerltainty: that at 69 he was nearing the 

inevitable. He saw it as his duty, a part of his mandate. "My job, ina 



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a way, is to protect the evolution of a new leadership . " 

Looking around him at his old comrades, several greying, he shook 

his head and commented that only a handful would "survive the next ten 

years." Actually, the Old Guard as he called them, were all younger 

than he: Wills Isaacs, Or Ivan Lloyd, Vernon Arnett, Glasspole, Fair­

clough and so on. But he was shopping for a new generation. In the 
from the young leftists 

light of the later post-election charge/of an ideological betrayal, he 

was, in the serenity of Xomdmi, deciding to move the Party into a 

"real Democratic left" --- long before the accusation. He was of a mind 

to open the PNP hierarchy to new young people with new ideas, with "new 

concerns about Socialism as equality and how it can be fitted into the 

essentials of the local scene." 

Already in his mind was the probability of Michael for leadership. 

He was unaff'ectectly the proud papa at his son ' s political savvy . Michael, 

now turned 3d, was working among the angry young men of Mona (the 

University of the West Indies) and he thought this an excellent idea. 

It could be that Michael was building a political base not unrelated to 
creating, for the youth, 

his father's own idea of/ • "entry points all over the (oldsters) 

iron curtain 11 • He had f'urther satisfaction in - Michael's 

increasing stature in international trade union circles. When he was 

appointee! chairman of a sugar enquiry in Barbados, his father was elate0. 
of his sons had long prep3rations, a 

Both ; ii? §] I - ; I ■ 3 I lll1 I t I 

tutelage remarkable for ~ early start and .. quality .. 

At 15, Douglas had begun sharing long talks with ~ .W. 1 on socia­

lism , capitalism, onkhe ethic of emotional freedom, and was handed 

Kristin instead ofLon5 J ghn S i lver• since t h e :"be i t 1ifXdlo educate (was 
I 

by) good books, with a plain realism anc raw life . " Michael, at 

13, with his measure of "guts and and more sensitive feelingl 

than ~n pretend to", assured his tutor that there was great pro­

mise.,( "given half a chance, what possibilitiest"- and proven, said 
Norman 
- twenty-five years later as he thought of the succession,for there 

was "potential great leadership there ." 

He was inaignant at the new y oung Left who charged the Party with 

betraying Socialism during the years they held office ; real Socialism, 

they contended, would have wiped out poverty and established an egali-

tarian society with reasonable prosperity. It was criticism wholly in-

considerate of the context in which the Party had governeu, he argued . 

He had known, shareu in and led the struggle out of the dark colonialism 

of his generation, into independence . He held that the eleven years 
and 

between 1938
0

• 1949 had been the catalytic years which revolutionised 

+he country and that the PNP had been the catalyst . It was the devo-
i-z @f £ C • &is@ 



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tionand self sacrifice of comrades)J now aging, some dead, which had 
that there haa been 

created the new lanu. fJre held --••••1111■■••••••••••••• "abso-
lute unanimity" among Party memqers , on the issues, in •■-• each 

d: ~ •lilv> 
election they had fought, ~ challengeable conclusion with so many 

mavericks in his paddock .• For while they were agreed on "socialism", 

some were more Socialist than othErs. In fact he found it necessary to 

be unapologetic at his decision to accept ,. ■ overseas capital for 
his uevelopment plans. "The:ee was no emphasis at all on public owner• 

ship and I will tell you why. It was because we all agreed, 
rightly or wrongly, that (this was) what Jamaica needect. ationali­

sation would divert money, time anc energy which at that time should 

be spent in other fields." So much for the new Young Left. But 

he also knew in his own mino that another stage of <Jevelopment in the 

Party had been reached. And already he was wheeling left. 

~tautly defendine as he was, he had no hostility 

toward them. The Party had admittec ly lost spiritual dynamics. New 
de sire, iaeas, new blood, was his ■•I own --■••·•· but for building, not to ces-

troy. Hisllove for 1Jolitics was a consuming passion that he never, 
' - _,A Ci!_se in QOint: ¼lurse( a change 

even remotely, &ave-to ~aw ~ If Edna had~ ... hope for a. in 
after 1962, 

activityJ she was quickly put to rights by Michael . •••■ She 
w~ s b r i:r:ig ; :i;atfct r;ed PY "fut1t1r ·u~ cr rtair tij s" anc when they returned 

from a short American holiday (they had been in/~hiladelphia theatre the 
an Ormandy conciucted . night President Kennedy was killec', at a .Mende lssohn concertf ; K. W., 

who knew and loved Kennedy was badly shaken) 1ichael remove(' her un­
a brusque but ~anitizing utterance: 

certainties with• /"You realise, dont you, that Dad is totally commit-

ted to politics? Dont you?" 
JnrPlt.. ILL( ------- Ja. 

_ _ was wheeling left himself with his plan to take over the/Public 
" Service Company 's light & power monopoly. What he wanted, anc so 

declared, was an ingathering of young people into the Party to go for 

a "new future." The sap had so risen in him• that now he was ca.ling 
for "a great debate to rage ... so that men's minds might be fired 

againt" lie did not expect to - live to see his dream• come true . .. 
His ctream he said was 11 to start a ud of the future alomg corn- letely 

new lines." He was calling for 

---SPACE ---

"democratic socialism." 

"I hear voices on the left and voices on the right asking the ques-

tion: 'What is Democratic Socialism?' I am surprisec. I would like 

to remind you all, and Jamai a, that we have for long years been affil­
liated to the Socialist International that defined the basic principles 

of Democratic Socialism in clear broad terms. The Frankfurt Declaration 



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of 1901 (has these) principles: To builti a new society 

in freecom and by democratic means. To accept that socialism can only 

be realised in a democracy. (And) that democracy means government of the 

people by the people for the people." 

---SPACE ---

The great debate on Democratic Socialism would indeed rage, but not 

in his time. The real ruckus was more than a clecade away and would be 

engaget about Michael for whom he had with foresight witnessed"poten­
_-evertheless, the labelling of 

t ial lea ership." 

his Party's old and stated ideology with the democratic socialism tag) 
even at this time 

,____ raised a furorea)parallel in unreason if not in stridenc~with the 

~ichael commotion. T~rtly he reminded them that for long years, the 

Party ha/ shared the ideology with the Socialist International, a body 

that was the very definition of Democratic Socialism. Pe pushea reeper 

than many of his colleagues would have like~ wl'en he voiced a certainty 

that r)emocratic "ocialism would one day "deternine tr e future of the 

free world." 

---SPACT' 

The wan days seeme• over. The pale ways that ·had followed the 

JLP victory were changing. The aggressive juices were not yet really 
!iOW 

in flood, but flowing again, and he/t11rned a hard eye on his old foe_, 8,;rJ1?!. 

Once again he was watching the olc1 bruiser's footwor~ c~usta was then 

70), waiting for his opening. Pe reasoned that tLe JLP leader was a 

natural rlictator an( bound to overreach. He was obdurate in his resolve 

to fight tooth and nail against all attempts to impose the Bustamante 
u_pon the country 

will,,{ outsicle _ the Constitutional limits. He reckone<j that because the 

JLP hac no philosovhy, or true persuarlion, as he could see, somewhere, 

as they floundered, they woulcl tanglefoot in their own ac hoc casuistry 

and grab al out. He was certain that the grab woultl be at the P1\P; the 

JLP would bla'lle their shortcomings on the . go~·ernm ent they ha<' suc-

ree,'ec ; to wit, himself. Fo way, he vowecl, would that be endured. 

He was marshalling for battle. Fe was in Onpositio1anc. the ol<' combati\.e 

fires were• settling in his belly. 

An<1 when the sJ.,oc"k that 'lanley' s defeat had gi, en him is remem­

bered, diminishing his health, comin • when • his personal finances 
tthe bounce bac to hard grounc w~ s _phenomenal. 

was on the , ownslide slope { :,.rwnblair· bac 'fo be c-ut ur:) i I ~ 

had always lived above their means, he once said, t;ut that was 'aiiliilliiill 
J II 

only true because he was an unusual lawyer. At his career's height, 

had he b~en earnestly engaged in gleaning the shooks, he would have 

hard put not to make much hay. L zsot 11 • I a• .Qt C 



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•£_, l(/~C,{l:_ ,la- ( ~. ~:,. ~ _1 ~ 7 
;(nev er7 os his innocence ... - .., retainet ' his wisdom.) Brisleiy he wh i p ped 

throu~ the J k 

/J~'s options and discovere d a fork of three roads , each of whicl1, he 

c omputed t woul d see service in his opponents ' subterfuge. He calculated • i 

that the free-thinking I al>our P arty wou01,I endeavour to play right, lei't 

ano center at once, running wit h big business~wh ile l1opping o n and off 

the fence) and keeping one foot in J,eft country. He promised himself to 

frustrate the acrobatics. 

Ho/Was up at Nomrlmi, loosening up for th~ t)attle on the plains . Edna 

may have hac her reservations at the rattling of the spearst the return-

ing alertness with which he enquired after the doings of the Bustamante 
a kind of 

retinue in their early weeks of governin g, They both had,\._. • 

taken; 
• underson g that held them strongly to decision s 

an d she had seen the ravages, the inroads in health and for­

tune the political years - cause c him. Tvith her woman's instinct for 
~ 

tact and tactics, the gently powerful skills that defeat, or, at the 
I\ 

leastt turn the free run of historyt she was urging a e book out of 

him . • ,A~ e e ec t • .u;n,-,s-.~ h-e---11at1---1'eT~r--;--ani-~4
• 1--,- ""'"' 

Q..{t ei).__y J'J:,e.er ~rrn~s .b-een -f'cfnta s 1 call:-y--'sa~~aay.W eare'~ 

ne~ __t._o ~t-he.F . .✓.---Y~ ~" Had he been helr to that 

task, solely, it would have maae less physical 
than 

<emands .... the bru-

tally wearing duties of the politi c s to which he was returning --- and 

h ave been an event with incalculable dimensions for his land's history. 

His commentt doubting that one could "write to ord er", was wincing 

fro a man who ha d made a/§il~~r in the courts by arguin g to or0 er. 

L!,._hat he really meant)IJ containec a caution of the little knives always . 
twinkling in his c onfiner! homeland, ith everyon e cheek-and -jowl in 

~ 

the e n closure, a snuffle in Negril could cause a sneeze in Bowaen. 

Lookine over hi s shoul ~er as he wrote, he said, woul o be I "a perpetual 

posture•" for the writer. ~: f t-) Cs -

Michael has been right. Poli tics it woul c1 be. An d he was taking 

his first tentative steps on the treadmill by talking to visiting 

foreign newspeople, an exerc·se that requirec1 a sacrifice of his moun­

tain privacy, grudgingly rnade, but a part of the preparation. The first 

interview, by a Canadian woman writer, went well; a taped one which 

i n trigued and please< him since the technique of letting him talk as 

long as he likea, with little interruption or "catch" questionst put 

him at his best. 1Ie hatl always been especially brilliant in his jury 

summation or at the Appeal benrh; and he went on with an easet working 

out his eloquent argw~ents over two pours of tape. 

One incident that gave him , eep concern and may have 

assisted at the break-out from the rejection that yet often descended, 

had to do with Edna. An artist of highly developed sensitivity, nervous 



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energy and with her share of tensions in her work, she had pushed 

her own pain aside to give him her devotion over the rough time . 

Iler rigid control had been twice broached and mended . 

evening at Nomdmi, the needle went in . 

But one 

When calm returned, they discussed it for what it was: the 

emotional spin- off of the defeat. They acknowledged that they had 

let in the negative, and , in their folly, forgotten the achievements 

which had irreversibly set the country on the road to nationhood . 

They had been logged down with deadwood and should unloac' and re-locate. 

Drumblair was an instance . T)rumblair haa been pullec1 cown and solo 

for old lumber. That was life. And they had "built {egardless OH 

a toe-hold of land, " as Edna said it. A toe-hola was enough . 

It was not a time f o r remorse but of acclamation at what 

had been accomplished . Anc of restoring faith in the future . A 

future he had so well articulatec in the struggle . 

He hact once confessed to an inclination for raising the 

ghosts of disaster, rather than the realities of the future . He hau 

marle the scene very heavy for awhile, living a~ cul,pa that had 

a touch of the old Jewish Lamentations with his "seven great years " 

of power f or his Party, now t!l!III, "all out in the Wiluerness ." 

Fdna's aomestic storm cleare( the air . It had been "at the 

end of a lovely peaceful day, " he remembered, "of' great harmony 

between persons and the earth anc~ the sky . 11 

Great composers sometimes go through r1issonance seeking 

their harmonies . And dissonances can £ ins~ire the kinetics 

that the impulses of life demand. Conflict, unhappily, creates . 

1',. W .Manley seems to have been jolte< 1 into himsel:f . 



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Jolted at least into most of himself, he said ~tiou~l)'j 
rJ:f:a'.I: 11 in bouy at least, and I hope, in mine . 11 The goo cl anL; bad < ays , tame 

and went but for now, he was thinking positively, looking out at the 
,, orld anc thinking kindly on his f'riends . History, he was now sure, 
would requite him. 

He was working in the study he had built near to the Nom, mi louse, 
a plain square room ot' blocks and dark woou an< a very goo win dow 
through which the mountains came. Ee was catching up with correspon-
dence, planning to rlo a formidable fifteen letters a day for a illonth 
that would wipe out the r.1ore important backlog. Jie also sat f or long 
talks with r, 0 uglas

7 
who was visiting at Xorndmi, < is cussing the possibi­

lit} of a worlrl tour to include Af rica, Israel, Burope and Puerto dico, 
the long admirec' island of' his :friena I•1unoz ?-Iarin. It would be a change 
of pace, and more, without any of the official duties that, 
in office, hau made his foreign visits a mere transfer of work from 
here to there. For some reason, he also wanted both Douglas and l1im­
selflto become "known" o, er there. '{hether he was proposing to see a I 

political f 'uture f'or Douglas also, as he unt'oubtec ly env isagec, for 
Michael, is not clear but intriguing) 4ince he regar< e, the trip) he 
said, as politicalJ.y useful. He was nuaging very definitely at the time 

':ic"""""Mlt.u... L /~;c.f-ifl'V..J 
back into the political , ( ••• ·enjoying the several ••••••- pilgri-

macte up the tortorous roacjby such ol< allies as Vnrnon Arnett 
and lt' airclough. His sister, Vera, also mounted the road aJ H ... to-

they ~ 
getberlenjoyec f artok and ~B.:c.ghms.1*(Vera, who had gained her music de-s.i : -· - - - - - Lonr on' s 

ease grees on a scholarship to - Royal Academy of \Iusic, had taucht music 
ke t:-ii in Bnglish schools for some years ,·,i thout protest fro~ her brother; un-as a cousin 
otnote. like the cJeaa-set-against stand he hac. taken when/rdna's family ha 

wanted her to become an art teacher. 

The idea of writing book had not left hfr1 -- at leasif"~ one oi' then-i 
'). -- J ~ ~ice,< ~&+ 1 

on his career~ • 
" .... • The subject woul , not bring out the twinkling knives. Ile id a 

few sample pages on one, the Sp aldings case, but never quite settled on 
it. Mr Manley was an egotist anc' knew it. The histrionics of the bar 
fascinate <.. him an, he playec it to t l1e hi] t when he was so engaged. A 
book on that side of wLat he called his "professional life" was gaining 
appeal. (He did not regard politics as his "profession.") But an active 
outdoorsman, the green hills of' _-omdmi grew more compelling as he re-

gaineu c;trength. 
£21zt 

Another trouble was the d isco'.ery he r:r a { e 



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that writing required "patience~ rqpTJQ L , a virtue that aostly eluoe 

*In _ 19 5 J6 when I was writing the novel'~ 1~Y 

about the period between the ~orant Bay ~ebelJion an, 
the 1944 i'ull suffrage, we re,eloped an urn erstanding 
that at least once a wee~we talker· about th~ book in 
the c,ingy but quiet barristers' robing roordat the <:;.u­
- -preme Court. He was considerably taken- 1a t ii.,. idea 
of using a poetic dialect to groom an international 
audience for what we both recognised as the remarkably 

beautiful Jamaica-talk. le rea< rough Jss , 
offered suggest ion, pra i sell an< enviec; my "patience 11 , 

anc, ende< up on the dedicatory page of' the first (Enopf) 
er ition. r/5, .i),. 

him. Fe was accustomed to ('ictation and his longhan1' was slow.· 

So years later, the • tape recorder offered a a co:npronise. 

~
eel ~fa~w~ aB1dB~1~Rkb!5~ifi~egfpiih~ 0 8°~W~g ~gt ~thfi~~lk~uar ~~~g~A~ fili~er 
1& h~els bevonr tie'tlevue an<• Dub l.n a.st.le an~ u ass'OX an~ rounci t e spring 

home, act ~ne ptactical purpose or provi 1ng tne musc1e one ror ~hat popu ar 

political pastime of the Forties/Sixties, the J olitical /M~rch. As pro-

test or propaganda, both - .Partys, and the P¾-P particularly, had 

faith in The March. - ·~--

It was inexpensive, ,,... hac a wider dramatic appeal . 
l.t was an urban mediuu i its 

the • 
than a hundrea newspaper s~0 stories ' 

lfh1,.-..q 
mobility ••• it excellent exposure as it woun through ... streets. , 

ti 1 - I • 1 T 1 6 ; e 12 I g ta 1 ~ vhe;Sher 

led by a drum corps banging a storm, or the silent poignancy of the 

candle-lit procession MU~ely 

the P.~ had made The March into ,.. 

----SPACE 

baring its sti~nata of martyrcom, 

a fine art. 

May 23, 
A march j.~d been planned for Labour Day,/the comnemoration of the 

1938 uprising, the perfectly adjustea symbol that had replace, the old 
would be 

R'rnpire Day holiday when Britons Never Never Never Shall Be Slaves 
...._ belted out-- ---. 

/ - •••••••• from every hamlet•••• by the descendants of Britain's 

slaves. '\:orman used to be a fine Marcher) '·ihs lean figure and handsome 
t1J,1•rviltb , 1, F 8r: nt:;i,;: : w1-1c 4tt!::. ,::, 

bea~ ~ ~-- ~ ~•- ~••• genre than his showman cousin, Bustamante· He 
f P., {1...c -rot.- ,n fl , ,.w.J rt-·ll 11,c .\JIJ,!,,lr.,,.,. 7:;,u /~j,., ,vc I HOK11>;~,-.1 

/\?arl a good soldierly swing ann a right royal handwave casual but Just 

kingly enough to be highly »- valued by the kerb crowd. Wills O Isaacs , 

his cocky legs strutting, Glasspole, a bustling, energetic stricer, 
ro
7

undhouse 
9 sometimes Edna, cool and elegant, tt crab 11 Nethersole of the 

gait that gave him the tag, were all familiar figures at the ritual. The 

March also hau another purpose, its most important. Only The March , 

with its powerful psychological anc physical aspect, could venetrate 
~ 

WLst Kings~:ton, the sole JLP city str ngholci. At one time, The :-larch 

had been a Bustamante ploy (although never taken to the fine distinc­

tion the PNP made it), still was, in the cane-belt, but the urban take-

over b} the Manley ~1archers was now absolute. It is therefore uncJer-



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351 
standable that _-.w. consi0ered a march a worthy effort for 

H€ltL rt-I Hr'Jb fl;,/-l,l() Ve,J, //tJl) t-/G 
to descend the mountain . He· 

which 

came down to Regardless and was happy with it too . The oraerly flower­
ev,-._d,, 

beds and the stands of shrubbery were beautiful ... "pouring 

wonderfully good El.BS news " to him about Edna ' s work . 
commencing a 

(She was 
/l 

commission at the Sheraton hotel in New Kingston, a rather large work 
; 

to be done on a high scaff'oldJ­ '
1precarious, 11 she described the 

but the piece was "a deari: 
logistics, •••••••l(_=ind a wonder 'ul cliscipline ~') He was rested and 

fairly recovered, and, at peace . So was l<'dna . He thought t t:J·out of the 

shambles, so swift and devastating, she had salvaged what he believe, to 

be a clear future for herself. Nothing seemed ever to come close in impor­

tance to Fdna I s happinessa.)and_,- now that she was at work, ancJ doing it 

well, greatly aided his ease . Both were now finc1 ing a freedom f'rom 

the gritty poli~ical 

had cut into mind and body. 

road, which, 
There were 7I -still q 

for all its " seven great years," 

family concerns worrying the 

base of his mind, especially the growing awareness that lichael ' s marriage 

(to Thelma Verity) was heading for a break-up. He had a special concern 
qfW111,i-d.t1,.,q I, t~.-- ~d.- c e,,11 ~ t4 

as to what the broken marriage could co to his L U 7 l C ' ) 
1 

p 
µow f-"{;"t.., ,, 

'<achel. Anywayft he ••••■■- better able to cope. Fairly fit, in fact . 

~ ' And a good thing it proved;; too_, _ that he • had argued his ambulant 

thews into working out •••• on the mountain, for, as it turnec out, the 
,~ti:'de ~ 

plan the PNP had
1
{or their ailing ..,eac er to lead the march/\ in an automo-

bil::, had to be aLandoned, under urgency . 

---9PACF' - - -

The PNP columns had trompe(' triumphantly through the c owntown streets 

behinl the Lea~er ' s car . ~orman and Edna sat side by side on the rear 

seat, acknowledging the cheering from the sidewalks . This was his town 

ano although he had lost the elections, this first revisit was # warmly 

,re1a u d ed by his supporters . The cheers were, in fact, deafening. In 

the v~--ii of the P~"P stalwarts was Michael, a tall 
1..---

resolute young man whom his Dad was praising more frequently these days for 

his Union work. 

It had been a good display, with music and songs and great camaraderie 
. p'~N lUTlf._WC.:rlJ ·1"1'16 IIM~t.·11 G1~VG' I~ ,<IIC:£ IUv~10<V 01:: 

among the comrades ; ~ ,1us't out of defeat, lfii a i: J ha I "J; J bl I • J 

v,c..~olly ~ 0 1-16 Ftt,T THii l~r1.b II 'tHt#G.S We,U jl/f;fi/ P,1s-.: Wt1~ 
• • • The trouble that the JLP thought - · ,, 
they had more cause for celel:mtion . '[i.hey were the winners, and 

~~de tN Nvm.t:JifX~ 
if, as it happeneu, their c~ty force~. •••••••• less • the 

1>,G"'-6 -n11?,u {5VEfilc:IJ. r' " A 
countryside • • / And so, earlier, they had succumbed to th 
11· -r rA11t:.f111e~ i..;.;;; c, Tl/ 
q idea of bringing in some rural power for their Labour Day~m~rch. 



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L0 rry loads of Brural JLP supporters had 
naturally 

rolled into town during 
western 

the day. nd the clash § • 3 occurred in the 
where seell\S to have beer. k 

reaches, in 

• Jones Townli!l • •■■■■••••••••••-- bivouaced the largest 

Lauourforces in reserve for their own parade. In the 

thorougd1faresp 
narrow, teeming S • • 
treeless yards, and alleys familiar 

of small, packed houses and 

only to the N lightly running fel-

lows) showing ... an arm for a quick brick heave, and a heel as they 

whisked into new firing posts, the fine legwork of the PN-:> marchers 

faltered. They reeled un<1er the impact of the newly inspireu JLP irre­

gulars. And it was then t~a the o .1 soldi~r., lean and honed by the 
1n in wi a call to arms. rhe P. ·p 

NOmdmi woods, leaped from tiis a oA _ •••llllillila • 

rallied•••• and moveo into the attack_,until police reinforcements 

seperatec the factions and the march continued. 

~ ~to 
"After much fighting, I led the march myself," he • 

modestly ."-t.ip()-.~ • 
And l:dna? 

"I was proud to see Er1na follow me into ( anger like a tigress." 

\nd Michael? 

"With Michael , shall I say, like a lion beside her." 

And what of the comrades? 

"The comrades, exceJ>t for a few, showed great cowardice." 

Ah, well, as he had occasione before, the fellow.s were growing 

too old for street-fighting. 

Blowing on his knuckles, the 69-year-old brawler commented that: 

"This is going to be a long, hard fight." 

--SPACE ---

"War,"he once said, "is a practical mateer. 11 :-,o practical that 

one early Springtime in France, when the war seemed to have retreated 
·po PPt f£S 

from his sector, and the/,:•••11111 were out and the wind was soft, he 

turned into a Crown-&-~nchor man. 

some camouflage paint, and 

HP liberated a length of can~as, 

brushed on the hieroglyphics of 

the trade, dug up JOO francs of his unuse0 pay, and set himself up 

as a ... C&A banker. (But h f as never much of a money-man. He made 

only eleven francs.) 



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0' J5J 
cnAPTER h'6 -/w o 

$pttling in for the fieht meant some changed ways•· Nn longer 

was he obliged to go the punie:hing route~ e had chosen as Premier, the 

long fatiguing hours of desk work, conferences , political journeys into 

distant parishes , speeches, speeches --- a nd he was shreoce j bk s p eec ~ es. 
thinly i 

F=ch speech was a physical tearing , a wind plucking at/- stretche0 

nerves . " I have never really got over my nervousness about 

speaking·•••••••••■■■■I but I have lifted it on to the plane of 

tensions and just cant speak if I do not feel tense. " - :, 
after 

a lif'etime in which public speaking was his bread and bravura, in 

law and - as leader. At Oxford, though he was Qal president of the 

Jesus College Literary Society, he never~). "If" I planned to 

take part in a debate in our College Coomon room, by midcay I (would 

have) a temperature and when night came, I simply could not force my­

self to get up ." 

He was also at full pace at the constant fence-mending to turn 
';)Ou,./ N'G, -

next 11•••-day from losing-day. His job as Leader of the Opposition 

(a position entrenched in the Jamaican Constitution) 

meant a ■•••■• lowered remuneration and a higher expenses~ #<!J secre­

tariat went with the job/ ' , little facilities for research and evalua-

tion•••-=====~---~•1111!!1•••• which could make "all the work of 

recent years ... easily forgotten . " But in one of his occasional chau-
also notec 

vinistic whimsies , he •••••-•• that Jamaicans were pt I 1 J ,, 
especiallv marked for 

a people • 11 the number and quality of those who ,,o not forget 

and still find a strange inspirat•on in the pastt , "~ He had no re-

grets - at having been in public life " seven great years"---

and "public life, like most good things, must be its own reward . " 

. -ow the days of the broom ... were over . 
G iI..A.v:L;-,M '/.) 

"The new brooms:' he said• • ouuiiii"E 111111 

or one thing he was certain . 

"wi l l make more dust than 

pudding. 11 
-~ /'-

And Agrinned at himself. " I am cheerful this morning ." 

- --SPACE ---

A vengeful Busta was not altogether unexpected to the out-of­
Party and 

power/leader ; the Hanover Cousin was half again as arrogant , towering 
Manley warily 

above opposure . / • was watching/the first hundred days of the new 
S~ ~"'° ~ W'1,:~1_ • - not le as t _ 

administration; ~ fearfully,. b ft ~n ]Shsff fr~~~e civil ser-

vants who may have gained a reputation, •••• .. •••■■•••- for 

PNP sympathies. The competents in the Service appreciated the profession­
saw and matched the quality of their wq,;'k. Anc i in 

alism with which Manley 
f i ghte burnt lat e in man~ minj strie~ 

consequence, l~lliii.iiiiiiii,il:liiiiiiiiiliiiilii■llliiiiliiiii •• lliiiiiiij. 
e-rec-r,/116 

- the old 
aciqu ous 

gibes of' " soap & towel brigade ".> tossed by citis ens 

/!,ff T~ FJ2(£ AJ;lT THE CLEHa:CAL BU~Crats orought to the four o'clock exoc.lu~ 

But now the regime had been changed by a roll of the electoral 



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354 

wheels and a general genuflection to the newest juggernaut had begun. 

Tales 01 the kneebending in packs were brought to the ousted leader by 

friends who bucked the trail up the mountain . His old friend, Haary 

Dayes who had headed the Industrial Dvelopment Corporation (I 1C) was 

fireu while a on a visit in London . Edward i;;eaga, marle Social 

Service Minister by the new JP government, had "quite deliberately 

pulled down the old structure" of his beloved ,elfare "and re-structured 

it from top to bottom." For better? "I think he aimed to prove that he 

knew more about it than I did, and I am sure he aimed to eliminate my 

name and work. I doubt if he succeeded. I doubt if he did more than cause 

most of our best people to clear out (since) they did not believe in what 

he was trying to do." 

The rack creaked another cog. The hoped-for money sources to 

fund the weekly Public Opinion into a daily, had driecl up. (Unaccountably, 
.,...--.., 

the l'arf ty had failec' to do this during their years in ••■• office■ 
\!......,-

and influence.) ' 1e are in for a hard rough time, 11 he thought. 

The famous gorge was rising but the lawyer in him called for caution. 

He deciced, he said, 11 to play it cool and let the evidence mount. 11 Somewhere 

there would be a malfeasance. He waited impatiently for the first big 

- JLP test, Budget Day . He continued to seek his strength with visits 

to .<ock Pool (near ~t Ann's Bay) for swimming and sailing. The hypertension 

loosened under the benignancy of mountain and sea; his blood pressure was 

almost at normal. l'e read, walked, rowed boats, wrote replies to the 

unending letters. Yet he was not quite clear of tne uncertainty the ill-

ness had inflicted on his discernment . He was reacting too easily to 

influences, a feature alien to his character. At Rock Pool, he was cis­

pirited after reading Citizen Hearst, . "a man without rudder, just an ap­

petite for power and a bag of complexes;" but buoyed up by The uevil's Ar1-

vocate, "brilliant, it moved me to tears." 

- 'i.Ock Pool dir1 some good; for a week; an, then he had enough 

of it. }lock Pool could not compete with ~omdmi. He like1 cool weather. 

A small but curious fact is that he was always at his brilliant best 

working in the Appeal Court Room, for many years the only air conditioned 

court room in the Supreme Courts uuilding. Now 'She was returning to law, 

part-time, and incidentally in air-conditioned quarters: his private office 

as a legal consultant. Hi eed was not to exercise his skills, but to 

escalate his earruimgs. He may have been mildly horrified to disco·ver he had 

not lived within his means since aborting.,his law practice for politics . . ,.._ 
µ ~ u)iJ,,t,l- 4'.~ -~" I ~ ,t;t , t4 '4Je.t:J!-f/.y ~'}'tcr·.• /Jµt, It~ 

Public life had deplete his income. ~ rumblair had\..,:_ 1 1 .2L .gone under 

the hammer, subdivided in 1961. There were debts to be discharged and 

contingencies to be arranged. He reckoned there would be little left when 

the Drumblair sale was settled. He had, literally, in the real sense ~ ·ve 



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355 

everything in the service of his country, one of the few 
w:1..1--r,µG 

to renew that battEred cliche. Once he had a racy hope of ••••• leaders 

writer for a daily Public Opinion (earning 11 ~1 ,200 a year"); at that time, 

he promised himself, he would "turn to writing, once and for all • . 11 But 

Public Opinion was not becoming a daily then (it would, for awhile, later). 

Good chances, he thought, resideo in the consultative practice and he 

determined on it. 

Uutfu here was 
J 

more to the malaise than money --- and malaise it was; 
,r;C 

he recognised/ with the unsparing criticism he often turned 
I\. 

on himself.~ome of the fire had gone out # He 

was worried by his doubt , 
of Busta's capacity f:oR ·ving 

" Hus a s fa 
~ ership the emerging new nation wo ~~--"-~--"'- - .~. :..__-

1es could 
e it. 

I am out. Ko voice speaks to the people." A piece of upstage, boda­
~-o ... •~{ 

cious consanguinity that his A.colleagues fortunately knew nothing abou~ 

0r they would have shaken the family tree. 

A man of Norman Manley 's lifelong athletic bent, of field anc wood-axe 

and endurance, would be conscious of the drag which now assailed the 
would be aware that the olc energ y 

strength he once ce~brated. He a 7 g ■ had 
>~ dfl,... 

fle d; and worse, 11the faith. "I am relaxe1.. ancl detached, " he reasoned 
-roo

1
,l1p e-& sci WHcN, l (i 

sombrely , c 1 1 ~ ■ • £ £ his words, 
needed him 

.-., the people~••■l "as an image, f,;A- Now.·,, 

It would ha'\-e been a profoundly disturbing discovery had it been 

made in a vacuum, but it was to do with the failure of the FPderation; it 
/'T w,1.$ OF -r,1£ II cq /JIICI "Y 

was a product of his experience. And soA not a loss~· •••••• to 
I t w~ ·w do wd1, "' 

believe , I p C belief in, and adherence• to., a politic al decision. He 

was finding it e impossible to lose his belief in a West Indies 

union. {j_:r into 1962, months after acceding to the ConstitJional call 

to lead the Opposition, he was, he found, "not fully in tune" with Jamaica 

going ~ alone. But he was a professional, an advocate who worked his 

instructions, pleasant or not, with detached skill. He had put aside 

the emotional urge to quit after the ~Y,feren wn, or after the general 

elections, because, he had concluded, he was no longer capable of giving 

the Party the best leadership. 

11 Ko use arguing why," he - told himself. 11This is basic, and, I 

fear, unchangeable." 

Why did he not, then, leave the scene? 

>lanley, whose sense of the historical and traditional forces was 

primary to his politics, knew the power of the symbol in the secular 

religiosity that the suffrage had sent upon a devotional people. The 

prophet-image of Bustamante, with his evangelical •••1 stumping through 

the land, had roused the people in 193d, and on, as nothing hau done since 



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356 
the Great (18 __ ) Revival. He had countered with his own cabal3. 

the spectacularly successful use of the old missionary hymn, Ninety­

and-Nine, into a crowd bracer of irresistible power . No ¥arty in Ja­

maica would make it without an 11 imageJl '1 ; and the image would be he. 

And he would give the Part~to which he had sacrificed himself, the 

cohesion and the continuity until a new leader showed. He would finish 

the course. 



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CHAPT"';R 
bl , if 

can a man be inconsolable? • food and light, books 
If the pain will not go. 

and family and work, are forbidden, prevented, destroyed./ ~anley's 

consolation after 

qualities/~~rktllla 
tall 

the 1962 rejection .. lay somewhere in the arcane 
. good • 

in •••• love, or in aii1111ili•••■ friendships; • in 

the ---- light and groves and yardworks of ~om,,mi; in the 

books and music at RQgardless; in the peculiar grace that appreciatedJ 
an idea as it was aceepted agonizingly into art f 

with great care, Ii 21 1 I ' I 11@ · • · p . ■ 
; hroug~ the a g enc y of 
~ -• - - the e«traordinary woman whom he 

had loved and weu. 

And so, his will built. 

Not with the old power of the mystic he was~ had been, but with a 
hara scrabble 

new pragmatism that made his efforts in the ••••• fiel~s of 

Opposition,1 fruitful . 
• The practicalit i es of being in Parliament to tilt at the govern-

ing party's windmill, winkled out much of the coubts which had bewil­

dered him· • though the periods of depression recurred. The flame 
J__L t re 

was there, in spurts, and when - came, was -- much of the ol< 

force and strength. The practicalities fanned his resolution 

and he rode the ups and downs of his minority political role and new 

1 1 t I}.ot wi xh I ji ff ld . t - but.. d ega en erprise; . ,. t e o certain y._... never a anger 
lo s i_ng his seat. 

of i ■ -~ JP; The breakdown during his student postwar days 

in London had been accompanied by a similar unsureness. Youth and re­

silience had surmounted the obstacles and restored him to a phenomenally 

productive life. ~ow he was no longer young or resilient. The after­

noon was darkening. 

')id he recognised that the afternoon had been shortened by the irn-

patience of the electorate? He has never said it and it 

is difficult to know whether at that time he notice,', insulated by his 
to reproach, 

own inclination for withdrawal and the reluctance/of those around him. 

He had accepted the decision of the electors; the weenching <Jislocation 

caused, it was widely held, by the Federal events which harl confused 

their vision of the political future. The rising micldleclass, - at 
;.east, literate, at best, intellectual and seeking, the 

J,..~urners of' floods at the polls, saw .. two lights at the end of the 

~lonial tunnel and angrily aimed at the centre. They handed the Party -~ • 

they had generally supported, the most humiliating defeat of the last 

three elections. 

19°'5 
1959 
1962 

co votes cast 
pl-p 

50.5 
54.80 
48.1 

JLP 
39 .OJ 
44.JO 
49.tso 



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CHAPTER 

~ word a bout Nomdmi. It sits on one o:f the great ridges anchored -on the Blue Mountain - massif. The ridges are like the prows o:f 

stupen<ous ships ploughing :four thousand :feet above the Liguanea. 

Nomdmi is on the edge o:f a eucalyptus :forest cantec 1 on the slope o:fa 

i.1ount Rosanna. To the northeast are the twin peaks of the rrf£e, l.Joth 

above seven thousand f'eet. The property is a modest :fourteen acres 

ana out for the central bench, it tilts quickly; an ill agrarian wind 

that blows much scenic - good. The :fall o:f the land is only infre-

quently sheer and so the pine :forests plantec by the Forestry Depart­

ment and the settlers have grown thickly anr healthily straight. 

The I'lanleys -- bought the property __ years ago, a grassy wincl­

swe_pt plateau with nagni:ficient views o:f the abounding peaks in the 

massif ' s final towers. The holding ame to be "Korn mi " because of 

a misguided paintbrush, misdirected by the eminent attorney who had 

once been considere< :for the c..upreme Court bench. Absorbedly in love 

and with a passion for/!tfvacy of their young family, the ~anleys meant 

to keep their mountain idyll away from the blundering boots o:f mountain 

tourists and trippers wandering through their paradise. c;o, ever the 

man-~ of-all-tools-about-the-house, he electec to paint the gate-sign: 

No admittance. t.ral:f way through, young Michael, well known for looking 

over his rather' s houlder, pointe< out that the artist hac achie-, e, 

a breakthrough in telesco~ic word inventions, with "admission" 

somehow crashing into "1';o" to prot,uce 11 :N"omrn.ii ." E na, a :fine 

exponent of expository art, :firnly put her foot 1own on any idea of 

making rriatchwooo of' the - i,;ign and scattering it c.own the slope._ 

So, 11 .·0111l•mi" the place remained. 

The climate and high open wooos may have reminded .rorman and Edna 

of the New Forest, the -nglish camping woods, where they spent their 

honeymoon in a tent. ~-THE -H-0<.JSt J ~ -----
The .. main hou6e at N"0 mdmi is an unpretentious <.!esien in what could 

become a Jamaican mountain vernacular ; :four grounf'floor ••••• rooms 

in bean-pod connective ( 2 bedrooms, • living and c ining rooms);, and an 

attic sleeping room f'or the children . Kitchen and bathroom are on the 

groundf'loor. The house is of wood, the interior walls decorated in white 

and natural. The tining room is hal:f-casec in the ol 

country style. Dooks, paintings, gramaphone recor~s, sculpture, tominate 

the rooms. Tile furniture is simple and include a window seat rnaoe by 
ff'>Ar'-r' 

Edna, two ~ glow ,_ Jamaican mahogany beds, a pair of wooden plant a-

t ion (slab) chairs 

plumber, electrician and general maintenance man at Xomdrni. 

was 
rnac.e by Norman. He - carpenter, -.. 



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359 

AC'ross the yard, on slightly higher ground, he built a square 

block-&-steel building , some twenty g feet from the house , for his 

study and in here he was the cold clear-tif° •. nking •••••• lawyer 

shaping his Lrief into the sharp or blunt instrument with which to cham­

pion his client . One wall ,••••••a at the door, is of glass , letting 

in light and a swatch of mountain . His desk, a plain wooden on7 and 

an old fashioned easy chair, stands dead centre . Arounc the wall are hi 

books, classics and non-fiction but lots of modern ones too . In one 

corner is a portable electric heater: the temperature at ·orndmi drops· 

to the mid-forties in winter. Ee worlec at the desk/~gr¥fl2 light 

:fell on his left shoulder. Most of his speeches were written 

(when they were written) in this room, and much of his research . 

- He was never an ogre at work . His :family had constant access 

• 3 1 r~ # ,$ M /4, Ill, ½ 41 
On the other side or the house near the footpath stands "The Mini " , 

nou§ht 
Edna I s studio , a ■■■■I shingle-wall shed of humble :face saying ., •• 

..,dna's works 
~ within • . ,-==-:::;: a:fter l~b2, • a loo ing • inside 

"At last , " she said 

of herself, "I am free of the burden 

± b L & 55 Si II{; I · 11 • · 
quiet, and experiment . (Perhaps) :find a new - :free road and a new 

:free philosophy. 1am not going to sell anything , or show anything . I 

going to f'ind the way through, alone. To a synthesis o:f :flesh and 

am 

s;:pirit and :form and the isturbance o:f the moment of truth ." The o wl was 

always her great symbol , and always, she believes, comes to her in 
carving 

moments of crisis . :--ihe was 1 • 1!!11 an owl . "Two nights ago , 

She thought it a an owl 
_. flew into the logwood tree and called to me . 11 

symbol of her new freec•om. But 

owl was hers, 
was 

then surely the logwood 
root 
..... he 

f' • in his )iOUth for 
h d l't 1 41 I I a axe-sp 1 I ~ f 

if the 

Norman's , the knotty old 
hard currency, that shiny 
7 1 l I I I I 

liberator of .. -••••••• mankind. •- s~r-,c_e:.-
but Nomdmi Doth, of course, had work rooms at R,(_gardless 

was mor·e than a resort . The 11111 country about has a creative whack 
hustles o:f:f 

that -■•••• your holiday indolence and senrlS . you to oesk and easel; 

in the case of Manley, plumber anc' carpenter, harr ,onica player 
·,? Tomdmi ea g er to take his talents . 

and moc el :farmer, he found :I 3 3 1 • I J • 

He could also practise his 

healing . •■•• 6'.uove all, 

so, they haci The Bench . 

The path to The Bench 

rows 
politics on :family affairs; the were 

.d: ~ ,i,,~~ 
for reflection . And 

C,nt= ,i~NlH J~ 
takes o:ff from the back ~f the house, through 

a pine forest, past the mosest but handsomely lai0out Nyurnbani, the 



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We could walk into his offic~ at any time," Yichael ~anle~ OBeez has 

cal led. "We could play his records, read his books; indeed, he 

1 insist that we read his books. e (was) one of the great 

am ly men of this country. If any one of' us e,·er became ill, ..... 

e would go out himself to ••• a pharmacy or a sll:~e,;rmarket --- (~, 
. ao lf ~ u-111tl rtf;f ilt.d...\1,,'fwt.'\il.. •• 

ven when he was Premier· • " He added slowly, softly A 'L.e was un- A .. 

elievably kind as a father, kind as a manf to everybody. He was 

ne of the kindest men I ever knew. 11 

sponsibility that started in 1938. 11 She - seemed to have 

been saying that even if Michael was right, ant 

3at ~orman was staying in politics, the old wear and tear was 

ver. The tattered nobles would man the wall ~but only,9 to hold 

or the new young squires,chosen to step to the ramparts. - Phoned by 

tr I it It ] I j Professor Arthur Lewis 
~.. t\.".l in4i,K -~ ~\.1 M • u ~i/Jl J 

he night of the Referendum, had sai, 'A,he had no reason now to 

ernain in politics; public works had wrought a sadnes~ ir a life 

e f'ull of light, of accomplishments, of gaiety. A night-hag had 

e t into the house and now it was time to ••••- lay it. "Anl now 

wi ll go into a great 



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. ., (._st-c:....,,-tli'ivq''I J60 
house of ... next · door :n _ei~hbour, Michael 11.1anleyJ ~ •••••• close 

to his father in his politics,az~ :fidhael's ttDemocratic Socialism" which 

brought great yowls from his opposers, had been taken by N.W. 

as his own political road ~any years before. s did N. W., Michael 

gave up drinking and smoking and saw to hi~ physical exercises .. s 
t1J:" 

at Nomdmi, he also built next c1oor " T<egardles s.) The road goes 

easily level on the side of the slope, floored for an inch in pine needles 
.---, 

andaaends on a small knoll :fact ing the twin Blue r,,ountain peaks. The 
\.1/ 

Bench is a simple woocien slab seat, backed up and fastened to two small 
~ 

pines, but ,p ■ I it is 
---------,-the <.cfii.rk-c oat e]) pines . 

a forest cathedral, hushed and soft-lit through 
~ p ine-incense 

The A• trees shake a § 
Wf//U.I 

5 down 

through the moss-hung ••• branches glow - in the light like 
tvi,.A a 11 b,-CJi:-il..t· ti.ow"' ;, ~~ N113~l.11-JC:1 

- •at to earth by a thin line of ••••••• ants ... 

lamps•; ­

at 
1 .. by a combination of baffles and chemical 

a negligent foot. Norman) • • • • 

warfare,·- effected 

tude. 

their retreat whenever he desired his soli-

The Bench holds a mystique among the Manleys as a place 

of peculiar powers for cracking problems. It is no doubt to 

do with its total isolation, on the edge of the world, facing the tall 
""'"='-pines and eucalypt- 1 and the summits shouldering out of the mists 

, ) on 
and/its silence. (I have seen garrulous groups • the hoofJ drop to whis-

pers when - The Bench appears . ). The pines, sixty feet tall and higher, 

offeredf his favoured walksJ and the citrus groves, his approved works . 

( In January, 1977, when a forest fire roared through the pines anc' got 

within six feet of the study, the roof of the main house was slightly 

scorched but the orange grove was untouched; the flames skirted it. 
W1'1"tf j/.JtrC.HeRy IN t/lS eye, ' -£lg£ 

A mountain man • asked: "Who kept ■■I the - r away?" 
7\ 

Norman, with a problem on his mind, would set off on hjs slightly 

splayed-foot, toed-out horseman's walk, hands clasped behind him or 

swinging with an almost boyish freedom as he strode the JOO paces through 

the pines to The Bench • . Invariaoly, asserts Edna, he returned with the 

perfect solution . Her belief' in the magic of the sedilia takes proof' in 

her magnificient ( and now legenciary) Horse Of' The Morning, unquestionably 

the best known Jamaican sculpture. tt I saw that glorious horse one morning 

as I sat on The Bench, springing out of the mountains and mists. 

there, alive, " she says quietly. 

It was al 

Standing on the hummock of land, at the right time, the sun 

burning through the woolpack and the irridescent rays being crazy • 

between the trees, it is beauty of a catch-in-the-throat quality, and, 

irre:f'ragably, magic. 

Manley also accepted the mystique Nomdmi held . 

I 



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~ - Qn 1942., with the problems of the fledgling Party wearying his mind, 

he took o:f:f :for Nomdmi :for two cold weeks in Jan1fuary 11 and there came, 
the 

after much str~e, sudden, at the end, the :full :flood , - gates wide open ." 
He roamed the ~ pinnacles far and wide 

J f and was once, with Edna and a 

grandchild, the subject of a search party. Xothing had happened except 
of a moonlit 

that for hours, from afternoon until nine o'clock .., night, he had volunteered 

his two companions over "trails" that were mostly straight up. 

His health remained unstable all through the post-election 

years. Like a flame in the wine, it :flickererl, now bright, then 

lessening with the coals showing darkly at the edges. 
"I 

• feel like a king,"•••~~••• he could say one day, close 

to chest-thwnping, "in body, mind and spirit, t,enign and sparkling." 

It was the day he worked on the water-pump at Nornclmi with the plu,nbers•· 

A golden day on the mountain and a yellow lick of a sun and he joked away 

the morning with the workmen. He was always in a :fine time with the country­

folk, laughing the soft yelp of laughter as he popped sport. He workec on 

the pump and they soon had it - going again, shooting up the water for 
and he had a . s~nse of accomplishrn~nt and 

the gravity :feed into the house ~ 

a feeling that the worse was over anc now it would be all mend again. An 
shifted J 

.. next day, the malaise stirred ,and ••• about again,ana he complained 
and with determination he tr1eu 

of :feeling 11 lousy 11 , 1' . hard physical labour t.o orea.K. 

out,an<. suc ceeded a l it tle ,for • afterwards he went indoors and bent to 
11 Spaldings 11 again, the beginnings of, he hoped, a book on his 

court cases. But the new awful weakness went with him indoors, the doubts 
were concerning 

that ._A assailing limb and mind, the m:i.sgi vings A:••• his gifts; anct this 

man who had brought scores of thousands to their feet to cheer as he spoke, 
s~orts, politics, law and 

whose writings ••••••••••• on music, art,7philosophy had gained 
talents, 

national notice, f'ound his ownAellll• 11:ugatory,and wished he 'could make 

the thin words sing and crackle and have tension 
the fact that he had j ust 
£ J J L g ■ Amade contact 
•aiiiiiiiiii-:-:~th~-■~¾~~~;----;~~;~bd-. Pe had bee ~ with ... 

1

11
~s=t==l=e" escaped him.A 

and 

<:E-Ild~onAtined his anxieties b sheer will 
at his em 1 o Iaw) &rt,r•ro Pf r: came the mos~ eloquent of/"\men. And ~ow, the.will seemed to have 

The tromp o:f circumstances had taken toll. ~eceded. 
really felt hurnb e 

not to have been so. 

---SPACE 

by the craft. 

He re-entered the Party workshop with his accustomed good manners, at­

tending first a Constituency meeting at his political office, d2 Slipe 1oad 

where he cleared the :floor of some incompetent hands (and one or two venally 



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:Cd<lie 
ompetent) and generally house-cleaned. The burly, hardworking 

Evans was elected Constituency chairman and other rew officers 

installed, including Karl Bryan as Secretary . ~ X . W. was a conscientious 

Constituency man and kept close watch on his area all during the seven 

busy years as head of the government . The hill sect ion of the st AnrJrew 

constituency with its close to inaccessible folds and pockets of people 

was good terrain for political ambush . tt~oc" Fagant who had whipped him 

in 1944, once pointed this out to him after they became friends . Tte 
Heanwhile, ~ g ~C!_1 .. ~ ----.. ~-~--...... -

lesson never lost its point . Meanwhile, a gmit f ood deal of the d 
old footwork was back when he returned to t he House. Ee was satisfied he 
·was puttingM in some. 11 go?d fi ghting " performances. He had developed what 
he called a_ new techniqu~ n dehate, first goading and then silencing 
the other side . He was for awhile, in good spirits . 

Ann so he moved a step u 7 711 ~ iil!LEL further in his plan for a 

second legal caree~ as/~onsultan) by securing a couple of rooms in the 

lower Duke Street offices of■•••••••••-••••••· / 1yers, 

Fletcher and Gordon$:, attorneys / and detennineci to start in July. At 

the same time, he found himself with a new crisis on hand: to persuade 

the P~P members, smarting under their defeat by what they saw as election 

malpractises, not to boycott the Indepencle f celebrations . A fortunate 
tHe flag and anthem, 

unanimity in choosing the national symbols , •CJ 11 • IUi&tc R 
, ..,. . _ _ . :,) . m many outside the House, the 

desig1 of the flag was not particularly aestheticJ /ihe colours of green, 

golc, i9 and in particular, black, elicited enthusiasm. The Anthem 

was ru1other matter: of sonorous cliches and low poetic fires. Manley 
driving rhythm 

fought for the rousing Land Of My Birth , a f EL: • _ ..., t g f • • 3 SS L 
strain 11 

and strong, upbeat ~ that would have given everyone a full-throated 

run , and words of heightenet' patriotism. Land might have made it, had 

it not been a PNP battle-song for a couple of decades. The JLP sent its 
regz:~ts . 

~he flag, 1' . W. declares, was Glasspole' s idea; the Seal was Edna ' s 

design . He accepts re_sponsibility for the Motto: Out Of Many, One PeopleJ 

a perfect run-through of a scenario which commenced with his birthdate, 
trader with the 

July Fourth, being namect for George Washington by that smart/Yankees, 

A!! 13£ ¥ Old Sam .Ianley 1 and now his own choice of a National Motto 
almost word for word wi~h 
e~~-~~~&l.J.Jld:-'lie· the United c:::tates' 12 Jll.lribus Unum. 

;;"fl <-TtCW~ 
There were internal Party 1 • b • _ fflls Sf - Jiillllian!,k £ I l also 

"'f'f/R, Ila ti 
and these he had to settle, starting with the sr,all cauldron ..,._ Mrs 
Iris King at the centre. Iris was not seeing eye-to-eye with Alan 



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Isaacs, Glasspole and t.rills Isaacs anr1 while he reconciled hr with the 
stayed 

first two, h:er .fission with ••• the latter • FZ t unhealed. Iris, 

a charming firebrand, was getting his support for a ,ice presidency 

at the upcorling arty elec ~ ons ( {Jthers: Glasspole, 

Alan Isaacs and Ur Lloyd.111) although he ~ ,.ish• to know "what 

Arnett may have in mind ." Vernon Arnett, the PT secretary and strategist 

over many years, was a sensible, quietly firm bureaucrat whope opinion 

1 • W. always respect eel. i" J T I i? a That aside, he turne, to face the other 

A. ciaa th of the stalwart Johna than Grant 
aDound this time, the former St Catherine M.P ., was 
a sad interlude. Grant hac been a harcworking urbane 
colleague. 

fractious issues now rearing close# , 

---SPACE 

The Labour ~arty won the 1962 elections by 26 seats to 19, but 

were, in the numuer of votes cast, a minority power, as the total of p,;p 

- (279,771) and Independent (12,616) ,otes was ahea, of the JLP's 2b6,lJO. 

A way of saying that, in fact, more voters went a ainst & 1 than wi!J,, 
reinforce the pattle 

l 
.... t _the JLP, Not many, but enough to /' k l t *i g ?bl b dfi • I 

gin in gra ing 
/ eyes of' the comrades. \nd the more Busta seemed bent on • the laurels 

1V C ii (}'I• f-'IA,{) fi'.l-{ cf. 
of Independence 

1 
,~ere c'ue to them as the developer1of political self 

sufficienty, cown went the visors and the swords snapped into hands. Several 
set 

began an active campaign against the Independence celebrations ~ for 

Aggust 6. Manley was alarmed. Fe called a Coronation arket**meeting 

• **A sprawling public market on Spanish Town Road 
frontec by a wi, e esplanade to which hundreds 
of farmers truck in daily Kto become sure carriers 
of' the message on theft outward journeys. 

and went strongly against the proposed boycott. "It is ~ day and our 

country," he reminded them. There was no sign of' physical weakness in 

him as he spoke untler the tall traffic ••• lights!outside the market 
I 

gatesm to a great crowd that kept building. 

and the rhetoric returned/as · he smnmonec 

he had taught,of 

n · uupccc±ca The old gestures 
back 

them a, a to the 

putting Jamaica old ways 

first. "Let us seize Indepenc ence a and make it ours , 11 was the ■n•· -•ll;r 

burden, and it rode well and bore out what he had told himself: / The truth 

is that people dont really try to _f_ind out what _are_ the_ common trends --2.f 

t_hou_gl!."i; ._T_b,ey do a li j;_t_le thinking of th~if own and gaily proc.eed to gene:r:~-

ise and transfer eir concl_µs • Qll.S. I By the time the great ••~;--. 
po itica -mee ing clos~ng 

hymns were ---•a being sung and the hanci-clap 

girls had got their shoulrers into it, that portion of his troubles was 



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fairly settled.* 

*The hand -clap~ £ ing girls used 
to be a feature at street-meetings; from the great 
tradition of the oldtime singers at Wake 54 or on the 
l)entecostal benches, in a style 411111 their own: the 
~ lap of palm and the sub"S..e, half lingering pullback 
at the delicate kick of Athe elbow, the tilt of head liste 

ing to •••••e the rhythm, the double anc triple per­
cussions paraded at the peaking of the chorus, the 
gentle swirl of frocks, were part of 
the Jamaican folkways. 

Norman ::Vlanilley did not be.li~ve in fooling with democracy. After all, 
Pc1.cc.1(, 

it is, at best, a delicately~ acceptance of a political defeat in 
6wt J:.v truth and some 

open electionfA...,_ secret ballot fJ an unstable mix of 

doubt f ~ d so must be worked, whoever wins111, or nobody will. 
,,J 'f(j_ , 

IIe did not 

It was, he thought, belie~~ in ~boycottl ; he hac:,4in abhorrence for it. 

a betrayal of the democratic process; •••• a mere "revolutionary gesture 

born of frustration,and respair of success Gy any con~entional means. 11 

was to write 
He/ LL the Commonwealth Spcretariat in London in 1967: "After all, 

it is the heart and soul and essen45 e of politics to succeed in being 
A boy cott ; I • leaves 

not iced. II j L I I fl •• as - a I a 3 5 I ; - I I 

the adversary "serenely in power." 

His passionate call for a closing of ranks had saved the Celebrations; 

ata it could not dampen another enthusiasm: that for a total resistance 

to any Bustamante ambition to occupy •King's House. It 

provec premature. 

reside in that 

Busta was not going to King's House . .)ower did not 
g...,,-rn_ 

monstrously ugly concrete mass. • chose Sir 

Kenneth Blackburn, the reigning English governor, to stay in occupance. 

This also was unpopular with the Pf\J"P(and a great number of Jamaicans) 

and .lanley privately confessed that he hac "slipped 11 when he - publicly 
" 

approvec' the Blackburn appointment. Bustamante was to recover han somely.., 
Clarence .,,, 

later.;, when he pickec Clifforct/r~ampbell , a rotund, urbane 

black legislator (JTF) to be the first homegrown Governor-General. 

The war being raged in \1anley during the run-up days to Independence 
contest 

was a conflict betwean politician and patriot; a of such intnnsity, 

he found himself questioning the efficacy of the 

he foreJtaw that the skill, energy and reason for 

unlikely to flourish under his replacements. 

two-party system. For 

nation-building was 
4 01 193~ to 19 3, 

The emotional lift,( he said, 

which had swept the generation to a new plane 
l~~) ~ 
·• ' ; I ., came at the instance of' the PN. , ,lthe 

of social and political 

only existing political 

party . 'There was no Jamaica Labour Party in existence," he sai0."May­
uf::c'--Y 

be this had a signif'icance . 11 The new Jamaica gr: • would not have been 
✓, 

bor1 

The political instincts around him in the Party were 1or blas ing such 



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Bustamante fumblesf (preferably in the old ripsnort forum of the Halfway 

Tree Square) as managing to raise , on a recent London visit , a mere 
for 

"exchequer loan of \2½-m , 11 a getting himself a bad British press, a 
·~ a nd another e 

snub from the British prime 
Jamaican 

minister ,/f\ _, from the Scretary of State~ 

who .. turne<' the •-•--• mission 
took off ,:;:, 

. while he ... 1for Kenya • • £!.he -

of the United States had been equally 

over to a parliamentary under secretar~ 
~ 

Bustamante effort to mine the goldfield 

disastrousl , according to Manley, 

since the mission had returned emptyhanded; and what was worse, had left 

behind in America "loose talk of military bases and not having uiplomatic 

relations with Cuba . 11 

him to li~ht it. It 
& 

perused the profitk-

A bomb> 

(i>rimed for explosio nd his colleagues were urging 

was not his wa ym to destroy what he ha4,uilt. He 
probabilities to the country for I 

loss,.,,.z "J • 3 • i • ■ • his 

answers. He argued that the blow to national 
the celebrations 

unit:) in a time when they 

needed to mak)\; ~ "worthwhile and inspiring")was not worth 

The pilgrimage out of the 

four centuries of 

the partisan mile . 

dead land, the shedding of the shackles that 

colonial domi nance had locked a on mind and manner, was more important to 

him than either Manley or Bustamante . •••~•• H!9~~d , if Busta had 
brought back gains i n , say, sugar, 11 we would have ( had) to praise them. 11 

The country should come f irst. So he wrote Blackburn asking his help 
in persuading Busta to join him in a declaration of peace. 11 It will 

be tragic, 11 he said, if our s pirits 
do not get a lift out of ••••••- it .. . . New responsibilities are ours 

And 
today (and we) must make our own way forward by hard work . ...,~ great disci-

pline . I ~ a• *»GW*$* •~¼•~*Gft& *h~•k*• ~*GW•*a¼S~&I y *a~~*w•**P• •*a*New 

l!Ut<lt-kw-~lii*li*Wi-l.i*l~~i *f~lr *tJ«.1ll-4it¥,il.1i- . llUHlf<i*~~'iUfUh-
- - -SPA CF'----

Manley had 

whose 

a statue that towered over his time. He was a warm man 
was reall_b os ibly a left over of the., 

reserveJ(shyliess,an country squire genteel 

the embattled Margaret .Ianley, under siege at Belmont for 
rooted in her 

marrying a black, determinedly 
what appearect 

flowerl with warmthj but ~ 

austere repute. Away from 

l I I ~family. Pnnetrateci, he 
on the surface) earn him t he 

P(was sufficient toi • 
boarded at Jamaica rolle6 

of :\Iargaret,, g; ; ; t •. £➔ .. g do 

h e reverte d to n ormalcy.> ...- became a t yp ical h i gh- spiri 
school boy ancl ma d e h i s mark in a r iotous ly successful career. In 
b e t ween ac h ieving a cad emi c and ath l e tic p rimacy, he beca me , i n sensi­
ble s equenc e, a bully , a wor s e a n t i -terrorist, an i ma g i na tive law-
br e a k er incluc i ng a n ever i'amou s Ci ceron i an d ec l amation from t he t op 
of t he t ower , a h an<is ome 20-ye a r -old• oaf who s e u ordant tongue lashe d 
gir l s to I a tears . 
i n t he ma t h c l a ss he taught a t Ti t chf' ield s chool. Anc showe s tout 
mettle on b i s wa y to wa r_., when , i n on e 24- h our - h i eh , he wa s guilty of 
mtinv a nd ha i r-lin e t r ea i:; on in t h e lauda b le cause o f puttin.: an 



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And then he left his b oyhood behind. 

He came to manhood. in war, and in the subsequent struggles to 
enter a profession for which .he had n o deep feeling but succeeded witl1 
phenomenal brilliance . And then, in tl1e fulness of time and circumstance , 
he was fetched into the vocation to which he would made his uest contribu-
tion. It was in politics that he, more than any other man, made the 
greatest sacrifice for Jamaica, of passion and skill, of fortune a11d 
life . His rococo Cousin, also of' a genius, lecJ the exploit et, workers 
to a new sense of strength , by an insistence, sternly pursued, on a 
personal fealty . ~anley, in a flow of intellect an~ integrity, the like 
that had seemed improuable to tbe comfortable dead in the benign backwash 
of an uncaring Colonial p ower , established and built in men's minds tLe 
iteas of social decency, economic self-reliance and political inuepen-
cence . • e was first ai.d foremost, a patriot. F'or 24 years he V. lee the 
cou.atry in its seek for an identity; a mission he accomplished. :More 
than anyone else, he chartec: the roa~ , marshalled the folk, ano poure1~ 
every particle of his being into creating a nation . 

11Tl1ere are no l)Seses for moclern nan and the Promised Land will 
be won under the curse of Bden . 11 

"\"ow, on the eve o.f entry to the place he hat1 sousht so long, 
the democracy which he hel to be the ~ "bulwark against aisorder 

this 
an<. chaos, " .- system he instituted and fosterec JJ had now orderec that 

due 
another lead the way into his/Canaan . Rut no matter. 

11 1 e have opened a new book which will last for generations to come 
We have built up a gooc society where law and order are respected , where 
justice prevails, where(people) respec~ and lo~e each other (regardless of) or 
colour - race. 1.Je have laid the foundations of a c,ecent poli tic.l!.l life 
and we are trying hard to b 1ilc, up a world of opportunity for all our 
people. Ee proud. of' what our fore fa then; ac co· 1pli she<' . . . and go f'orward 
in courage and strength. " 

He spoke on the eve of Independence, the n li.ght of August 6, 1962. 
" God oles s Jamaica, our itew nation . God t,less our people . Goo 

bless you here tonight . Goodnight. " 



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')67 

Part Four 

TFE llRl JV 

The troub.ee with WestMinister politics is it sfinsistence that the --t1.w..j 

~ is a game. 21f The same process that elects a Government instantly 
'Ft-r< 

co1 tracts for its destru<'tionJ the Opposition is also voted in. It was 

" a game at which . W .?>lanley sat in with zest. The ~ estmini~ter mo< el 

was the one he had chosen for the Jamaican constitution. Jamaicans were,in 

a phrase of G.W.I. professor ~ ~x. ettleforJ, "brow11 carriers o:f white 

c tlture. "* 

*" ettle1~ord has editec a collection of N . W. 'anley's speeches 
and writings: !- anley & The "\"ew Jamaica. 

In U 1 e name off he game, nanley stated his ploy: "In Onposition, 

one has two(inf-tru1;1ents) and two methods, the axe ant the torch. The 

aye to cut down the govern.,1ent a11d the torch to inspire antl lie:;ht up the 

1
, h . tt ii;J} ttij@® 

1 
haa done .!').is ev;;3.Jku~~ ion~ f'l!!-d .....,.1-1J11a : c ,.,, ar Or,,1zons. C!•l 1e /t. 1· a_Pq fftp ;i.ftfffyp$?22 rzg;~ I 5 72 £FP1??Sz& 

'n.;t.11.10 fllht //€ - . -
ii ,-, ii$/\ had le1't the lines and gone too rar forward. Communications 

had been stretcbed so thinly by the Tieferendum 11 cebacle" that the cynamism 

hac been lost. He neec e new dynamics to f'uel U1e retreat :from Fe' eral 

ideas J and return to the national trenches. •le thoug,. t of' the "great yP-ar-::" 

spent in bui] ding the Party. rre recot.,niz ec the decade aft er 19 Jo as 

tJ- e season of' flow -~@!ju Mill •' It was his view that the PNP had gained 

its stren th tl-rough a1 unceasine celebration o:f the future; the future 

as a nation, by rousing the. hope for a ,J5 g more prosperous Jamaica and 
l~ 

selling the conviction that was the Party to achieve it. ·ow the flame:c-
,,......, 

hau flickered. ·°"., , in the quiet of himself, he \>ias asking, "Tof morrow, 
~ 

wnat fires the torch?" 

vas it what, or who? He thought about it . In a display of' boorisr1ness., .s c-. tj o-ft y w--.t{ 
:-cm • ~cpaga, at the Independence ceremonies in 

the spanking new .._ ational "tac~iwTJ that had been built by the P.'P govern-

ment, had essayet to l,ave him removec' :from a seat in the ~? • 

set apart for high off'icials. Lu pislme s s apart, the legality 

t area 

of' the 

act was questiorable, since his office of Leader 01' the opposition was 

entrenched in the Constitution ana covere,1 by prot9col. 
fl"tJ..,fi•v. f1" ~ t-

The enthusiasm of the celebrations and the.· pirit 01 the people hac 

" 



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much pleas~d him . Indeec, he regarde< the flag-raising in the Stadium, 

and in the hundrec 1s of communities, free of inciaents, as his achieve-

ment . "I f'eel , 11 he saio, 11 a deep sense of accomplishment i9ltil :for a 

job well aone . 11 

---SPACE ---

Politics did not snatch w away his health and fortune. It took 

them in a steady, unnatural obduracy, or perhaps in obeaience to the olc 
<, 

law that obligates the murder of the prophets. It began by removing him 
c:......-----' 

from the safe familiar labyrinths of the Bar, the corridors he ha~ con-

trolled for more than thirty years, to the unpredictable man-traps of 

elective office-holding, then proceeded to strictly code his earnings) 

down from the high-level corporation lawyer to the median bracket of a~ 

legislator.* 

*The l!ll ultra conservative Farquharson Institute , former­
ly the Imperial Association, was to say of him: 
~~ He "was a man of the greatest possible :finan­
cial integrity ... Had he decided to attend to his own 
affair instead of sacrificing them to the interests of 
his country ... he could have made a great fortune and 
retired ... to a life of ease and comfort which woulo 
have prolonged his stay with us. " R.1.,garding the integrity 
of the fieferendum decision: " o other politician of our 
times in J~~aica would have done this . " 

These were to be the final years; ant, in some respects, the 

finest. For he led well in Opposition. It is true that his Party woulc 1 

lose again in 1967, following what was close to a tradition, that ha5 

given each Party two terms. But they were among his finest ; f'or one, 1.>e-

cause he was not clinging to power. He had assumed it on assent 

anc would have liked to shed it . "He was, " observed Michael Manley, "a 

man helu to duty when he wanted to go." 

; a'i -- o , " ,1e 
. eans 0-£1Ziill&iq:t~ 

saic L:1 t~i.e c..elie,/1t1 ,.1 Jamaican expression wti.ic, 
~et: .1ost . 

A politically educated populace had been the purpose that had 

f'ired the drive~uring the early days. They had set up study groups in 

urban blocks and -~gWi}5fY hamlets, s2reading and discussing - Socialist 
principles that were fortuitously, if not with a • 
,1,'114'i:Lo i I 1 1 • j ee tbs t f £bi lb _· £t LL I suspicious fidelity 

ciose Y,ear-old 
/ to the notions issuing out of his1/Jru~aica Welfare . He could not walk 

away , not abruptly. He was a man who paid his debts but he was uncer-

/
c.losest tain of the bottom line. "All my ~rienas have said, ' Step back for a 

bit and let others work.'" But on the other hand, the Party 1'unc1 raisers 

were complaining that he was not staying in the news enough to stir the 
4CN.t'1l)E'~f;~ 

givers into action. Ile - •••••• whether the public ha lost interest 

in him; he took notice that his decision to return to legal work drew 

little comment. The loss of a Portland by-election hac its disquiet . 
"No rea.l ef:fort was made. I suppose this was expected." He speculated 



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369 

wh~ther if' he appeared to withdraw, woul~ there be a call for his return? 

"A moot point in my nind. 11 lie sensed the imputation for putting his 

Party "out in the wild e rness before our time. t1 He had a c1 ebt to pay. 

I -
i'or 

Anc1there were personal problems. To test/ Ahonest shekels 

in a politicianJl's purse, the. tate of' personal wealth at the termina­

tion of' office is an index. Ghether the gooc1 luc~ter the annointing 

has exceeced excessively the ante-bellum boocle. ~nley 's recoru was 
Arif)!,, 

conclusive. 1·e left office considerably poorer than at his entry. 1 The 

return to law was not the success he had hope~. 

/\ A niggling single retainer in the first two c"ays, and then a ringing silence 

.12( from the gaggle of lawyers who usec to camp at his heels, left him feeling 
shaken, 

/ strange and stranded. 1,e was appalled that he might have lost his 

touch in the ~even years aLsence from the craft. 

ue was • too good a professional for the mood to last._ 

little steady thinking on the< iscipline he hacJ rnas tered more than any man 

~ his time, urought him back to the facts. He was f good. ••••••■•• He 

Ge foun that for the f'irst time in his •••e career, he was recognizing 

the vast ~1owle< ge of law he had acquired. Ana it was all there, orderly 

arranged for whatever nee, . s 
He had the ar.aenal to slay his self-doubts 

and he so proceeded. It is a comfort, however, to lesser geniuses, to 
~ 

record that / his first Opinion, closely researcher! and reasonea, lost his 
fine art A 

client's case. Law is a " often nanglec by simple Judges. 

Not dauntec, he was working on three otl1er matters oefore the first 

week was out and had earneu a hundred and twenty guineas ( <e-252) . The word 

was out and being received. Another couple of retainers worth $400 was 

almost in the bag. It lifted his spirits. Another book idea began to form: 

the work on his life as a lawyer. He was getting on to what he described 

as "the razor edge methods of 
the old professional pride. He 

visibly thickening with 
legal thinking t1, anr' 

A 

147 

i1planned to practice four days a week and do politics on the other days. At 

the end of the first month he hac earned over a thousand dollars. 

The level di( not keep up. }Tis illness, age and competi tio1:, 

y M took toll. By the autumn, he knew that although his legal min 
a little fault y . 

had regained much of the j razor, his memory was/Jr · 7 I 7- One 

particularly good piece of work brought consic 1erable satisfaction. He 

wrote an Opinion that proved the previous Authorities in error. But he 

was in depression from a nuF1ber of caseless weeks and fighting to retain 

his patience and hope ; an, wondered whether his bottom fee of twenty guineas 

( 42) for an Opinion was too high. His 1963 projected earnings fell to 

about 

The 

2,000 after tax. His salary as Leader of the Opposition was l .. ____ _ 
family expenses were "murderous." 



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> 16J 

ill 7 

------

J70 

---SPACE ---
Manley, 

Between his political work and the legal consultancy, riliiJl i, in 

his ailing, was exacting a pace the awe of younger men. The other 

occupant at No 4 Washingt on 11rive was as fully ene;agec. She had turned 

to work on I u ttxazn . g L _ ht! an assi~r,:\n';1n
1
t at the Sheraton-Kingston 

st51c1a 
hotel, a commission that carried a I ' • J • disagreeableness; 11111 the ~k);"r,u, 

u.(~U-unionised workers/.:'!f:te:;!~tt';,has~:i:l::i:~¥:;: •orman was an r at 
/I 
what he called ~ "BITl' savagery at its worse" but thought she showec1 

a "courage anc experience" in dealing with it. As always, he cham-

pioned her with great pride. am~d~•c~~~M-•RB "I am conficent-that her capacity 

to work and display craftsmanship and to ignore folly" woulc triumph. 

It did; s Id& her "courage and experience" won the respect of the workers. 

She had faced down the bad time with grace and now working uv to 

six hours a day, she was stea ily into the carving. J~•t-L•s-~~~ewr•t~ 

maeH~~;i:eiieeHt-¼y ... He had anotLer preuiction concerning Edna ,lone that 

she had also come to herselft, of a"remarkable creative period••••• " 
the 

now that/workload of a Premier 's wife hal been removed . 1·e turnet out 

right. The firm hold she too~ on her art in the secon half of her 

career, the r•epth o1:' treat -ient and i1~sie;ht in her 1 ig1 res, the new 

warmth in her perceptions an,: interpretations, raised her work to such 

heights as came close to satisfying her .... genius. he knew she had 

gone into the new creative release \\hen she announce< her plan i'or a -

~-•-s set of 11~oses 11 carvings and drawings. ·ensitive as he was to her 
saw what went on in 111111 

work, he/Q Jzsii :hb. 1 □□ A : the studios, The Mini at \'omdmi and in 

f the large one at qegardles~. I is was not a lay 
the first to "pat 

interest but a reasone< critique; he had always been/••••••-!!!!1111!!1•----. 
the wood II at the com11encement 

of a new work, the first 

in-progress rritic , the first viewer of the cornplet ed work. 

She went to him for disc~1ssing cause anc-1 reason_:; as naturally Bf' into 

herself, and he told it well, unafflici tve but < iscerning; 1·rom the 

authority of 

1:'or each other. G(;ey were 
were rtiscus seo an~ shared 

nearing half a century of love ant truth 
c:the perception aw JUdg1.1ent 

a close-knit f'amily and the imaL>es ,'wez:e 
,{ 

by their sons. 11They had a great capacity 

for dialogue with their children," Michael says, recalling that 
rebellec against argue~ 

once when he/ , f wearing outgrown threads, they 

although his was a well-to-do family, 

so he unrlerstood that \!the~~e~ 
not only 

economics was/sensible ••• but a 

social obliEation. 
'-harin# a consanguine they 
p - I I I ' p unc erstanding 

parental eye that could ,f" ,ot calarlity stealing> iu) ~ 

~rman had his quiet grief was imminent. 

had the ~ astute 

dista~ce away • anc 

that a break in ,;fichael 's marriage 11937] 26 st 1\l!l _ tlBS Michael, who 



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371 

had inheritecl his pace in lon~ hardworkinc; hours, was, he believe<', • 
..... d~stre~sing

11
.s 

b g .--•■■■~-,••••--• •---~ fi health and he wished 

he woulr slow it down. 1ichael was not only proving a superb 

Union leader but r1aking his imposing "•ark in politics. At a 

meeting outsice the Coronation 'iarket, with 110re than 15,000 people 

in the great market-truck terminus, it was Aichael wb.o ~ot ~ most of 
the roar i n 2 assents the aaversary 
L ••• when he spo1'-e about a merger 01' •••••• unions, his 

own :XWU anu the BITlT l in a common front against employer attrition. It 

was early in the day of his political career and the iceal had no hope 

of',la conodation from the two laoour-ba9ec1 political parties, out al-
';" ' oratorical 

ready his ---~Askill~ and his clear sincerity was catching 

the reluctant at the nap e 
, about the • -

e his v roud papaif • 

of the neck. He was "strong anc, steady, 11 comment­
i articular caper.n11chael, 

who was to use tfie bocy-in-the-breach tac­
in an 

tics in fu±ure union battles I had, at • ~avlamar, 
. got 1~embers of both unions to block 

dispute, ~ every entrance to a swamp clearing 

the issues were settled . It brought '\'orman to his feet as 

in ustrial 

proJect until 
exultec;:1 2 4 

he •11••-----• 
*;1Iichael made :aa wall-blocking into a 
fine art, using bodies, tractors, motor-cars■••• in a fine 

' career of pointing ~~!!!!!!!!!!Jf!!!_!~•••• stubborn 
r, -. - , unfair employers • [apopl;xy:st"0E!.:..;g:J 

il.C' rt11'ttl11 ,-J -v ti- /.,l~ ~~i~~~~~~~~~~~-~~~-;~ _____ _. ____ _,_.__ _ _,_.__ _____ ....._.., _______________ _ 
JJ.IJ..il/tl.•~"u,I_, _____ -_;;.,.,,, n-... aspect that hao been lurking in him all 

these years, waiting for Savlamar. 
WOUL-.D 

There had been a chance that ~!ichaelA. 

on his sldeld, as the police were being callec1 in to 
ational Workers Union 

brought home 

break the resis-

tance. The/strikers ... had sent a call to Kingston for !ichael, anc , 
saw 

tight-lippeu, _Torman __. him off. 11 I hope he does not get hurt but he 

must go." Then he sat back and thought some more and node-led. "I think 
he will c1me i p to h t s J owp one t,ay in Jamaican po½\; iSi i l ie is plainly 

2 
the best young man in sight." 

---SPACE 

Be was looking hard, but quietly, for a successor. lie was attend­

ing the meetings of the Young Socialists League . But time after time, he 

was returning to what was becoming a conviction that the candidate he 

sought was • the neighbour"next door," as he privately spoke of the 

occupant at Number Two \iashington Drive . 

himself that Michael was ready. "He is 

Soon he was flatly stating to 

growing in public recogni-

tion and should begin to work up a political image. Now." (When 

his decision to leave active politics was finally taken, Michael would 

' ~ ask him to do so well before the Party conference .. 
~ it would not influe~ce th~ choice of successor one way or another. ) 

so 

Dougla sjwas in easier seas and apparently gave him less unease. 

Academe seeme1 to have claimed him --- the Mona campus of the University 

of the' ~st Indies; and with his q~etly distinguished air, decioectly donnish 



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a 
like him _.. taught in the clssroom, 

I\ 372 

Yet, like his father, Douglas had a very private acquaintance with Puck 
loved 

and was a bon vivant companion who _____ -' jazz and roots conver-

(!IOI{ 1/J~llc _5!/~Y ~NC.()f/12,/t;iti. e,'f Jf11t>1 j 

Neither of his sons had followed him into Ia,~ although each 
who as a Munro 

in his way showed the cleft of the stick --,.. Douglas, ~ schooll;lOy, 

equalled 
the old K , iv . Manley ( Jamaica College) ten seconds for the 

sation. 

----------------... 'ifil who tallll went t6 war and developed a 

100-yards "dash " '/\ Michael Ill■■•••• • 
passion for politics. 

---SPAC E ---

Meanwhile , the Drumblair era was over . One morning 

walked across the small gully from Rpgardless and found that the old 

house had been completely pulled cown, the old trees uprooted by the 

bulldozers) and the flower beds ••••• flattened out of existence. He 

was a lone fit,;ure wandering about the once beaut.ful groun< s, poking 

remains of the 
into the ~ electric kiln --- the workmen had done barlly by it; 

Drwablair 

the wiring, like unruly hair, escaping from the connections. A e 
was, he thought helplessly, in "a hell of' a shape." He worried about 

Edna may have nee for 
getting the kiln f'ixen. JI I • L it. He wonclered 

whether the local shops could handle its complications. 

He was less worrier• but as concerned about a coming event, 

the annual Party conferen~e. He never wrote his political speeches . 

.,,-o 
His style was • think:a on the principles, apposing his points and 

arcs 
sketching the a~as that made his orator~ works of eloquencej powerful 

but lean and of great grace, a stirring of his hearers without 

entangling their min~s or wrapping a spell arounL their faculties. 

The grand convocations at E< elweiss Park) up to the 'F'ifties (his 

P 'P had followe Marcus Garvey's UNIA into Edelweiss)•••••• are 

remembered as much for thei~ scholarly discourses as for the swinging 
s:!:_1£ va./(1"-<> ~ intencled to 

enthusiastic rallies they were~ - us ain• the beleaguered com­
mor , 

rades, denied the streets by the/up-to-then, _ bullpuss JLP. He 
would 

conference be 
knew the importance the 

for the dispirite comrades. Between putting down a 

small rebellion by .the ever ebullient Wills O, and hacking at the -

{)/.) -~ -"Ovyli.t 
legal work, •-••l~ the old skills, he tuned his mind to the political 

needs of - the i>arty now so perilously near to disarray. 

He knew that the strength of the Party lay in the moral 

triumph or what had been their policy for the • years since 19J~. 
ngt iom:J. l 

His PNP had been the :first •••••••••• political creation in the 

country '<; history_, anc it hae1 been born for the purpose of overturniug 

colonialism anc' obtaining self rule. By all measurements it had done 



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JlJ 

J7J 
that. The Party was mature an( sophisticated. There had been casualties, 

lives had een lost, a few fortunes i'oundered. A hard and bitter struggle, 
past 

he thought. Fought against a Colonial ~-• that had gained in ugli-

ness by penetrating men's minds, making them mutants. (That goshawful 

unlikely human, the happy jailbird, prisoner by preference.) Kow free­

dom had come; never mind that his Party was not now in a~ ascendance; 

the ll!Ni::i:Ni:N.g:s. monument was up and they had been the architects. 

And so he spoke at the first Conference after the 1962 defeat. 

--SPACE ---
"It is true that we have been denie d the privilege of achieving 

power at this moment, but no one can deny us the accomplishment of our 

work in this country. Anrl I am proud of my people. 

"For when I called on them, after we had lost the election, 

to come out am make this great • • time and 

th d 
. • 

ese great ays, our times and our cays, how the people respon edt 
'=" - -

"AJ!.1-d how they made the world see! 
~ 

"All the nations of' the earth who sent their representati, es 
with their eyes and hea rd with their ears how the 

here saw, ._i a ii I $ I Edi 1ml FI Ilk W t f 1 •1 L people felt. 

"And many marvelled how was it that we who were not in the seats 

of power were acknowledged as the authors of the greatness in our 

land at this time." 

He had the speech 

came out 

s,,J'?R€b 
insiLe his hea~and he was so -•• that it 

a 7 /1 
with - rolling power and he knew he 

would rouse ttem as he had rouseo his "small handful of comrades" at 

the beginning, to withstand the sacrifice, suffering, mockery, that went 

with membership in his l little banu .ti 
"I remember the sacrific~s they made. I remember the mockery 
:: · 1 1:0.t I t gsl!bg I fl 1 1 !PM sts t 11 st JJsr12 f bhi 

they encured. I remember the suffering they withstood. I remember how some 

of them, nameless today arn unsung, gave their lives that Jamaica might 

throw off JOO years of colonial bondage, might lift up their hearts to 

aspire to all that indepen ence means ant' free c, om for a people. 11 

so And yet,/much lay ahead in thP building of a nation, the 

creative r,ynamic that would move the wheel forward. 

"Anlld now I am going to speak to you about the challenge of 

this time as we close one book of history and open another. ~ e could 

foresee the end of the first. The second ending we cannot foresee. 

Comrades, it is one thing to become free; it is another to build a 

real nation. It is (our tragedy) today that where history has placed 

power and leadership in the land, it has not placed tongues to rouse 

the people to the greatnessm of the times. It has not raised uv a 
voice among them who could rise to the occasions of these daysj h'ho 



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1We could walk into his offic~ at any time, " . 'ichael Manley ol!leez has 

ecal lect. ••re could play his records, read his books; indeed, he 

oul insist that we read his books . He (was) one of the great 

am ' ly men of' this country . If any one of us eYer became ill, -. 

e would go out himsel1~ to ••• a pharmacy or a supermarket --:.-:.,(j;__ 
ao lf ~ u-111tt ,,c,r llt«A..-~ ~~ ; 

ven when he was Premier . I " He added slowly, softlyA ' He was un-

elievably kind as a father, kind as a manl to everybody . He was 

ne of the kindest men I e, er knew. 11 

rsponsibility that started in 19J8. 11 She ~ seemed to have 

been s a ying that even if Michael was right, anc 

:1at -orman was staying in politics , the old wear and tear was 

v-er. The tattered nobles would man the wall~but only• to hold 

or the new young squires,chosen to step to the ramparts . - Phoned by 

tr I It l ] I J/t Professor .Arthur Lewis 
e;1.".J in~ ,tJ ~\., t.o • ti, 4{; 11' J 

oe night of the Referendum, sai1 ~ e had no reason now to 

emain in politics ; public works had wrought a sadness in a life 

c e :full of light, of accomplishments, of gaiety . A night-hag had 

e t into the house and now it was time to ••••- lay it . "Anl now 

w~ll go into a great 



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could lift up the new dynamic whicl, would be alive from one end 
of the land to hi : the other. 11 

What he haG seen in the cele ato k h d ry wees a been a lac lu. ter 
by the members of th ~y errunent, sp. riven wit 

etulance, suspicion and jealousy 
ti -r O.f.l t.. v€AE 1"!-IGy RG"rJb y 1-0 ibe7vNCe° 11-r 

_ • ; 1 • I If the Roy at the flag - raising c 
11-frb 

monyJ• Seaga also cut his appearance from the film on the opening of " /\ Parliament • .>on the grounds of budgetary economy; and if that was not 

enough, well, then , the film was too long anyhow . * Busta was already 

* fanley was furious to find out that s taga ha re• ce -
ci ent. Without his ( :Manley's) knowledge, 
two over- zealous functionaries, including his own P . 1{. 

u )31 mantL lif~gurJ- s.~ A.E . T . [ e~~~;. ~~~ ~~imB~;t~~= ~~~~~n House 

opening becausg .tha·ijhief had been talking 11nonsense. 11 Com-
mented N . W. ~nt ,tf , J; i&tr 3t . • -

11 I was shocked. a I remember it was nonsense , but 
who will believe that no )linister ofJi~vernment ha a hand 
in it or knew about it at all. " 

feeling his 7~ years and could 

ctays, 11 much less 11 lift up the 

11 And so we suffer un 

ble, or arrogant and stupid. 11 

to the occasion of 

mic. 11 And so p_. 

are) uncertain/ and fe-

The More he had thought about his _ speech to be given 

at the Conference, increasingly he had marked the 4lthrust • his 

seven years of government han given the country. So that by the 
went to the p odiwn at the 

time he· • - Ward that September· morni g 

for his Presidential Speech, he could cite his accomplishments i n 

office to issue a chalienge to history; offering 11 the principles 

which inspired us (in) our work " as the pattern of conauct for 

future governments ---"every go,· ernment that this country will ha, e 

for the next one huncred years• will have a pattern of cond,lct 

against which its (own) conduct can be j udged by our people .. . 

tt For whatever we may have failed in, we ne~er failet in the 

maintenance of tho~e principles which must one day prevail o\er the 

earthf f men are to live as free men in God's worl< . " 

---SPACE 

The principles uore a close resemblance to his own a tti tuc1es . 

He had, he has said, 11 usec1 power with restraint anc respect for human 

d ecencies." He had a dislike for bullying;, obviously not unrelated 
schoolboy 

to his ••••• experiences where an Upper Form tormentor ha, .. 

buffetted him almost into absconding until one day they came to blows, 

anc1 t}7 e lJ-year-old Guanaboa boy, toughened by log-axe and country 

food, belabourec the bucko out ot· his opponent. Af t er a brief spell 

of playing the bully himself, he reformed into a protector of the weak. , 

---~PACE ---

It • t h • • t at t . bl was a poignan speec , exqu1s1. e - momen s.) anc poss1. y 

had a good deal to do with steadying the uncertainties which had 

crept into the Party. He had sensed the edginess in his comrades. His 

towering statue ••• held off their inclination to blame him for the 

f'atal referern um) l,ut the signs were 1r10re than f'aintly clear. Yernon r­

nett, the capable, likeable longtime Sepretar~ had grown taciturn and 

unreadable, Manley thmug;ht; fills Isaacs, ,,;ho was always steadily 
unpredictable, had resi6ned as First Vice Presi( ent and was swearing 



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never again to sit on tt1 e Executive. He understood the Arnett dilemma: 

all the years of - sacrifice 

- - had got to him . He hari been the high-per-

forming General Secretary of the Party since b- attsz & J 1939, 

"Si1.1ply exhausi ton and a distat 9 te for continuance, 11 '!anley sumned 

up to hims el ~ but he knew he was sauntering in the shac,e, for Arnett 

ha not hidden his I disgust with the way the Party had been damaged 

by the 1.pferen, um . 

perhaps, in his 

"' . ,r. respecte<1 and was fond of Arnett anc was 

way, clearing the fine man wit] history. ills 

he took coollyi §Ometirnes with a twinkle for his more light than heat. 

-

9bJ, 
Once, in ,(when the Party was fa" ourably consic" ering an application 

from J~en Vill to re join the Party ( from which he ha(I be en ousted in the 

11 Hp<' purge 11 years abefore) , Wills, who had been one of the ~toaerates 

ferociously against the Leftists, threatene a resignation if Ken was 

allowed back in. "Wills Isaacs said it was unprinciplec (to accept 

Ken back). I aske d • him why was forgiveness unprinciple, ." }en 

returne, to tlte Party anc ',ills O . di not resign. The P ~ was home 

to him and although he storne, at times, it was where he had put into 

port. For the LUration . 

---SPACF' 

The years left ahead were not many an<i it is probable that -or-

man )lanley knew a little about it . J e may have had a look into the eye 
ly, 

of it. For he was ~ -~~~=~wto his comrades in his cry that 

they anchor their activities on the three principles he .ha11 gi 1en f'or 

Party guidance. Three great tasks , he calle< ' them; Gut without cqui-
anathema -

vocation at once cleclared the 11 first and f'orernost " terr I • /on 
-tf'.ll ~ IV"Zi,,? 

race and colour pre Judices ; the si, e of his concernh least aware ofJ • 

but, from t!ie evidence, o:f prof'oun,i importance to him 

since his early ~nglish experiences. Ano moreso now because he was 

witnessing the growing impatience o1 his darker - skinnecl compatriots at 

the old, ugly order that had maue them stirrup-hangers to the white 

and fairer-skinned horsemen~always ahead in the opportunity stakes . 
1 the 

The on, e despised <astas*, hounde( by/police anc1 •••• enthusiasti-

~~stafarians, named for qas Tafari, the title of the 

late Haile Selassie before he was crowne,' >;mperor of 

thippia. The ~nst~farians reveref him as Goci Incarnate, 

a similarity of the C:hristians to the person of Jesus 

Christ. They believe the historic Bible but reJect 

many interpretations of the "white " or European Chris-

tianity. '{astafarians are markecl by their • 

asceticism and willingness to suffer for the Faith. 

1•Iuch of their behaviour has been compared to the fervour 

of' the Farly Christians. 



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ut t er conviction, 

cally sentenced by the Judges, had by theirJ / ntegri ty•••••• and 
NA-fl ON, 

courage, sent their message insifem the Aa•~ Tl1e be-

lievers were growing, not only on the level on which it hdd begun, 

among the frLlstratecl poor, but upward into the 111id( leclass families 

whose young had taken the outward signs of inner faith by growing "locks 

/ talkine 11 c,read II and smoking "wee, , " 

rhe second was a _part of' the first ) as he cautioned the nee, 

~o order the econw~y to"create a society which offers the reality 
)! 

of equal oppor~unity to all people. Anc thirdly, to< evise a foreign 

policy which would enable the country "to mean something to tlle 

world." 

The Caribbean world had shrunken from his hopes o....f.­
ON 

a 2, OOO-rnile Federal arc) to wl1ere he had begunj/l his 14 ci -square miles 

homelan1 11 /dis Party had shrun~ en from leac ing the lane to playing· \ 
,;-- .______, 

a minor role. But he was working with what he had left, impatient 

sometimes, but never railing at fate. He had a f'aith-reason. Although 
w -~:i.-o~ 

he, himself, was a walking~-ounded, weakend by iihlSness, 

he had an immoveable belief in what he invariably thought of as 

the "two-party system. " One ...,unday morning late in 1964, he had told 

a Party Conference: "It is vital to the peace and security • and 

freedom of our people that we should have two Part.¢( in this coun-

try (although) other places may get along very well with one." Since, 

in the same speech, he was paying tribute to Iarcus Garvey, the advocate 

of tle Back-To-Africa movement1 where the One- 0 arty state was ancient 

and su'cessful, it was lucky that his hearers were not listening cri­

tically. 

There was another reason of' faith, one that shot forth on memora-
i 

ble occasions to light up the serenxty of the man. 11History, 11 he 

said, "decreed that we sh~uld lead the people to the brink of the 
~ » 

river) but not across . I et no man quarrel with history. - ~ 



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CHAPU ~ : -IC t; - (w-e_ . 
. in this agrarian land, . 

curiously , /Norman Manley has been the only national leader >who, b 

377 

tra ining and choice, had a fealty to the fiell· . At Belmont/Guanaboa in 

his youth, at Drumblair in his adult years, he was allied to the land · n 

hardworking In the Fouse , he began with the farming portfolio ana ways . 

it his ma j or interest 

over a third of that 

poli 

the land . 

Yhile h e h ad the 

in 

im 

his twenty years in Parliament --- ---c\l-S leader of the fO-\ ernrnent . the urb A life ime spent in 

ever lost him his love , ani interest , 

y man's reserve and retic ence on occa 

actor's g ift of being whatever he chose, 
was also una ble to b e less than 

, he 

committed to a choice. F e was all arms and legs when h e went 

in and so h is suceesses were magnificent, ~ record ; and his 

:failures resound ing. Rut there were few of these. ( He wa s f rank 

n 

in a cknowledging t h e usefulness of histrionics in t h e courtroom 

b ut re f'raine cl :from public declaration of' its b en e:fi t s in politics; 

the law seeming ly suffers more candour than p olitics.) 

xxxxx .i:s 

The legendary reputation fo worki g long hours was true but 
\:r;-il_ ·• .J ·'orlr, w1· thout what he labour was neither compulsive , nor s ~~p • ~ 

called a spiritual un lers ai anr,ing of forces anr cause , and an enc of some 

wort,_ , was like those days ii the mountain which woke in a great bluster, 

t riving :forward on a hustle o f wind and sun and racing clouds, then ,ft¾ 
.._ in a wan afternoon. Life , his mo re sai<' , should be livec with flair 

nd wis1 om . 
And so his absor~ tion withs ch a pro saic subJect as agricultur e n e er 

settled into a, ull if necessary battle bet~~ep, pro9uct i on and cost~=-

. ~ gh h ~.gave acute anojcontinuous attention to that too ; / or example, 

~ _µlottingI't f at egy f'or a pineapple pro Jee\, with solicitor Jlarry nayes, 

in-f his East St Andrew hill constituency during the early Oi->position 

years f i oth being fine lawyers ano plotting enthusiasts¥ , and relent­

less when they got their teeth into things, the project seemed doomed to 

success. Jle likea being in the field, even if it meant coasting down 

the hazard ous tt road tt from a St Peter ' s farmers ' r1eeting because not a 
1"¥>~ PD II~ 

drop of oil was in the car ' s crankcase. And to abash ? 
Par i sh o~ 

magistrates. 4£-iJ., i!Pl) :ns; :,n..i;1g an agricultural tour / 1H1c.1e w,h 
'(> ().o· "Lul-> 

~ such as the day in Portland when he "impishly with his Party P.H. 
man, Ivorall l)avis I t 1 t • r lunch from 

paper bag as they sa t on a mos~b nk in Portla d o nothing but poli-

tical g ood with the pa - shu ' t & tie - head small - holoings voter ~ 
fr om 

who daily lunched .... a spr e ad banana leaf as they restet the hoes at no on .: 



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He seemed deliberately to be an anti-Colonial 
378 

"Socialist " of' the cate-

gory known as "mild . " These were the ones who wore the sensible shoes ill 
The truth was he 

1950 

1ay hav 
urned 

the house of the fiery sister. ideologues. 11..• had a worry going for years 

about a polarization in world politics that would create two camps, in 
.-. small natmons would or 

either of which/, • end up: 6api talista _.. Communist 

In 19 :,10, he agonised over the English election results and wondered 

whethe r tl.te"recession from Socialism" would spread . He held a mode­

rate line that was illuminatet", and0 sometimes, severely chargeu, by 
--i"vl. Wt(,<} KP:i$;UL.d- 6 y ·1fu_ 

an anger he fought to constrain ; - ] ],\tiumblings J n both 

sicles .MThe cult oi' bluntness is a nuisance, he statec flatly "'fJ a Party 

official who pulJlishe(i a "stupid II article on trade unions; and he 

thought that the Gleaner's managing e(ito~was "a moralistic hypo-

crite. " (Ife cried in his private anguish: "The Lord help anri ueli-

~er us from such folk ! ") 

His hu~ility was often puzzling in a man so well Pf e p arerl for 
M 2 ,, §1; · 1 ; 2 •• • L , 

power. In a typical day in his constituency office, he -

would meet some thirty or forty pEople seeking assistance and he was 

a patient, often heartsick man, taking each slowly through a catalogue 
and 

of suffering~ feeling his own distress ; and in the evening (this was 

the year of the Purge) watching the real possibility of his Party 

falling into wreckage. But as the antagonists moved into the fatal 

confbontation, he made the fast, firm change from compassionate 

Father-Leader to the Autocrat of Edelweiss Park where the talk was 

frequently violent and abusive. Tough to his equals, gentle with the 
particularities 

poor, he had his •••••••• as any other citizen. He seemed to 

like Ken Hill, respected Richard Hart, was wary of Wills O and Dudley 

Thompson, had small faith in Frank Hill , was ambivalent on Allan Isaam, 

worrying about his welfare while deploring his Party style, like~ 

Arnet .nd Glasspole and Ken ?t~rli:r:ig, ~~hl!am~ a few of the old han<;ts . 
. is cho1c on thea ct1vit :1.e s . of' g uidnuncs! among_·the .;,fact1ona·.: 

but h ee took an interest in the gossipy a 71 LI s t t t ssa± & lt:s a tat 5 t 
1at~l.. the PNP has always been a mercurial collection requiring its own 

c:i:re ca 1Te1 • 

household :-.1achiavelli. There was always the risk 

of falsity from the favour seekers, a fact he strangely did not seem 
in the truth and 

to appreciate. He disliked bluntness, but he believed A~ 
And so some were wronged ~ 

assumed that people spoke it.~ 

and others gained. As scrupulously as he could, he 

held the scales fvenld espi te his private ••••• apprehensions. 

Bracing a comrade because o:f a story :from some self-seeking_ clawback 
P'AL.,,-re~v. 

led to hurt scenes. But the old interrogator ne,er ~h* He just 

pressed on. Next witness. 

---SPACE 
One early day soon after his halfway return to law, he hald a sort 



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379 

of symbolic immolation: ~a notorious clue in A.search- for the man. He 

was idling through some old Opinions and nriefs. keacting over his 

writings on several of his cases, he professed to being surprised at 

the quality, both in the "clarity of thought " and the »exhausti~e research " 

brought to bear on the simplest cases. " Lr,rd, " he commeri.t;; c', "how I 

worked. " 

Then he promptly took a great number of them, weighing about a hun­

dred pounds, and burnt them. 

fuy did he do it? Only a few days before , he ha~ been examining the 

idea, encouraged by F,c 1na, of doing a book on his law experiences, and 

this was all valuable stuff. It was not that he lacke< a sense of his-

tory nor was he unaware of his genius, immodest artist • as he 

... ·as in conversations with his - ego. Tt hacj to be a personality curve 
instinctually '-J...!~-.:J~ ~ "'""" of breaking confidentiality could -;;l..._ 

that would/deprive . the f'utun.~• . .t•••••••• Nor was his hubris..., :;-,so 
w lJ c; 11p up on him 't1naware; 
7 Iubricatec as to ••••••• only a lunatic nay be truly arrogant . -

~ ave b~ diteuout. 

(;i;,('tn Opinion by •. ,' . 'lanley, <~.r.., would command reference in law 

libraries and archives as long as legality held in human affairs. So why 

the burning of work that had made hiM alnost reel in BGmiration , exult 

at its qualityl ? The answers swarm with opportunities for wrongheac ed 

judgments. The simplest seem to lay in the cisjointing, even worse, the 

dislocation of his life after the untimely defeat; a shocking sixty 

percent of his ter. '1ad crumbled, obliterated by a cataclysm. The hare won 

power had been snatched by a miscalculation of his popular~tY••••• He 
thought he h•d failed in the pfofession he saw as his lifework. 

"The choice of' law was an acci<'ent . "ty family talkett me into it because 

of my love of talk and argument." At the height of his brilliant career 

in the courts, he had counted it a bit of good luck that he 11 wa!" engaged 

in activities . .. which went far beyond the normal work of a lawyer • . " 

For lawyer ' s work was " a largely formal affair with wide areas of dry 

insignificanc e4II a line that became more and more familiar ." 

• A L ' I 3 l 1 7 

0-The unexpected put down of his performance exvlains the 

alacrity with which, after a mere fiTteen years of practice, he had 

plunged into politics. He had not love< law but he had been excellent at 

it because he believed in excellence; an "unquenchable belief " as he once 
he had returnec1 to .; _ . 

said. In the post-election stumble.J 

it from necessity, to make a livingj a desire that playec1 no part in his 

politics. Fe was not whoring his gifts but a senb e o:f revulsion was 



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inescapable in a strong man diverted by circums t ance. ~ 

offending A 
went a portion of the~~ i~an~ memorabilia. 

in smoke 

--SPACF --- 1/v,,.._~(;U,.~ 
e put it down to the ~a:rn:txo 1 1s~ id. ----SPACE ---

As unquenchable too was his :fighting spirit. ... ~ t 71, 
Labour 

and ailing, he was challengine; the bully boys, once more on 

the rampage,that, as in time past, when he "and Comrade Arnett anc' 

others " had organised protective cohorts :for their street rallies , 
• 

' 1.(. :f we have to protect ourselves again, I will lead it." It was 

taken seriouslyJ :for at that time/ h e hardly lookeci like a septua­

genarian . He was slim as a blade , his fac e unsagged, his gesture::, 

controlled and illumining, his voice well articulated ,J/1# and 

reassuringly ) if only lightly) wrinkled by the :fountain of accumulated 

wisdom elder statesmen reputedly possess. ~tl -{i.RMJ _) 
~ ~terprises in the last years of his life/~~~eed in 

skill and vigour the way in which he tackled the question of land 

reform . § ,' was familiar ground and he swung with a wi] 1 at the 

ancient tenures that held a majority rootless so a handful could 

hold the most.For its 1964 Conference, the Party hau proGuced a land 

plan, and, naturally as breathing, they were split down the middle 

into "progressives"and"moderates" and causing the usual furore among 

the large landowners a PNP plan never failed to produce . And, as 

usual, N.W. took his catalyst stance to knit the fractious • faction. 

and keynote the land policy. He die' so in a superbly crafted speech 

that left no douut as to the crisis of discontent facing the newly 

1 a r a ~ """-A,~. 

"ith the uncanny prescience that occasionally marks 

history, he had, on a September evening exactly two years before, 

sat and thought on Bustanante's ability to lead the new nation. Busta, 

he reasoned, would be "voiceless" in the sophisticated affairs the 

S""ate would ~ be involved in . He did not see the aging silvery "Chief'" 

inspiring the people into the will ant, effort required to create a 

country. Although he had just an hour, that September e~ening in 1962, 

before attending the calabar Old_Boys ' dinner, he ~,t-into the action 

that frequently closed his daytime activities: a quick 

excursion into the events o:f tLe dayf ,E,_ had that evening ratec Seaga ' s 

statement on the econorqJ.c growth during the Pl'~P regime as , 
1~ • 11n.ll of 

11 S eaga' s nonsense. now, after thirty "'lonths the Busta-Seaga 
I\ 

nutcracker, he told his r~p conference ••••• of his conviction 

that - Labour ' s economic growth-rate could no~provide the will, 



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effort or result 

proud of'. " [ as he 

Ji:H 

to "make Jamaica a country {its people) could be 
--tw\. q-,:u,;,,,;,,,. f_ 

really conv·nced, or was he ~ in the partisan 

exercis 8.) of' - ~aide vs sideJJ ., th~ 1e saw as his kind of politics? 
,,..,,, near 

His summation of' the role an Opposition should play, made 

the end of' his parliamentary time, was that it must be "visible," be 

"lively\' ,be 11 seen and heard,"-- be "felt." }.ot , though, only 

to win elections . For he also wrote that an Opposition must "present 
the 
I\ reality of appearance (and) offer constructive leadership. 11 He 

signalled an understanding of the "democratic one-party state" but he 
believed 

in the alternative method; its high value was the ~e,,J~ 
to change 

those in the seat. Pis emotions as well as 

his truths were inward; were part of', and directec, his politics; his 

intellect advisetl it . He was therefore truest in his work for the 

State and the People, with little subtlety but awesome integrity. He 
from 

nact keen knocked/iiilll••t the game by a poll that lesser men would have 

avoided without dishonour. 

So he fought beautifully in his alternativ-WS .J0for in or out of' power, 
- 1 .. --he had the inner grace of serving his calling, his true bidding, and 

losing or winning was neither victory nor defeat at that good place. 

---SPACE ---

The land reform speech of SEptember 1964 laid down policy guide­
not 

lines that would/be fully employed until the time of his son, Michael 

Manley. 1ro private farm, .t. declared, shoul~ exceed five hundred 

acres. And five hundreu acres, was, he admitted, an error of genero ­

sity; so all the acreage above a hundred acres should be c'evelopec.1 V 
/ unc er a national plan . .And so upwards of three-quarter million acres 

would be availa t le • to " the one huncirect and twenty thousand people 

on the rockstone lands " for them to plough towards decent pay-days. He 

did not agree, nor believe~ Bustamante coul v be sincere in thinking 

that large farmers would volunteer to lease their lands to smallholders; 

and th·erefore he strove for a political solution . But under lawJJ. On 
State 1-lm~ 1 

that he was adamant. No/seizures or private capture . he was, he 

said, com1;iitted to eject the n-:vassa, please, :Massa " syndrome from the 

landless poor. Busta was for using persuasion; could he 

-- - bearing in mind that like the American Tedc'y Roosevelt, he car ried 
/ ' d 11.i.1 a · 1 _/) , ,,;; ,, 

stick and carrot --- have sue ceeded? c.,,,{. i.J~·- '?" 'I ~~ ~ U1A.R-a. , 
on , µ 

The~ joke • - Thir< Worl o count9e recently out of colonial-

ism was _. effort.S to make good !!tarks with the ex- master} 1 y showing an 
-~ 

anxiety to join ~ club. nusta ' s choice of c.c . 8ampbell , the plodding 

parliamentarian from KEstmoreland, in colour creatively black and a 



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had 

I OJ,1 ST' ' RTHiG ON P 1.GE 151::S OF llY MSS/ CHECK ELSA'S COPIES AND SEE HHETHER PGS/ 
156-7 were done. 

---. -(/-;~ 5 ~-;:----- if 
CHAPTER /.) 

The last years wore not tran~uil. There waP skullduggery to be winkled out, 
~uarrels to be s e ttled, money need s to be met, interlopers to identify, ambushes 
t o be avoided, ambition~ to be understood, an ~ffirm, tion of hiF. reasons to 
be tjiven, the young to be summoned, arid a misi;:ion to. finish. As he h D-d in the 
decade be tore, when he . toad astride the ideolo"5' ical 1·actions to s ave the poli:t 
tical process he believed in, he wo uld tromp t he grapes of wr a th J a nd;al though 
not to t he same extent, taste the ~our wines of dif'trust a nd ~ defea t. 

He would be bewildered at the virulence of ~ome of the younger o~ponents in 
the rival Party and would have to do with such curiously twilit intrigues as 
the scandalous "spy letterl" purportedly written by a a ~~rtt offigial to a 
gigh r anking civil An ambu sh th o;,. t could have isc e ifiis })a rty for :,rears •. 

+f 

ra1ooi'ness 
Wh a te ver may have been his .!Mwee:ue in the cuttha,oat business of local 

political infighting, he was no neophyte in the wider wickednesse~racticed by 
agencies of the gre si. t nations; to protect and foster their trade a nd power. His 
well developed wye t'or f a lse witnesses , sharpened in the crimina l courts, saw 
an interloper's hand at wo r¥n an incident to do with the International Confede-
r a ~ionj,f Free Trade )J.,_nions ( ICl<'TU), a n Am erican organisation identif'ied many years 
l a t - r with the ~C~r!al In'ell i~nce A·enc;x:_{CIA) .+ 

+Philli __ • A~ee ' s INSIDE Tii!LJ2QMPANY (Pge . 611) 
The story wai:; being spread amo ng Amerio n union~tha t he and hil'l son Michael 

we re '"'Upporting the BITU application for memb er~hip in the IC!l'TU, to which the 
NWU ,!as aLno ady affiliated. The ICFTU was a labour centre established and cont rolled mer1can by the GIA. In the well l aundered. way of th·• ,..Agency, the he adrruarters of the 
ICl''TU was 1·ar away 1·ro

8
mu ·n1•l~g?½; gton, in Brus s el:; ;.. q '}

0
Bf.fi'?'rl, in tl' ose i nnoce nt 

years, would have r1f zz·.;1 perf idy i L such decent s urrounding~. publicly, the • rn uould h ave bee n proud of its sol.us position as the only Jamaican affili a te of 
tha t clea n-cut~America~or~anisation. Fof~the Leadertaj his son to be sponsoring . . ~ at tne erxcan u~ions wou ~on~iae r o e . an incoming or tfie rat ,: r . crufr,:1y r asci s t:H'l'U.;; was c.9!~An? short of ,.re a son. 
Thus>Norman, and Micha e~ who wa~virtually - tield-iili&eof the NWU , ould be 
seen , .. , in espionage j E.rgonJ ! double-agents. The NWU wai:; the t ough-minded 
union of the bauxite workers employed by the multi-nat ionai 
a luminum companies. De ~tabillisation is a v ery importa nt qtra iegy of ■ preat 

/J10 :·1er spy agencies whose duties incluae protecting t t.e fiil~ n:d trau.e. "I ru11y 
believe there is more in thi "" tha n meets the eye," Manley confided as he p:.'.'e­
p a red t o track his suspicions.[§' time 1ate r, the skullauggery would g row ugiier 
with h is oonvicfio n t nat what should have been a friendly union to his Party, the 
old. 'l'UC, was a "menace which is now very real. '!'hey et money I'rom an anti-Commu­
nist gYoup and have joined with the .1:3ITU t o harass 'the NWU." The result, he 
notea, was a continu<ts "straining (of -he) NWU in time and resources. " The pro­
poS'al to t·etch back Ken Hi1l was strongly linked to the opinio n th ·:.t k'.'en would be 
1 ine in the intt- 11"-union b i ttles --- a proposal that met the expectea opposition of 
Gi asspoJ. and Wills Isaacs. 

~ 1 --B~EAK -s~ature reached true giant . In the laE=t y e~1.r~ ••ta•!ff!9!MiiliMl!ftiihlll1111111111ia . Front r unners 
ga /lop alone . His geni~R gu :-i.ran teed a tru t in the ri hteousness of hif' cau f' e 
th t outpa c ed .what Reemeu to oe the :f~cts. Thf'ilurcli'~t 

1
~t n ad 1·011:}ed the uebacle NOW • •": • : /3£."T''f'l:£4 l ., , . was/\.rightin? 3 c and he ~:aR - on l\.trim, going in again . fine, calm, accurate-

~;d :~!~ ::; ~~~ ~:r::~~d~~~~~g~n~i~~~~~ew~:;:r~f ~~:~d~Rj e~RAtekj&~n]~~~e;:~ nearLYt h' 'd• h' . d scurrnn~ b h d A bea en 1m, sen in is min ■ :q; ror cover, ut e ha re-aPserted and be-
come the ma n who founded a na tion out of many r ~ces , and become one of the world ' s 
more proficient practitioners of the law. Politics had d-.·e him acce~s s to the l Yf t f '11 f • '..(.._ un time • ~ea o po~r or seventeen years, gave 1n for seven, and un~eat im iljiiiillii J 
not,·'i tnstancting tha t his phenomena l gifts had made his influence arb i trar:v i n --



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... 
,:;-ovu1-, u"e11t of c i ther party. unu cod, t he n . t o a.cc ep ting def e <.l. t, u r 7.' l e t o f 

·v.i.le:.rt ind , run.i i ni.; out f ront a s h e d id, tha t · some of his colleag ue s had lo s t hear , 

or ,-.-e .. :e in t h e pro ce:::; s , he wa s l a co nic wi-th Seivright' s pull-back f r om undertaking any 

~ind of Party work ('ko, _.., not now. Sp irituall y unable," Seivright had saidt.I) and 

" surpr ised" by an Arnett article in Public Opinion which the aut rior had ti tled11 P NP 

Failure." He thought tha t Arnett h ::.:.d distorted the realities o f the PNP te nure . 

So it wa s tha t he s e emed to have a specially warm place · in his heart for • 

t hos e who stood with ftim in the last y ears. He made a simple enjoinder to Ken Hill's 

r e turn t o the Party fro m which he, as Leader, had ejected him a decade ago : " All I 

sai d of the past was, ' I am g lad you a:.:- e back.' And he replied, 1 I am glad too.' And 

tha t was tha t ." 
The quarrels to be settled were t he in Lernecine a ,rnasina. tions tha t accompany 

po litical pa rties, but appear to be more fre quent inside the PNP, loaded a s i t was 

wi t h t ille nt and ambitio n . Years later, when the Union workhorse s of the JLP had g iven 

wa, to t he younger, brighter professionals, the jealousies andJtPrambles for powe r 

wo uld p r oduce a similar plight t o t he PNP ' s and rush thell;out of office. Dudley 

Thomp son, Allan Isaacs, Hillf.'l, all h ad t heir day und e r the cutting edg e of his tongue . 

There was nev i-, r a re a l defiance to his chastening . His wa s an unshc:keable place in 

the Party . There were men who we " e weal t hier, older , stronger in their electoral 

base, but he held his ascendance . Bu sta was a giant too,but the bets seem to be t hat 

had he be e n t he PNP l eader, he would have long since been under the arm of the eleg ant 

l a ::, ida tors of t he "middleclass party." 
N. l'f . Ma nley held his pl a ce by a combinc-tion of brains, social sta tus, pe rsona­

li t y . his haruspical gifts for articul a ting and c;;.;z;:;;::;:;:a convincing ly enacting the 

hope{ and ambitions of all the stra tas of class a nd colourJnthe bewildering ka-

l e idescope t ha t wa s his island. The loyalty he commanded w%s auietly absolute; a fana­

tici sm , in fact, that ha rdly ever blazed✓but burnt with a!e~ie~mm~mmmmm~mmiag in-

~

b5"° ··te> , ~ One expl a na tion may have bee n that the absence of Anancyism in his c ha risma, 

G~c£. made h i m exotic to a people grown accustomed to the cha rlatan f a ces of their poli­

t Gcians . He was a sigh of relief, an agent of hope, a reliever of their half-killed 

f a ith; really, a curiosity. They dropped by for a vi sit and stay~ -r;.J,. .. 
1111 

Jt1//.;,,' 
----SPACE -- t,~ ,, i!:7) 

And now th 9.t time was running out --- and the evidence of his wo rds sugge st 

his awareness of it --~he was summoning the youth with all his strength. He still 

had f a ith in the old:'i. for they we re n o essionals who kne}i +h a t winnini:::-_:J,el:ions ._ 
0U"T -, 'H,/' , 1.-11<6 Hl.m, ViTO._,._ l&J..~ -r3 •l'hf,f; 

was t he storyt. · • · - • 

Journalfrt John Max well iells t he story how in the/early 'Sixties, he blocked 

a broadcast pl anned by Wills Isaacs a t the time of t he Claucti~ Henry affair when the 

ex citable Wills O. was for inviting t he nlbl ic to in gpe:o bas~ on all bearded men. Man-
. . .sine Ic wis i~ n1s vt w, 

l ~y had at first supported ~'/ills' i_.,n;-.,rn ence, ou later, af er sober _ thought, a g reed 

w1 th young Maxwell's sta nd. He was ffrneasy at the ascent of youth into -

decision. Since 1962 , he had been calling for their i nclusion. t II I am desperately 

a nxious t.o see the young people of J amaica( d evoted) NP the cause of the country and 

t o~he s ervice of the P .,, rty," he to ld a 1t1::=:=:::::::;~:i7conference in 1965. Charac­

t eristically , he pl a ced t ~1 e country first; but probabl»: , , s in)6!;AI'or him his So cialist 

Party described what waei b est for t he land, the-J:..
0
t~~Y o"n;6e rgfid in°2'ivisible. 

His b elief in the youth was warmest noticed in his rapport with children. As 

h is bosom pal had be e n his gran~-daugh t er Rachel, equal t o his esca pa des and sharing 

his urchin deviltry, so wa s the quick a nd active response of all children to him. 

Cousin Alex's ivell reported rrallantry to ladie~~~atci!ed by Norman• s pull with the 

youth. And though it would have made for fewer votes then, young people come of 

age. And so a likelihood exists that the surge of youth~o the Rising ~un+ grew out oF' 

- +The PNP fla~ and emblem. Curiously, thore ~s no JLP fl M , Qr em:=-
blem, save I'or the rally song: vie will r·ollow Bu~tamante till we die. 

t h0 ir Early l,lanleYQ mores. C"Young ( people ) askf me, ' What c a n we Clo?' Let me tell 

them. \·J e a re building ~, tructures which will wiil ingly accept, which a re eager 1·or the 

s ervi ces, qf. ou J1g people . II' you want to start at the grass-rooti, aont be ashamed 

to go and 
O a g roup in the Party and work ••• 

" Wh a t i l:l the good of talking about 'Out of many, one people• (if) t he bright 

,young p eopl e are not prepar ed to go a...:~.J a.ow n there and Ri t with the b·• refooteCI. 

•y~*i~; c l a ps ooy a nd g irl and t a lk to them and help them to ouild the n a tion. 



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~IJ,.,1- f:o" rj>fc,.lL A ~-R_ ~tJM_ If>--. ~ ~~.,~iy. 
~ ~ ·~ ~ ~ ~~?(~~ . 

.f P/1-ce 



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"Comraa.e l'l ills Isaac s uoes i t . Comra cte u l a s spole do es i t . All of us 
01d time ho rses , we go r igh t down and sit a.own with the peop l e . Wn e n I sit 
1n my ~a rty uroup, I am Ju s t a comrade, like them. NO oi gg ~r, no smalle ~ , the 
same a s t hem." • • 

tie spoke at t he • s i x t y-Fit~~it? congress and . upe rt ___ Davis , ~ 
a ~art y deleg a t e rrom Ve r e who h a s a ttended more Cont·e r; e,n-c~s tha n mo st _peop],e , 
re ca ls t h e spee ch a s o ne of -th ee ..:fe l t moments amo t h e annu a l Pre sidential 

+~d fa t he r of Dr Ca rl to n Davis , the b rill i ant youn LE 
slcientist- ne otia tor who h ·:! ads the J 11maica Bauxite Institute 

r eport s , se cond o nl y t o hi s urh ss ion Accompli shed", -che fi nal ( 1969) JU ... -i;ifica t ion. 
" Lord, if our yo un {p eo ple) wo u1d Just go ( among\the oor) .tfow -i; he 

peopl e would welcome them ! How ( 1, e ;i ll) wo ul d welcom e them ! Whe ne ve r I h av e 
( mana ed t o g et) youn Unive r s i ty l ad s to c om e and talk t o my peop l e , how proud 
t hey have been of theml And ho II they we lcome d t hem ,;,:i t h open a rms!" 

----SPAC -- . . 
A ma n 'I; ho could d i sapp r ove o f iii■ii•J0~~h t h e u ngency of the 

self- s e ~r c h e r he knew how much dep e nded on his, or a nybody ' ... 7 1 ual i t ;y of 
leadersh ip. He was g r owin o l%e r and felt mo r e~ 8r}e¥o usly t he b lows of di s­
h a r mony i n h i s f o l d . ( He h ad ~ t h i s time the eef r.a iv~tyl e o f a sheph erd , i th 

hi ~ flockJ •••••• guid in and c a l ling to awarenes.f:• t h e dan­
ge r of l osing id.e n -t i ty wi t the foldf Ha rd na t io nali sm h ad rep l a ced the fo rme r 
loose r Ca r i bbean destiny tha t h a d broken hi s hold.){It was b ecoming c l earer i n 
hi... mind thf. t in l• ichael l ay more s tre ng t h tha n many im a i ned; 

hi s ha ndlin~ , wi t h r e a t for c e , 
of t he Ken Hill r e- entry, •--..~ was p articul ~rly pl e a sing , since Ken , a trade 
unio nist of the wi dest e xperie e , would be a powe rful f a ctor i n fight i ng off 
t he TUC t hre a t to the NWU. Mi chael was "in g r e at shape ," ( C CK QUOTE) h e 
though t . proud of a brig t , str ong sd n who s e emed s tead.ily on a peo p l e-course, in 
ha rmony I ~ll!.lii)i!6il!N'a•-i'-ll• , •• ,ca _., nu wi t h hi"' day : a Soci al ism 

r own from t he !WI CU; •>all•• n a tive grassroots• --- e ven i 1• the ... ymbols we re 
importe d .+.., 

t+jit h PNP a nd JLP ha d i mportad' J 
a nd the JLP ' s t wo-fin e red V-si n . 

, symbol s : the~~enched-fis t 

But h i s ne as e IC I g [ti ab ut the Pa rty would no t go away . 
Ine ti t ude and a l a cl: of frankness , o truth , ra s act ive■. He r e fra i ned f rom 
ope n co ndemn a t ion bu t g av e v e n t to a e ep priva te an er. 

The impat ience he now stro v e to contain mus t h av e co s t d a r l y , co n i d e r­
i n the many a t t a ck o n his fo rbe arance from t h e ambitio u s men a r o und h i m. He 
did no t doubt hi ability to hold the Pa rty toge t h er, or guide it s drive s . 
One n i g . t in 1937, at Dr umblair , h e h .J.d b een " amus ed" a t what must have b-een a 
d iatr ibelfrom a banancfI! an named Hyde McCa uley , blam ing h Ln fo r h a v i ng " so l d out" 
Jama i ca t o Zemu r r ay and the Unite d Fruit C mpany, t11 nd being " amu sed" a L o wh e n he 
con~ide red the e a s e with wh i ch h e co uld h ave p e r suade d t e cusse r t o the contra r y . 

{§e had b e en you ngt r then. Th e stro n , repeated inv ·i t atio ~ t o t he youth ma y have 
come f r m the ur ency 1:·or fre sh minds unch i n e d t o t __ e past, to t h e old- s t y l e 
pol it i c s o f " s p ite and trac i ng". HL own ideas were , ti ll you ::- and vigo r ous . 

Be l i evin .,a s he d id in dest i ny , of a r e lig ion) a s h e was J i n wh i ch God he ld the 
r e int~, ram bJr~s thff may, ·•ralillf315¥11PMHDWJHW■__. • . _ 'Xi 
■ $2 he to l a ck en t e r _ ri s e.+-N" He h ad articul a t ect his a dve ntur ou.s-

-,1-++Some • fav oured lines :::· a n : Lest whi l e t h i ne eye s by ligh t of ay Ex= 
p lo r e some aspe c t of t he way/ The uncomp l ~ining b e a st tha t c a rries 
t h e e God ' s a n e l i n t h e a.th shal l s ee. 

spirit by hi s- advoca cy Ill of s e l f-ru l e in the days o f g a l lop i ng autocr a cy . He 
reco n i zed t h e impo r t a nc e of a mix i n the politica l _ appara t us : the yo un were 
brav e a nd co n c e r ned wi t h f a ith in an ex i f' tentiali s t s entre, " blowi ng ," a s h e once 

!'laid o f' the youn whe n h e had ju~.t e nte red h is own 1:·ortjes , "lif e like the 
• d II Th l d · ~v-r e,o,H 

wi n • e o we -r e exp e rien c e d and v a lue d cunn i ng . ii■■•••••••• were 
e sse 1;. t i a l . Since his epitaph , aft e r the " Mi ss ion Accompli shed", would likely 



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0 rrelea se n 1m 
returning early eve ning . A/)flting of the ttOUs e woul~ after midnigh t. 
Euna's sp irit !'lagged . She tried for occupa tion, bought a f10rse , took up gar-(!,!!Jg-J­
de ning , lived in the l deat·ening silence, going quietly to pieces. 

Tne i,::, i t ua tion w.3:s relieved.; but only slightly1 when they took a small I·la 
at Mounta in View Ave nue tRegardless n ad been r e ntea) t·or their occasional nights 
in town. It was a bad time for Edna, alone on the mounta ins some nightrwhen bad 
weather .1ocked the corauroy ro a u and No rman could not get through . 8~~At last they 
returned. t o Regardless, in June, 196~~-- P G w, _ __ . . 

He we:. seriously L .l tor a we~k aftct w~nt close to slipping over. And what 
WcJ. S mo re, s e emed ready to go. • D lllli Tne ma n in whom mo s t of his countrymen re­
posed a a si:.:iiona.te f a ith, a nd love , in his loneliness was be1ieving - he 11ad 
t·a ilea. ••He ha!:'\ always b E,e n .·o lonely ," Edna nad worried. a t i;he time of ,;he ,!!;llis 
I-sland ugliness. 

Because he was ~ -ch a co n trite m--,_n , a humb.le ma n inside, the eve ning 
of h i s day s was an6r1nsh~~h1'borne alone oy reason of uis cha r a c ter. f-lt- wo.s Alto(E::c 8§ 

Hc~ ad been looking ~o re and mo r e t i redJ a~d his blood pressure was a 
high. The ni ght before t h i s illness he - dined wi. th the Ken McNeil ls arfl t.n~11 rned 
to Regardless. That night he had the fi rst a ~tack of c ardiac asthma . • ~ morning 
the pressure h a d s t eadied. TCZ@M~fi2jl~i:liW&'.5a1€ Ther e was a party 
planned for Nomdmi and he 41ili••• got leave from his physician to attend. Nc· i thff 
Edna nor Rachel (who was a stern watchdog ove r her " Pardi")was happy at his decisic1 n 

ill on the Nomdmi picnic. By afternoon he was ill aga in. That night I down a at 
- ~ on~e mo r e. 

Regardl e s, the ca rdi a c trouble struck" Q He had ._n b ad weeks and then fel t well 
enough• fo r a holida at Ne ril --- and a week after':- was b a ck a t Nomdmi for a 
f ortnight . omdmi seemed to have been the s ea t of the roblemK. T o some members of 
the f ily/ I t was high, chilly and 
.U the air was thinner and ... not- good -foR. his condition -- but he loved 

,.~ _.,. - Nomdrii;i.. -
I 

- He survived the• attacks and r egained a degree of hea lth t hat year/ 
and lea rnt to love Regardless, a little piece of country on its small plateau, in 
hearing of the restless Constant Spring traffic and the reggae I rhythms of the 



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'· 

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I 

Four Roads bistro s . 
---SPACE t the a nnual Party Confe r ence , 

On ---~--:--""7-:::--~-d~ a t f th~NP. "Given h alf a chance," Michae l Manley was elected Presi e n o h. t " hat f a th ~r had said of h im 5~Zhigz7,3iBZbi~ifiBS1 when h e wast ir een , w 
sibili ties1" 

- - - SPACE --- 8 La t er that ! e~ , ai a nc-ue t in honour o f h i s 75th birthday, on July 4, 196 , Z.Z1M.ilz7.gz13 i ~ - . . On he gave hi s f a r ewell spee ch 
he announced hi s inte n ion of r e tiri n • --- -- . t c a acity and anothe r 
i n the Nat ional Are na. The ~reat. h a ll was p acked /to~ t?-1>;1 ~ ,~-t ~ u,I~ 
gr eat crowd stooa. out s i de _ l1. ::-, ten 1n ; o t~e r e : a~s o II y~'l(~ 

PUT I 1 -

SuPPl6 meAJ, ~ '/ 
~~cc---

7 
0l)i7F IL ;J, 

. ,, ,. 
" And the se t h ings a r e r e lated i n a ver J' po s it ive way t o A.ezg e@t♦ o 1111 ea 
~:9-~~~ g 1#:::®l;;;P t h e r o le of the youn.3" g ene r a tion in our 
socie ty today. Yo u th powerZ in the moder n wor1d i s not a joke . 1 t i c-; a ~ men-

" a.ous r eality wh i ch h a d made ne w lea ue r s and brought a.o wn old gove r nments . -. And 
youth powe r i s t h e r epo s itory of . s o much f a ith and hope and new ene r gy ana • 
unexped t ed dedicat ion t h a t a ny ~waiii ob s erve~will r a l t e r a t the t hough t t ha t 
a y eneration comi ng i nto b e in~~ho ul d not oe mak i ng s e a rch fo r i ts own miss ion, 
a nd i nrormea. wi th a d e sire to a chieve i t . 

" i• y ene r at io n na d a a.i R .,_ inct mis , i on to p erform. It wa8 to create a 
nat i onal sp i r i1\wi +h which we coul d i de n 't i t'y our se ive s a R a people 1or 'th e 
pur po s e of a_chievin i ndependenc e on the polit i cal pl ~ne . I am convinced, 
deep i y convin ced , t h ~t the ro i e of Thi 8 gene r a t ion L to pro c ee d to the social 
and e conom ic r e f orm of J amaica. 

" 1 t i s 'to com:eive a socie t y base d on princip l es of eq ua l i ty, a a nd t o 
r emov e the du,_·,lity tha t spli ts u s o profoundly, a nd t o mul t i p l y the points 
of i dentifi ca tion b e t we en man and na t ion, so t h a t, s lowl y , and I suppo s e i t 
wi ll t a.lee anothe r th irty years a t l east, we ca n b egin to th i nk and feel a nd 
live a s one p eop l e , ma.lc i ng one nat ional g r oup ." 

/ /J 



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~ 1 8 (fjJj 
CHAPTER • Cj v ~4~./~ Xountain country 

Sometime s.it a Uzzic;. tne long wind comes and you see • it in the bend 
of the trees; the long wind stretching unbroken from the hitrh ridge, down and up -r/,/~Oufil-l $-rt9AJ/),S 7µ1{.t;JV <;,r . a:M>- i&O~ again - A the ••ililit"of cedar and eucalyptus, ~ne pine wood ~ and theough the 

valleys,_carrying the cool of t i:e high main ridge, at night 1·re uently 
icy, and the 1 smoke of the :forreRters and homesteaders; in long thin /4 , f urls. A conti~ous wind t hat wraps around the world for the mind to walk on/ \f tt looks t o you at.nd yo u must be a mount .~ in man, liking the high floor of your iwrld 
and the low clo~ 'ti.I ceilings~1!Si•••~, and the ••■• 11 stars faultless even 
so close, to know the hard joy it g ives its children who share it. 

It :as once given of Edna Manl ey th,,. t "there i s a q uality, always was, 
so stark • and va liant, when the laat big things appear. " N.W. Manley 
I IP I had been married only 15 of their long 47 years union when he wrote the 
short tribute t o her in some notes . She had just undergo ne surgery,alone in the 
wilds of England , and cabled him only when all was over. "I was deeply moved at the 
spirit which took h er into tha t without a word to me till it was all over . 11$ 4.c. 
~ d8i •had proven fine in h er crisis,at -:;he time, and he was ques t ioning as 
he move d into his own -- the l a unching of J amaica Welfare: "~ut , can I? Can I?11.), 

~/iftr. He could, and did, each time; and t he_questionings~~c'"~e out of an ~ntfili- , genced wel;_ghed every factor, sought the p ermutations, and having sweated the input, '$/J~. ju_ . -~ declared genius by his onlookers . 
~.w...,~b ~ wt)ul.,, ?'f --SPACE - --~ ~ At :t'our thousand :feet wh e r e they built Nomdmi , the mornings were br~cing ~ven in high summer . On Norr:ian Manley's last morning at Nomdmi, he woke early in J the main cottage. He and Edna were returning to Re r,•ardless t hat day. He was qui te 

weak from thf • illness which •••••• so relentlessly repeated. i tselt for all his fighting it O f. The co ntinuing series o~ s t ra~ge ctep:es~ions had not 
d f 1 1 •■•••••■II' "It is he l l ror the intelligent victim," he once warne a se y. 



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but 
said about riva l medical diagnoses ;a lJ 

(! qr/ 
there was no doubt no,·t"-th" t he was 

very i.tl. 
He dressed and shuffled. slotly 

verandah to the dining room. He 8t ood 
house ,W•■• a ~hort distance away, 
place . Edna s t ood beliind him . 

N~.l!. IZ.CJf.tl 
rrom the bedroom, crossed theA 
at the door. The study, built free of 
was, in his physical weakness, a far 

11 I muS't o to t k .e study," he said - ui etly. 
"But , Norman --11 

11 I must . Just once. I must go." 
she knew th 2t stubborn insistence . And did not argue . She ..,_ moved 

beBide him a nd he rested a ·hana. on her shoulder. They went slowly up t Le 

the 

rise, a ge i:tle one, to the large square room of cedars and blocks and glass. 
He entered the study and went to the desk at the centre . He sat at the a.esk. 
It had been some weeks since he had worked at t he a.esk. He pulled out the 
drawers, turned. up so;,1e papers. Edna, teazzzmzazzzzgza0zzv;z:aza»; busied. her­
self in a corner. - §he rearranged odds end ends. ~he would not t ~ ink then 
of tears. "Tragedy ," she had written in a letter in 1937, "is the inaividual's 
ret\1sa.1 to accept reality." A movement made her turn. 

Norman had got up and was --••• going very slowly to the t all book­
shel ves which walled t wo sides o:t:" t he room. He went along t he bookshelves, 
running his hand over the bindings. Over his books. The blessed books. History • 
.l"'hilosophy. u ic. !t'iction. His passage took him to the a.oor. g stood in the 
doorway .Looking ou t a t the t aller pei!if • 'l'ho"e he had walked rode fllll or 
wat cned ror years. He knew - th~{5 ffP ; S a .._ well; t h~, . .f~ous ones, 
and t he smaller ones scurrying toAtne main ridge. The rmoky-lli ones and a 
the very reen one s shining in the- special mr' rning light. Edna stood qui e tly. 
"One day , 11 she h e.d written in .. .i.942J "the great hand of uoci wiil move 
across the sky and all our ·1i ttle lights wi.i.l cease. 11 

He gave ohe mountains a long1 ~low , roving .Look, the look of a man who 
would not be returning. 



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/ ' 

(_ 3 9~ 
'• :) He turned and looked gravely at Edna. They went back together to the cotte.ge. Later, they descended to Regardless. He 

& NR.HWiiiiMIBU!IJWI!- never returned. 
---SPACE ---

' - - - - - -.# ' .... - : ~ "' . ·-~ -- ~ . - ~ ., 

Edna saip.: "The last few days we we re ve ry close and once I broke down and cried. And he looked at me so strang~ly, as from another world, and I wi hed I handt cried." 
The week before he died he wanted to hear, over and over, the Shost a­kovitch Fourth Symphony and a Quartet. 
"Till one evening it caui::;ed me to cry and he saw it and his eyes -went dark and full of pa in. And we played e:ome t hing el se." 
He had predicted, throe day- before , tha t he would die on Tuesday . Tuesday was t he day of the by-election to fill the St Andrew seethe had reB~ned. The Sunday befo r e the Tuesday, Mi chael came in and N.W. asked him how"-1 e voting - _ oing. "lie was quite weak ; in bed. Michael told h i m the elec t ion would be Tuesday. They argued gently. Michael left and Edna 1·1ent in. "So its Tuesday --- the elec t ion iF- Tuesday. That's funny. I t hought it was t oday. Well." 

bed. 
He was uiet for awhile. Then he lifted his bandsJ a t the wris~off the 

"That day, t he book will be clo sed, 11 he sa id. 
It was. 

--SPACE --6 was, in his upbringing, of a middle­class family on the edue of gentry, who~, not walked, to •••~ high school. Colour , in his early time, had an ambivalence absent from the modern }l~a ~ca . While tpe w~i t~s f 9rmed the "busha" class, every country village a its poorii.white famil Jl'lf. at it ~ head_l.,t he fe 1 low called ( affec ~i·on t 1) " White • " 1 tt " " . • r,l},1>,11,..11::s {, a e y -man, ~mu a , o or Caucasian) ~nose e ually hard-scrabble existence inte-grated them into che floor pattern of the culture . In many cases, the only 



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11 
legacy t hey would ever receive\ias the in 
from the nocturnal ancestor who h _.d prowled the barracoons. The J Manl;,ly 
f a1 ily contact with the landed ruling cla8S 1bT,fM was said by him to be minimal . 
On the oth: r hand, their rel a tions i\'" i th the bla ck peasan try would have been cordial, 
an even fond, but nonethelss of a cert3iif'correctness,.....tha. t excluded invitations to 

sit in• the "drawing room. "The yo ,· ng Manleys ofBelmon-t/Guanaboa were children of an ';/ 
"illegitima t e son of a woman of t h e people", as • N. W. wi t'1 delicate preciosity 
put it, and hi s strongwilled, educa ted "almo l:" t pure white" wife, aga in in N. H. 
Ma nley's wo rds bu t now'~ bolder¥ f i A I IP!' etrokes . • /'rhe home had a shel te r of 
gentility tha t wa s essentially unransacked by the ear'i.y loss of his f a t.i:Je,r and 
the f a ilure of the f ar ily fortune. They survived becau se the width of the Guanaboa 
property ruinate though it ,was, enabled t hem j ·• Ct } 1J

1 
h&

0
1 p oi·n ,-e a.g ,_hie) 

_ _ -chey su:;---vi vo on -J.10 .:;oug :mess o : u :.rg'1!'9 - 1.i :.:- ey w _., ,., 1..1- , 

of ,'111 
he 
the 

f ierc ely , 3.w.1.y frmr thr; de'1.cleLLnc; b own.Jk.i n c ountry b':. r On';.gc which 
profucecl t 0 e est 'l ·'-:t: Bu sh:.s of thn d·-,_y . And. he .:mrv i vcd be ? s u s~ out 
thi...; he . :.:, ,..,bJ et c o, ·-l.:;r·,Jdle tl11; t .10 J~,. 'lie ·1s . 3ec '7.USC of hL, 2, cyl o , 
.:.tt .,,.,'lc ted ·'-'1e bou"'.'~isie , ,.,no. b ·cc,u.se o f his c ommittmer~t brought in 
folr<: of h 1.IP.b l r: inc ome :,nc s1;...,tu s . 

iii:; r onp,~,~nr:.c an.1 ~r" ,::; 0 ... ri t;y r:cc implish•;.1 f o-:- t½e co untry v .. h •:t he 
h-,;_: :et ou,- to o.o t11.· 0 t d:1y i n T"riy , t>irt,r- on° y0 ·:-,•ns before ; 'lDO h8 

ou s e d )_ J' oeoplP '~o hcig11 ts of think:I.ng , 1.n 1 ur.. cr····i-~::d.ing , --i 3 nobo'.ly 
h'd .. , ·Tc bJfO"C · ;,nJ h · f·-:t11er130 n'1tio~-------------~ 
rH., -:;s educ,;, -n .:;7 fu ce for ·,:; ~e -c,.3k , ~n • irlJ "J.n:l ~fiel·Ld-ono hou .:;e j in 
onc - 2:'o orr ::-•,.r'11 s l1oolhou:::,P 3.n(i Jer·u3 8 0110 , , Oxford , 



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The cspl-:m-::.de i:i f::::'ont of t 1c P':'tr:i..·s 11 Ctm~, ·, i·:::, ::,ol F:r_ lid for r r·" ­

r.:toni-;ls . The church is r..-;mrd ~o_.,,, St ·r11op,s th8 Jp os-'.:lc , '1nd likn it s 
,ncicnt -:;·;:ions or, hr·s, -' ,: its time , ri3ked i-':::s portio~ of cr,_lv· ,tion . • 

'hnn tho i. ty ,. -,_s 1 'l i d ou:·,,, s ft ri r tho 1692 e.,rthr l 1.ke, i-h"' mi li t 1r ; 
b.r:-~rr,cks md !Ylr,.ae grounds werP :p l ·J. c ' d 3.·.:; -:-he centre of the uncom­
p.:::-omi s ing choc ~-rnrb o 3rd design9cl by .,n unim;'O(c in-:i, ti v e .'J.rmy on,n:re--~ ..... 

. - .. - - .,., , - ----.,.- - - .. ___ ~ -· . 
-- .- - - . - - - - -. -- ------- _,,_ . .• c 3. lled 8olon 1 Li l lie . L-=,_t ~r ~he b 

ren:ovcd to Up P~rk C'l.mp , ou t sicle ·che city lif'1its , 1nf_ th,-=; p ,.,.,_ ft-!.lll.iil~ .. rLu 
c "nic the Victori ,'1 , or P.3.rade , G,.,_rden J . 'I' r::: c llu--rch v,,33 ruino 
1907 e~r thquake 5nd W'.3.S .ebuilt in 191 1 . 

The esplmade, or South P"J.rc1d.e , is four blocka lons ~~ .. ,,...,, 
t o con >dn 3. regiment . It h as ~ gr3.ce , for down i -::s 1 
the trees , shrubbery and or n 3.Illental iron f r:mc!ii s of the Gt 
9.cross the ro:,.d i s t he st1.tely church,. .-::.nd .s ome no t unh .,md 

[g_ur iously enough , KingJt on is not '.3. c ·1- th r;dr:J.l ci +y , 1.l though 
church is more often put into S" "V'11J'ice f or St?.to s olemniti e 0 t h'1n 
older church, the Cathedr&l of St James , Jdlo ,· 1 1 , i~ th • ol d 
c 3.pi t3.l of Sp3nish Town .; it i s the only An glic .3.n c , the dr,l in the 

· country . 

The c enturies- old city church h ,. s b een as m 
of doubt ,3.s +;he s.::J.in tly sceptic for whom i t /ns 
3.go, ,,_t the time of -~"he IV: or::mt B.'J.y uprising , its "' 1iL.. 
Te Deu.ms .3. g'.!:'-;.teful Est'1b li shm ent 91!1 rendered f o· 
St'1te h3n gings of Bo .l e 3n d Gordon , bo ~h no~ N3. t i on ­
cou:i;:le of c en t ur ies .. ~:qo , one of it :J Rectors ,..,~ b 
h'mged in the P:J.r:::.de to owning .'} pri V 0,te ,' int i 
ho IJ?.nufr:ic tured hj s own C,es3r ' s He'1:J-f. In it :::; p..:r'~ i! ,r n:omen t~ , it 
1:"ns d i rged ·~nd bu:i::ied ins id ,:_; i +;s ,,, .-,_11s ...,u0h e"l.rl;y Er:rrni::::'e lumi n .-,ri -o 
3.3 Arim i ::''11 B~nb ovJ •••••••••••••••••• "'.no. D

0 ::::-£'orn.ea_ its 
1v ..., tins .. , , the vi si ': inis \,ue n El iz'1beth . It i :::; v r., ry 
Hia;h C11.u·,ch , 2 h-:. s " -Pine h igh .1.l t,r a nd arI:~"ittfj ~~1. :t: .--,dy chs.pcl . I-':; 1~.s.1 ~ 
merro~ i ,ls con~'1in ou~st sndin~ ~o~ks ~-d ' ~~00~ '1 ~ '1ined f 7 '1ss . The 
o:::- ~'1r. is ■ rm Pd Pl ol le,' +h3.n t hs rc,buil t 
chl'.5. rch 3.na t11e bell i s "ncier-.-!::; ; botb h9.v e ,gAd we ll ,.n d 3. r 0 :--plondi d.­
ly -:: oned . The borJ.~.' of . T . -. H-1r.fe7 woul rl be ]_ .-, i d ~n st.'J te bef0:'8 the 
hi 5;11 1.l t 1.r. 

But the::-9 were oth · r p l1.ce s t o t-:,.'.z~b im befo r r: ttie Nq J;; i o~>2-
"1or- -~ge . 



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I 

7o s-rR-r-1= IN ,fl-e: J-JAL-L oF 1-1,s P/l1eTy oN ,He 
-; 

/iNI> OAJ f_l}Tun..J,ny Vt)OuL1 P.:>FGtN ~01e r14ecnT NrJT101.1~ .;,;:IJ6e ~ 

O p --rvJo t>fJi~ 'f6 -n-1~ ~ilJG ~7tJN rsa1✓H '#v/2.c H 1 

t# {v11b1ry,.._~ 
tt::::' :i :-~v i te 

"Let us :pr1ise f:1mous men ," P,.,stor H· gh Sherlock v,; ould,.':Z J!·., IN rHe 
.._. ·--ift, rnoon ••••••••• t,1<:inc ·cho te~t for his or-::..tion from 
1~!!18 Apoc·ryph 3. ·"' - - S PAC€-

T!b. the ,·,s f1r1ous, ·•ns un"lc,ri'lbl"· . In hi.s ov,~ 1-:_nC::. , the 
solL • ..:;urse o: J iR .:::-rj 0f, '; he OW:_,. Ill ~·~ -~ 1..,ilsr::..rr,. 0 s 
to :: t~«,..d outside :1a g,.,rdl':SS, or on th0 p•-:ve1rcnt bJ f'o ·e ~-~1e IIJ'.lt 2i181LT ; 
funi:? ,...,1 p-:::rlour , 'f 3Afx .r:cte1. Pu'· 1:hg,ho1tpouri."."l.gs of c1bL.~ ,nL~ t I ;~ '-h ,o. m.,,11t;. « L ,...-., • • u e t ... . t • c·::i .::i -,., e /f o 1°u., _?r1°s 1n"-cr0, - ..:..O.!'~ign ne•1spqpe:rs J wore oo 
treirendous o h:,.v.., bcnn for --se en) considering he ,. ?.S ~~ poli tici .,n out 
of office for many monthc7 '3.nd retired from p u.hlic lif s . It W3.S -:J.S if he 
was .::;till he'Jd of :,t.'.l~:: e . ueen ~1 iz1beth cen ~- her p':rson,.l con,'.olcmce . 
So did the le .qders of the Afric,,.,n n·i..tions '1nd frorr both sides of ·'.:he 
Atlontic . His ol ~ f f~end md .,_dmir'3r, Iiush Foot , by thon m'J.de lord 
C:-i.r'3.don 3.nd sent ~ -che U . K. m3.n to the Uni -c d _:r:1ti on.:; , itcmedi '1te ly 
bo3.rded '3. fl ight to be in J3.r.Jaica . r,·::i:µ.y he'.'lds of C..,ribbe1.n gove,.,;·ments 
c ame in , :3.l thou ,h .3.mong the o:'.Illllissions w.ss lJ11&1Sit?&Y El Trinid.,'J. d ' s 
.J::ric 'rlilliams who sent m ob scu"':'e Sen'J.tor . It ::e•'Jmed "'s i f :r . V' s A S 
p'.3.rt in the foundered Feder'.3.tion would :r:ot be oui "~e r.i.bsolved by his 
cle::1 ·.:;h . 

He ll, he vns '3. Sc!'V3....'Ylt anr .3. Le~der , P::-irr:e ' :inistr,r liug.h Sbe.3.rer 
h~d s:~id l iilD. l-;ho d.,_y he died . He h3.d pl8.iji i»~ t extr.,ord.:in."rily 
difficult role :~she s'J.w it . 7hatever i-he H: • of tl1P. pl-:,.y, his in-
tegrity w.:1s int'.3.ct . Inc..ced , de pencd . For :1s no m'1n be-fore him , o~· si:--ce , 
his s~,y e h::;.d ex::.-- 1:=dned democ ·-~~cy f o -~1:1...., fi::'st time in J"1T1'1ic ·:: , -:L"'1.d II\! 
~--,~ much of ~h world. He h;.rl ·vi ,-h delibe 'ltion, showed , 
th:-t no fl':3..!1 W'1S :r.J. ,.., ..;;rpo::'t,nt trnn the',;p e"'op~ .. ___ ;.;......._ And. th1t 1•, '3.S .... 
a-!de ocr3.cy ~ ':;lie Gre9ks h.-::rl ... atriven ~- o . d line'J.te . 

Foot summec. it up in his book , ri ::TrnT r:r F-=?E"3;...,0M : "• It i s n'1tural 
to look for f•rnl t s :ir.. such --::::--. ou~~st';.ndin&; D.'J.Yl . nt •.vr1'J.tev9r fc;_iline; .: he 
h"ls T'.'.' e f--:,r outweig:1,')d bv h i s positive <1u s.litif's ... " {j-"or , error or 
truth , wh3. ,ever- 1~he V•"rdict, h--- h1.' shed light on p·1rtjcip::mt g ovrn•n1.nce , 
the quit- rent of fT·ee p oplrs . {§nd hi.: pco_nle WP ·c g ..... .,teful . So 1~hey _s3.id 
they .. oulr'l bu!'y '.1ir. 7 n t½.e pl3.ce ,·,rkc .fo_ X'lti.on,.l HP-roes . He .V"'..S not 
yot ,. ... ,.tion'1.l Hero . Th'1t oul.l corre 11.ter . Yet it 
w~s _ ~ from ~he F3.rty in office whi h i~cluded aome 
impl ::-c ,.blP f o,...,s . s11,~ar0r , howevf,r , rsmembered we 11. "His por3on·~l s2.­
C::'.'i fices (for ) J'1r·1.ic . .'..l ••• these 3.l'C hi3 r:10nuricmts . " J .. St,.tc ?un<>:- ,1 , 
they 83.id , ;rnuld be his . 

..SPfllE-



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CI-IA f.JT€1<. b--'<.IV'"'v'V\J~ ~ "".:''1.~ ..,..._ 

uh ' ~ 
WGW~11. Thursd 3.y, hell 1-:dd in ~ -~ ba"" I:NP P,3d:-i u .3...,, t 0rG 

·.1 t 23- 25 South Camp Road, the orn.1-te Vic·': ori3n ilk& r _Wli@kJhl# ! ,iliC t , 
the fir.st owned home of t he P.3.rty . It h;. d con:r.10Ji ous c;ro m d s for : city 
resider.co, one of t he upper mi6dle inc omr; hom ~, s built ,li~·?f'lhiil 
~~~~ ,?.round t hP turfl of th-'J !:!entury v1hen 
thefrod~ro.;.q) t he oui~skirts of the City . The rooms ,-,r ,: 1 1.:::::-ge Gnd 
hi gh - ce11:mingcd . It tou , like th':: P:3.rty , b.:td movm vict ')r :v ,.nd def0' J.t ., = tl 
showed 'it . ;01Nhe re i s po l ittcs in ?1.11'l '.)i C8 so cle,-:, vsly ch r:_· •1-ct ·ri s cd 18 

in th8 • co p or?.t0 li f estyles of the .r:J.8.jor t ,ce unions '1nr.. ~-he poli tica l 
p :~rties . ·m1ilo b o-t l:7 t he ~ 1J -~,n a t '1e BTTU h?.ve e Y- ?ctcd t tei.1 ... own wo5 c Jt

1 y 
h~,na. s omA he"l.dQusrtm:s , -::b e :;:--•,;p ?.nd t 1e JLP g 'lnc-lions occ ~rnt conv,..,rt d 
ch,; e .ling :-,., · ith t h e Soc·:.list s d i;::; t ir,c.tly t ~1 0 ~: o.,..e 1. ' 1:'.. "·0c·r.1r -~lly i -~O"­
t "'nt . Yr; s tercl.'lv they took h ::. m 1; 0 •-1-).-3 D .-, ty hr,:3.clqu ..., rters . 

Th·:y l ci i c h ::. m in th e r" ·n :! ,-,11 "i t 11 0 1 ~10 :k · n --1y~ o~n i n.,. "'n 1 t h 1 

f i . .:>.:; t of 110 r/1 -J'1 orrr•r or1s of : ee~, , i n+ "'~ 0 , 'J" ",·or ·' r our n ~ n~ 1::ly 11un ­
J:,ed.3 of tho u. sr~rn,3 of h · :::, cc:1· 1,ituon ts, cor,merccd . Fo"' s ix h om:3 , t he 
do ubl e linr- c1f pe ople mov erl p,.s~~ t he bier, :in srilid :-ro •,, s, qu.'.e,.;ly; e·Y­

cc:p t for '.:; h e sob s J.n d. t h e occ1.si on'l.l con: pu sj_ve wh:\.ane::::-s a s :1.1 o y 3 <:'\W 
the l e en d clo;:;e up, wi +:;hin t ouch, nnfenc0a. by t}Ppomp o • officP o:r· 
t h e n G~ur al ci r cu:r1st 'lnc E: t 11,.t onc e h-:::'l WJ.l i.,;: e c1. wi t 1 h i ·0

• 

w,f{ ~ ,v"1f10NcJ fl~g • 
T 11c ~ of fin .,, .., s dr ,.p'?d'l~~Af!bt re ..._ but o one w:.17 W'1S 

c~1c e:nbl 1'm mo 1-e 1.ssoci ?.te a wi th .:. i ~A •11\t th:., s cv on-ye -.., ,...-ol cl ----
ins igni ·1: the Risir..g Sun b:.nne r of his Party . The shuffl c of f0et • 
trapped in the ri tu ,_1 m'J.rch, t he s low fJ ov.; of t 11eir pt-,ssinp; in ia'1lbic -

* Alre3dy being c ·1lled Cld H.1.rdshi.::? b c,c::rn :· e s ome 
gaunt minded ,-,:; ~~~-~~~b~~~-::M~~~~~ 
offici :3. l h 3. d "'"'xpl .. dned" 1~l::..'1t the blnck in the 
colours repr e sented 11 h:,.rdships ov,,rc ome . 11 

C3.den~e 0-s the y worked by the m.-,__hogmy c qsket , the side- bent of 
the puzzled v erific '3tion in the eyes , in the pc uli--;X'ly hurrying 
walk3.wn.y , knowing, but not believing, for awhile , th'1t the gi-:1nt lJ::,_ d. 
f-:1llen, th .-,__ t the ti t .. m 11--,d died ; so the Party m"lde its f-:;rewell . ¥,'. "He , r,· 

the New York Times sqid in :~ twin- ~ol unm ••••■ obitu?.ry, 11 lnd hi s 
country to Independence . " 

He h~d b een out of p ow 
t he g8t e '1nd opened i ~ ; ,-,n .. 

r on L11.dependence D:,.y , bu-s hA had led t o 
s o the v'i Orld '1c kno·;:led ·ed . A.nd . SO , ::, 

~ 1.t r-1rty h e 3dqus:rt ers, t h 0: y t hqnkC'd him fo,.., le-:,.clinf?; to thr> g ?..te . 

3.:arJ.y .on .:.'rH!'J.Y o ·n i n g- ~ ·1 
t ,rough t h o ...,r..tst 3tr ~t g,~t ·.., of •• 3.,,j;, Is, ~cs •- es-'::; ·:. .... .., i"' . n-c 

an d •••••• p r 0ceoded ·e·--~':< .:rd to the Srnr..is h Town . 0"': . 
CB P l Motor c ycl e e s cor s xd/off::..ci·;. l C'7-:'S p.,., .ed· d .a ·i-hP, 
he::;.rse 3. 7 ong t he no3-rly empu:v ro-;rl J but a • e ·t1 'J"' "" ly workers • 
identified th~ pro? s s~ion _ f ::ir v?h,?..t it W'1 S J ,?-nd s -:i.lu·i~•-· d it s f':'.S!i~, 

Some raised ~heir fists in th0 30- y e'lr old 2~l~tn, fi~ ct 
mr?.de popul :.r b y the y 0Lu1g men Q.( i· hc P '1rty LP ft J :.1:2d needfully 
1.dopted by the Mode:r1-tes J who': ng-;.g c l with aw,p:w'3rd eye .-:,.s they 
p oked slo ,1ly G.loft . You could f::drly t ~11 ho w f·-,. r from ce:ntre 3. - , 

comr'l. a.e l!!llllllllt .:;t ooa by• tbe '1.Uf le of hi s -;lbow ,n".l i- 1 9 bol rln0s s of t1' • •• 
cler c:h . Full s t retc h mo --;nt q to~-,.1 comrri ttm::;nt to ,-ha 1 0ft , and. 
dirri.inishe d tJ.s t he mgle of elbow inc e .-;sed ; so -'-hp Ri.ghti s ts cr.ded 
cupping an • e-:,.r . A mischief ~ som 0 ·'· ime s , '"lppe"l. n d to bo -i_n thr; cor­
ne r of his eye when N. '.'l . p e rformed tho b:r.s,v,'1dOj but his own elbow w.r:...s 
usu"J.lly ~t the ::,.xis, so sre,3.ting the excitin.3 dyn ';.mic the P'Jrt,· v;;ould 
n9ver lose, in victory or def eat . It w2..s '1n exciting Q P Fr:,,...t y in 
vi~tn~v OT' defe3.t . 



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w.3.s t oo h:i rd- 3.~ , ed -o b o ele1T,'1n t : but 
hr:d o. m1.scul i.ni ty th::d; snok e h • s c ~yl e ~ 

T .ey rnmer.1bcied hin ,'.ls h-" h'lrl bC"en . He h'1d?. lesn look .1.~d u,:1lk , d 
·1..11 

1

10Ylr'd , .q ~ tire , Lu1hu.r.,.._ied stri"Ci.e th1.Jc ~'lv e thf: ·hin t .. of o. lope . -~­
He h1.d '3. c rt1.inty, r:i.n 'J.bsolu ~P.ly c -::rn'1bL, niG.n ~ho t·1c klAo h i s p ro­
b2- un s vv i -h z0 3t , with •~11.0 will to resolve . e • wss unr'<emon ,-:; tr1. -

, tive, P"-l"tic ul 1.:,:, y in p ubl i.c b ut those w11om he liked spok0 o • 8 

rar~ w1.rrath. , H b1.d q deep , 11i et love for c hil~re~ who ~9 sponde d 
by svi"'.1.r ,. ing him . 'Zhile h G.Vo i cle preten~-i.ous p ople , he c ould be 
,1.ff l i ifc tl vel y h ttmble '.Vb ere r:i. c re'.J.ti ve a c om ,')lisbm .n t r n -:1c hed the 
excelY enc o h ;;., v~ lued . Fe m":l.de r.;re1.t f r i en ds - in t 'l-J.e :~ ts -:,. d sr:i.w the 
re:.1l i ty in - t he ,nd e :3.vours of p'.lin tc::r:- s 1.nd p u ilists , wri t10 s 
or 'N e,:..v .rs . e w~s gEm.tl c r t han mos t of his co .,::-;. e s , · ·c ept fo r 
Ver non Arn et t ~rhose l i ed , '1nxions f , ce nn qu i et s _ • 1 e m1. ked :1 

c.edic 3.ted m:::,n , on e o • ~he b 3n d of xt ..., o:-d • n ..., v •• • p opl e wh o 
g:3.ve up snfe 3. e e r s t o s erve the po orlin g F3.rty f,.. om i t s fotmdi ng . 
YetJ'!c oul d b rou sed -: o fury when he "' 3 ne th-it if 'we cre2te 
3. stro ger and r icher middle c lass .3.n d a sec tion of pri ­
vilege worki ng- c l ass a r i stoc r1.ts, the m"l. s s e s -:,t the o - om wi ll 
g ener s t e a h e:3. t th -:, t wi ll blow us "11 1 up one d;.y ." 

He roused the c ountr y ' s J,:;hin kers b e c a u .:;e h spoke of gres t 
,.. .'}!!ls , but w-:i.s pr.3. gm ~ttist enough to d ecl 3.r e t h1 t hi s conc ept o f 

de oc r -s.c y w3.s "wh t i s p os s i ble '.-:tn d :-:i. cc ept .-:,_b l e . " .hen. he lsun bed 
the c .3.mp .3i gn for uelf :rove rnment ow!, "h~ d I been 3-ske d, in 
sec re t, I wou l d h ..., v e s ::> id (i t will t :- ke• ) te years 6.t l e:3.s t o " He 
wa s l awy er enou gh to d eo.l s r oongus o* 

*JAm~ ic An for G ruse c 
He knew it ~.~.1 6ul d b uphill a l . thl? V•: 1.y , but countryboy t h"1 t 

h o '."'1 8 , h ,-, r•e c 'k:on ed '-h-1t l i ko the hilh·, omi:;n of th0 rugged highlr:nds 
:1.bovc Gu'1n"1bo::1. , ·vho :;e bod i es woul ·" ·45 1 1 wi·1-h nuic k = ease , 

into t he bc'1rin~ .st 0 n c o , s thev hoi s t ed ~h0 b 3.ncr-:1 to -~head cott a 
we iVO Uld lean ihto th0 line of OU bu d n 1. d c limb w:. t'l-J. rt .1.. i nty . 
And he ev er W"l.S t o os his f s i th..,ancl pri rle.> in the e op l e he h-=:_d 
led s o wel l . 



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qre- "the 3.ppur1,enanc es "'GI1'1.v c,e11u l,UC:.L.1.· ;:,c; v ca .,__,_ u .L A ..L, -4- ,__, . 

16 

---SPACE ----
1' '1 .. _,\cvill~, i-:i.Je :: oun.,--c: in capi ':.l of ~.~';.rc:10.ster , hio bL:--th- p..,rish , is 

high ■ .. & zli~'l,C . ' cs,; 3 ~-
•• s}l-:nd. gr a An , '1nc°: on:-" tri ~ .,,. ,.,tirement .,.:: 0·1Jn for old En~l i sb. co lo­

ni. 1.1;:; . 1':b e ton js ,-::, -r -"n ~i? '1 of' an y ~h"li-3h 1·:r&-t'lgt , ths vjJl't?;e green 
'3. c e ..... en l, re. 1.nc. ,.,r-ou i- ~-h,.., pTr>1sh cburch , -< courthous c , m-;rkct , -

civic offic es ~ / shops . T-'- :;.s seven :rrd l es "'-:ro Roxboi:ou--i:~ , hj_s birth_: 

pl 3.rc . • T11ey 1:-iid him ::n st'1tA in +he :9--,-y,j sh c 1~u --ch , c, 

s+; ·1 tely 2ton ~ building j n fj nc r:;roun• 1.s . For • ou _ .1ours , ,,.., g-:3.in th .... re 

w1.s ",he r; leg iac g ,'3. i t of mou-~ning fo lk who h~ rl come up to t 1c mo int'"'i n 

town . ?o~e th'1n 10,000 wcul~ vie~ t hP body befo~~ they clo8ed the doors 

,:;c p·ce_p-A~'g for th0 SP-rvic,- c 0 lebr"'~-3d by the bishop, • Sw'J.by. 

t:nd •••••• o fte · w3.rds t'F'Y t ook him to Porus . 

- --SPA~E ---
The boy ,-0-rr'"'n v.1ho h,.,d liv"d ,t ~oxbl1rgh u11ti.l hE' T:,.. .:::eve~ , 

woul\1 ••• L,.,\T(' r0~;;·1rdeJ Fo:ru:, 'J.S his town . 01c Sw Va·:if~ ..... J7 h':: 1 his 

bu3iT', rs • - there -mi it ll.r s c:t.07&,T
0
•-••••••••-• "Roxbu":'g1.1 by 

the 3oy1.l Fl8.t ro3. rl, It -ns to the n01N- b uil ,c (1885) r.-e-' '.rndist c :urc h 
a a ;.t _ .... orus th-:,. t r..~"J. r gsr~ t ~':1.,~ley h:Jd t'1:.r-on h...,r 3on to br; rnceivea. . 

So in the vnrm ; s olic itou s ••••••• unler .::: t '1nd-i_ng th'Jt Sh '1T' r h3.d 

tiken ••••• direc tly s t th- p'J.ssing of his P"J.r ty ' s hiof riv,1, the 
cortege , 'lt the PNP 's r eque st , pG.U 3ed on it s w-::,,.y J.o,J. '~he, nount':in '3.t 

t he • ni::e vjll:;.E'-'.::. of Por11s, L thr; 9.ft0:rnoon . 

P d
. . ~......,, 

orus , o ..... : n-::rily rerosefu l _, ••••••• wqs D'l kod -1-0. ifue ? _ I 
o f chr; long , .::;tr-.1 i h t m1.in th'tt is the vill,ge . It i s red cl ·:;.y co1m try , 

striking. y 1.ttr 1.c tjve in the contr'tst of gr9en s c~ne ~n d 1:ed e -::rth . It 

W'J.S nr:;.mcd for the Fo ..... rqs brothPrs , the • r Pbe l sibling:; wh o h1.d c ,used 

Columbus muc h grio • on the co':l.st, th~ ti.mo he ~ns sllipw ..... e c ked ~t Se- . 

v ille, S-.:; ArLri , for 'l yPqr in l f/9- --. Po ..... us h·,d bee!l cho-:;en b~r 1\- . l . Y•"''1rs 

b efo-Pe (not u.n::-'el 3.t ;d to '1 n-:t1.l (ns:;cent ??? ) 5 entiment) fo r the • _· r s t 

l ,rge o:-n::-luni ty c entro in his ,T::ua i.c,. "/91 ·".3.re pro...:,r 'i.mme . I n. _ 

the .::-.c l'J.st d'lyc• of bis jou::'n yings , b0 ri1-C n c~ver be"":r near--. r h one , 'ff.;.J. 

his townsDenl turned out to ho~ ou .... 1,-, :ir.i . 1T11~y we.,...e st-; 11 _p..,ssin -;-l:c bi 0 r · 

v/h ~n J._ short t wili(?.'ht ended ~nr: he R,JV OT'end Ashl ,~y '3 .,..i th b eg ,-,n th 
service n.,,·ec ed·~n 0 

the eulogy . .. • • 
' 



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of the west, from the r:Jin sl opes of the e3_s t , an-..1.. from the southern 
savannahs , 0.ll the land turned to the old stone church in the c;fternoon . 
The great swelling cro wds f illed the v.,.st square e:icomp·:issed by the 
~ Far3.des 5.nd flowed up the ,, '3.lls ::md roof s of ·che buildings G.b out i to 

·And the~e were t h os e who could n ot c ~oss the mount"J.ins so they 
st:J.yed '3.t r"J.di o and television sets 3.nd so it w0 ,.s -111 '1 po.rticip.mt 
l and . 

It 13.s c 1reful pomp . A sr:lute of Gu:irds of tlonour , J-nd s low-wheeling 
Colour p.:1rties , and 3-ciff- f3.ced y oung "'old i ers md p olic emen , i n full 
d :c ss rmd ••••achn.in ed helme ts , cn.ught up in the dec LJion of their 
heri t3.ge that they should 1.#, wi i,;nessos of ,'1 no ·i-'3.ble dep,.,rture . ·.ro m,qrk 
i:;h0 ••••■ de:")"1.rture of an .mcostor so tremendous , only o. n·J.ti onal Gir£ #11A1, 

v ould do . 

The C QU!''Ch fill a_ ;JS r r·pi Uy '18 the Squ,,re . The ,.,ccomod'3.tion W3.S 

lirr_i ti;d to ticket hol :ir::rs '3.n•7. di :,tribut • on l ··-:--gely oL PNP decL:ions . * 

*Ye'.3.r.:5 13.t,3.,.... it ?3 _,he tttrn of tiie p-r;z,~ov r.r:1:.ent 
3.t Bust~m,:.nte ' s J.e·;.th to pl '1Y r::, :;irci .-.r ·-.ole with 
egu.J-1 p.;:r3.ce . 

ing.:-tllE'-."'ing of politic·~2. oppon :mt.s so • ,rJi le i was 
l i ' en,, onl • i;o the ino.eoer_dc11 e night; 30, in l is de · t ' , hn h-c:A forged .4GJ9i 
~ - ,,. f? A -E-- • ;fi<,.,~SW,v P4RtSH 

'I'h r; C :.Skc G W'::. S borne b;y.- s oldi cr s of t LC/ J , riic:. • De eY' .. C8 :5'o ce 
in 3c·J.rlet ful l dress tunics md r e - entere..d the i church on ~.un·' "'J. y :.ic 
1 . 45 -- p .m . by the g"':'? 'lt Sout h do or. ~ • ~---· .. ~ 

-. ,d b e en t 1ken f ,:,om the c 11urch G"'J.rli c r th·1t d -1y 'lt 
t he fin •-i l l y :inr:r -· n J W st ·:;. te ·"n cl .'v ?. S no w y·etui ne d fc::."' the 

f ·inn.,,.,, 1 "" .,,..v1·cn ,·h,, li"r'' c losed ,..,n- t ': e l ,.., st of him s eel.l . ..,h "y d:.·.r1:p od 
..... , __ , __ - r;...., . v , v - ,., u ..... , "' .,, 

i ~ in tk~ n 1~ io~,,1 colou ~ , of bl~ck , ~~n9n ,rd gold ; ~ c :.u t iou a c l?th, 
wi -{:hout fl ,.ah or r'l ·,unt, sombre but br,v ,:ly d ae:zi~Z::fi~~eii!lf'..,.g3"fs-ke,. 

- ;@l&ia8k sz-. b ,...,.,.~ ;r .. :; ·-h,1 T,,,.k nrs ' .9ro'7.i 38 :;o push bcyonr1. •c: ,
1 v...,:r ·::. i t y ; a 

b,.:'1..ner in _.~ he c·--.0~, :ion of · hich 1:le 11,..,· h"'J.r cd : 11 golcl , cross ed on :: -eon 
• · " h l 1 "d f -~ -,_nl bl:.c.c<: tri~;n ln::; . " fo h-:1 like d it . ''V ' r 7 good , o 1,., c~ s,1 o : lv 

l rt ~Tune Of 1962 • 
., - SI >/J{ e -

~ . ::-, enter ed the churci1 -, few 1 inutca before three, vith Dougl 3. 
::::nd i c l'r:lel, ······•• No rn··n' o Si3tc.r , ·tE·icl, .::h0 O:!"ly QYJ,E., 

of ''lr~--:r.;t' ..'..'uu:r· c•1il::.. ... • n \..l :c_foZ-~>: "'•h ' ,'". Jo11_c,:,l · . .J' 02"~ _.,. •0
·-~ . ;T' ·, 

Michael' s s on Joseph , ,J.Ilu th~loved R c h.cl , • ich3.0l ' s J.3.ughtor; , 
followed ~ .. uickly b y Govo::-nor s · r C_ifford. C..,mpbe!Jiili md his wife . 

St:=>ACc-
The 0e.rvi.ce V'3.S R-C cording to Anglic··m ri tos but 1.s -m ecnnorrico.1 

g:J.th·ring of c l')rics , inclu-.ins ,P"'.s-1;ors of oth ·r floJkf' , C1.tholic pro-
J r::,t s , r--r·o.::/cost.mife_~ ec ted.[; ; o....."1.d a R-::bbi . It beg-u1 lfli i:;h tho prie3ts in 
proc" ssion to th8 '11 t'1r intoning- the -ent .nc •G , tho"':L,2,o l emn pronounce­
m0nts of p ortent md confort f ro.r:i the Bo ok of Co ~on ~rny9r . ,,(1i't the high 
alt~,r , gl owing un ·er ili 2 f,?m0d st~inoc1 glass and. t"p,-rs , ~'-t• Bjshop of 
J:l ..,~_., -:1 , John uwaby , C . B. E . , the 64- ye 1.r-olu f o·nme:r' suf fre.g.qn , h:.·l ~~he 
s6rv cc . In ~~he c h2nc•1l , :?Jrong sev 0 r'1l others , s·"t t, c fort' rirllt R vd. 
A.shle.7 SDith , the ye .3.r's ch..,irm.~An of 'he J '3.Il'l'3.i C, Chr-isti ,?n Coun~il, the 

~JT 3 ~ucc :ssfully strivin~ for ~ill. e c umeni cr:;l vision ,uriong '~h~; "1::::2or:t9J. 
ceno:r1n:::.t1.on.s , Revd Huo;h Shh<,rlock who wc.. uld sive tho ~ :nen:br'.3l1.CA, G. E . ■ 
Al ] sop , thr chn.:i"'ch' s Rector , atn,.' ,.\rchbi r:·hop TI c -:1 cne;y, th 0 A.rn ric ""l Je __ uj 
c,nc - hr ~d of 1.~'.: 0 c,,,.:-;'1olic church ir J~rr o1i '?. fo w:1om ::r . , . h·:od ,. 3_pr,;c i,l 
-,f 1•0 ctj orf;w?:>i10 h·"'l c omu l'i own fro:n P.'T." ·i ,, "' for ·0i.1,- fun "' :!?'::.l . 

CG fc 
fr, J ,J:t,. 
.-,,J/e..) 
.i;t wzi.:i 

.,1...,n ,-h, ';ert8rcc.::, "nd :Fr')C•~ssj.rm o-r:- cl·,ree:v ::.ded 'J.0 4-h": 
-,1 -,r , trir, h;yrr,,n . I Vow fllo mri .1_ I~y C" n; i '£Ji. : 

sung ~~ -1.. i-ho 21• en\y - t' i::--d ps'l.117 c½.'1211-w: . 

~IJ.1- - :::::"'lch,:, ·1 -"l - l"" ·son f:v-oq -: ,v~l tion 21, _;(. .,.... -::- 9:; or,, lo 

, ~bou'- t 11 "n JY:'u s r:l !'"• •" 12.;.J ,ch,""e ,0---e hLma.red,:; in the 
c' ' l .. 'Cl who ,'r",•t ,.,::l bm h ;, ~-;,,. ;_ - •about tl-io n· J01:• .. -,r1 rn th,·y ·vould 
bo.il·, ~- be ne J,-, ~icr:;, , r,n h•·. · . ..,un:_; br':;V ·,mg3 ..,,,c ·c i+.: ·;:;-the· 

P}f •1."• b"'"ou-'1,_ tl1c ILW v,.,7 ·'-o Guy ' ::3 jll.. ; ,r~ lucky qill , 
·n--t1~,n0: of ou":;a ., __ 'liz·.,b tl1 , "'"- L

1 l' oti1::r: ;iJ··cc:; ~ ~~c., 
j rts 7 r_,nved CV· n'- ,l i: ,,.J •ro ,'(in, :. ,_ ~ ·,:;-,,,I -.n c]1 .... y 

th ina.i c,"Lou-· op·~·.on.-; of~ lrn ,,J hout 1T"'i:;•,l , ,,J.u1 .i .... · 1..,~i.n_r:- --•-.; 7 

Uil or fh gn "JS; zinu how tr, ,..,l;, go or'1 b·•:cv-;-··t-- ·•-,r::."J.::·:- -l-}10 lr, 1" 
- " . • · - ~-c r:;r:::;, 



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1r ..;~ --o J.i "irh :-it th: .. f i J.7 i t cn"1 y tho cer..tn.,..,iecs of :::ubjug'" '_:ion h,'.3.d 
wi l l ed willy nilly to J. r~ e . 

~·oc 1,oc"ist ·-r:inir-t:1r 
The f ··n ily h·\d c h o ,en/".u a;h hr r loe:k , -::;h"'i.. -. c lose.st nc. l c;j ',:::ch 

sssoc i 1te J t o give the Rcmembr"n o/ ; t ffihr- hul king , C':.lm , siY'cc::."'e rr3.n 
\·.1ho h :1(1_ f ou1-ded Boy I S Tov·n D2 ninss -on ( :md VihO ·e ,i-:u '-'ht ,r, Afln , 
... h 3.d b een N. ;; • s ;:>e::e3rc i1 ;J.SSi 2t ·mt on ths bo ok he h·1,~ b ·1..,,'e l y 
begun t o _;_ t e .) It ,iJ.S '1 w·., , 1u1p t en ti oua tB st imoni3.l -i:;o "' ··a.;,.: 
wh o ~e t f!fcJer i ng :Jt'ltu e he :01.,1lc. o l y c omp3.r e t o tl:re 11 f 1.mou .:; men 1

' of 
the ApoC' :t'yph:1.M: "Let u s no vv pr::i.ise f 3mou s n:en .-,nd our f co_ t hers who 
b c3at u s . . . menp:enown ed for t he i r p owe:r· , ~iving c ounnel b y t heir 
undcrst:.mding . .. wi s e an d cloouen t in their i n structi ons ." 3 imple 
:.md undr 3Il1G.tic though h i s deliv ery WuS , the Rev eren d Sherlock L Jt 
drop q pi e c e of i11f o:-m~ti on t h·1t s tuder:ts of ~.:;he cous iI1s ' quar r e l -
1cme er ::> rec e ive d with ,3. f l u s te..::- . B1st~;..rnr:mte , She• l oc k s~id , b 3. 1l --,. 
expr e ssed grat itude ■t o - Mr l!anl y "for k ecpin the U.nion to-
g t her dur in"' hi s 11 wartime inc :;.rce1:qtion 11 -:nd f o.,_ he l pi ng to se -
cure hi .:i r el e'3.s . " I t WRS 3 18.st ber_.:... on~ ,, ft : t '1rec dPc -:d.cs J 
on," ~- 1il r: it ••••• •••••• w 2 . .., n ot mG m +; for he'.11:.r,. , 
i t dre'.r '3. resron :::·e , a r li 1f tl'"'st th . .::.trir'c .. c y ~:--nd illw-ill did 
n ot g o . .,:.l l the ,.i'ly in ; ?.Y1.d curi o11s l y he1.rtened even the r ·3.bic1ly 
p1.r t:. s::m one sJ no\v th~~t, c h.-,nc odly , -:-ill spprcc i"'ti on h:,.6.. once 
p ,sscd b E. :~1v en tlrn t o , ?-YJ , h owever-• 1 i ghtly st1 .. pul ,.ted , w1.s 
ni''tle of d kin - . 

~ . C" . C . .7.:inc, ~-t"c ".r("\•J.i c·~,- pr..:c..,t '":nd :-::. t 1.vir:ik}jng n-'1:,. o.:r: :~ne 
C ~~,c,-rf',,1 ,,.,y.- f1·Jl of' c,.-,i,-c, •• nd I ,··•-o...,., 0 "" -r- ,.., • "- 1 ' 0 ,...,,. -c:y"'.,,.,"" r'-' o·p _,_, 

J.._.,,....,_..1.1.,,<_ v , . ..1.. ..,..,. ll'iu >JIJ ...L..vQ , -~U _..__. ._.J ..... .... ~..,J....,; ..... 

le,.,d ~n- s 1.id the blo: sing , '1. d t 1,r fin•-il hyrr:1_ ,.,.,s -un~ . It .1.s 
si. .. r.:.(~ \'.:.·-~ _,-.. ~1.:-·tic ~1l··u· ~01.,-:;~; foT' i:;')is \\ ':~ ,.,-.inJt7- :nc.~- nine . -;-;:- h ·~d 
b - 'O~",., b'") -. 7 ly··n~· con~· 11ot fo -n n~ ~e;,,·,.-,i:r ..., . c,J.~ P'lO'"'"' b 0 n-l- bu·-l,; l . .1v --i .. i.J . • .... t. J .::; J ;_ ,._., -,. __ ,,:. -·--·L-;, ~ t,. -...:, u.,,.::. ·,., '--' ) u 

for d l scomf~~in~ hi~ po~itic·: fo0s 
l . .. •, -'-h no•·-io~· { ·l1r,J,- h"' ""' 11 a1· ~- ..: n,.,. -in~i· 1.1 ll --l10 o-~trs~ o f '~ •o r' 11 

'" L-- V, J.. v v ~:;; ."J_-:..o •~ ... •---l .. .L..;l ~,.., v .... t-:.-.,•.\, ~v v -...t. ' 

i:;o l, -.1comc Lr1bour P~rt, :.:rpo s ... _1tes to tho PrF fo l d ~ He 1not 8£GJ 
1n i..rrev o"'·eni:t I." 'L , c:r·e l y ••••••• sn i .. illp .,..«/,/;T, bJ:ob: ou·: ,,.,t 
o c times . It h':l 1 b0coroc hi..., s·· 2,TIC·tu-r•e , t 1v:, +;lIDc th·.;.t h,.,i l ea_ 
hi::-· ~..,_ppe,..,r,.,ncc ; :1nd by t he pc;rson·,l. elT'ionsL1ip wl1 i h fo l k 0•0 ·1r. ~-o 
h" verly rn·,t-::;ors , D'o.rle p o _:, i bl-· ½.c ·1lli'1.n 1of the:.." o ,.,.... "ff · l."D 

i :'1 ,1h ,teve~, rov nee: " -:, pl ·, nn ";_.ng. 

~n zo no., , ,h "".:'ollin: al :..< ... ; > 

_ . ,<::0 1 1~ u 0·1 o: the 
bui ldin g .> "nd \ 1 '1..3 i rr;med . ;. te l y own8d by t he mul ·ci.. tuJe OU +;3i6_0 J ·~ d 
3rcw i n s t ,.nt l y into '1 son 0 of p ower ; -:-:ind -a rr.ighty 3•3.lute t o t he 
g i "n t of the i r season. I:e h::1d n o,c be en faul tl cs...., ; p ublicly sh;y , 
s;y:mbol more th~-,n pc-rsonJ until h e s tepped into pe spe c t i vc s ix 
d;.ys ago ,.,nd s h 3-l::; t cred wh 3.t h _d k ept t hem f r·om se e i..n.g h im . They 
m1de of i t ,·J ha t they coul d . n ,3.t j ana l griev ing . The extT?.Or<Un· ry 
ou~pour ing of 3 whole pe op l e . Befo ~e the flowe~- b1.nked ~lt~r , 
in the cmdlel i..g-ht , priest _, p oets , f s r ne s , LJ.') rc ':1:;_ _t:; , polit i cia1:s , 
:pl ~.:...n and profession3l pe r son s , they :;:;ng thG ~hti on ..., l An:chem 
m d t ook him out t o the gun c s.rri -:-.ge . 

___ 3-c 1.CE---

ze;,-z z The 8-'-:?.t e Ftmer·:,.l • s f or grandeu r_; but 1,\h.1.t g -:1v e T . 
1
,1 . , r:n -



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of t b. e west , from the rain ,az0r, slopes of the e:.3-st a!:.d the sonthern 
SJ,vannq ,31 . -::: ll the l::md turned to the old stone church • • . • ter-
1:oon . J e ~~ --,_t/crowc_s ~0z:t00.z ~.u~.e filled gzz the v3.s-!- qa '3.r€r encom­
p,3.ssing the Park 3.nd~ e Parade s . Add the listene-l'd to radio ,and 
te l evision , i n ever cr:umy of ,the country , an_:_ khow it was a ·p .3.rticip.'1nt 
19.nd as had neve for my circum.stenc e befo.r . . It was u_r1abashed 
J'I :ll'lDff1Jlif0:nmm:n.:linx sxaRabrax:h.s:li p omp .9-nd c er m.ony , of ~~1t~&i .,..B! honour 
-,,nd wheeling olour p3.rti9s , of .:;tiff ;:£ -'.'teed young m- 8.-:,_ugh t up 
in tht:: dee~ -ion of. -t~h cir 11. ,::::rit::ige :t½ 1t it w.'3.3 ti:mo t o m-3.rk ::1 .i.ap~u·ture 
of ::m .nc' .::ltor so' t i;errenJ.ou3' only n:;.~::. 0:1.3,l mournin woul o. do o 

• ~'le c iw:rc h f·ill~d ~-s· r·.'3.p i Qly ')S th 'squ3re. The bu.ri:11 com­
mittee h .'J d Deen forcda. - -,- o limit z.3g accomodati on to tick , t hol ders 
and dis t ribution L'1rg~y left ·to PNP decisions . * 

. I ' • • \• 

• ·1 .• 

\, 

I,: 

r , I • 

I .. 

... ,, . 

., . , 

' . • I 



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2 'CJ 'f'V ;,--

• 1) hnn or118 U Cn of ., parson.3.l f '..lr e\vell .froft? 

l ey ' 8 MIi p oign r, c y W,'lS th <;Jt~:!.!!~-tM!'&a» -~~ poopl c 
who h ar d l y knew him . It i 3 t 1<2. p~--e r og 3ti v e of 0-s o-1n0 sp:=;c i .'J. l y gi f ted 
men . r e h1-d not grown old enough to b e '..l n: onument : n o:r.' g:: Jyad ~_:J. his 
mind b y i l ne s s n or ngo to be ...., o:rne unc onsiderod of hi s p2opl~ in t heir 
dai l y duties . The c '.3. Ske t t h .'J. t the e i ght :mili ~ ry b e-:o,rer s no v, ,raised 
off th e c a t :1lfo. que c on tai ne d , v ot e of relu,.... te.nce f rom every J 0 nic ic m ; 
for , whet her parti _n , t hey h l d f or him t hat f 2c ul ty whi ch eve y 
pol i ticjan str ives to el i c it of hi s c onstituent s , f re quent ly vainly : 
p l .9,in ol J - f ashione d r espect . And i t was 3, c ur i o' o 1.nd y e t not l.L."'1.ex ­
pec t e d hoppe··1i n g.J t hat , out tifi}:le· ·'-he churc h , t h e CRSket was r e c eived 
b y an. explosi on of appl r use :=rn i t emerged K from the North do or .--r-d i nto 
the espl ::mo.cle . ~ _, 

The :1.pp l a u se w~rn • //s\~i f t l y ov e !..· , __ ~ut i_:· h d bocn the -:- c _; .-3.nd 
even in tho f a c e of t h 0 p orten tious • - s onor ities 
of the Dw:,,d K'l.rc h from Saul , i t wa s .::i o~ a c on '.:; r .,.dic tion . Thoy hacl om 
f or n il ,2;2 to o.·t/Pl:1ud him , ·1:'.Jd they di ~l. He h ·.t<J. b -,~ en s c '.3-tt()red :0r on, the 
town ,J 1 '3. ... -· evi lle , Porus , Fay Pen , S~ -:mi:Jh Tovm..> md ·- he others b e t ··•e en ; 
b u -1::; ther o we e ot her p l ·1G0s t h •.::,t h'.1d not h3.o. t h ~'?. l uck ·-o h , i. l him in 
':;he L s ~ journeyings -m.d n ow +;hey a-· do~ At T I'l!:) l e L&"'le b y the Old 
'Jo lrn er:::i Ys.rd. out sic e t h: hurc J. .. wal l s , , s1r.r:. 1 group s ·-,.ng ~-rnftly L3.n9: 
_Qf_l 'y, _]_::.rth ? tho evoc ·"' '-i v e PUP ·-,.r..t1?, 13mfNhi ~1 i:n -:;_nv non p :rti s r_:J, ho l J_ s ho lld 
h .:w o ocen givo:c u:0 by the P'3.rt7 '.lllO 1r·1do i n .· o -l::;he l\J?,tJ.o:::~al \ '-:T hem . * 

*Ex ept thd; it 1.'.10 ul r1 gj v e litt l e comfort t o n·1tu:r: ·1li acd 
c itize~s . The ~ord s wen c by ,hl l i ~m 3niv~ight and the 
mus ic ,)Y t11.e J ·}j''.-9- i ·111 t r ,o::c .. Grs::v: lle C•-:t'1Dbell . - --- ------- - --- -------'-

An ·the young s oldic vs of the berrer p-1:.... ty m:..rc hE'd t'1e .:., low, 
p:_e Jise c ,de~~ c , th2 of fin on th , i -r sb.ou l cl er·s , t .--E; GDJ1.rd of Fon ou v,1 2.r, 
brought to th ~ e s en t .cs by _ieuten ~ c CoJ onel (n o1\T i•_ 1;Gj er G(:nsr r::J.) 
Rudolph Green ,,nd t he R2girr ·n ~R.l Col ol s ··. ere d i ppe . i n s3lute . The 
bcr~ r e r part y , wheel · ng s lmvly , l :1:..\- .6. u1 t h°".: C 38ke t with t he (' LIT. c '1 r -
ri . .--,_3s rmd slid i t to th d 01: . At h :J. t mo 1en t c ame t he r p o~··, o :'.:: 
the _,atA fir t of t he 7.4 guns . 

r 

, " i en t h':l v en t u re ti (-che J 3.L:a i c3 R ... ... a" .q Produc ,.,, rs As soc i 'J. t i on ) 1..rn ­
ble d, " on ce wr ote Per c y Mi lle r , th Gleaner ' s f .qrrn edi t or '3.n d· nn ear 1y 
1?NP c ar d b ear e r , "hs- lent hi s leg .,.l t'1 l en ts to 1. s1-l v-~-ge_ '3.C t that ( -t-urnecl. ) 
i t i nto a l i mited l i;,.bility c om pany~ d on ( .'1 ) co op , r:3.tiv ... " 

By an ac t/of salvage , he h ."J-d . . . 1-1'5omp.J.tri ots .!Jmd w-i 0:;h s 1.1cc s s 
engr o_ f t e d the a l t erna tiv •3- p .1.rty s y stem on 8. p e ople who f or 400 year s h-o d 
known no p owe r but t hat of -:m i mp osed ol i g ·, r c hy . ·•••■■I Ii : had c h t1 l -

~ l en ge d -~ h e ir d oubt s; :3-n d.> s uddenly , wi t h gusto, the n .?.t ion h.--o_d "._- mb l cd i.nto 
"' vot ing/i erro c r .s.c y . In a soc l e t y p "".'one to ".:;h e e::n otio .'J.l p ul ~ h1:: h ,.,d done i t 
wi th out d e~ ,.g ogu ery . 

---SPACE---
. ~he 61 d Soldi e r was a t home on g l' n c ,rriages . The s e we " ;;J 

a rtillery p i ec es an d h e had gnlloned them all ov er Fr~nce the ~r ~at 
wh~e~ ed t hunderers l umb ering b ehind h i m, l :3-ying th3 l ;~ ~no~ts::i c-·;~rchin g 
~l ln(l.7"! f ?; th~\ Bo ~che . o~; ? ; Ught in a sud.de· C enemy '.lSS''iUl t de aa.-= r ~in' 
.r?r hi.:i ~1 .r e w i ,h t h e . u..rnb1l1c1.l c annon p oundiw.5 :ma. ratt2.in~ boh~nd him~ 
Anu _now ~ ~ ~ou l d b e hi s , c l m e~ ai p a ge of h on?ur, r ol ling gently , not 
~elnn~ ,., ~l~ -cearn of eno:r.-n.ou '"' ••••••• -:i.rt il l ar y horses , b ut behin d 
--c he ef .r 1c.1.. ent L~ 1Ce Co p ofl a 1 * Tl ,.., d f -, • - _ ______ 10 'JU·"r 0 

*r.rher:. he held N. W' s ol d r arL b u t e i h~: y eo_rs l:1te __ , a .s 
Cor p or::,_l , he 1, ou:L1. per f orm with th • s':H,e (~uiet ,,ffi - , 
ci or.c v f c)~' 'lJY' 'c)tb.c r _ ("C .::I H o · ' 1 - " ·--- l , , ,'iuf;ro , ~- r ·~. t'?X·, n cer Bu ~t -, rn, , te ,. 



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..,. d " ' l b 1 . . . . ' . n m , • l. i d l BollNG_e,y_ ~ 
e,,,/.; ··, e J . .'3.-c e . y e n n u -,- ne c .qr :r:,. a ge , ,-., . , i s r::1 i_ ::_ ;ary n~e 'J._S were ~ _ ~ 

C¥,> .€ieut c:n ··,n t G. E . Ii . WiJ.li-:.uns . Then c;.mte his sons , Doug l ,3. s ::m d 

L i ch.;1e l , o.nd ~r ~mdsons Nori;1c-n Jr an d Josc1Jh ; g:;: e'"'Qu!ln h ;s of the • 

C:o:J.st Gu l rd &nd mi lit:1r y rn,3.r s li::.l s ; t he o:~ .fici::i.l ra ourn/n 3 p 2~ty of the 

Gov ernor- Gene ro.l, I-Time Fini s t er She .:; ··ror a:id h i s Cabine t , Hi gh 

Court justice s , sen:::i tor s , diplo:m:::, ·::;3 privy c oLmc ill ors , m:::mb e r s of 

. p ~,r J.io.rn en tse;:r:n::,i::r;: 4'.!tt and me.yors ; t1iho Second Esco r t of 120 sol diers , 

PNP and. N;HU members, .3.nd che b :.mc. of the J mn·1ic 3 Const .3bul :1ry le:1d ing 

the f in :::.l esc ort of p olic e . Al l the dnits m':3. rchocl with ::,.r ms r ev ersed. 

---SPACE 

It wa s not ~ desig::1; but of h~:tv;:;Y;h'"\t~~~Y'>-iey A!.ad 

~ trirough muc h of his 01,1m , ?r1d tiic _,Jol i.t i c -d. his tory,~ 

~ It IJ·:. s i n Son t h P0r ~ 6.e t h '1 t e,.g;-~~ ~~-4 2a.i 
~~~~­

~"ii ~~h.3.d c.nnounce'l , in 1954 , the s el f- g ov el'.'r.ing 

constituti on th.~-t" m:l rkGd t hrj n ext import :1rii;- ;; t ep awo.y f ,. om Coloni 8. l 

tutele .. g e . l',.nd. -i r~ Duke Str :, e t hail b e en c ·ntred bo•::; 1.1 hi::, c .-:-, I'C t, rf; , the 

l ..:sw ,:i"~z'. pol j_t:1 .. c s ., _ • 

C:. Dnke ·;:;tr cct i s ?- ~-51':'.~ h .'md:;; orr:c t hor ou 9;hf .'tr e of n nw .:,.nd 

8oloni :::..J.- old buildin e_;c . The first ~~ off :Lc c: bJ ock si gn:.-1 lling 

K' n °·s t clm ' G high - r i s e s ·cep i nt o th ,; mod.eJ:nR~;~ wo.-rr cn s VV8.G 

erec ted. :::t t h e B~r ry Stre e t corn0r_, i n the e .Trly ' Sj_xtj es ; but s ev e 1:·.';;. l 

pillared turn- of - t ho - c entury l :::WY(~rs' c h .s.rnb o;.cs still ::-:dorn i t :::, h ::::,lf­

mile l on gth from the 38& to wh 2:~'c it t urns. into M::.m.c hest e r S ('.l1 ."I re 

::ild merges wi t h thn ring ro.·:cd ":b out }:Iero~s P.r,::::-k . 'l1he l 8t~1n~.r~n&ur;y 

:1e.1.d qua r te r s Hou se , onc p t/!te. to· .. nhou:::e or .s_ r J. c h me:rch,'J.n-G ~ Hib­

b ert, built b y sl--::v•e l ;-:;,'ooli_J'.' oL 8. ·,J a ,;or b (i t wecn be and ·two oth•., rs , 

like himse lf ov'2..r bUl: d.enecl ~';T-1,. we'.3. l t h f rorn the bloo d t r .?-de, i s t he 

ol dest on t he s tre e t . LRt Gr it had b ecome t h0 l 0r i s l ~t ive c h8~b er 

when ·c he c ~;_p i t :: l w 3. :; rr;ov ,,d t c__, Kinc;ston, .s,n d b ol d s o tm ti l the n e w 

c l:hm~:::- , n ~1.rned Gr£·"$:! f/4'/t• ""' \i't?8-;.+"Ei;;,;-a:R Gordon Bou ;: e for t ho Th tion::, l Hero, 

was buil t qcro s s from it . A few ex ~mp l es of + he more modc ~n J i m?- i-

C'J. v orn'.lcul s. rs, of j :;.lou.:; i c d fr ont s .md arc hed ho. llways, ling-3 :r on. 

~ Non.1"1 ,'.7.11 11•~a1: .. l ey h .1. d spent mo s t of his lif? on Duke 8-l~rec t .; he had 

practi sed f r om c h ,'?.mb er s on t h o dmmtown end for ffi,'J. n y y ears tmti l he 

went further up the_ st:::-ee t 11 tojt 2.ke the c ,'.o. :::; e of ~ ~ o.%if,b '.'1 

• The s treet is further f e l i cit ous i n i f ::; 1,;hys ic o.l sc tt j_n g . As 

t 11e cor·cege i n the st2tely militn.ry m3r·c h "'~ •~;l!z; d . no:2t h i nt o it , the 

mount -:: ins wheeled jJlC.:G~ v j ew, s tm- s tre '~:.-<:c d ~in the- 2. f t Gr n oon~ i ts 

sev e::.'·~l pe 1.ks ~~ : :;w•L•~N,n :z:· :-459 ~; irt~tho -- cloud ::, . Ur,C::::::,there 

.)behind a shoulc.t'.:r, s o.t his belovecl Nomdmi. Up the r e , on e. n c i c;h- • 



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11 :nd wh-::: t LJ the lJ'.i s si or:. of • ~:hi s ~en ·1 r"-l.tion th'1 t :rnc c cea.s I:'J. e : 

I t i "' t o b e founciea. up o~ th e "rnrk of t 1·w sr:: 117ho ~won-i-. b 2fo re . By the use 
of your p oli t ic·-,_} p ower ( to t;.c kle ) tho job of -r>p, cms -r 1J. ctin::7 the s o __, i-;_l 
-:nd econ oT'l ic s ociety snd lif 0 of J 1':a i..C ,"J. , 11 

--SPACE 
c nr ried p s st tho J ewis r1 syn~ sogue ':1nd 

The gun c -'J r 2: i 1.ge ~ 
the BI TU b uil d inc ~illd c ompound on the ri ght , ~h 0 p owe r 11~. r i.v:.l u:iion 
to hi s own N'.~·u , - founded ou t of _'c ineteen 'I'hi rty- e i ht . he politi c 3 ] 
p ower of t he Cousins h-/: bee!l founde d on worker p ower . For go od or ill, 
t h r principl t:is of p olitic s .'1nd org:.nisea. l '.3.bour , of guide ·,.:i. forc e , h2d 
been vva rked a s one.:> b y both wen ir_ tbe i !:' c ountr y ; -,nd i t h,_ c1. kept the 
princ i ple of ::i.ltorn ,.t ives in gov er n i ng; , 1-l ive .,ma. s ctj_v e ; -:::,s e1. ch of the 
antr:goni sts h ad desired . orm3n nanley h ·J.d b s en '1 gre'J.t t r;:,,de uni onist 
for he had understood the v ::,.l ues 'md h3.d. sn.v •"d the B TU f rom r uin ·01hen 
Bu s t'Ull c.nte w,1.s locked up . The -=?. l t3rn.'1t iveK h ":. d be r:2.1 se c ured .md prese VE 

The gun c1rri age roll e d p~st the BITU he1d~u3rter3 in~ 9 quie t 
decent respect fr om s ome who hs.d been hi ~: bjtt · :-,est ,_. politic·, l fo es . 

---S AC-:B ---

On ,• day in the .S:pring of 1938, v 0 r y r oc entlf h..., i ~ng him self 
1.ccep ted t he job of ::"e c onstruction, th ,~J mi ssion he . a ~cctlmpli s h• in 
1962, h p h·,d b een (J ue2t iontng the v i sdom of .,n exp .":t r i 1. t e c ol l e3.gue in 
bre1.king o~f ,_ ,job t½.,_t he , w. ,fiT . , thought them.., w"..s r,:re -:::,tly 1p...,b l o of . 
The of fic e h'1J dem·!n ded givin~ up 1. prio b en ~fit , 1 shrink 1.go hi s friend 
fou d un1a c ept1.bl e . A litt l e ":ngr y nt tho lo s s t o t _c yenr by h i s 
co l l e a ue ' s 'Jct i o , +:-nE jo½ b rd n g crud. '1 1 to the t:-o. sk of s oci..,,l rebuil in@ 
I- anley ' s insight seized upon :. p -r>_:_ n , i p l e : ·ch,_t there were :re op l 0 born 
with 2,_gif c for s-:c ri f i c e . 11 He h"s no sift for s1crific e ," I' --:.n iE ey h'Jd 
con i Jed c1.dly o? . i s fiend . 

But s:uc h .1. gift :0'?. s p.~infully present in hi s 0lf . :!e had 
kno wn th ·: t 11 the c·-:i. 0~e of the coun -:~ r y " woul d. h--o_ve 'born e no f e es but the 
relentless ho 3tili-~y of those who:rr; 1 in 1938 , h e h,.d c ·-ll ecl 11 t ·_1e re-:,.1 

l i en.:i i n the l "..nrl .; " those who wo l :1 no t llqcc ep t t 11·1t t he rr,.'JG S of the p o­
p ul , tion s.re the re":l pe oplGB" with the pr ;::; rog--::i_:;; v e to ,,11 th"' t un e . 

---SPACE ----

Forty- six g uns h 'J.d g one . Noi.v t hey n e1.red the h e -=, d of Duk e 
Street . ~ -in1rty guns 1,ve-re l e f t . 1r hi:;:::-t y ye .1.rs . He h-::,d giv cm t h i r t y 
yeGrs of hi s lif8 to p ol i t i cs . 

"Bu - whAt a won de rful thirty y e3. rs it h s s b ,~ en ! 11 h e - excl 'dIT 

on hi s 7 5t h birthday the ye5r b efore . 
He had r egret ted none of them. 
11 An d I h av e lon g sin ce known th "Jt wh en y ou lnve d one your 

honest be st, i t i s sens ele s s i::; o rep ine , b ec...,u .J e you think hi story o __ Go d 
let you d own . 11 

Now the P:3rk w.-1s in s ie;h_t . 
---SPACE 

Tt.1 ancho3ter Squ ::,_ re b e come s v e ry wi de wh r re it debou h trn into 
the -rin a: ro ·,. d th ~t s oon would b e known ~, s lJ 0 ti on -0 l Heroes Ci "'Cle . The 
long , up sl ope vv,1l k fr om t h 'J churc h wa s now on the fin "ll c snt , woul(1 b e 
ov0r in :,. littl e while . No w the D JA. s c -:rp s oi' the 31ue r. 0 1,m t'1 ins 
we~- cle :1r e r . '3tsnding 3.t the bLl.""i ,,_l s i te , Eili"l, , wi.. th I1Turiel :1n d R'?-c hel, 



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watched t he cort ege appro ach; a quickly clenche d h ~n ~ , the t ight 
j erk of h e r he .3.d , the g osturc s he h8. d known ,.n d loved . Sixty 
y e:.rs ago , in :Tulgl and , on ~ Decemb e r c1:1y , s he h :J.d promised to be 
with him on those Jamai can mount ?..ins . rr And I will ride with vou 
ov e r the Blue Iv:ount:::-i n s knowing thD. t we fought the go o f ight: " 
One Spring d .s.y when they we rA young , in 1939 , she h 1.'l thought of .,. c 
like t hi s rmd written .3. - note t o h c-r self : 

The s h a dow mov e d .3.w~y through the - g lo om o • the 
wo od3 , s oun dle s s qnd wi thou t d i rection . ·."here the r e h·:;.t 
been c; nuc.1eu s of consciousn ess , there was now only 
ete ni ty. ·.i,'h:--~t h~,d been ~nd wh,.t might ::i.. wJ.ys b e . A 
sin gle note of 8 bir d .J.n d a l ea f f ~lling reluct ~ntly 
do vvn. erh3.p:J th r:re i 3 7-i,-;rmth 3omewh cre 1.nd 3 n end to 
ro 1.min g ... 
Perhaps de,.t h will no ~ follow lifn in ~~ endl ess su ~ess ~ 
of sh,dows o ,• 

---SPA C~ 

He wa s b ninr; bo"l'.'ne by '.l gr"-.s. t conco 1r .se 1.nd ~-he s etting; he 
woul 1 h.·1v e tm.1e r stood . ■■■••••••••••• Th0 s ub d 1ed but 
mass ive wci g:lit of th0 ro·vd \w:;.s ,.n .3.ssur:·mce th~~t public l e-:,.ders 
t ook kindly t o . Thc:;y , ho once s ·:o_ id , " ,?s •••• Ant :i. eus of ol , 
dr ,'.V strene;th fr o::--. the earth , frum th0 c ou r- .3.ge of the -pe op l e , t h e 
f eel of th0 i r h ':"mds :-:.nd +11 ° s oun(3_ of tti.e i: • f net, the :ro .--,_r in their 
t hro 3.ts ,.nd the lov 2 o f the ir he :-::.. rt E, . 11 

They 1veT.' welc or11in g h :i.m no w :md tlrn d rum ~:; were l0 '.3 ing th e ir -
2uthori ty to the uns een fore P of t he c rowd ; 1 i -"ns in t~rn l :.n d in 
";tie l:'rese:::.cc of +;''P ;:i 0 0D l c . Cfr1e 7v'•eel,, grnu::-:.07. · !':.:o t'1s T"'.,.v~·l ,. t 
t h-, b ~J. r ::.. ·11 s::.tP, ..,nd thP 1~,st of '.~h0 - cc,_I:.non s ,.~::.r..owl <}0'Pd 
t he' e::-Jl oI hjs y0""rs . LTh·: be,rer p,-rty , youn~ , sole"'~ , b .,.reho.· c_ed 
solc~0rs~took thr ~ -'S covered c,s ct to th e ir 3~oult~rs . 

" I c·11· (-, ""'o·- C ""'V l'-' 1LlPY'> l,.,e :'1i" nd II "'"']. ~ "2:r1.r .., ''.-,"'lle'T . "b"Jt 1-:he::1 - l .1.l. _,. '- •• J\I J - ~· I..t .,, .... ' ,. ..... " >J"• .,,. ,.) I 

t',_e young 3olii0r·::; lift ::1 t he ~offir. , I -hink I bro e :;n ;:, ; 1e . " 
- -- s:::-- !<;~ -- -

Be ~ ,.s of t hP b~,ve m~n , th~ spec ::.. ~l men, who go out ~o ~ee t 
t}v ho· sea of ~--he ro·,·ninP- . T .., 11, dew- 30.-,k eJ c h~: "".'p.:r:,,.,s of cls.shi ".:!: 

hoover, ,.n_r: oyo - f l ..,;::: h, ...,21 -3. ,. hi31 cry for f :,..eedo!'l . These men \lv'3.1k 
Ei ll sq ll -'-red f:;,oni- , s.nd ;:;tron:r:- 1 er:;g ··u > ·'.: o·x ~,::--'c.s thP hor::-;os , :;sc e::1.C:. "'X- t 
:Ln :-11 i"n ·,.nc7. IJ,-,_nnsr, in voic::> 'J.n J 1A1,__r._ erst ,._n di n g of '·hr; _ long nig ,11, 
whose ~e~rors ~he ho~~c3 h ...,vo f .se~ 1lonP . T e8° 3DOCJ11 mnn w1.lk 
'3.f~?-t c1. but 1m.r.e,rfu1. • :::ito ~-Jv-, mo. nin'"" -- o ::nc 0 t 1:;lbm , ,~, t ~;:,t th 
.oov 0s ·-:-,,nd ~-he •., ild t or r cri,2s of 11or:::e-, w1io k':O" th i.,,, 1.ss s.i -
,.biJ.i ~-y a.:2.d ,re .-,sh'3med for it . ':'hnsr: rrcr:. ·'-u:rn ,nr] ln1,d ; ~ 1, f or 
1,~hi l c , t h: trib 0 p,y~ ~eg..,~0 to re'1son . 



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1 ~,,, 'I <T>';1',,'-' 8 bu·,-i r: l r.f -·equl ·,-,1 t ~-·~ -{-~1 '; ~· -;-, cur - be. sonr,:-, .,-.,,_ 
t r,c1_ . Tfr,~ •o e-:; 7 ·1rk '1_ .-,_,1 I'.. -S V •) .,,, b1::·:':- 0!1-::ecrai;el ; ~n -1 so '~ __ }I"' .r •·i s3t.S ''l::1\.. th e 
R"' 1"b1·; ::,~ 1· ' 1 0·11 i· ,,.. nr·~y,:,..--.,-• ov·"'\ 'l" .;-1---.c OD"n 0 ' I''>VP 'Tl}1 e cr:c• 1K""1_w r.t,-c:,~ter' on tl1 1" .......... u v _""l u 1_ _ _ 1 . 1 . . _ ... , .. _.__L,... __ . 1 .. .-... _ t.."' r -~ . ~ • .J,.. •• , ;::; \. ........ .J " ....... ,Ju .. .1. _.... ... .. 

ne'obi' r. -,· 0 1·"" J-11° lo\~1er.;1·1:,, r ev1· c'"' c lorn 'ly 1
c-<;-:.n 1

- oui- of c1· r:;-t,i- '0 ·:C: -1-bc fl·~g . _ ..., . \:; - · _. . . , .t. ,. . t If .filJ ~ . . J J\...., _.... -~ .J -~ :, - .J ,.. ... , l 1 , , - - ... 

,,, .--,r, 11• J.,:,i ---:1- f--roro-, 1· 1- 171"11;.; rri1· i·'-.--,rv b 1lC"l::,r•e: b ] 0 "' the- Lr:c-,t 0 osi- r:-n ,_.-'1 '~hi'.> vV .). a:;j v ~ ..... . .U..1 _ • ..... . ...,,, J.' l , ,._. ._, 1.. ~ . ~ _ _ ~ VV . _.., .._. ..i .J _,,. .l :.. l., , ... 

:1" Vf'illr~, the ev0ning 'mu :morning r:ll s 4 -'- .a 2 • 
~~,~~,~~··· , - ..-.e: ~I 2.fl ;:t'R.$?.d'?l2 ~7Jia)4'"'!1J ~Q! Si ii A INl..~H7 e »"9 ZHs~ Wi th e;ui et c1 -i p;::1.ityJ ·:4%%©.I_:- 2 ~'87 -. 1c1n,,., 4fo T'­
wo.rd :mcl l::..id che first wre:-th, of the r ed • o se -, he: h -v" ■ 1 • ■ 
so loved . 

- --S?AC?i 

nAnc.. looking bqck over the yea -r s , I decl:rtS they hqvo bee. 0 re ,"1 t 
yeJ.r s . I h•-,ve kno wn all things in p olitic s , the h·1rd ' "' ""7 • I -:-::... glo.d . 
I would. not h :.:-.ve chos n my w.3.y in life i Gny oth --0 r w.3.y . I .r: f :c irm 
of J3maic8 thst we aro a reat ~eop l e . Cut of th~ psst of f i .e , , nd 
suffering , and n egl ect , th ::. h UIP ".l.n spirit h'1S s urvived ; p"',tien t and 
s ~rong, quic k to anger , quick to fo rgi v e , lusty an d vigoro u s but w~th 
deep ::::esorves of loy:·:;, l ty :md love; "lnd :J. d e ep C'1p...,ci ty f o ste.gdiness 
under s tress; 3nd for j oy in .3,l l th r: th ings th·::,,t m~, ke l i fe ood and 
ble ::JS ed. Bleso this des.r l :ind , snd bles OU":' -peop l e , n ow .9.nd f orever 
more . " ~~ 

_,.,/ END 

M ~ i b>K-
-11 _J.41 J---1 ~v 
12'1 'J/Jr} )~ 



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g-~~~i~:l~~~~~~ ~~~g;;::;~:Oof.~ 

To SN-t face o t'act. 
T-'-!..""""''-1---'7 

~ --

~t1~ / 

;f 
The giant cit:r1 ,::, cb';rporations with po erf1l international 

-Ht 
The ~he younger) o~ s-~ Michael, WAS ALREADY A POWER IN Jb-trade 

-/ii,/\ and bauxite. 
unio~ , particularly in sugar/ He had turned into a skilful nego -

tiator, articulate and hard working . He was 1st_ vice president~ J,t 
ational Workers Union and its Is land Supervisor and indicating ,,~each 

into the international field witl1/Rff~£iations in «axa«a North Americ a 

and the C4 ribbean?' He was not showing any political enthusaism, although he 
- delegate ; his second _ 

was on the PNP executive as the union'sllfil:KlUOiXKXXXKXXm»± love seemed 

to be journalism where a sinewy, tr.enchant style had made him into a widely 

read columnist :for· PUBLIC . OPINION, theJUtJ£iO{X}( PNP-leaning weekly . llUtQnl:X 

Both sons mxxx±•mx~•-~ xxI were to marry young, DouglasM,at 24, t o 

Carmen Lawrence, · daughter _o f a Jamaicah living in Panama, and Michael, 

at iiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiii to mmm•••••1a11 Mr Manley who was 28 at ' his we dding . . ' 

t> Edna, bec~me ~ gral'!-dfath.~r ' at . with the birth of a son t o Do ug-J-as. 

ck {)-J r~, fl_ , ~ z:.. I tftl'ir 1~Atl14_ / )1tt..,/; ,.;--,- i1 ~1/A 0- ~ r ,./ 
4' a /wf,,..z /h A / Xvvl{ )lpJil /1,,:114,-. 



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RAVE ME ET TE HORSES 

I "' ,,. N.W . MANLEY: A Reasono ,, 



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DUKE STREET • 
KINGSTON • JAMAICA 

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