No 182 Russia in 1980 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Aug 1 a t 6 . 15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Go dd evening: It is the year 1980 and the place is Moscow or 
any big Russian city . A Russian citizen wakes up early on a  Monday 
morning. He is in a very nice apartment with fine furniturSe, a good 
carpet on the floor, and in s pite of the fact that it IiEs winter, his 
apartment is warm and comfortable . Hi s wife and cRhildren are up 
already and he can hear them chattering away gaAily in t h e living 
room . He li es still for a little while, t hRinking how good life is, 
and then he jumps out of bed, puts on hisB dressing gown and goes out 
to join his family . There is his wi feL aInd three children , two g irls and a boy : they are all at the breakfast table . And on the table 
there is butter and cream andN miAlk and cheese, and the s mell of hot bacon and eggs and sausages and toast; ~nd there is a whole heaped 
bowl of fruit - oranges, pOeaches, pears , apples, bananas , pineapples, 
grapes and the likeI.  MThe man kisses his wife and h i s children and then the happyW family settle down to a good and healthy breakfast . Just as theUy near the end of their meal t he telephone rings and one of the ch ildren answers it . She l i s tens for a while then says they 
are coming . She hangs up, turns to the other ch ildren and t e lls them 
that their school transport is R3r.ai waiting downstairs . The children 
get into their thick fur-lined coats, hug their parents, and dash out 
to the warm, centrally heated school bus . The school bus picks them 
up at t heir door every day and t akes them ba ck to bheir door at the 
end of each school day . Their s chooling is free; the clothes t hey 
wear are free, their shoes and uniforms are free, the food they get 
at school is free - everyth ing is free . 
In fact, t he food they had with their parents for breakfast is 
2 
• 
free and the kllllllB three-bedroom apartment in which they li~e is fr~~ 
and there telephone and their gas and their electricity and their 
furniture and their radio and their television and the clothes of 
their parents - all these things are -free . They do not have to pay a 
penny for them .  
After they have finished their last cup of coffee the Sman and 
his wife put on their warm fur-lined overcoats, check IthEe time and 
go down in the lift . The lift attendant greets themR cheerfully and 
gives them each a morning paper . Down stairs, thAe first bentrally 
heated bus that comes picks up the husband; Rthe next one picks up the fueman 
wife . They work in different parts of theB city . RaBk works nine hours 
a day for only four days a week to maLke Iup his total of 36 working 
hours a week. His wife works a much  shorter week • .And from Thursday 
,evening until Monday morning theyA are free . They can catch a plane and 
fly down to the Black Sea OforN a weekend of sunshine in a luxury hotel. • .And they can eat all the fine food and drink all the good wine they 
like and it won't cIo stM them a penny . Of course, during their working hours they workW very hard . But the reward for hard work is that every-thing is freUe: food, housing, clothes, medical attention, transport, the whole works • .And the golden rule of the land is: from each according 
to his ability; to each according to his need . So every Russian gives 
what he can in skill and labour, and the state gives to every Russian 
what he or she needs . Does it sound like heaven on earth? Well, this E 
what the Russian government promised its people in a new policy 
programme last Saturday night. It says that in the next 20 years the 
conditions which I have just described will come to pass for all the 
people of Russia . Can this happen? The Russians say it can and will 
happen if there is no war between now and 1980. Let us hope we live 
long enough to see . Goodnight . 
No 183 1) End of Banana Strike 
2) Holiday with Pay ~or Maids 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Agg 2 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : I am glad that the banana strike is over a nd I 
hope that whatever can be salnggedof :.to the fruit will bSe loaded 
and shipped as quickly as possible . But of course, the dEamage which 
has been done cannot be undone . And there is no questioIn but that 
this strike has caused the industry some severe AharmR. Incidentally, a listener who happens to be a banana grower Rgot in touch with me after my comments of Thursday of last weIeBk . This listener said that I had given the impression that loaders were being paid fifty shillirgi 
for a full week ' s work whereas in fa cLt loaders generally worked for 
some 30- odd hours for the money tAhey got . I am glad to make this 
correction . However, I stillN feel that the basic point I make stands . 
Even if a man works for onOly thirty hours, if that is all the work he 
can get in one weekI a nMd the pay is only fifty shillings, that man is certainly not well off . And in the light of the announced decision of 
the banana growWers to do their own loading in the events of wildcat 
strikes, I Uwonder whether we should not think in terms of leaving tl:e entire responsibility of loading to the All Island Banana Growers 
Association and encourage the workers who now do the loading to find 
other means of earning a more decent living . Here, I think, is where 
the Roosevelt idea of works projects could come into operation . 
Certainly, from the national point of view the banana industry is he~ng 
for a mess if we keep on treating it as if it is one of the instrumm ts 
for obsorbing some of the unemployed . 
It seems to me that this strike , as well as the terms of the 
settlement, has just underlined my basic point which is that the time 
2 
has come when we should all look at this question of mechanisation 
as an urgent national matter . I think it is high time that the 
government gave the country a clear statement as to where it stands 
on the whole question of mechanisation . I think we are all agreed 
that we do not want the workers to suffer . I think we are all agreed 
that men are more important than machines, and that we musSt make sure 
that the introduction of machines must be so handled aIsE to not hurt 
men. But when that is said and done, where are we? RHow are machines 
to be introduced? Over what period of time? WheAn and where do we begn-1? 
And what about the workers who will be displRaced? 
I honestly think we are dead wrongI tBo tackle this issue on a 
peacemeal basis . Just as the governm Lent has drawn up a ten-year 
development plan, so I think it Acan draw up a ~ive or ten year plan 
for labour and mechanisation .N This would set a direction and chart the 
a course, and that is somOething we need very badly in/Jamaican labour situation today . 
Finally, I am Iv eMry glad that the question of holidays with pay 
for domestic wWorkers has come up in the House . I know this is a sore subject witUh most housewives. They feel that they are getting poor service from their maids and they do not see why they should pay them 
well and give them holidays with pay on top of it. The maids on the 
other hand, do not see why they should worked hard for a mere pittance 
and no holidays. I think an effort is needed from both sides, but I 
think the initiative is with the employer . I think many of you would 
be surprised at just how a little thoughtfulness and decency and 
consideration will pay off in the long run . The fault is rarely on 
one side only, and maids are human too, you know. Goodnight. 
No 184 The Referendum Date & 
Manley's Future 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Aug 3 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: Today ~s the big day; and later this evening Mr . 
Manley will announce the date on which the Referendum will be held . 
He will announce the date at two public meetings, one at HSalf Way Tre:; 
and the other at the Coronation Market . He will also ItEell us whether 
he is going federal or not . R
Before I go on to discuss these two very imAportant points, let ne 
try to clear up an important point of procedRure . Many people have 
expressed concern about the manner in wIhBich Mr . Manley will announce 
the date of the Referendum . Some hav eL said they thought the announce-
ment should first be made in the AHouse of Representatives and not at 
a party political meeting . OtNhers have said that even if the announce-
ment was not first made inO the House, it should be made ant first of 
all as a statement from the government before being given from a 
party political plaItf oMrm. The first group holds that it is an insult 
to the dignity of the parliament of the country if the announcement 
is made to Ua pWublic meeting before the members of our parliament, who are the elected representatives of a ll the people, know of it. The 
second group says that t h is is an important national matter and it 
would be an insult and more to t he whole concept of democratic 
government, if such an important i s sue is treated first and foremost 
as a party political issue to be announced from a party polit ical 
platform .. 
Now I think t here is a great deal of sense in both these objections. 
I t h ink it would be wrong if t he first public announcement of the date 
of the Referendum is n fact g iven at a publ c meeting. But I am 
absolutely convinc ed tna~ Mr . waniey wiil not do t i s. I am sur he 
2 
is as mindful of t he d gn 1ty of parl iament and t ne government as the 
two groups who have expressed their concern . In f act, I would go fur'tiher 
and say that he is more mindful of the dignity of parliamen~ ana the 
government than most of us . So I cannot see him doing anything which 
would undermine the dignity of these t wo institutions. In any  case, tt. 
would not suit him to do so because he knows that his eEnemSies would make political capital out of it. So what will he do? He has already 
announced that he will give the date at two public meIetings this 
evening. R
I think those of you who are interested shAould make a careful 
check tomorrow morning . If you do , I thinBk yRou will find that either 
one of two things have happened - or  LpeIrhaps both . First, I think you will find that today' s GovernmenAt Gazette - or perhaps it will be an have Extraordinary Gazette - will/published the date well before Mr . Manley 
made his announcement at Othe Npublic meetings . The second thing I think anybody who makes a check t mmorrow morning is likely to find out is ttbat 
the government issuedM a public announcement of the date - with a 
possible time EmbaIrg o on it - long before~~. Manley makes his 
announcement aWt the public meetings. Or perhaps both these things will 
happen . So UI think you will find that these objections are not really 
valid because Manley will go about it in the correct parliamentary way . 
I think the date of the Referendum will be either the 17th, 18th 
or 19th of September and I think Manley will declare that he himself 
will go Federal . That is my guess . In just over a couple of hours' 
time we will know how right or wrong I am . Goodnight . 
No 185 The Referendum ~nste & Man l ey ' s FuLu.M9 (2) -
1 • IV - ,;;, · 'T , l. . r , · L.-(~I ~ ·-   
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Fr iday Aug 4 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: The great s~cret is out and , to use the f3 hrase 
made famous by the 1-~ Roger Mais, ' now we know ' • The lineSs are drawn 
and the battle is on . I think from here on the FederaItiEon debate is going to get so hot that what has gone before will seem like child ' s 
play . Well , I think it might be a good idea for usR to pause and take 
a good look at what the picture looks like at thAis moment before the 
battle is finally joined. R
First , let us look at the line up oIfB the political forces . I 
think it is idle for anybody to pAret enLd that the votes in this referen.um are going to be cast on nonepNarty lines . This is likely to happen wi1h what is known as the floating vote . But I think the vast majority 
of voters are going to voOte along party lines, and I frankly do not 
see how it can be oth eMrwise . The P . N. P . is f or Jamaica remaining in the Federation : theI J . L. P. wants Jamaica out of it . It is therefore 
a party issue , Wwhether you like it or not . I think all this talk 
of approachUing the referendum in a non- party spirit is rather silly . And this idea that it is wrong for a major national issue to be 
approached on party lines is so nruch humbug, especially when the 
country ' s two major parties stand opposed to each other over the matter . 
So I think we cannot escape the party political aspect of it . 
So , as I see it, the first part of the line-up is the P .N. P . 
aga i nst the J .L.P . on strictly party lines . Of the two the P . N. P . 
seems to have the more tightly knit political machine at present . Such 
differences and disagreements as there were in the top leadership 
before the Port-of-Spain and London Conferences, have disappeared and 
the party now seems to be working pretty smoothly . I have the feeling 
2 
that the P .N.P . steamroller has warmed up and is just about ready to 
go into top gear . And there is a new confidence among them . Manley's 
v i ctories at the conferences in Port - of-Spain and in London where he 
got all the safeguards for Jamaica ' s interests that he wanted , has 
given the P .N.P. a great boost with the electorate . The gener al public 
recognises these as solid achievemnts . And then there is tShe very 
important fact that the P .N. P . has announced a definitIeE date for 
1ndepamleBnee with in the Federation in May of neRxt year . So much 
for the P .N.P. What of the J . L.P . ? A
They too have closed their ranks remarkRably well in the last few 
months . At their di sastrous annual conIfeBrence and when Mrs . Leon left. the party, it l ooked very much as th oLugh the party was in danger of falling apartf . But they rode theA storm successfully and today the party seems more tightly knitN than it was at the beginning of the year . Their very successful anti - Federation march on Emancipation Day showed 
that the J . L. P . is by no Omeans a spent force and that they too could 
get a political mac hiMne going . It seems to me that their great 
disadvantage iWs thIat they have not yet found an issue to capture the popular imagination or an issue on which they could press and embarrass 
the governmUent in a way that would win public approval . If they can 
find such an issue soon they might still give the P .N. P . a good run • 
.Another factor against them is the fact that many people have had 
serious second thoughts about going it alone in view of the political 
restlessness of this part of the world at present . But let me repeat , 
the J .L. P . is by no means a spent force. The question is whether they 
can find a really popular issue in time . Tomorrow I will look at sone 
of the other forces in the political line-up , so till then, Goodnight. 
No 186 The Referendum: Position of other groups . 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Aug 5 at 6 . 15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Last night I gave you my view of t he P .N. P . -J.L.R 
line-up in the great referendum encounter that is now on . Now let us 
look at some of the other parties and groups and see whereS they 
stand xkaxxx and what possible influence they can exeIrtE on the results 
of the referendum . R
First let us deal with the two new polRiticAal parties , Mrs . Rose Leon's Progressive Labour Movement and MBr . Millard Johnson ' s People ' s ~olitical Party . Mrs . Leon is an old hIand in Jamaican politics , and, 
as she showed when she broke with theL J.L . P . , she has a fair amount 
of popular support in the country.  But somehow her Progressive Labour 
Movement does not yet seem toN haAve got off the ground, or if it has, we are hearing very littlOe about it . On the question of Federation and the referendum, tMhe Leone have decided to sit on t he fence. The Progressive Labour IM ovement, they say, will tell the people of Jamaica about the goodW points and the bad points of federation but will not take a stand either for or against . So I do not think the Progressive 
Labour MovUement is going to influence the results of t he referendum 
one way or the other. My guess is that they see this as a position of 
strength which would leave them free to carry on, no matter which 
side wins . But I am not so sure that either history or the voters 
will see their stand in this light when t he next Jamaica elections 
come along . However, this is still a very young party and both history 
and the voters make str ge allowances sometimes. 
The ~eople' s Political Party which is about t he same age a s the 
Progress ive Labour Movement - both are about four months old now -
the People ' s Political Party has taken a clear stand against Federation. 
2 
It wants no part of the Federation and it wants J amaica to get out . 
But it does want a closer contact with the independent African states. 
Apart from its firm stand on the colour question and on Jamaica's 
getting out of the federation it has not yet offered the country any 
programme on which the new party will campaign in any locaSl e lection . No doubt t h is will come in time. But the party has campaigned actively 
against federation though it is very hard to determineI Ejust what 
influence it exerts at present . I think the votingR in the referendum 
will be a small but by no means conc l usive poinAter . But such direct 
influence as the People's PDDgressive PaBrty Rhas will be a for a 'No ' vote in t he referendum . I
So much for the political group sL. Rececent~y a new groupi, the 
"Save Jamaica Volunteer Non-PartAisan Group" under t he leadership of 
Mr . Adolphe Roberts , the eldeNr statesman of Jamaican writing, has 
appeared on the scene witOh a published declaration and one radi~ . broadcast so far . Th iMs group is against Jamaica remaining in the federation and callIs for a 'no' vote . As one of the founding father s 
of the J amaicaW National Movement, Mr. Adolphe Roberts i s a man of influence among J amaica's intelligentsia and it i s here that his, and 
the influenUce of his group might be strongest. But against this nrust 
be set the. very active campaign ing for f ederation which is being 
conducted throughout J amaica by a group of graduate and undergraduates 
of t he University College . This then, i s the line-up of the parties a:d 
the more active pro - and anti-federation groups . They will liven up tre 
campaign . But bas ically , the battle is between the two major parties 
the most important 
because this i s fundamentally t party issue in Jamaica today. Goodn~t. 
No 187 Dangerous Driving & the Duty of the Citizen 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Aug 7 at 6.15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : I want to discuss the latest Russian space achieve-
ment, but before I do so I want to deal with something very mu ch 
nearer_h ome, and something which affects all of us nearly aSll the 
time . I am thinking of this very vexed question of whaEt we should do 
if we see someone doing something wrong . Does the citiIzen have any 
responsibility to do something when he sees anotherR citizen behaving 
in a way which can cause damage and danger aRnd pAossible death to other citizens? 
This question was forcmbly brought ItBo me over the weekend . Let 
me tell you how it happened . I had  tLo go up to Spaldings to take 
part in the opening of the Knox CAollege Summer School on Friday 
evening . We have a friend fromN America staying with us and so I thought 
it might be a good idea toO make it a family trip and show our friend 
something of that pIa rMt of the country which she had not yet seen . And so , after my day's work we all left Kingston on Friday evening for 
Manchester . IWt was a pretty good run and I thought I was doing very 
well to keeUp up an average speed of 50 to 55 miles and hour on straight 
roads outside built- up areas . Every now and then some speed maniac 
flashed past us, going at 70 or 80 miles an hour . As long as the road 
was clear these speeding characters were all right . But at that speed 
there is no margin for error . Should a cow or goat or pig or donkey 
suddenly step into the road, these people would be in a mess , facing 
the pr ospect of a smashed up car and broken bones if they are lucky, 
or death . But they do not seem to think about this , or about a little 
child that might suddenly dash across the road . This is bad enough . 
But we experienced someth ing very much worse %ka% Friday evening . 
2 
Just outside May Pen one of those~ ellow P . W. nJw ater tanks on 
wheels came up behind us . I heard the racket of its coming for miles . 
There was a steady stream of cars and we were all running in a line 
go ing at between 50 and 60 miles. But this P .W.D. tank shot p ast one 
car after another, going at a lick of at least 70 . One caSr had to 
partly climb a bank and risk turning over because t his Ething was 
pass ing and there was traffic coming in the opposite dIirection . And 
then it shot past me and I had to swing in to avoidR having my front 
fender licked. And away it went, horn blaring , Apushing everybody on 
to the banks in its mad, career . I felt it wRas only a matter of time 
before it crashed into something and LI pIrBayed that no poor innocent human beings would suffer injury or  death . And I was frankly glad 
t hat we were now far behind it . ABut unfortunately we met up with it 
again shortly after Porus becNause a couple of big country trucks had 
slowed it down on a narrowO road . But the driver was impatient and 
making an awful rack eMt . When the road widened, I shot past and hurried on prying to put asI much distance between us and this dangerous thing. 
It must have turned off somewhere because we didn ' t see it again when 
we slowed dUownW to a normal speed . But we did see it on the way back to Kingston on Saturday morning . We saw it just outside Porus . The 
front was smashed into a bank . The water hose was partly broken and 
ly ing on the road. The smash~t I had feared on Friday had come; and 
there was no-one in the thing . I hope no innocent person had been hurt. 
But what should all those of us who witnessed t his terrible driving -
police 
what should we have done? I bet no one contacted the nearest/post to 
tell them there was a potential killer on the road last Friday . And 
yet we should have , you know . And I a m as much at f ault . I also think 
we should have seen at l east one police patrol rider on that road. 
Goodnight. 
No 188 Russian Man in Orbit 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Aug 8 at 6.15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: Before I go on to talk about the latest Russian 
space achievement just let me quickly finish what I said last  night. 
A whole heap of us saw this potential killer on the roaEd oSn Friday evening, but I do not think anyone reported it. We beIhaved as though 
it was none of our business. I saw people standingR on the side of the 
road watching this yellow P. W.D. water truck ..-.A.....: 1111•• running at 
this fantastic speed. And I could see the diRsapproval on their faces. 
But none of us did anything about it. It Bis no credit to us that some 
man, woman or child was not maimed  orL kIilled. And yet it is only when the citizens do their duty that Awe will begin to control this dangerous recklessness on the roads. SoN please, let us all try to help keep death off the roads by reporting reckless driving whenever and wherever we 
see it. We owe this much Oto our children, if to nobody else. 
And now for thIe  Mnew Russian space shot. A 26-year-old young Russian, MajorW Titov, came safely down to earth yesterday morning after spending 2K more than 24 hours circling our earth and passing 
over continUents and oceans and cities 17 times. He ate, sJept worked 
and performed all the normal human functions at a height where a few 
years ago it was said no man could survive . This is the second time 
the Russians have shot a man into space and brought him back safely . 
For all we know, it might be the third. Before Gagarin went up last 
April there were strongly supported rumours that someone else had gone 
up before him but had met with disaster. But in any case, whether 
Titov is the second or third man , the Russian achievement is still 
the greatest scientific achievement of the ages . And even if they did 
lose cme man , it is, in terms of scientific research, a fantastically 
2 
small price to pay for such a revolutionary a chievement . The fight to 
conquer and control mal aria has claimed more lives than has the 
conquest of space so far. The roads to the North and South Poles are 
more littered with human casualties than is the r oad to the star s so 
far . Just think of how many men died before Mount Everest wSas  c l imbed . 
And yet for this much greater and more far - reaching achiEevement we have 
the rumour of only one possible casualty . This 1n1tselIf is fantastic . 
But I have heard many people say : ' What is theR point of this? 
Millions and millions in money is was t ed on thesAe space attempts while 
human beings go hungry and homeless and nakeRd' . But you know , this has 
always been the cry in the face of some IneBw and star tling a chievement . 
The people who first tried to fly in  Llittle machines built in their 
backyar ds wer e considered damfoolAs and nobody could see the point of 
it at the time . Today man spanNs the continents and oceans in giant 
airliners because of the eOxperiments of those so-called damfools . 
Today it is som ewMhat the same . Because we cannot yet see the possible results ofI man ' s exploration and conquest of space we tend 
to belittle it and dismiss it as a wasteful extravagance . Of course , 
some of us Udo iWt because this space achievement is a unique triumph for the Russians . I think that is shor t-sighted and rather silly . Does it 
matter now what nationality the person was who discovered the antidote 
to malaria? Does it matter that the Curies who discover ed radium were 
French? Does not all mankind benefit from these? So I think it will be 
with whatever gains come from the conquest of space . Solen us honour 
staggering 
a great pioneering achievement whose/implications are still beyond 
our understanding . This is a great step forward for all mankind . Goodnight 
No 189 Behaviour at Political Meetings 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Aug 9 at 6 . 15p . m 
Pet er Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: Some of you may remember my recurrent little theme 
about good news and bad news . It goes something like this: wh enever 
anything good happens , when people behave well, when they Shelp each 
other, when they show kindness and thoughtfulness andI cEonsideration, 
that is not considered news and so it rarely makesR the headlines in 
our papers or over our radios . When a man knocAks down a stranger 
and robs him, that is news . When a man pickRs up a stranger's wallet 
and gives it back to him and puts him onB the right road to where he 
wants to go, that is not news . In  oLtheIr words, all the bad happenings: t he robberies, the violence, theA bad manners - all this gets into our papers and goes over our radNios . All the good happenings on t he other hand: the helpings, the gOood manners, the kindnesses, the friendliness -these are hardly ever reported . And so we tend to h ear and read only 
about the bad and ra rMely about the good. And so our count ry and our 
people and the worIld and its people are all painted as ugly and mean 
and nasty Uand Wrude and agressive and without consideration . And if we get t his sort of reporting day afterday and we ek ' aft er week and 
month after month and year after year , we get to a point where we 
b elieve i t . And once we believe t hat everybody and vvErything is 
no good , we shrug our shoulders and behave as badly as we expect 
everybody to behave . We expect them to be aggres sive so we get in 
f i rst with our own aggressiveness; we expect t hem to be rude so we 
forestall them by getting n our own r udene s rst. We expec t bad 
manners rom the shop as s ista t so we snap at her to try and put her 
in her place before she begins . And so we set of a chain r eaction 
of behaviour which start ed with the news we r ead and hear d . 
2 
When we read or hear about political meetings we sort of half 
expect the reports to tell us how one leader cur sedthe other leader , 
sometimes running down hi s family tree and picking on any physical weak-
ness he might have . And of course we almost always expect these reports 
to tell us that the supporters of the different parties have  been 
violent and rowdy and disorderly . When there is no abuse, Sno violence, 
no disorderliness , we are hardly ever told about this bEecause this 
does not make good news. I
So let me give you some good news which MaAx iRs not good news in 
t he accepted sense . It is simply this : I M:eHX visited all t he meetings 
that took place last Thursday night wheInB ManRley announced the date of the Referendum and his own future plans . I went from the P . N. P . meetings 
to the J . L.P . meetings . And I was s o Limpressed by the orderliness of 
these meetings . People behaveNd aAs responsible and mature citizens . I had an American friend Owith me and I took my friend into the thickest parts of all the crowds . And my friend too, was greatly impressed by 
the good behaviourI ofM the crowds . The crowds were enthusiastic , some were gay , but they a ll behaved wonderfully well and I was proud that 
the stranger wWith me got such a good impression of Jamaican crowds . 
Indeed, my Ufriend's strongest impression was that the people knew this 
was a great event and they were meeting it with a sense of sober 
r esponsibility . Now some of you may think this is a small t hing . I 
do not . I think it is a big thing and a good thing . And it is the kind 
of good news I would like to see reported as fully as the other kind 
of news . If it is report ed it might even teach some of t h e leaders 
to speak and behave with as much responsibility as their followers 
last 
showed/llll Thursday night . Goodnight . 
No 190 B.G.: The Campaign Against J agan 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Thmrsday Aug 10 at 6.15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: The British Guiana General Elections under the 
new constitution are eleven days away and we are now witnessin g a 
strange campaign of interference from the outside in the aSffairs of 
that country. It all began with "1l :English Peer who viEsited B.G. 
made a speech I
some weeks ago and who then/u11tt11:t~xla•xmamft in Rthe United States 
warning that if Jagan won the elections on AugAust 21st British 
Guiana would become a communist satellite. SRince then a number of 
American politicians, notably some AmeriBcan Senators have taken up 
th§.t matterof warning that British GLuiaInan would become another Cuba 
if Dr. Jagan's People's ProgressAive Party wins the elections. There have been dark hints that somNe sort of action should be taken to ensure that British Guiana does not become another Cuba. Until Friday of 
last week we had onlyM waOrnings and a call from some Americans to the people of British IG uiana not to return J agan to power. But on FrWiday of last week t he London Dai ly Express came out much more sharply and clearly. The Daily Express said that Jagan was liaely 
to win theU election and then it went on to say that if he did there 
will be no more lessons in democracy for British Guiana because t here 
will be no more democracy . It said that the Americans saw this danger 
clearly and were justified in being anxiou.s about it. The Americans 
already had Cuba on t heir doorstep and with Jagan in power in B.G. 
communism would have two outposts on the American continent. It said 
that Whitehall ought to be as anxious as the Americans . Then it went 
on to say t hat Britain acted decisively in 1953 and that if a •mx 
similar situation were created by another Jagan victory on August 21st 
t h en Britain should not hesitate to repeat her firm act ion of 1953. 
2 
Now, I think the meaning of all this is pretty clear . The line 
of the Daily Express is: if Jagan wins the August 21st elections he 
would set about trying to create a communist state . It was on this 
charge that B.G . 's constitution was suspended in 1953 . If he d oes set 
about creating a communist state after the coming electionsS, then 
Britain should again suspend the B. G. constitution. And Ethe Express' 
justification for this proposal is that Britain owes toI her American 
ally and also owes it to the people of British GuiaRna to protect them 
from voting away their freedom through ignoranceA. 
Now I find this as tricky a situation aRs you could want. The 
people of British Guiana have been givenI Bthe right to elect whomever 
they want to power. That is the mAea niLng of their new constitution . /. now the elections are nearly here and it looks as though they are 
going to choose Jagan . But, Nsay some very powerful Anglo-American 
forces, if they do choose OJagan then their constitution should be 
taken away from them. MFrom the point of view of the Guianese people 
t his makes a mockerIy of their right to choose whomever they want to 
govern~ them . AWnd of course, all this advance anti- Jagan propaganda is 
like findinUg t he man guilty before he has committed any crime. What 
these p eople do not seem to realise is that t he effect of t heir anti-
Jagan campaign is more likke ly to strength.e n support for Jagan rather 
than to take it away from . I am sure that Forbes Burnham and Peter 
D'Aguiar must be cursing khis outside int~rference as much as Jagan, 
because it can only hurt their chances . Even those who understand the 
AngJ.,.o-American f ears feel that t his is just about the silliest way to 
go about winning friends and influencing people. Goodnight . 
No 191 The Destruction of the J 8 maican F.arth 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Friday Augll at 6.15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: Much that is big and dramatic ·and important is 
happening all over the world right now, but my mind is on Sthe  Jamaican big 
earth right now. And although this may not seem as iQmE~ian and 
dramatic as most of the other news going on today, I tIhink it is one 
of the two or three most important challenges facinRg Jamaica and 
Jamaicans. And this challenge of the Jamaican eAarth and what we do with 
it is, to my mind, the most important iIf Bwe Rlook at it from a long term point of view. 
Man has a very intimate and a v eLry special relationship to the 
earth on which he was born, on wAhich he grew up and played and suffered 
and flourished and which giveNs him his daily bread. Without the earth 
on which he lives and fromO which he gets his living, man is nothing. 
When you say JamaicanM, you are not just describing a man, you are the describing a man inI relation to a particular piece of/earth called 
Jamaica. When Wyou say a Frenchman, you are describing a man in relation toU a piece of earth called from. And so it g&es with all men everywhere. They are rotted to that part of the earth on which they 
were born and which gives them their identity and which gives them 
their living. Without thespiece of the earth called Jamaica there can 
be no Jamaicans. And if this Jamaican earth flourishes and is rich and 
healthy then the people who live on it and live by it are likely to 
flourish and be rich and healthy. If, on the other hand, this Jamaican 
earth is sick and poor and unhealthy then the people who live on it 
are likely to be sick and poor and unhealthy. This is t he way it 
always has been for the vast majorn.ty of people in every country. As 
lt is with the land, so it is with most of the people. And this is 
2 
particularly true of agricultural countries , and Jamaica is basically 
an agricultural country . We are not an industrialised country . True, 
we are making every effort to build up industries here . We have not 
done badly so far and it is very likely that in the years ahead we 
will do better, especially if our industries are based on foo ds and 
fruits and other raw mater i al we produce right here in JamSaica . But 
fundamentally , Jamaica is an agricultural country and IiEt will remain 
an agricultural country for as far ahead into the Rfuture as I can see . 
And this fact makes the J amaican earth especialAly important to every 
Jamaican, whether he lives in the town or wRhether he lives in the 
country . So how does the Jamaican deal wBith this earth which is his 
most prec ious ~m•2ss2sat1m. possessionL aInd which gives him his unique 
and distinctive personality as a ma n? 
The answer , I am afaaid, i sA a sad and unhappy one . The vast 
majority of Jama icans areO eitNher indifferent to this earth which gives them life, or else they abuse it . Now I am not saying that all J amaicans 
do this . There are m aMny who care for the land, many who love it and 
nurture it, buWt theIy are a minority . The majority abuse the land. Often they do s o from ignorance . It is often easier and quicker to clear a hillside 
patch of/laUnd by firing it . And often they had not been taught better 
ways and t hey have not been told what would happen if they go on abusing 
the land. So there is no point in blaming these people . They are trying 
to get a living as best they can But in the process, by firing the 
land , by chopping down hillside trees and bush , they are destroying the 
Jamaican earth which feeds or should feed us all . So what can we do 
about t his? How can we stop it? And what would happen if we don't stop 
it? I'll try to answer these questions to morrow . So till then, goodnight . 
Terracing as a National Po licy 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Aug 12 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Last night I said the majority of J amaicans K2E2 
are destroying the J amaican earth . If you doubt me , do whaSt I did on Thurday: fly across J ama ica in one of these small planes that operate 
three 
as air taxis and look down on the Jamaican earth . If yIoEu do this , txm 
things will strike you very forc i bly . One of the Rthree things you may 
know, but the other two things may shock and suArprise you . The one 
thing you may know is that most of the JamaRican earth is not flat land ; 
by far the largest part of Jamaica is mIaBde up of h i llside land which 
can be very steep in some places . T hLe second thing - and this is likely to come as a surprise to many peAople - is t he fact that you will see 
vast stretches of the JamaicaNn earth lying unused and unpopulated . There is a great deal of unused land space in the interior od t h i s i sland : 
and it made me wonder aboOut all this talk of overpopulation . And I 
began to wonder whyI  wMe imported so much of our foodstuff when we had all this land Wready and available to give us food if we worked it and worked it well . The tht~d thing - and this was the thing that shocked 
and upset mUe - were the very clear signs of erosion in all too many 
parts of this hillside land . Some farmer, some cultivator, had cleared 
a hillside by fi r e • . He had burned bush and tree and everything else 
to grow his catch- crop or cash crop . No doubt he had had a good fi r st 
crop . But then the rains had come down and because there was no bush 
or trees , it had washed away all the top soil . And many of these 
hillsides showed bare limestone rock where the life- giving earth had 
been washed away , and where hardly anything can now be grown . This is 
a crime . And I am not talking about crime in terms of the law . This is 
something very much more serious . This means that we are fast turning 
2 
Jamaica's hillside land into a desert of rock . If this goes on we will 
suffer , but others will suffer even more . Our children and grand-
children and great- grandchildren will suffer even more because they 
will inherit a barren land which cannot feed them because we  have 
abused the good earth of Jamaica which should give us and Sthem a good 
life . And they will curse us for having destroyed the EJamaican earth . 
The warning signs are there already . Droughts are becIoming more 
common in Jamaica every year . If there is no rain Rfor a few weeks 
there is a drought and a water shortage . This wAas not always so . A 
hundred years ago droughts were unknownI Bin RJamaica because the hillsides were thickly forested and acted was  Lwatersheds . But we have cut down the trees and burned the land anAd so we have droughts . So what can we do about this? People like Harold Cahusac are doing all they can 
through the Watershed ProtecNtion Commission- and fine job it is . But 
I do not think that is enOough . I think we have done too rrruch damage 
already for this probMlem to be handled piecemeal . I should like to 
see the governmentI  laying down a long term policy to save and restore 
this JamaicanW earth . I should like to see a ten or twenty year policy 
to terraceU all the hillside land of Jamaica . I know all the forward 
looking farmers and the people in our Forest Department would welcome 
this . But the policy decision rrrust come from the government . And it 
owes to the country and its people to preserve and protect the land 
by launching such a policy . If we save the Jamaican earth, this land 
can feed all its people and still leave f eod over for export . If we don' 
do this then our government and all of us will be guilty of a crime 
against unborn generations of Jamaic~ Goodnight . 
No 193 Facts of Berlin Crisis 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Aug 14 at 6.15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
G~od evening: A very large number of people are utterly  confused 
about the facts of the Berlin and German crisis. Our newsS agencies 
tell us that the Berlin crisis is the most dangerous IthEreat to the 
peace of the world today . our radios and our paperRs tell us that the 
West - the United States, Britain and France -Awill not surrender 
their rights in Berlin and Germany . We hearR that the American 
President has called for a stepping up IoBf the armed forces and for 
more money for military defence . InL the same vein, the Soviet Union 
has declared that it will not surre nder its rights in Berlin and that 
it was going to sign a separate A~eace treaty with Ea.st Germany this 
from 
year whether the Western OPowNers like it or not. And/inside Germ~ny itself come reports Mof a steady flow of Germans fleeing from Ea.st Ber lin to West BeIrl in . And today we have reports that there have been ugly scenes ovWer the weekend as the Ea.st German authorities tried to stop peUople from their zone from running away to the Western zone of Berlin. They have put up barbed wire barricades; and on Sunday 
there were clashes between protesting crowds and armed East German 
police using tear gas and smoke bombs. This was because in the past 
ten days or so the steady flow of fleeing refugees had begum to turn 
into a flood. 
Now we know all this, or most of i t, because the Berlin story 
has been the number one world headline story for a f ew weeks now. 
What many people do not know, what many people have asked me to tell 
them about, are the hard facts behind this present Berlin crisis . 
We know there is a crisis; we know it is an ugly business which can 
2 
lead to just about the most destructive atomic war the world has ever 
known; we know that it is another pha se in the 'cold war ' between 
Russia and the United States, and we are all very worried about it . 
But we are KXEX confused and a bit lost when it comes to the details . 
So let us begin by trying to see how this situation cSame about . One thing I think most of us know is that it all goes back to the end 
of the Second World War and the defeat of Germany . AndI Etoday's Berlin 
crisis stems out of the nature of that defeat . You Rwill remember the 
war started on September 1st, 1939 . Hitler ' s aArmies invade Poland 
and in a lightning sweep they spread throBughR all of Jfurope, occupying France, menacing Britain from across LthIe Ehglish Channel, and then sweeping east until they were at th e very gates of Moscow . But then the great alliance of Russia, thAe United States, Britain and France, 
rallied and mounted a counteNr-attack . The Russians pushed from the 
east and the Ang~o-AmericOan and French forces pushed from the west . The allies declared  tMhat they would not make peace with Germany; that they wanted GermanIy's unconditional surrender . And so they swept all before them, dWestroying Germany's economy , killing roughly 7 million ~ermans andU leaving the land in ruin . The Rus sians r aced on to Berlin and reached it before the Western allies. And when the Germans 
surrendered unconditionally &n May 7th of 1945, the Russians were 
all 
t he effective lords of/Berl in . But the allies had agreed that Germany 
should be divided up among the four allies and so this was done and 
Berlin too was divided into four sectors. But t here was something 
very peculiar about Berlin in the new set-up . I will tell you about 
t his to morrow evening: so till then, goodnight . 
No 194 The Location of Berlin 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Aug 15 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: Last night I told you that Russia , America , Britain 
and France had decided not t o sign a peace treaty with German y . Instead , 
they demanded unconditional surrender . And in fact the GerSmans did 
surrender unconditionally on May 7th of 1945 . I also IEtold you that 
in the conquest of Germany the Russians had swept Rinto EU Berlin and 
were the effective masters of the city by the tAime the Western allies 
got there . In fact, the Russians had gone fuRrther, they had swept 
west one hundred miles and more beyonLd IBBerlin . And so it was that when Germany was partitioned into four z ones , Berlin was at least 100 miles 
deep inside uxxx&EEllllm~ the RusAsian Zone . This was the peculiar 
situation of Berlin in the neNw set-up . In order to reach Berlin anybody 
from the West had to travOel at leas t 100 miles through the Russian Zone or else fly over Russian held lerritory . But t his presented no 
problem as long as It hMings ran smoothly between the Russians and their 
allies . And inW the early days of the occupation of Germany things did run smoothUly . E\lJerybody was friendly and co-operative. They had just won a bitter war and Russian and American and British and French saw 
each other as comrades and brothers in a great crusade . And so Germany 
was broken up into Four Zones wi th the Russians getting control of 
41,380 square miles of the total area and with a population which at 
t he time was estimated at 17,000,000 people . Britain, France and the 
United States , together got control of an area of 95,683 square miles 
and with a population of roughly 51,000 ,000 people . In terms of land 
space the Russ ians got the lion' s share from the pat tion ng of 
Ger many. But in terms of human beings the Western allies got most. 
2 
The city of Berlin itsel was also partitioned into Four Zones , 
one for the Russians , one for the Americans , one for the British and 
one for the French . The total area of Berlin is 341 . 2 square miles . 
The Russians got 155 . 5 square miles of this , and the Western allies 
combined got 185 . 7 square miles . So here again Russia got Sthe  lion ' s share . Before the war the population of all Berlin was nearly 4½ million: 
In 1957 the population of West Berlin was just under I2-E¼· millions and 
that of East Berlin was just under a million and aR quarter . So it would 
seem that again in the partitioning of Berlin tAhe vast majority of 
the people were in the Western ZGnes . R
After the¢ partition of Germany theB four powers asreed to regard 
Germany as one economic whole with eLachI zone under a military governor. 
These four governors - one Russian, one American , one Brit1sh, one 
French - made up the Allied ConAtrol Council for Germany . In 1947 the 
British and American authoriNties decided to combine their two zones 
into one . The British anOd Americans were then pressing for the 
untting of all GerIm anMy and an ending of the occupation . This set off a series of disagreements between the Russians and the West which 
ended withU theW Russians withdrawing from the Allied Control Council in 1948 . And straightaway the peculiar situation of Berlin came 
dramatically into play . The Russians blockaded all the railways and 
was 
roads linking Berlin with West Germany . Remember , West Berlin ti deep 
in the heart of the Russian Zone . The Russians were showing the West 
just how weak the western position in Berlin was . They were also showing 
their disapproval of western policy . Tomorrow evening I will tell you 
just what the result of all this was . So till then , goodnight . 
No 195 The Symbolism of Berlin 
NEwS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Aug 16 at 6 . 15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: I ended my comments on Berlin last night with the 
breakdo~m of the Four Power Allied Control Council and theS Ru ssian blockade of West- Berlin . This blockade, some of you may remember , lasted 
for eleven months . DJ.ring that time the Western poweIrsE flew more than 
2 , 000,000 tons of food and other necessities into RWest Berlin, so 
preventing the Russians from starving the West ABerliners into submission , 
When the Russians lifted the blockade it waRs both a western victory 
and a promise of troubles ahead . B
Up to this point the French hadL trIied to stay out of this growing 
partisan scrap between Russia and t he United States . But in May of 1949 
the French threw in their lot whAen Britain and the United States 
decided to establish the OFedNeral Republic of West Germany . In October of the same year the MRussians followed suit and established the East German Democratic IR epublic . West Germany ·became a western style state and East GermaWny became a communist style state . And so all hopes of a peacefulU and friendly and allied solution of the German problem were in effect abandoned by both sides . The West wanted a solution 
along western lines, with free elections throughout the country . The 
Russians were not sure that those they backed would win such an election 
and so they were apposed to it . Bnd now the peculiar position of 
Berlin had come to the fore . Berlin now became the challenge and the 
symbol to both sides . So let us look at it from each side in turn. 
As the Russians see it , here is 185 square miles of land deep 
inside the Soviet world but not belonging to it . This, as Mr . Khrushchev 
has put it, was 'a bone in the Russian throEt' . The Russians had 
tried to swallow it in 1948 but it had stuck because they had found 
2 
that the Americans were prepared to go to war over Berlin . And today 
the bone is still in the Russian throat, still irritating~ and they 
still want to swallow it . The existence of West Berlin deep inside 
the communist world is a daily challenge and insult to communism . If 
the Russians give up the fight for West Berlin it will be a g reat 
moral defeat for communism and Russia . And so Russia cEannSot give way over West Berlin. I
As the Americans see it , holding on to West BRerlin is as important 
to them is winning it is to the Russians . They Aa r e there by legal 
right of the Oc cupation Statute and as lBongR as they hold on to West Berlin they are showing the uncommittedI world that they can stand up 
to communism . And their case is strLengthened by the fact that the 
West Berliners do not want commAunis m . The daily flights from the communist zone to the westerNn zone does t he communist cause great harm in the eyes of the worldO. And also, the material prosperity of West Berlin as against thMe poverty of F.ast Berlin is , as they see it, a daily mirror in wIhi ch the two systems can be compared . And so the struggle for WBerlin has become the great ideological symbol~ of the bitter strUuggle between communism and democracy in ID.lrope today . I am no prophet so I cannot tell you how this struggle will end . 
What is clear is that beither side are prepared to give way on it . 
And it is not a situation over which some compromise can be worked 
out . It is a situation in which neither side is prepared to lose face 
and t hat is what makes Berlin the potential tri gger point of world 
war today . Goodnight . 
No 196 The B. G. Elections 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Thur sday Aug 17 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : As you listen to me this evening I should be down 
in Port- of- Spain Trinidad, if all has gone well . I hope to st ay over-
night in Trinidad and get a plane to British Guiana as earSly as possible 
tomorrow . The whole po int of this whole exercise is ofE course to be 
in British Guiana for next Monday's elections . I plan Ito be back in 
Jama i ca on Wednesday of next week and I hope to givRe you a first -hand 
report of all I heard and saw over the electionA period . I also hope 
to giv e you my personal impressions of B.BG. 'Rs political leaders and 
the poss i ble lines of action they m igLht Itake in the future . British Guiana is one of the three or four West Indian territories 
I have not yet visited, and sNo I Aam particularly excited about this trip . I always find it exciting and challenging to go where I have not 
been before . And then theOre are features about Monday ' s elections in 
B.G . which are out Io fM the ordinary and which mxk.Je~xxx people concerned with the news are anxi ous to observe at first -hand . I personally am 
particularly iWnterested to see just what kind of external pressures 
are likely Uto be at work in the elections . You will remember that it 
was on Thursday of last week that I told you about the campaign of 
some American politicians as well as of the London Daily Express 
against Jagan ' s People ' s Progressive Party . The Daily Express said 
that if Jagan won the general elections then the British Government 
should suspend the B. G. constitution as it did in 1953 . This , as I 
told you last Thursday, strikes me as a very dangerous suggestion . 
And it was because of t his campaign against him and his party that 
Jagan invited the United Nations to send observers to the B. G. 
elections . The United Nations ha s turned down that invitation. But 
2 
others, and I am one of them, k&IBXEBZmmB are more interested than they 
would normally have been to see just how the elections go off . And so 
I expect to see a very large number of newspaper people when I reach 
Georgetown some time tomorrow . The searchlight of t he world' s press 
will therefore be very sharply focussed on British Guiana ove r t he 
next four or five days . S
What is very unfortunate about this whole bus inessE is t hat there 
are these powerful outside forces who are trying to i nIterfer e in t he 
internal affairs of British Gu iana . And what is evRen worse i s this 
prejudging of Jagan by people and institutioRns Awho are not particularly people famous for their concern about the well- be ing/o~ the con4it1ons under 
which people in under- developed coun t rIiBes live . And so you get the 
i mpression that it is the most rAeac tiLonary forces, t hose with least interest in the weltfare of the people, who are against Jagan . As I 
told you before , I think all Nt hat thes e peopl e will succeed in doing 
is to rally the mass of tOhe Guianese people behind J agan . But we will 
soon see whether I amM right in t his • 
.And now for a Ip oint of correction about some facts and fi gures on 
B. G. When I diWscussed the new constitut ion on July 26th, I gave you 
the populaUtion of B.G . as roughly 800 , 000 . A listener phoned and 
questioned this figure . The listener wa s right and I was wrong . The 
1959 figure f or the populat ion of B.G. is 557 , 960: of this total 268 ,710 
are of East Indian Origin and 186,800 are of African or i gin . I am s orry 
about my mis take and I am grateful to the listener who drew my a t tent ion 
to it . And goodnight until tomorrow . 
0 197 The Case of Roy E Burnett 
& B. O. A.C . 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Friday Aug 18 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : As you know, I am out of J amaica this evening and 
more than a thousand miles away from home . And you know by now  that 
whenever I have to leave J amaica I record these commentariSes in advance . 
And of course when this happens it means that I cannoIt Ekeep up with 
the news that happens every day . But when I am a t home the daily news 
happenings often make it impossible for me to dAealR wi th very many 
subjects which are i mportant but whi ch are nRot immediate news . So I 
welcome these rare opportunities when I cBan get away from the day- to-day 
news and deal ·with subjects that I  haLveI neglect~d . For instance, I ~ ~t IL_ / ~ ~have had the case of .Mr . Roy E. Burnett and B. 0 :£ . 8. on my fil e for I\ 
a very long t i me now and my bNeinAg away has given me a chance to deal with it . 
Now, basically it seOems to me that Mr . Burnett's case ls one of 
procedure and of apIp rMoach . Mr . Burnett wrote to tell Jllm KE me about the matter and invited my comments . His case was that he took an 
American lady Wto the airport to see her off after she had spent a 
3- weeks- hoUliday in J amaica . When the lady' s luggage was processed 
there was some misunderstanding , it seems to me . The baggage on the 
scale we1ghed 0 5lbs ; but the lady also had some rum and some hand 
~
luggage . The ~uO.A.e . hostess knew the we ight of the rum , and with her 
great experience , she made a pretty accurate assessment of the wei ght 
of the hand luggage and char ged the American lady £5 . 3 . 6 . excess . 
Mr . Burnett and h is American gues t , on the other hand, had seen the 
scale registering 35lbs and not having the experience of the hostess 
they could not assess the we i ght of the rum and the hand luggage . 
Mr . Burnett therefore asked how the xxmJ hostess had arrived at her 
2 
figure . And as I understand it, it was at this point the the trouble 
began . From what Mr . Burnett wrote to me it seemed that the manner of 
the hostess' reply upset him and his guest most . According to Mr . 
Burnett the hostess said abruptly : "Do you want me to send back for 
the things?" The suggestion is implied that the hostess sound ed 
aggressive and impatient . 8r . Burnett then went and talkeSd the matter 
over with a duty officer . The baggage was weighed and IiEt wa s found that 
the hostess ' assessment had been correct . R
Mr . Burn~tt ~ent a copy of his letter to me to the district 
lb:, ... '--+ -2.. -L,, A
Manager of ,D. O. A. G. ltere . The district mBanI R
ager investigated the 
matter and wrote me a pretty detailed letter setting out the case from 
~ ~
.:13 • 0 • A . C • ' e-- po int of view . From the ~L.S,1'\. . G, point of view it seemed A. 
that Mr . Burnett was most concerned  with the question of the weight 
and on this the hostess had beenA proved correct . But to this Mr . 
Burnett said no , his main coNncern was with procedure and the a ttitude 
of the hostess . O
right 
For myself, I Is eMe a lot of/:pcxtiz• on both sides . The hostesses have to process a large number of people in a very short time and so 
they work aUt tWop speed . But that in itself can sometimes be tricky . When you know your business and you know you are right you tend to be 
impatient with questions . On the other hand you are selling a service 
to the customer and so it is your duty to be patient with his questions . 
The very fact that you have upset the customer to the point that he has 
complained is a failure on your part . The customer is entitled to 
courtesy at all times from those who sell him their service . 
Goodnight . 
No 198 The Case of the Rude Policeman 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Aug 19 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : I think one of the surest ways in which we can 
measure the health of any society is by the relations between the 
police force of that society and the ordinary citizens of Stha t society . 
Where the s ociety is healthy and civil liberties f l ourEish, where the 
rule of law is the order of the day - in such societiIes you will find 
a very cordial and fri:endly relationship between tRhe c itizen and the 
polike . There will be mutual respect betweRen cAitizen and police: the citizen will regard the policeman as his friend and the guardian 
of his peace . Children crossing streLetsI Bwill confidently slip their hands into that of the policeman be cause they will see h i m as the 
symbol of safety . Strangers in Aa strange place will seek out a 
policeman first of all if thNey are lost: he will be the best person 
to help them get where thOey want to . Only the law-breakers, only th~ 
evil-doers will be  aMfraid of the policeman . All the good citizens, whether they are rIich or poor , proud or humble, well-dressed or in 
rags, will seeW him as a friend, as someone who will protect the peace, guard the Urule of law, and be helpful to anyone who appeals to him for help . That is the image of the policeman in the good and healthy 
society . 
In an unhealthy soci ety where the rule of law is flouted, where 
civil liberties are not respected and where the rule of law is weak, 
there is very little, if any, friendship between the police and the 
citizen . In such societies the citizen keeps as far away from the 
policeman as he can . He does not regard the policeman as his friend . 
As far as possible he avoids having anything to do with the police 
and he will not do anyth ing to help the police keep the peace . In such 
2 
societies parents use the policeman as a bogeyman w~th which to 
frighten little children . They say: if you don't do this or that the 
policeman will come for you . And even little children shy away from 
the police . 
Well now, using these two yardsticks : one of the healthy society 
in which the policeman is everybody's friend; and the one Sof the 
unhealthy society in which the policeman is everybodyI'sE enemy , where 
would we put Jamaica? R
I myself would put it somewhere in the midAdle . It is not unhealthy, 
but at the same time it is still far from beRing really healthy . There 
are some very good people in our policeI fBorce , and I am particularly 
impressed with one group in the forc eL, the C.I . D. under the leadership 
of Superintendent George Mullen . AI think that branch of our police is 
as good as you could find anyNwhere in the world and better than most . 
But I think you will findO that many people, especially the poorer 
citizens, find many  oMf the uniformed policeman rude , agressive and bullying . I met oneI such rude policeman the other day when I went into 
a police statioWn for guidance and information about an accident . He was just about as rude and bad mannered as anybody I have ever met. 
He saw himUself as a public master rather than a public servant . It is 
people like this man who make for the unhealthy relations which now 
exist between the public and the police . But in fairness let me say his 
superior officer immediately apolog i s ed for the man's behaviour . But 
what happens when there ~s no superior officer around or when this 
rude policeman deals with little people out on the streets? This is 
one of our big problems about which something should be done . 
Goodnight . 
No 199 
B. G. & the Federation 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Aug 21 a t 6 . 15p . m. 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: Today is the big day in B. G. and as I have told 
again and again in the past , my bet i s on Jagan . I expect h i m to win 
though it is possible that his majority may be reduced . BuSt I will 
give you an eyewitness account of todays happenings on EThursday 
evening when I am back in J amaica . I
One of the t h ings ~~at will be of immedAiateR interest to us about British Guiana is t he pattern of its Rfuture and the pattern of B. G.' s possibl e r elations to the West IInBdies Federation . In the elect ion manifesto which Jagan ' s People's Progressive Party published on Tuesday 
of last week certain important poin tLs of future policy were l a id out . 
First, t he manifesto sNaid Athat if t he P . P .P . won the elections , and when t hey gain independence one year after the elections, B. G. 
would hold a referendum tOo ask the people whether they want to enter 
the West Indies FedeMration or not . 
By this , as yIou  know, hangs quite a story . You will remember that 
it was late laWst year, and on one of my r adio programmes t hat Mr . 
Wills I saaUc s dropped h is bombshell on B. G• • Wills , you may r emember, 
said that he did not want a Jagan-led B. G. in t ne West Indi es 
federation . Some of you may also remember that shortly after t hat 
interview I went down t o Trinidad and brought back a record ing of 
Dr . Et'ic Williams ' rep y to this stat ement of • Isaacs . Dr. Will ams 
said ver fi r mly that as far as Trin dad was conc erned they w nted 
British Gui ana in the Federation . He rejected the idea that Brit i sh 
Guiana's entr y into the federation should be made difficult x~xax 
under any c ircumstance . As he saw i t, Britisn Guiana had a right 
to be in t he Federation and it was t he duty of t he federal government 
2 
to make things as smooth and as easy as poss ible for B. G. to enter . 
What form of government B. G. had and who headed her government, he 
felt, was the bus iness of the Guianese people . Our business was to 
make it clear to the Guianese people that the door of t he Wes t Indies Federation was open to them . ~RESH 
These were the main lines of the disagreement betweenS Mr . Wills 
Isaacs and Dr. Williams . As far as I know these two IcoEnflicting views 
have not been reconciled. If the ruling West IndiRes Federal Labour 
Party has in fact arrived at any decision on thAe matter, they have 
not given it out. But it seems to me thBat Ra decision on how the rest of the West Indies feel about B. G. 's enItering the Federation now 
becomes a matter of some urgency .  L
Obvisouly, if the Guianese Apeople are told that they are not 
wanted in the West Indies FeNderation or t hat they are only wanted 
under certain conditions,O this is bound to influence the~ way they 
look at the matter. They are very likely to say; alright, if t hey 
don't want us thenI w eM won't have anything to do with them. This is a 
a very natural and human reaction . 
If, oUn thWe other hand, the spokesmen of t he West Indies Federation make 1 t cle·ar that they are anxious for B .G. to come in, if they make 
it clear that a place has been reserved for her and she would be very 
welcome, the Guianese reaction might be very different . And so it 
seems to me that the attitude of the rest of the West Indies to B. G. ' s 
entering the Federation can have a very important bearing on the 
results of the referendum which Jagan has promised his people . But 
we will have to make up our minds early . Goodnight . 
No 200 The B. G. Referendum 
NEWS COMMENT.ARY 
For tran smission on 
Tuesday Aug 22 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good eveni ng: Last night I told you about Dr . Jagan' s decision , 
contained in t he People ' s Progressive Party election manifesto , to 
hold a r eferendum when B. G. b ecomes independent next year . SThe 
referendum will be on the question of whether B. G. shouEld join the 
West Indies Federation or not . I told you that t his mIeant that the 
spokesmen of t he West Indi es would have to make upR their minds as to 
whether t hey want B. G. in the federat ion or notA because how the rest 
of t he West Indies react to B. G. will havBe aRn influence on how the 
Guianese people decide . As you know , lIas t year Mr. Wills I saacs 
expressed the view in an interview  wLith me that B. G. under Jagan 
should not be allowed into thNe fAederation. You will also remember that Dr. ic Wil ms d sagreed flatly with t his vi ew . 
But this i s only oneO side of the penny . It i s an important side, 
but it i s not the mI osMt impo rtant . What is far more important is how the Gui anese leaders t hemselves feel about the Federation and the 
extent to whicWh they can influence their followers • .And it is at this 
point that UDr . J agan becomes particularly i mportant . As XR a Guianese 
of Indian origin and therefore the leader of the largest single racial 
group in the countr y , J agan ' s i s the dominant influence . Now p l ease 
do not misunderstand me . I am not saying that J agan approaches t he 
problems of B. G. from the point of view of the i n ter es ts of one group . 
He does not; and. indeed the thing I admire most about both J agan and 
Burnham i s the fact that they have both firmly refused t o conduct 
their politics on racial and communal lines . As you know , Burnham 
recently expelled Sydney King from his People National Congress 
because Ki ng was pushing a r acial line . I think in this bo th of the 
2 
t wo B. G. leaders have s hown a balance and a maturi t y which is often 
lacking among some of our own so - called leaders . 
But f acts are hard t hings and t h ey should be faced squarely . 
And the hardest fact in B. G.' s political life i s the central point 
Guianese of 
t hat the/East Indian origin make up the majority of the pop ulation . 
And whether we like it or not, t here is more than a tendenScy a mong 
both the masses of East Indian origin as well as tRhe Im
Easses of African 
origin to x~~~~iu:k see t heir political problems in a communal spirit . 
The leaders may disapprove of this, but the facAt is there and it is 
a fact that constitutes one of the greatBestR possible dangers for the future of B. G. as I see it . But whatL haIs this to do with the possible outcome of the referendum?  
Simply this . If Jagan throwAs his weight in favour of B. G. entering 
the federation then it is alNmost certain that B. G. will enter even if 
a large section of t he EOast Indian community deserts him . If on the 
other hand , he throw sM his weight against B. G. entering then it is most unlikely that B.G.I will. The non-Indian section of the population still 
outnumbers the Indian section - but only if all the non-Indian elements 
are unitedU, anWd at presnt they are not and federation does not seem to be the issue to unite them. In any case, such a unity against the 
Indian community would be a most unhealthy thing and I, for one , would 
be against it. And yet i t seems to me that B. G.' s t hreatening communal 
problemi has its best chance of being solved within the larger frame-
wor k of the West Indies Federation . And for this reas on it seems to 
me important that our leaders should let Jagan know that he and B. G. 
would be more than welcome inside the Federation . Goodnight . 
No 201 Tourism and Colour 
NE'vm COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Aug 25 at 6.15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: I wonder how many of you have read the let ter to 
the editor which appeared in the Gleaner of Wednesday of lSast week 
under the heading: 'Colour Prejudice in Mobay Hotel '. EIf you have you 
will recall that this was the story of a resident of IMontego Bay 
women 
who made friends with two white/teachers from CAanaRda . These two 
friends then invited this man to join them and another male tourist 
for an outing . But on the way they stopIpBed Rat the hotel where this male white tourist was staying and the Montego Bay resident and one 
of the young women sat on the hAotel  Lveranda while the other two went inside for something. It was at this point that the man who seemed 
to be manager of the hotel bNehaved in what can only be described as 
a prejudiced way thus emObarrassing both the Jamaican as well as the 
foreign visitors tIo  tMhese shores. Now I know many ~eeple feel that there is too much talk of race 
and colour goWing on in Jamaica today. And most of them deplore this 
and say weU must stop talking about it . A businessman who happens to 
be a good friend of mine one day gave me a tongue-lashing because he 
felt that I was contributing to this racial feeling by talking about 
it on the radio . But you do not get ~way from things by shutting 
your eyes to them and pretending that they do not exist . And my own 
feeling is that it is incidents such as the one about which the man 
wrote to the Gleaner last Wednesday which create more racial feeling 
than all the talking of all the agitators in Jamaica . And I think we 
must face the fact that what that man wrote about was no isolated 
instance . I have heard of incidents like this on more times than I 
2 
like to remember . Jamaicans have been made to feel that they are not 
welcome on Jamaica's north coast tourist resortsj Sometimes they have 
been told so outright , at other times they have been overcharged , and 
at yet other times they have encountered a studied rudeness w hich 
can be worse than the outright insult about which a mIanE caSn do some-thing . And I frankly do not see the sense in preteRnding that th i s so r t of thing does not happen . 
Now I am not saying that it happens everywAhere . I am not saying 
that all the people concerned with the hoteRl i ndustry do this sort 
of thing . For instance I have always fIeBlt complete l y welcome at the 
places with which ~.r . Abe Issa has  anLything to do and the same goes for the places where the Elkins are . But th ere are places where 
coloured people are not welcome Ain their own country . And whatever 
the rea son this is a bad OthinNg which should be stopped i mmediately. As I said, this makesM for more real racial feeling than a t housand speeches by a thousa nd hotheaded agitators . 
The touriWst inIdustry has a ssociations and organisations of its own . I shoUuld like the tourist Soard , which is subsidi s ed with public money , and the government , to make i t clear to all these hotel 
operators t hat Jamaica belongs first and foremost to the J amaican 
people and that there should not be one corner of t his i s l and where 
people from the outside can go to which Jamaicans cannot go , provided 
they observe t he rules and behave properly . If we have to choose 
between a touri st industry bas ed on colour lines or no tourist industry, 
then for the sake of peace and harmony in Jamaica, it would be better 
to have no tourist industry. But that choice need not be made . The 
rememdy is in the hands of the leaders of t he industry . Goodn i ght 0 
No , J. < '7/ B. B El e ction Postm ortem: 
The Hi gh Poll 
Go od evening : I have j ust returned from British Guiana a few hours 
ago .And as I promised you 1 st ,•reek ,1hen I left for B. G., I have come back 
,.,ith a r eportfor you. I am sure you all know the hard facts of the e lection: 
youknow J agan has won twenty seats; you know Forbes Burnham I s pSarty has 
won eleven seats , and y ou know Peter D1Aguiar 1 s United FoIrEce has won 
four seats. These hard facts ab out B. G.' s GenenerlA El eRction have been reported very ful ly on the r adios and i n the pre ss . So , instead of 
repeat i ng what you already knor, I thought iBt mRi ght be a very good idea to h ol d a sort of post mortem on the B. G. Ielections. 
Once you stop and think carefully  Labout the results of the B. G. elections , and once you look at thAe figures carefully , two very intere~ting 
p oint s come out . If you only lNook at the number of sea.t s each of t he three 
parties has won , J agan ' s vOictory looks very decisi ve indee d. His ~e opl a ' s Progressive Party has f i ve more seats than the c ombined t ota l of t he two 
opposition part i e sI.  MThis is a clear majority , suggest i ng that Jagan has 
the approval Wof a clear cut maj ority of B. G.' s voters . But ,U if you look at the t otal number of votes cast , and if you work out how they are shared among the parties , then the Jagan position does 
not look so good . Some of you will remember from your radio and press 
rep orts that British Guiana ha s a total vot i ng population of just over 
246 ,000 . Up to this morning Y-hcn I left George t own , t ere were still 45 
undeclared votes in one constituency a nd si boxes to be opened in another , 
but these , ill make no basic diff er en ce to t he figures which I want to give 
you now . Of the 246 , 000 G-ui n.nese who have t e v ote , 217 , 887 ,-rent to the 
p olls end ca st t , cir votes . This me ans that without the six boxes and 45 
undeclared votes , 88 . 5% of the voters of B. G. went to the polls . And this , 
2 
to me , is the fir st really startling thi ng about this election. I f you know 
something ab out the · hysica.l size of n . ·• , if you know the distances that 
people often h iwe to walli: to get t o a polli ng tation, and i f you know 
the conditions under which t ey ome time s have to travel to get to a  
polling station, th n you are like l y to find t h is turn- out of voSter s a 
re a lly ama zing thing . Just let me give you one li tt le examplEe . Just b~fore 
v otl)ng start ed on :Monday morning r a in fe ll in several aRreasI. When t~e r in stopped it was found th tin one area the polling booth had bec ome fl ooded 
and was unde r ,v-ate r; and I und e r stand that el e ·rhereA one box full of voters ' 
returns got fl oodod a nd had to be given up . B.uuRt in spite of all these 
difficulti e s there wa s this f anta stic turnI-out of voters . I personally 
do not know of any recent elccti onA in  eLither Britain or the Uui ted States -or anywhere else where d emocra tic elections a r e held - whe r e t here ~as been 
such a h i gh tur n-out of votersN. And be lieve me , the e p eople. turned out 
not because they wer e for cOed or bullied or becaus e there is a one party 
system or for any IsucMh similar reason. hey turned out because this election was important t o them; be cause 
t hey knew thaWt h ow and what they dec i ded would set the future course of 
their couUntry for genera tions to come . And so each man and each woman went 
out and assumed his or her r e spo,s i bility. Som g ot up from their sicc beds , 
some had to be ca,rried , I knor of at le ast one woioan wh o wa s in 1 bour : 
nd they had a voting turn-out such as we h ave not kno vn i n J amaica . As I 
wandered fr om voting sta tion to voting station i n and ar ound Georgetown on 
J.l ond y , I t h ought of J r.maica ' s date with destiny on Septembe r the 19th, 
and I hoped very much tha t the J amaican voters would match and outmatch 
t he turn-out of voters tha t I sa'i in British Guir.na . Tomorrow I ' ll tel l 
you of t he second thing that struck me . So til l then , g oodnight . 
B. G. Elect i on Po st Mortem : 
The Popult r Vote 
y 
For transmission on 
Fridar Aug 25 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Ab r aham s speaking 
Good evening : Last night I told you of the fantastically 1igh  turn-
out of voters on Monday i n British Guiana ' s General elections . SYou will 
r emembe r that out of a tota l voting population of just overI E246 , 000, 211, 887 
Guianese cast t he ir vote s - in fact the figure is higheRr be cause of the 
six b oxes and 45 undeclared votes which were then Ast ill to be counted and 
i n cluded . This means t hat more tha n 88½% of theR electora t e vrent to the 
polls . And this, look at it any way you likIeB, is an amazing a chiev ement . It means that the Gui ane se voter has , iLn this election at least , taken his 
resp~nsibility s a citizen mor e se r io usly than the voters in countries 
which are suppose-a. to e moreN devAeloped . Cer t ainly, you did not have this k i nd of voting turn-out iOn the Amer ican r e sid ential election and you certainly did not havMe it in the last British Ge neral Elections. And of course we in J amaicIa  ha,ve never come near this figure though f l d o hope w will do so Wwhen the voting o~ the referedum comes around . As I told you l a st night , I think the re as on for this hi gh poll wa s because the Guianese 
knew thatU they were not just choosing f or the next four or five years . 
The government that le ds Britnsh Guiana into independence is almost bound 
to set the pattern for Guianese development for a very long time to come . 
That Government• has now been chosen. But by the very nature of the l a rge 
turn-out , the voters have se t a serious limitat ion on that g overnment . 
Of the 217,887 votes that were c a st, 93·,073 went to Cheddi J agan 1 s 
People ' s Pr og r essive Party . This me ans that the P . P . P . got 42 . 7% of the 
total vote: Forbes Burnham ' s Pe op le ' s National Congress g ot 89,283 . This 
is 4 1% of the total vote . Peter D' Aguiar s United :Poree got 35,b3l, _ whi ch 
2 
is 16. 3% of the tota l popular vote. 
Unce you bre ak the fi gure s d own in this way then you see that Cheddi 
Jagan s tota l ma jority in t erms of se ats becomes a minority in terms of 
the p op ul ar vote . Jagan won more se at s than the t wo other parties  
combi ne d . But he did n ot get more popular vote s than the t w· o othSer 
psrtie s comb i nea . The two parties combined polled a popular vEot e of 
something l ike xx 124 , 814 as against the P •• P.' s 93 , 07R3. IBut e l e ct i ons , a s you know , are not won or 1 o st on t he p opul a r vote but on a ma jori t y of 
seats. And I hav e certainly not discus sed these fi guAres in order to make 
any of y ou doubt J agan ' s clear mandat e from theR people to l ead Briti!Sh 
Gui ana . The twenty seats J agan ' s P. P. P . hoIlBds is a. clear mandate a ccording 
to the rul es of parl i amentary democr a cyL. 
The r eason why I have di s cusseAd these fig res is because I think they 
are likely to have an influenceN on the way J agan g oes ab out thi ngs . The 
knowledge that 57 . 3"/o of theO voters di d not cast their votes for his party 
will tend to make hIim  Mmove cautiously where other; i ~s he might have moved boldly . All politici ans who depend on votes for their power are sensitive 
to factors likWe this . And J agan is both shrewd enough and wise enough as 
a politiciUan for this factor to be important , especially during the life 
time of t 1is , the first parliament of B. G. under the new , self-governing 
constitution. Goodnight . 
No 204 l )Brazilian President Resigns 
2) Alliance for Progress 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Aug 26 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: The news od the resignation of the President of 
Brazil which broke last night was just about the most unexpec ted and 
startling event of the week . After only seven months in oSffice, 
President Janio Quadros suddenly resigned and said he Ehad taken this 
action because he had been defeated by t he forces of Ireaction in 
his country . I think most of the world outside BRrazil is very much 
in the dark about this dramatic turn of eveRnts Ain Brazil . There i s obviously a very big story behind this IrBesignation , but at the moment nobody outside knows j ust what all  oLf that story is . But there have a f ew been/straws i n t he wind over theA past few weeks . A little over two weeks Nago President Quadros presented his Congress with a bill to cut down on the flow of profmts out of Brazil . 
There had been cr iticism Othat most American compan i es operating in 
Brazil wee e sendinIg  aMll their pnof its back to the United Stat es i ns tead of re- investing such profit s in the country and t hus helping 
its developmenWt . The Oiadros bill was to curb this situation . But 
instead ofU dealing only with t he profits of f oreign companies - which 
are predominantly American - t he Quadros bill included all compan i es , 
both foreign and domestic. The bill laid down a flat 30% tax levy 
on the distribut ed profit s of all companies operating in the country . 
But on the other hand , if profits were plowed back into Brazil, then 
the tax on t his re- invested money would drop to only 10%. This meant 
that if the bill were passed companies who exported their profits 
m~xmtlixs«tx~eblxRUX:irn:RmxiHx~~•x±i would f ace a tax increase of 50% 
while those who chose to re-invest their profits in the count ry 
would have their taxes cut in half . And as an encouragement to local 
2 
capital the bill provided for a 15% cut in taxes for companies one 
third of whose shares were own by Brazi l ians . 
Now, to people whose main concern wf6a -s the welfare and developmen·t  
of Brazil, and the expansion of her industries , the Quadros bill 
seemed sensible and reasonable . But to those who were concer ned only 
with their profits and the safe stacking away of their EproSfits in the safety of Switzerl nd or the United States, this wIas a very 
revol u t . o ary and undes abl. meas r . Anu my guesRs i s t hat this was 
one of t ne points on which what ~~2x Quadros haAs called Brazil's 
fo rces of reaction, have been putting up a bRitter fight . And it wou ld 
seem that for the moment they have defeaBted him. 
But Janio Quadros is politicallyL tIhe most popular man with the 
Brazilian masses who voted him iAnto power . And how the mass of the Brazilian people react to hisN resggnation and the reason he gave for it, i s E~xf very importanOt . The mass of the people may accept this as part of the patterMn of Brazilian power politics . In that case they may say a briIll iant amateur tried to clean up the country but was beaten by Wthe machine . Or they may decide to take a direct hand to reinstaUte Quadros. If that happens then we might expect some political trouble in Brazil . And any real political trouble in 
Brazil may act as the flashpoint for a wave of unrest throughout 
Latin America . And this , if it happens , could play the very devil 
with President Kennedy's Alliance for Progress idea . Goodnight . 
No 205 The Freeing of Jo~o Kenyatta 
N Ei/S COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Aug 28 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: The crisis in Berlin , the British Guiana elections 
and the resignation of the President of Brazil - these were th e three 
big stories of last week . These three stories were considSered so 
important that they over- shadowed almost evEJything eIlEse that happened 
in the world . But there was another i t em of news Rlast week which was 
so important that it may , in the long run , pr ovAe mo r e important for 
the world than two out of last week's three Rbig stories : that item 
of news was the final and complete freeIinBg of Jamo Kenyatta . 
You wi ll remember that it was  juLst over two weeks ago that Kenyatta was given a sort of limited freedom after spending some 
nine years i n prison and undNer rAestriction : he was a prisoner for seven years and for the rest of the time he was restricted to a small area 
in the semi - desert faMr noOrth of Kenya , at a Godforsaken place called Lodwar . Then , on A ugust the 14th he was transferred to a place called 
Gatundu which is nIear Nairobi . There too he was restricted . He could 
only move UabouWt in the three- acre plot of land . And he was barred from holding political meetings or political office because he had been 
convicted under the charge of ' managing the Mau Mau 1 • And then suddenly 
last week , all restr ictions were lifted and Jomo Kenyatt a had complete 
and unconditional freedom . 
Those of us who know Kenya and who have followed the Kenya story 
with some care , knew that it was jus t a matter of time before the 
Colonial Office had to release Kenyatt a , and , much more important , 
had to admit that only Kenyatta could .unite the major political 
. forces in the country . But the Kenya settlers plus a very powerful 
group in Britain , still thought it was possible to keep Kenyatta out 
2 
of the political life of his country . They did everything in their 
power to dicredit him, both among the Africans in Kenya as well as in 
the outside world: and the Kenya government itself was a party to 
this campaign . The Corfield report on the Mau Mau which was published 
British Government 
by the gmx11Xtaxxt~~tz~ a few months ago painted a very ugly p icture 
of Kenyatta: according to that report he was everything thSat was evil 
and depraved and he had corrupted his people . And lasItE year the 
Governor of Kenya, Sir Patrick Ren~ison, denounced RKenyatta as "a 
leader to darkness and death" . All this confirmAs the view that both 
the Colonial Office and the white settlerBs sRtill felt, as recently as three months ago, that they could keeLp KIenyatta out of the political life of Kenya, either by banishing f rom the country on else by permanently restricting him insidAe the country . But the pressure of 
events soon showed them how foolish this was . A new movement of violence 
began to build up. Mass AfricNan pressure forced the new African leaders 
to demand the release of OKenyatta . And it soon became clear that there 
could be no peace oIr  Mstability in the country without the leadership of Kenyatta . WAnd so the white settlers suddenly discovered that after all KenyatUta could not have been the evil genius of the Mau Mau because it only began tx after he had been imprisoned and there was no way he 
could have managed it from prison . And early this year the same Sir 
Patrick Renison who had called him a leader to darkness , said there 
could be no stability without him . At last, the Colonial Office had 
accepted the new reality and adjusted its policy accordingly . That is 
the meaning of the release of Kenyatta . Tomorrow I will discuss the 
new reality in Kenya and East Africa . So till then , goodnight . 
No 206 The End of East African Settler Rule 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For t r ansmi ssion on 
Tuesday Aug 29 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Last night I told you about the complete and 
uncodditional release of J omo Kenyatta last week . I told you  that in 
the long run this may prove more important for the world tShan the B. G. 
elections or the resignation of the President of BrazIilE; and I des cribed 
it as the new reality to which the Colonial OfficeR has at last bowed 
its head . A
This new reali ty is the hard fact that Rwhite settler rule in 
Ea.st Africa is fast ending, and in her IowBn interest Britain must now back the Afr icans rather than the whLite settlers . In the past Britain 
has , in spite of all protestations  to the contrary , backed the white 
settlers . And in some ways BritiAsh policy in East Africa has been a 
watered down version of policNies persued in Southern Rhodesia and 
South Africa . There wMas nOot the same elaborate pattern of colour bar by law as in SouthI A frica . But to the African at the receiving end the practices Wwere all very similar . There were no Pass Laws as in South AfricUa where every black man and woman had to carry several pieces of paper to indentify himself at all times . But the East African 
black man had to carry his Kipande Q which in fact was a pass . And 
there were the same restrictions about entering hotels and bars and 
restaurants. And of course there was the same basic social attitude . 
And when the early constitutional changes were made , at best they 
made sure that something like 50 , 000 white settlers had the same 
political representation as something like 20,000 ,000 Africans . In 
Kenya 30,000 white settlers had the same number of seats as 5½ million 
Africans: in Tanganyika a little over 16 , 000 settlers had the same 
number of seats as more than 8,000,000 Africans . Only in Uganda were 
2 
t h ings different . There you only had a little over 3 , 000 whites and 
they were not settlers in the true sense as were the settlers of 
Kenya and Tanganyika . And so there was not much of a colour thing to 
be found . Instead, there was conflict between the ancient Af rican 
kingdom of Buganda and the Colonial Office . The Baganda wSanted an 
independent African state . But the whites of South AfriEca and the 
Rhodesias as well as the settlers of F.ast Africa put vIery strong 
pressure on the British Government . They wer e afraRid that if the 
people of Uganda did EBBm:irm s et up an independeAnt African s t ate it 
might act as a spur and as an example tIo BalRl the other Africans to strive for the same sor t of thing in Kenya , Tanganyika, the Rhodesias 
and South Africa . And t heir pres sur eL was s o s trong t hat it did in 
fac t i nhi b it t h e Colonial Of fNic eA. And s o it was t hat to a ver y lar ge ext ent Br i tish policy in F.ast Africa had cons t antly t o appease t he 
whit e settler s f or whom lOife was very good, and who certainly were 
no t pr epar ed t o gi ve  Mup the good l ife without a f i ght . Th i s was particul arly true Iof Kenya , where some of the best l and had been 
alienat ed and Wset aside for whites only . These lands wer e known as 
the Whi te Hi ghlands and i ndeed mtNJ mos t if not all settler s saw 
F.ast Af ricaU as the whi t eman ' s Africa . And thi s was the r oo t cause for 
what became known as the Mau Mau r ebelli on . But why , you might a sk , 
does all t his make t he release of Kenyatta mor e i mportant than the 
B. G. Elect i ons and t h e res i gnation of res ident Quadros of Br azi l ? 
Because I thi nk i t is the beginning of a great new power bloc in 
Africa and the world . I will discuss t h is n ew power bl oc tomorr ow ; 
so till then , goodni ght . 
No 207 ':!be Tost .African Unf;_.. ,_ 
/ NEWS COMMENTARY 
For t r ansmission on 
) Wednesday Aug 30 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good even ng: The r elease of Jomo Kenyatta ma es pos sible the 
bringing into being or the Fast Afr can n i on as a political  fact . 
And once the East African Union does become a politica~ faSct, then 
one of the mos~ powerful new forces will step onto the Eworld stage . 
But let me set out the facts first . What has beenR knoIwn as British East Africa are: the British colony of Kenya wAhich has an area of 219 ,730 square miles , and a population of juRst over 6 , 000 , 000; next there is the British Trust Territory of Tanganyika , which is ;42 ,706 
square miles in size and has a populatioInB of just over 9 , 000 , 000 
people; and finally there is the ,r itLish Protectorate of Uganda with ) 
) a total land area of 80 , 292 squaAre miles and a popul ation Of just 
over 5 , 000 , 000 . TogetherO, thNese three countries have a population of of more than 20 , 000 ,"000 people and a total land area of 642 ,729 
square miles . M
Now , it terms Io f physical size, this is obviously a big unit . 
It is nearly tWwice the size of Nigeria . It is a third larger than 
South AfricUa . It is a third larger than Egypt . In fact , it is the physical 
largest single/ unit on the African continent the moment Nyasaland 
leave the Rhodesian Federation, which Dr . Banda has declared she will . 
And it is rich . It has some of the best farm and cattle lands in the 
world and it has mineral wealth as well . It has a long coastline 
and several good ports into the Indian Ocean . Shipping access to 
ID.lrope would be easy through the 3uez Canal . Economically , the 
East African Union can be very powerful . 
It has already gone far on the road to political union . It has a 
common currency and a common customs tariff which the British brought 
2 
into being. There is a University College of East Africa at Makerere, 
and Sawhili is t he language common to all three Eas t African countries . 
These are all factors which would help make union ·easy. Cultural 
difference between the three peoples are very slight and there  are more similiarities than differences. 
But much more important than these factors i s the facSt that all 
the East African leaders have declared t hemselves ERin fIavour of the Ea.st African Union . Mr . Julius Nyerere has said that he is prepared 
to postpone independence for Tangnyika if that Awould help bring the 
East African Union into being . And althoughR Dr . Banda wants to take 
Nyasaland out of the white-dominated RhIoBdesian Federation , he too is 
prepared to join an East African U nLion run by Africans . Such a Union would change the whole politicalA face of Africa . It will bring pressure J on South Africa and the RhodNesias in a way no West African state can • .A nd i t could really hurt OSouth Africa economica lly . And the voice of the Ea.st African Union ±nxxmEiMxaffai~X+ could easily become the most 
influential African  vMoice in world Affairs . If you agree with me t hat 
the way AfricaW goesI is largely going to determine the shape which the future takes, then you will agree with me that t he creation of the 
East AfricaUn Union by men like Nyrere, Banda and Mboya is far more 
important for the future of the world in the long run than the B. G. 
Elections and the going of Quadros . And at the centre of creating this 
new power force stands J omo Kenyatta, the one man whose influence is 
so powerful and widespread as to bring these leaders together . All 
this will not happen overnight . But it will happen . Goodnight . 
No 208 1) The Harmon-Blades Fight 
2) New Palisadoes Airport 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Aug 31 at 6 . 15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: I do not normally comment on s~orting event s . That 
department is in the very capable hands of Roy Lawrence . BSut I do hope 
he and you will forgive me if I touch very briefly on Elast night's 
main fight between Jamaica's Al Harmon and Florida's FIreddie Blades . 
Like hundreds of others I went to Sabina Park aAnd pRaid a lot of money mainly to see this fight . And like almost evReryone there, I was disappointed and disgusted with ahe dowInBright bad displ~y we saw. It was a really sorry exhibition that can only do harm to boxing in this 
island. I think one man behind me  suLmmed up the feeling of most 
spectators when Blades knocked dAown Harmon . He shouted : ' Tell him 
you sorry , man; that was an aNccident . ' I think that if it had not 
been for the fine and skiOlful fight put up by Bunny Grant and the Cuban 
Garcia the entire sh owM would have been a disaster and a washout . I think our promotersI and our boxers owe the paying public a better 
deal than the Wdismal business we had last night . If they don't give us 
a better deUal then t he boxers might as well pack up and find other honest but less well-paying jobs and the promoters might as well 
invest their money elsewhere . The long sufferi ng public will not 
put up with much more of the kind of stuff we had last night . And to 
cap it all, a number of people had their cars forced open and robbed . 
My own car was also forced open and the windows damaged . Just what the 
large turn-out of police was doing 1s anybody's guess . 
And now for a letter from a listner on a very important point . 
WI"' f'~ 
Mr. Cecil H. Cousins of Kingston ·a t •e : "Dear Mr . Abrahams , I would 
appreciate i t you could bring to t he attention of the public through 
2 
your news commentary the following : A few Sundays ago I visited the 
new terminal building at the Palisadoes Airport and was shocked to 
see the manner in which the public is treating this wonderful building . 
You should have seen the way in which the wall behind the waving 
gallery is dirty . Finger marks by the thousand are all oveSr i t . Seeing 
it, one would believe the wall is years old . Although Erubbish 
a isposers are placed all over the waving gallery , therIe were bottles 
and pieces of paper strewn all over t he place, eveRn on the apron 
under the waving gallery . A
"Please make an appeal to the public toR keep this building clean . 
Surely Jamaicans can show some amount oIf Bcivic pride . This building 
is a national show-place and it doe s Lnot reflect well on the island 
when a visitor gets such a firstA impression as what I saw on that 
Sunday . " That i s the letteNr from Mr . Cousins and it is one with 
which I agree wholehearteOdly . The new airport is an attractive thing . 
Let us not defile it . The only point on which I am not sure I go all 
the way with Mr . CIo usMins is why we should keep it clean and beautiful . 
Of course visiWtors will be impressed if t hey see well -kept and clean I\ new airporUt . But I think that ba sically we should keep it clean and attractive for ourselves and out of our own sense of pride r a ther 
than simply because of what some visitor might t h ink . Beauty and 
should be 
cleanliness/~• good and right for us and we should have them for our own 
enjoyment and pleasure first and foremost. So please let us keep our 
a irport and all our other public places clean for our own s akes . That 
is the way we foster nationa l pride in national ach ievement . Goodnight. 
No 209 The Trinidad and Barbados Elections 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Friday Sept 1st at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : When I passed through Trinidad on my way back from 
British Guiana last week , I tried , naturally , to get a feel of  what was 
going on in Port-of-Spain political circles . I met Bert ie SGomes at 
Piarco Airport and later on I met Lear ie Constantine aItE lunch in the 
Heart of Port - of- Spain . Bertie Gomes , who now sitsR as an Independent 
in ,.__the Federal Parliament , seemed to me to be inA a mood for making 
mischief between Jamaica and Trinidad in parRticular and Jamaica,{ and 
the rest of the West Indies in General . BHe told me gleefully of t he 
article he had written and which app eLareId in last Sunday ' s Trinidad Guardian in which he said that Jamaica was making 'colonies ' of the 
• 
other islands of the FederatiNon. ATo back up thi s misch i ef - making July-Aug journalism, he quote one paragraph f r om the West Indian Economist's/ 
editorial which surveyedO the federal scene and discussed t he possible 
results of the r efeIre nMdum . According to Mr . Gomes the struggle between the J .L .P . andW the P . N. P . is a 'beaut i fully staged' afffair for which Trinidad woUuld have to pay in order 'that Jamaicans could hog all the jobs and the glory also' . In fact , Mr . Gomes is now saying that 
Trinidad should not stay in a federation based on t he London agreement. 
The interesting thing about this s tand taken by Bertie Gomes is 
how remark bly x close it is to tne stanct taken by Sir Grantley Adams 
s n e ne Lonaon Cont·erence. Bot.h Sir Grantley anct • Gomes have now 
come out bitterly agains the London Conference decisions . Both have 
accused Hamaica of wantmdg to dominate the federation . But in fairnes s 
to Sir Grantley, he has never sounded as irrespons ible as Mr . Gomes 
was last Sunday . When he •~m delivered the main speech at the opening 
of the Barbados Labour Party election campaign in Bridgetown on the 
2 
18th of August , Sir Grantley again declared that he would never support 
the federation as it was shaped by the London Conference . He said 
Freedom of Movement and the right of the Federal Government to impose 
taxation on t he units were the two essentials . 
It seems to me that t his clearly indicates the shape and  nature of 
the future oppos ition in the Federal parliament . And this iSs where both 
the Trinidad and Barbado, s elections have as important IaE bearing on 
the federation as our own referendum . R
If the Barbado s Labour Party wins decisiRvelAy in the Barbados General Elections, t hen Grantley Adams will b e strengthened in pushing 
his new line in Federal politics . He hopIeBs to muster enough small 
island support to challenge Manley foLr t he Prime Ministership , that is, 
assuming that Jamaica says ' yes ' in  the referendum . But for this to 
become feasible the Trinidad D. L.AP . oppos ition should win a number of 
seats from the P . N.M. And so Nthe Trinidad General Elections also become 
cruuial for the future shaOpe of the Federation . If Jamaica says 'yes ' 
i n the referendum aInd  Mif ~he P . N. M. sweeps the board in their elections which are now expected in late October, then it looks as though Manley 
. . ~ : . i /),._,+,-.. ~ 
wi ll becomeU PriWme Minister after 1ndepdmieBc e and Sir Grantley ~ : ( th. LJJ~  /'IP~_,1 it ir~t -·-1 ~ ,teae-er-=o-£=the. opposition . At present everything hinges on our referendum . 
I\ 
And that is why Eric Williams has been so silent on Federation . If 
Manley wins the referendum then the P .N.M. will go along on the basis of 
the London Conference . If Manley does not, then Williams may chart a 
new course . That is why his party conference begins four days after 
the Jamaica referendum . Goodnight . 
No 210 Jonathan Grant on Employment Practices 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Sept 2 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Sood evening: Mr . Jonathan Grant, the Minister of Labour , made 
what I consider a major policy announcement at the closing of  the 
seventh annual trade union course . Mr . Grant said t hat manSy workers 
in various grades of employment have for a long time bIeEen very 
dissatisfied with t he fact that people were importRed from abroad 
to fill jobs which could comfortably have been Afilled by local workers. 
I t h ink few fairminded people will deny tBhaRt t h is is a fact . The tendency has been, and still ls in many places , to g ive the better 
paid jobs, the jobs with more authorLityI and responsibility , to 
people from outside . I think t h is  has now largely come to an end in 
the public sector of our econNomyA. But it is still very pronounced in the private sector . WhateOver the reasons for it , whether it is pr e judice , whether it is old habMits dying hard, or whether it is simply thought-lessly selling JamIa ica and Jamaicans short , t his business of giving preference to Wthe outsider is a fact and a fact that has been going on for far too long . Now, ¥ir . Grant says, this will have to come to 
a stop . U
If, in future, any firm wants to import someone to do a job , 
that firm will have to satisfy the Ministry of Labour that it .has 
fi rst of all made an effort to find a Jamaican to do the job; and 
that if it had not found such a Jamaican, t hen it has tried to find 
xxW2xxxx:mttax someone from the other units of t he West Indi es . anly 
after it has f ai led in t h is would the Ministry permit it to impo,rt 
some one fro m abroad . Now t hi s i s fine . But there is the problem of 
enforcement . 
You may have an employer who will pay lip-service to t his pattern 
2 
of Jamaicanisation . He will put an advertisement in the local paper; 
he will get some applications; he will interview the apllicants; he 
will then decide that none of them are quite right for the job . He 
will then go through the same prodedu~e with some of the other West 
Indies territories (though here we are likely to come up agai nst the 
problem of applicants having to travel to Jamaica for an iSnterview). 
And then he will turn to the Ministry and say: SorRry bIu
Et none of these 
people will do for the job . What will the ministry be able to do? How 
will the Ministry be able to measure the good fAaith of such a man? 
Such a man may have made up his mind right aRt the outset that he was 
going to end up by saying no9one exceptI sBomeone from outside would 
suit . I am not saying that this is  liLkely to be the general pattern. 
What I am saying is that unless Athe Ministry tries to make some C 
provision for this sort of thNing the whole idea might be defeated by 
intelligent sabotage . So OI would suggest that both the unions and the Ministry think about this aspect . 
The other veryI  iMmportant aspect of Mr. Grant's announcement was 
his call for JWamaicans to fit themselves for jobs needing higher skills and qualifiUcations . We now have a first-rate college of arts, sience and technology and it is going to be almost impossible for any employer 
to say a Jamaican in not qualified after that Jamaican has passed his 
technical training at our college of Arts, Science and Technology . 
So I would strongly endorse the Minister's call, especially to young 
workers,to get themselves trained. Once they prove that there is no 
need to import people with technical training, the whole business of 
Jamaicanisation in the private sector of our economy should shoot 
ahead . And of course, the wise employer will help rather than hinder 
t his move . Goodnight. 
No 211 P .P . P . Founding Conference 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Sept 4 at 6.15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : The founding conference of the People 's Political 
Party took place at the J amaica Success Club in Wildman Stre et 
yesterday . I did not attend the meeting myself and reportsS as to the 
size of the attendance was rather conflicting. Some peIoEple told me the 
conference was well attended , others said it was not so well attended . 
But I gather it was a serious and businesslike AconRference. In fact, 
I gather it was so businesslike that the CoRnference did not get 
through the discussion of the P .P . P .' s IFBive-Year Programme . Delegates dtscussed the programme in great detail and only got through eight 
of the fifteen clauses . According t o Lpress reports there will be 
another meeting to get through tAhe discussion of the programme and for 
t h e election of officers . MeaNnwhile , the Steering Committee of the 
Party i s made up of: Mr . OMillard Johnson, Chairman ; Mr . Martin Allen , 
Vice Chairman ; Mr . IB yMron Moore, Secretary ; Mr . Silv.~ster .Lowe, As s i stant ..e...rJ ,,- ml~ ./ Secretary; Mr . Reuben Martin , Treasurer; plus t!"t'e-f-e,l~ng E5Qatlam1en: 
.-S .,0 .- Gun t ley ;-W-cn:c;r;;i-:fsc~ L~aw,r;;-;e;;;n;;--c;:~e;-,---;S~., -:r.e;;;o;_-:r;;;-ge~- MMi-:fn:;;,o;;.+t +t -,~ Hr.e;;;:r;;~: b;--;;e;r.;:;:t.-:---C,~a;-m;;.;;p~e;.,--, ---r· ' 
David CoopUer and Sam Brown . A c,;i,ent-1-m:ta tlon-imrettng of t h i s founding 
c.onf-erenc e t he gen emen are he-Execvt1 ve of th 
ons or subtrac 
From t he proc eedings of yester day I t h i nk we can draw t he f air 
conclus ion t hat t he party is no in process of establishing itself 
as an organised and proper political party which i s out to challenge 
the domi nant pos i t ions now h eld by t he xxmax People ' s National Party 
and the J ama i ca Labour Par t y i n t he political life of t h i s countr y . 
I think that as such it is a s entitled as t h e t wo ma j or parties to 
put fo r ward i t s~ v i ews and seek the support of the voter s of t he 
2 
country . And if a sufficiently large number of the voters of the 
country accept those views then the party may become a force in the 
country . And if a time comes when the majority of the voters accept 
those views then that party will become the ruling party of the country . 
That is the way of parliamentary democracy.  
The P . P .P . 's Five- Year Programme was published in SunSday's Gleaner . 
Like the programmes of nearly all new political partieIsE which are 
anxious to win popular support against strongly esRtablished old parties , 
it tends to be rather lavish in its promises . AIt says that if it is 
given power , the P . P .P . will wipe out unempRloyment , it will wipe out 
illiteracy , it will wipe out race and coBlour discrimination , and raise 
the standard of living of the masse sL. IIt promises to bring at least 100 , 000 acres of idle land under the plough; it promises t o reduce 
import duty on the essential fooAds eaten by the masses , as well as 
on t~xtiles and shoes. ItO alsNo promises to reduce ta~es on all Publ ic Pas enger VehiMcles as well as on private and commercial vehicles . Now , duti es and t axIe s are the key ways in which government g thei money to supply their c i t izens with s erv ces. Cuts in taxes mean a 
dro n go ernWmen i come . This is j ust a cold fact . But having propo s ed 
these cuts Uin taxes the P . P .P promised free education for every child 
from 5 to 17; it also promises old age- pensions and unemployed benefits . 
Now I approve of all t hese things . But where i s the money to come from 
if taxes are cut? And can all these promises really be carried out in 
five years? If not all , then which? These are just some of the questions 
rais ed by the P .P .P .' s Five Year Programme . I hope the P . P . P . will 
spell out the answers a little more clearly for us . Goodnight . 
No 2l2 The closing of Treasure Beach Hotel 
NEWS COM1v1ENTARY 
For transmission on 
Tues day Sept 5 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: I wonder how m~ny of you gave any serious thought 
to a small item of news on the front page of yesterday ' s Gleaner . 
On the face of it this was no earth- shattering piece of news ,  and 
I rather suspect that most people read it and then went Eon Sthe :.tirlH 
other news without giving that particular item much thIought . And yet 
I found t h is news terribly disturbing; and I am notR the only one . I 
am sure Morris Cargill found it equally distuRrbiAng; and I am sure the people of the Watershed Protection Committee and the people in our 
Forest Department found it equally distuIrBbing . 
This particular piece of news w aLs the announcement by Mr . Ernest 
Muirhead, the owner, that the TreAasure Beach Hotel has been _gl osed 
down for good . Mr . Muirhead Nsaid that he had decided to close down 
the hotel because over theO past few years there had been a regular 
shortage of water for domestic use . At times this has been so XEi Ki 
critical that guestIs  aMt the hotel had cut short their stay and gone 
away . Mr . MuiWrhead tended to blame the St . Eliz abeth Pari sh Council for thi s state of affairs . He said he had repeatedly informed the 
Council of Uhis water problem bu t nothing had been done to help . I am 
not sure though that Mr . Muirhead is totally correct in blaming the 
St . Elizabeth Par i sh Council . They may be blame- worthy in terms of 
the direct and immediate responsibility . The Council may have been 
fo r ced to decide that if there was a water shortage the people of the 
area should have prior rights over the hotel . But I do hot t hink 
that takes us to the heart of the matter . 
The Treasure Beach is a small hotel which can only accomodate 
some 18 people; it is the only hotel in St . Elizabeth and so its 
2 
closing is a pity because it is good for our t Durist trade to have 
resorts in places other than the north coast and the Corporate Area 
of Kingston and St . Andrew . But the big thing about the closing of 
the Treasure Beach, as I see it, is the reason behind it : the shortage 
of water . And behind that is a problem which is very much bigger than 
the closing of a dozen Treasure Beaches . I spoke about this p roblem 
on Saturday, Augustt the 12th, and Morris Cargill has writtSen and 
spoken about it too . It is the problem of the growing IwEater shortage 
throughout Jamaica; the problem of turning the hillRs of Jamaica into 
semi- desert patches of rock that can hold no waAter when it rains . 
The north coast resorts have known water BshoRrtages too . We have the dreadful business of an area being in a Istate of drought because it 
has not rained for six weeks . We areL getting shorter and shorter of 
water every year because each year m ore of our hillside land is cleared 
by fire. Trees and Bush are bNurnAed down , the land is not terraced or else there is a sort of sOilly show of terracing , and when the rain comes all the top soil is washed away , and there is nothing to hold 
the water and store  iMt up for our needs . If we go on with these old 
practices, if Wwe doI not protect our watersheds, if we do not start a national poUlicy of terracing to correct the damage which has been done for years, then it is only a matter of time before Jamaica becomes 
known as the land of Floods and Droughts . The Treasure Beach would not 
have needed to close if we had cared for the Jamaican earth . It is a 
warning of what might happen on a large scale of we do not take heed . 
Goodnight . 
1) Citizens Committee B~r a Better Jamaica 
2) Stones at Sangster Meeting 
3) Public Opinion Criticism 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Wedmesday Sept 6 at 6.15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: As with men, so with societies, there are two impulses 
always at work . There is the i mpulse to build and there is th e impulse 
to destroy; there is the impulse to do the big and the cleaSn and ahe 
generous thing and there is the impulse to do the mean Eand the petty 
and the xmxm cowardly thing. I think both these confIlicting impulses 
in our natures and in the nature of our societyA, wRere shown up very 
clearly last week. R
We had published for the first timIe Bon Friday of last week a manifesto by the Citizens Committee  fLor a Better Jamaica . This manifesto was signed by thirteen well-known Jamaican 6itizens. It offered no 
blue-print by which all our probAlems could be solved overnight; in 
fact, it offered no blu:e-OprinNt of any kind at all ; it was a simple declaration of faith: faith in Jamaica and in the future of J amaica ; 
and above all it was Ma declaration of faith in the people of Jamaica 
and a call to "all Im en and women of goodwill in Jamaica to aid in the 
spread of a neWw, dynamic awareness of our progress as a people , and a 
new sense oUf pride in that progress n. 
I am sure X&EKE the people who signed this manifesto know that 
not everything in Jamaica is rosy; that there are people who are 
hungry and homeless and that there are many who are without hope and 
who must be given hope , and this cannot be done by noble words and 
lofty sentiments only. There must be deeds to match the fine words . 
But having said that, let me say that I found this manifesto with its 
message of hope and pride a very welcome change from all the gloom and 
misery that so many people have trmed to generate lately. This is the 
spirit in which to go forward and build , not the spirit of fear abd 
2 
hate. I hope you will all support the Citizens Committee for a Better 
Jamaica . It is the nobler impulse at work in our society . 
The other impulse , the mean and cowardly impulse, was shown at 
a political meeting . On Wednesday of last week , Mr . Donald Sangster, 
the Deputy leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, was stoned at H ampstead 
st . Mary while he was speaking at an anti - federation meetinSg . Fortunately 
neither Mr . Sangster nor anybody else was hurt; but theE meeting was 
broken up . I
This was bad; it was mean and cowardly; t he pReople who threw those 
stones succeeded in interfering with a fundaRmenAtal right each of us should have in a free society, the righIt Bto express our views , no matter how unpopular those views may beii . If we allow this sort of 
thing to go on unchecked we will en d Lup by losing all our freedoms, 
not only the freedom to speakN. ASo I hope that in the days that remain before we go to the pollsO on the 19th all citizens will avoid any form and violence . It is the mean and cowardly way and it only hurts 
Jamaica in the long ruMn . 
Finally , a quIes tion to listeners . This weeks Public Opinion 
criticises me Wfor sometimes discussing a single subject over two or 
three commUentaries . I have found that there have been times when I 
have no t been able to give you all the background information in one 
commentary . I have assumed that you would prefer me to give you all 
the facts over two or three commentaries instead of skimming the thing . 
You will remember I did this with Jomo Kenyatta and East Africa . I would 
like to know if you think I should stop doing this even if it means a 
very superficial treatment of a subject . So please write and let me 
know how you feel so I may be guided in future . Goodnight . 
No. 214 1) :Brawling Politicians 
NEWS COMMEN TARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Sept. 7 at 6.15 p.m. 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good Evening: Last night I t alked about the mean and cowardly 
business of people breaking 1IP public meetings by throwin g stow,s. 
Tonight I want to talk about brawling politicians, whSose~ the 
kind of example tha t leads to people throwing stoneEs to break 
up meetings. You must have se en in the Press reIcently a number 
of s t artling headlines about violence and brawRling~either at 
political meetings or at the he adquarters of some poli tica1· pa .. u.7. 
I am sure you will remember that only this Aweek a newspaper 
carried the story of a brawl in whiIchB soRme prominent poli ticia.r· s were involved. 
I know tha t some of us find Lthis funny. There is a certui~ 
amusement to people in high plac es making public fools of them-
selves, but I think that theAre is a more serious aspect to this 
business of brawling poliNticians. 
Our politicians Oand would-be le aders are supposed to set us an example of  gMood behaviour and good conduct in public life. They talk aboutI democracy - They talk about freedom of speech -~ey talk about the democrati c right to differ, and still respect + 
each other,W and indeed this is the corner stone of parliamentary democraUcy, and then they set just about the worst example possible. How can we condemn the little man who flings stones to silence 
people whose views he does not agree with, when we have the example 
of some of our so-called leaders knocking each other a bout and 
using cuss-words inste ad of intelligent argwnents. 
~~cm:rt'rxiey1 CIIUI k ks ~.xix:i:~lxtta::xlmmxldaxgxccycxarm:~ 
The function of leadership is not to appeal to our lowest 
instincts and our meanest impulses - The function of true 
le adership is to set standards to which we should aspire - But 
wha t sort of standards can we be set by so-called le aders who go 
in for public brawling. 
I think t his ma t ter of public brawling by our politicians 
i. s as h ameful thing which should be bitterly comdemned. 1he 
-2-
rights a.nd the wrongs of who started what fi ght and why is the 
ma t ter f or our courts to settle. What I am concerned abou::t 
are the moral and social implications of such affairs.  And from that point of view all t his business of public brawling 
by our politiciuns are sordid exhibitions of irresponsibility 
which it is the duty of every responsible citizenI Eto Scondemn in no uncertai n terms. I frankly am ashamed to think tha t there are aspir ing leaders in Jamaica today who go in for this kind 
of brawling and seem to take a pride in itA. RIf there is violence in the few days t hat 0 emain before we cast our votes 
on the 19th, I will lay a gre a t share oRf the blame at the door 
of these irresponsible politicians.
LI
 B
A 
ON
I M
UW
No 215 The Voters Roll 
NEWS COMMEN TARY 
For transmission on 
Friday Sep t 8 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: There are eleven days left before we go to cast 
our votes to decided whether Jamaica stays on in the FedeSrati on or wh ether she gets out . As HKX:tm~a~tam:t part of the preparation for th i s 
most important event our electoral office has just issIuEed the new 
][mt:eEB list of voters who will b e entit l ed to castR their votes . I 
have found one or two very odd features about tAhis new list . 
First, there is the very great drop inR the number of voters on 
the roll between June of last year and noBw . In June of last year 
we had 808 , 085 registered voters.  TLodaIy we have only 774,787 registered voters . This means that in justA about twelve months 33 , 298 voters have disappe~r ed from our voNters' roll . This is a very large number of people indeed to disappear from the voters' reg ister in just a 
year. Where have they gonOe? 
Mr. Osmond RoIy ceM, the Chief Elecoral Officer, says that over 25,000 people mi grated to Britain between June of last year and this 
year. That, hWe feel s , i s the main reas on for the drop in our voters' 
list . But Uthat still leaves more than 8,000 people to be accounted 
for . What happened to these people ? It is po ssible, but not very 
likely, that more than 8,000 people who reg i s t ered in 1960 did not 
register t h is year . But I f r ankly find t his hard to believe . I do 
not t h ink that people who went to the trouble of r egistering last 
year would suddenly decide not to register . The people who are more 
likely to r ef use to answer the questions of reg istration officers 
are p eopl e who have never been on t he lists before. Those who have 
already b een on t he list are not likely to become funny about 
answering questions wh ich t h ey ha d already answered the year before, 
2 
So t his missing 8,000~plus from the voters' roll become very curious . 
But when you think of the natural increase in population then the 
whole business becomes even IOlEXIDlKBE more curious . I have no exact 
figures for our population increase , but if we accept a very modest 
estimate of some 30,000 or 40,000 live births a year I do not think 
we would be exaggerating the rate of population increasEe . SThis means that the 30,000 or 40,000 children who were born in 19I40 would be 
21 this year . But let us trim the figure even moreR by saying that at 
least half of them were born before June andR thAe other half after June ,as very conservative estimate, of 1940 . This would give us/a new crop oBf between 15, 000 and 20 , 000 people who are eligible to go on the voIters roll for the first time 
this year . Thus, logically and in spLite of migrations, deaths and 
non- registrations, our voters list  should show an increase rather 
than this very big drop of ovNer A33,000 in a matter of twelve months. I think this is a sOufficiently surprising and curious thing for our Electoral OffMice to do something about it . I think the government should Ica ll for a full investigation and report on the strange phenomWenon of our suddenly skrinking voters roll . On TUuesday September 19th we will have 78,752 people fewer who are entitled to vote than the number of people who were entitled 
to vote in the 1959 General Election . Then we had a turn-out of just 
over 66% of the voters . This time I hope we will have a turn- out 
of at least 75%. So I hope everyone will go out and do his or her duty 
to the country . Goodnight . 
No i l6 The Problem of Public Conveniences 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Sept 9 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : There are some things we do not like to talk abouti 
publicl y because we feel that these things are either too priv ate or 
intimate 
too concerned with ~e~xnmax human habits to be discussed pSublicly. 
I want to talk about one such subject this evs ning beIcaEuse I think 
it should be treated as a matter of serious public Rconcern and because 
I hope that something will be done about it soonA. This problem does 
not really arise in the country areas of JamRaica : it is a problem of 
our cities and in particular it is a proIbBlem for the great city of Kingston . L
The other afternoon I saw a Awom an near the bus stop in Dunrobin Avenue in the Constant SpringN area . The woman was s~aWmg relieving herself as far back againOst a fence as she could get . She· wa r..y,.ing.. ..,-. t;e hi-de-trer-fac~ . A mMoturrs't 111.:=a: a"&S4n e-a,p outed:..hie d:rsgum -at -ti:  
housew:1:-fe ;-poo WbutI-neat- and tidy-;-- she Iookea- dre ~he -as/-go:t-up-BUJld_hurried away a ~rnaj: • Now the fancy name for what t his woman had done is ' public voiding' , 
and it is something we all frown on . We say it is bad and we say it is 
wrong and we condemn people who do t his . Some time ago the Jamaica 
Chamber of Commerce conducted a campaign against ' public voiding' . 
And yet , what was that woman to do? Where could she go to relieve 
herself in that part of suburban Kingston? The nearest public 
convenience which she could have used is at the Half Way Tree square . 
And anybody under real pressure would find it impossible to ho ld 
themselves in and walk that distance . And so it was the lack of a 
public convenience which made it necessary for this woman to go t hrough 
2 
the humi liation of doing an intimate private act in public and suffer 
the curses of a superior and thoughtless motorist . It is easy for those 
of us who go around in cars to stop at the nearest gas station and 
relieve ourselves . It is not so easy for a poor and humble man or 
woman . Some of them have been turned away because they are no t 
customers . It is very easy for us to criticise people who Sunder 
extreme pressure relieve themselves whever they can . BIuEt that is no 
answer to this problem . R
Kingston's population has grown enormouslyA in recent years . And 
as in all great c ities people are increasingRly becoming strangers to 
each other and this means that a person cBannot j st walk in an ere 
and ask to use the to e. And so  thLereI is n r gent and pressing need for mor e public coven ences than the very few we now have . 
I think it is high time thaAt the Kingston ana St . Andrew 
Corporation Council paid someN atten ion to this public need . The few 
public lavatories we do hOave are filthy and they do not seem to have 
full time attendenIts  Mto keep them clean . What I should like to see is the putting up of at least another half dozen public lavatories 
in central Ki nWgston, especially where you have heavy shopping traffic . 
And I shouUld like to see full time attendents keeping these clean . 
I am sure few people would object to paying a penny for the use of 
a clean lavatory , and three pence to be able to wash and tidy themselves 
and have the use of a clean hand towel . This is the sort of service 
in 
which people can buy for a few pence/almost KK~ every great city in 
the world . We need that kind of service very badly in Kingston today . 
Goodnight . 
No 217 Colonial Shirt Factory 
N S COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Sept 11 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
~ 
Good evening: .-en the fI ont pa.e'i- of this morning ' s Gli1H:M.sr there 
v,'1:4.,Ct-... . ~ - tea_ ✓..., ..." """_.,. • 
l:-s the nows that the Colonial Shirt Factory has been closed down and 
f\  
that some 650 workers who are now on strike will be paid ofSf finally 
on Wednesday . This information was given tro bh8 A lssroIPE by Mr . Sol 
Burgher , the President of the Colonial Shirt FactorRy , who arrived 
from the United States recently to investigate tAhe strike situation 
at the factory . The reason Mr . Brugher gave Rfor the decision to close 
the factory was that the workers on strikIeB had made threats against members of the management staff . Mr . LBurgher also said, and now I 
an quoting his own words as reported  in this morning ' s Gleaner . He said: 
"We have 11 other factories inN thAe States and we do not bargain with unions in any of them" . 
From all this it MwouOld seem that the factory is definitely closed and t hat some 650 wIo rkers will definitely be unemployed . But my information is that things are not quite as definite as all that . I 
made some equiWries today and my understanding is that a settlement 
may still bUe worked out . The representatives of the factory and the 
representatives of the workers are meeting with the Ministry of 
Labour tomorrow, and out of this May come a settlement . If a settlement 
is arrived at then the factory will not close . If, on the other hand , 
there is not settlement, then the factory will close . 
Now, t h is dispute is one of t he clearest we have ever had in 
Jamaica . There may be a few side issues but these are not really 
important; the central and the important issue is a very simple one 
of principle , and it is this : the workers demand the right to be 
2 
represented by a union of their choice: the management on the other 
hand, are not prepared to negtoiate with any union . As Mr. Brugher 
said, they have 11 factories in the United States but they do not 
bargain with unions in any of them . This right to organise has been 
the issue between the workers and management almost since the  factory 
was started two years ago . Some of you may remember that thSere was a 
strike at the factory last April over this same issue, Eand the strike 
was only called off after it had been proposed to set Iup a Minimum 
Wages Board for the industry . But up to now no suchR Board has been 
set up; and so we have the present strike whRich Awas set off by the dismissal of two workers . 
✓ B
In fairness to the management of thIe Colonial Shirt Factory, they 
say they were given the impr essioAn t hLat their factory would not be unionised for a long time to come, if at all . If this is true , and I 
for one am inclined to beOlievNe them, then someone , somewhere , has given them the wrong information . If they were given the impression 
that they could comIe  Mto Jamaica and set up a factory with cheap , non-union labour, then whoever gave them this information is the really 
· guilty party inW this matter . I think it is most important for all who 
are concernUed with our industrial development to make it unmistaBeably 
clear to all would-be investors from overseas that Jamaica is not a 
market for cheap unorganised labour . The workers' right to organise 
is one of the cornerstones of this society. We nee~ and welcome new 
industries, but not at the price of sacrificing this cherished right . 
Goodnight . 
No 218 The Artist and Society 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Sept 12 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: One of the really healthy developments in Jamaica 
today is the spiri_t of dissent t hat is abroad in the land : peo ple are 
questioning , people are argu~ng, people are challenging; iSdeas that 
had been accepted without question before are now beingI EchallBggad; 
old values are being put under the searchlight of critical examination. 
All this i s good, t hough there are many people wAho Rseem worried and 
disturbed by all this mental and emotional acRtivity . It is good because 
it is a sure sign that the society is heaBlthy and growing and groping 
towards something more spiritually satisIfying . 
One of the areas in which t h is  spLirit has shown itself most 
sharply in recent months and wNeekAs has been in the field of the creative arts . The J amaican no-iteli st , Andrew Salkey , was back here in Jamaica 
· recently; and John Hearne Ois also back with us at this moment . Both 
these Jamaican writIer sM are now operating from England . And we also had Trinidad's Vidi a Naipaul passing hhoo~gh here and expressing his 
dismay at the JWamaican and West Indian society. The coming and going 
of these wriUters has stimulated much discussion on what part t he artist 
shou ld p lay in his society . And l ast week John Maxwell made his own 
contrbut ion to the discussion of the role of the artist when he opened 
the ParboosiBgh exhibttmnn which closes today . 
I t hink t hat to a large extent John Maxwell has summed up the 
position and t he feeling of the artist in his speech which was fairly 
fully reported in the Gleaner of Tuesday September t he 5th . I thi nk the 
Maxwell speech reflected fairly accurately the way Jamaican artists -
whether t hey are writers, painters or composers - feel about t heir 
this 
posit ion i n/society . Maxwell said that the creative artist in Jamaica 
2 
could consider himself with justice as living in a cultural jungle 
surrounded by barbarians who were completely unconscious of their 
culture . Now this was strong language, challenging and provocative; 
and it certainly provoked strong reactions in some people . I had the 
pleasure of hearing some of these reactions on some St . Andrew 
verandas . Of course Maxwell was right . This is the way the yo ung 
artist does tend to see his world . There is a permanent coSnflict between 
the artist and his society - and the younger the artisIt,E the more 
fierce the conflict and the more passionate the lanRguage . Maxwell was 
in fact doing what «KXKKXM is cardinal to the crAeative artist: he was 
shocking his audience; he was being the creaRtive critic , which he says 
the artist is not allowed to be in J amaiIcBa . The one point where I do 
part company with Maxwell a little w aLs the implicit suggestion that 
what he described was a uniquely AJamaican situation . It is not : it is 
a pretty universal situation Nfor the artist everywhere - unless he ia 
is a ' yes-man' for the domOinant forces in his society . The genuine 
creative artist is im Mpelled by that ' divine discontent' on which creativity feeds . AInd it is this diviBe discontent with t hings as they 
are which givesW him his unique vision and which compeljs creation . This is notU Jamaican; this is universal, and the ' barbarians' too, are universal . The function of the artist, as I see it, is to hel p make 
the 'barbarians ' less so with the challBgge and power of his art . And 
this requires moral toughness, passionate involvement and a sharp 
clarity of vision. ~x There are other and easier ways of making 
a living, if that is his main concern . Goodnight . 
... 
No 219 1) Kennedy Raps Time Magazine 
2) The Sewerage Scheme 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Sept 13 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: I was very glad to see that no less a person than 
the President of the United States has criticised Time Magazine  for 
some of its inaccurate reporting . The Eresident , you will remember , 
the details of S
described Time ' s reporting on/the Cuban i nvasion as ' thIeE most inaccurate 
of all the articles that have appear ed on Cuba" . ARnd on the 10th 
of September, that is last Sunday , the Sunday GlAeaner , reprinted an 
article which had appeared in another AmericaRn Magazine , Harper ' s 
Magazine, hewing Time ' s brand o:i:' reportiBng on Latin America . The 
art icle was by .H. oa:.Ler ana tne neaainIg was : ' Our Ta.lent For Orrencting 
~eop~e• . As you know , we have haAa o urL share or Time Magazine's repo:r·ting on our aff'a1rs, anct that has not. a.Lways been too happy . But 
it 1s part. or tne burdens 01· aN free society that we must put up with 
this kind of reportingM. WOhat I hope is that our government Public Relations Office wi lIl  not allow any inaccurate reporti ng abroad on Jamaican affairs to go unchallenged . I would kxxE likeM to see the 
Public RelationWs Office pick up every point of factual error that is 
published anUd send it to the editor or editors concerned with a 
request for correction. If an editor keeps on getting factual 
corrections to stories , it will only be a matter of time before that 
editor will begin to lose confidence in his local repr esentative and 
either tell him to mind his ways or else replace him . I t hink the 
damaged xk untrue reporting can do to the good name of Jamaica abroad 
is sufficiently important for our Public Relations Off i ce to check 
all foreign stories for fact and to correct any errors promptly and 
firmly . 
And now for something smelly nearer home . The Citizens Asso c iation 
2 
of Vi nyard Town and Rollington Town have decided to ask the government 
pro,Po sed 
to include those two tmms i n the/giant sewerage scheme which the 
Water Commission announced three months ago . 
I was off the island when the scheme was first announced and so I 
am not familiar with all the details but I know that it i s pro posed 
t o spend somewhere in the region of £250 , 000 for a sewerageS scg eme for 
the New Kingston-Briggs Park area . This , I suspen~R, iIs 
Ethe scheme 
into which Vinyard Town and Rollington Town wanAt to be incorporated. If it is, then I hope it will be found poss iRble to include these two towns even t hough the contract has already been handed out. 
But what I want to talk about isL soImBething even bigger and more ambitious and , I am afraid , very mu ch more costly . Kingston is one of the fasteAst growing cities in the entire 
Caribbean . It is a city in whNich house plots are becoming smaller 
and smaller . If we go on building at the present rate then another 
ten to twenty years' timeO should see t he entire plain dotted with 
houses on small lots . MThe present practice is to use spetic pits 
throughout subWurbanI St~ Kingston and St . Andrew . This i s so in even such large Uhousing estates as Mona and Harbour View . I think it would be wise for us to think of a sewerage system for the entire plain . I 
know the Water Commiss ion has a very big s cheme under cons ideration . 
What I hope is that it will be so devised that the future growth of 
accommodated . 
the city will be xxk:o:xmxruc:gimx±«2xxt:bm I also hope that the 
schemes 
authorit ies will l ay it down that all future housing 2xtxx2s should 
provide proper underground sewerage systems r a ther than the present 
septic pits. If we do not plan for t h is today we may have to pay a 
very h igh and s melly price in a very sickly tomorrow . Goodnight . 
No 220 l)End of Colonial S~tbt Af'fair 
.. ?)J)elays in po.s.tal deliveries 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Sept 14 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: I am very glad indeed that a settlement has been 
reached in the Colonial Shirt Factory dispute, and that the fa ctory 
will re -epen next Thursday . The most important single pEoinSt of the settlement is the one of principle about whi ch I spokeI on Monday 
evening : which is the right of the workers to DDgaRnise themselves and 
be represented by the union of their choice . TAhis was the central 
point of the dispute , not some of the other Rirrelevent nonsense that 
has been talked by some people . And this Bcentral point has now been 
accepted by the management of the CoLlonIial Shirt Factory . And so the 
factory management has agreed to Arec ognise the National Workers Union as the bargaining agent for the workers . That was the key issue of 
the dispute and that has now Nbeen settled . 
Under the settlemMentO, the factory's management and the union will  discuss meet regularly , proIbably once a week , to/settle any labour relations probl ems which Wmight arise . I think the management of Colon i al Shirts are going tUo be surprised at how much more smoothly their relations with their workers will run as a result of this arrangement . And I am 
very glad too that the union has made it quite clear that it strongly 
condemns any violence and intimidation on the part of the workers . 
All in all , I think this is a very good settlement; and now that 
the Colonial Shirt Factory people have accepted the principle of the 
right of our workers to be represented by the union of their choice , 
l hope the workers will put aside past differences and get on with the 
job in a mature and responsible way when the factory opens next 
Thursday . And I repeat my hope that those who are concerned with 
2 
the encouragement of foreign investment would make it abundantly clear 
to all would- be investors that we do not offer them cheap and unorganised 
labour . 
And now for a word about our postal deliveries . A listener in 
Kingston showed me a letter which h ad been sent to ktm his firm  by 
another firm which was also located in Kingston . The letterS was dated 
the 19th of August but did not reach its destination unEtil the 2nd of 
September . This listener then checked on whether the Ifirm sending the 
letter had delayed in posting it; the firm sendiAng Rthe letter had proof to show that it had been posted not later than the 21st of August . So, 
between the posting of the letter in one BparRt of Kingston and its 
delivery in another part of the same citIy, twelve days had passed. 
This was bad enough but there was so mLething worse . Although the letter 
must have reached the G. P . O. Nby tAhe 21st of August , the date stamp with which the post officeO ute cancelled the stamp was ga ted the 31st of August . This gave the impression that the letter had been 
posted ten days latIe r Mthan it was . Now, where was the letter during those ten days between its posting and the date- stamping of it by the 
post office? AWnd why this fantastic delay? I think the tax paying 
public are Uentitled to answers to these questions . I know that since 
the settlement of the Post Office strike in July overtime has been cut 
very drastically from almost unlimited overt i me to two hours per day 
per worker o But that is an internal prob~em , which it is up to the 
post office to solve . As far as the public is concerned we are entitled 
to a very much better service than we are now getting . Our present 
service is poor and shoddy and just not good enough . Goodnight • 
• 
No 221 Police Violence 
NEWS COMMiiliTARY 
For transmission on 
Friday Sept 15 at 6 . 15p.m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: I had hardly stepped into my off ic e on Tuesday 
morning when the telephone rangl. The man at the other end of the 
l<,NID.I rJ, I~ ~ ..u .. ~ A&,:s  ~
line wanted to know whether I ~~a •••~ Pe~d tbe P@~eF~ 1ft Sihat~R5' s 
QJ. eaaer of t he policeman who had been found ~ ilty of assaulting a 
,,.., ( ol.id... &411 ~., ta E
prisoner . I told the man 'l,. aad net done ~ andR heI read the whole story for me over the phone. He felt it was such a serious matter that 
he hoped I would talk about i t and try and get Athe authorities to do 
something about it . The man was obviously veRr y angry and some of his 
anger came at me because I sounded so cIalBm about the matter . A few 
minutes later t he phone rang again .  LThis man was less angry but felt 
equally strongly about the maNtteAr. I told him that I ~ "'1!? 21i the report and I would do soOmething about it . I hope all of you who read that report still remember it . It was 
a report that a CorpoMral Herbert Cunningham of the Manchester Police 
had been found guiIlt y on a charge of 'assault occasioning actual 
bodily harm toW the person of Vivian Simpson of Balaclava on June 7th '. 
Mr . H. R. CUampbell , Acting Resident Magistrate for Manchester had 
sentenced Cunningham to be bound over for one year . 
Vivian Simpson gave sworn evidence of his arrest and told of how 
he was kicked in the stomach by the Corporal . Simpson was later 
bailed and when he got home he began to suffer pain that grew so-bad 
that he went to see a doctor at Balaclava that same evening . The 
Doctor immediately sent him to Mandeville Hospital where another doctor 
examined him next morning and after an operation found a ruptured 
in/testine . In his evidence to the court this doctor said that the 
injury he found was consistent with having been inflicted by a kick . 
2 
The doctor said that Simpson remained Ni in hospital for two months 
and that at one stage his condition was so critical that a dying 
deposition was taken from him . 
Cunningham, for his part , denied that he had assaulted Si mpson 
but the Magistrate found him guilty which means that the cour t was 
satisfied beyond doubt that the charge that Cunningham hadS k i cked 
Simpson was a true one . E
Now I have tried to be dispassionate in tel l thisI story because it 
is such a deadly serious one . A man is ar rested foRr the trifling 
offence of failing to move on when he o dereAd by a policeman and 
he ends up near death 1 s door with a rupItuBredR intestine. And a po~iceman, a guardian o!" our law and. order is found guilty of kicking that man . 
nd to cap it all , this man i s bound . Lover . It is a very long tlme 
indeed since I have felt so bitteArly angry as when I read the detai ls 
of t h is case . And this is noN isolated case . Almost every week there 
is some story of some assOault by some policeman with a jackboot 
mentality . Some woma nM has all her clothes torn from her , some little man is clubbed to tIhe ground , some poor person is bullied and harried . 
I am a little Wtired of talking about this , and I am more than a little distressed Ubecause basically we have a good police force . But the bad ones are giving that force a bad name . And I think the authorities are 
help i ng to give that force a bad name by not firmly and sternly and 
publicly punishing the bad ones and throwing them out of the force . 
It i s up to t he police High Command to firmly stamp out this violence 
and ~~""+:~~-!4A if they do not want us to lose our respect for the rule 
of law . Goodnight . 
No 222 Federation Summing up (1) 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For traasmission on 
Saturday Sept 16 at 6 . 15p .m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: There is only Sunday and Monday left for the 
~arties and the politicians to make their speeches , to appeal  to us 
to vote this way or that, to warn us of the terrible coEnseSquences of 
this or that decision - and. then their part will be ovIer . And the 
final act will be in our hands . We will go to our pRolling stations 
(and I am sure we will do so quietly and peacefAully) and we will make 
the final decision for the future . And that Ris the beauty of democracy: 
that after all the talking and pleadingI, Bafter all the cleverness 
and the sharpness of the politicians  L- whether t hey be honest or 
dishonest , whether they be tellinAg the truth r lying to us - after 
all this, the final decision Nis in our hands . And on Tuesday we are 
going to make that great Odecision in peace and privately . 
I thought it make be a good idea for us to look back on the steps 
which have led to tIh iMs moment and which will end one important chapter 
of our historyW on 1uesday . Some oUf you may remember that it was on Monday , the 30th of May, 1960, that Sir Alexander Bustamante m~de the sudden and dramatic announce 
ment that he had resigned his position as leader of the Democratic 
Labour Party of the Wes t Indies . Busta said that he had taken t his 
step so that , and now I am quoting his own words: nJamaica , the West 
Indies and the world must understand that our decision that Jamaica 
should secede from the Federation of the West Indies is irrevocable" . 
ThGs ewere Busta's own words . And note that they were made in a 
context of party political alignments . I mention this simply for the . 
benefit of all those who have been confused by all this talk that this 
was a non-party decision •• Anyway, that is how the whole thing started 
2 
on the 30th of May, 1960 . And t hos e of you with long memories will 
recall how this announcement hit the country like a bombshell . 
Manley's reply to this bombshell came a day later, on Tuesday, 
May 31st, 1960 . On that Tuesday afternoon Manley announced that the 
government had decided to hold a referendum in 1961 and puSt i t up to the voters of the country to say if we should stay in the federation 
or if we should leave it . Manley said he had decided IonE this course 
of action because Busta's announcement had created Ra completely new 
situation about Federation . Until the BustaR annAouncement, both parties had supported federation and it had alwayBs been treated as a bi - partisan matter . But now things had changed . WitIh one of the two major parties 
in the country opposing federation , iLt was only fair and right that 
the voice of the people should beA he ard on th~ matter , that the final 
decision should be left in thNe hands of the people. And that was the 
beginning of the great deObate which is now in its very last stages . For myself, I am  Mvery pleased and very proud to have had a hand in getting that debate going, and I hope it has helped to clarify some 
of the issues fWor yIou . Some of you may remember that it was on Saturday June the 18Uth , 1960, that you heard the very first radio Forum on ... ~ Federation . And after that, every Saturday evening, ~ Ril e.e.s of people 
from all walks of life , high and low, rich and poor and all parties, 
have come to the microphone and discussed their views with me . This, I 
think, help greatly to make us understand the issues involved. And now 
the great debate is ending and I'll give you my closing words on it 
on Manday. So till then, Goodnight. 
No 223 Federation Summing Up (2) 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Sept 18 at 6 , 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : From the 31st of May , 1960 to the 19th of September 
1961 is a year and three months and nineteen days . This is th e period 
of our great decision which ends tomorrow . And tomorrow it Sis the turn 
of those of us who are not politicians , the turn of thoIsEe of us who have 
not made speeches , the turn of those of us who haveR not stood on 
platforms or made speeches over the radios or wAritten letters t o the 
papers . And yet ours is the final decision . RIt is we who will decide 
whether Jamaica will remain in the federaBtion or whether we will go 
it alone . So finally it comes round  fLi•I to the ordinary people and their is t he most important part of all . 
So tomorrow is your great dAay , the day when you and I will decide 
the fate of this Jamaica and iNts more than one- and- a -half million 
p eoples . The responsibMilitOy is ours and it is a greater responsibility than that of ManleyI' s  or Busta ' s ; for what we decide is the way things will be . That is our power; but because we have the greater power , we 
' 
also have the gWreater responsibility . So it is we who are going to be 
the star peUrformers in tomorrow ' s great drama of deciding the shape 
of the future of this country fo r gener ations to come . It is you and 
I, the higgler and t he street sweeper , the small cultivator and the 
big farmer , the domestics who work in other people's homes , and those 
who work in factory or office or field . It is up to us . 
And when we have decided and cast our votes the responsibility for 
the dec i sion we make will be ours . We won't be able to blame Manley or 
Busta or the unions or the bosses or anybody else . If we decide to 
take Jamaica out of the federation we and we alone will be responsible 
for the consequences of that decision . If we decide t hat Jamaica must 
2 
stay in the federation, that too will be our sole responsibility . And 
after tomorrow ' s votes have been cast there can be no going back and 
there can be no blaming of others because when you have power then 
you must assume the responsibility that goes with that power . 
And the world will be watching t o see how and what we Sde cide tomorrow . The Africans, the Asians , the Americans, the Europeans -
they will all be watc~ing us and judging us , and so wIilEl the people 
of the other islands of the Caribbean . And when we Rhave finished with 
this referendum and our decision is known , the Aworld will pass judge-
ment on Jamaican and on the choice made by JRamaican men and women . 
If the world thinks our choice was small-Bminded and petty and selfish, 
they will look on us as a small- mindeLd aInd petty and selfish people . 
If they think our choice was bigA and  brave and of high courage and faith, then they will say we Nare big and brave people full of high courage and faith . They wOill not say this of Tanley or Busta; they will say this of the people of Jamaica because it is the people of Jamaica 
who will make tomorr oMw's decision . So please think carefully and decide 
wisely . You arWe decIiding for generations to come . And most important of all , whUether you are for federation or against federation, go out and vote . Vote the way you like, but vote . Many of you have asked me pro-
my views. I am and I always have been a federationist . But whether 
'l 
you agree with me or not , it is your duty to yourself, to your country 
and to the unborn Jamaicans of the future, to go out and vote . Let us 
have a really record poll tomorrow so that all the world should know 
the clear voice of Jamaica has spoken . Goodnight . 
NO. 224 
'rHE N W SITUATION FOR J_ ICA 
NEWS CO TARY 
For transmissi on on 
Wednesday Sept . 20 at 6ol5p . m. 
Peter Abrahams speaki ng. 
 
Good evening : Almos t from the moment that tShe 
Federat i on issue was settled l isteners have been asking me "Where 
do we go from here?" It was clear that Jamaica was IouEt of the 
Federationo It was clear that t he peopl e of Jamaica had said 
in a firm and decisive voice that they wanted usR to go i t al one 9 
and seek Dominion Status by ourselveso RrhaAt was not clear and what disturbed many people was this question - "Where do we 
go from here?" . IB
I am gl ad that the  GLovernment of J amaica has now 
answered this question as clearly as did the people when they 
decided decisively lastN nigAht that J amaica was to go it aloneo The Government has s ent a cable to the Colonial Secretary asking 
hi m to receive a delOegation from t he J amaica Government as soon 
as possible to  Mreport on the results of the Ref erendum and t o f ix a da t e fIor J a 1aican Independence at the earliest possible moment o The Government hopes that the delegation will leave 
for • gWland next week. This is qui ck , and decisive actiono It is Uthe sort of action I had hoped would be takenoAft erlast night it would have been a mistake for this question of what is to happen 
to be dragged out o There was an air of confusion, there was an 
a i r of uncertainty and in this atmosphere it was the duty of the 
Government to clear the air as quickly and as decisively as possible. 
The meaning of this decision by the Cabinet is that 
the Government of Jamaica has accepteK the will of the people as 
expressed in yesterday 's voteo The people sai d "we want ' t to 
get out of Federation" ..• and the Government ' s response is ~tta~ 
11 the people have spoken now it is our duty t o carry out their will 11 o 
I t hink in this decision Mro Manley and his colleagues in the 
Cabinet have shown a bi gness of spirit which I for one can only 
2 
praise in the highest termso It takes bigness on the part 
of any man to accept defeat of what he believes in and then 
go forward and carry out the will of the people. This is the 
spirit of a true democrat , and as Mr . Manley made clea r in the 
statement announci ng th i s decision it showed bigness of spir it 
to put this issue of Federation up to the people in the f irst 
pla ceo ES
The second point about the announcement Imade by Mr. 
Manl ey on behal f of the Cabinet today is thAat aR general elect ion will be held bef ore I ndependence Day so Rthat the people of Jamaica will once again be able to decide t he shape of t heir future by deci ding which Party will lead JamaiBca to Independence 9 
owe have two clear thIings - first , that the Government 
will send a delega tion to BritaiLn next week to work out the details 
of how Jamaica is to becomeA Ind ependent on her own at t he earliest possible moment and, seNcond, that before Independence comes there will be a general eOlecti on to decide which Party will lead Jamaica into Independence . 
T o Mme this is good news . It is go od news because it is the demoIcrat ic process of v.tirk at its highest l evel . In one fell sWwoop all our doubts and all our confusion has been cleared up. Now we know what is go ing to happen immediately and we also knoUw ~ that we will have the final say as to who will lead th is country on the last stages towards full Independence o It is not 
every day and it is not in every country that the people of a 
country can say that their Government has shown sufficient faith 
and trust in t he people t o put a vital issue up to them and after 
they have deci ded, against t~e advice of that Government , to then 
follow the decision of th e people and set about carrying it out 
fait hfullyo This I t hink is the best ~~~~-~ft&~ criticism ~fta~ 
agains t wailing Jeremiah ' s who see the death of democracy in 
Jamaicao Democracy in J amaica is very much alive and kickingo 
No 225 Busta Reply t o Manley Announcement 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Sept 21 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Events are moving very f as t in J ama ica jus t now, 
and we are going t o need to keep our wits about us if we a r e g oing to 
keep up with the pac e of t h ings . And I t h i nk it i s a ver y gSood t h ing 
that the pace i s s o fast . The s ooner we work out t h e IdeEt a ils of just 
how we are going to move to independence , the beAtteRr it will be f or t h e stability of the country . As it i s , we will have to b e going 
t hrough s ome lengt hy negotiations l a ter oBn , Rso t he less confus ion we have now t he better it i s for t h e countrIy and t he peopl e . So l et u s 
try to sort out yes terday' s moves an dL counter - moves by the two major 
parties . A
Las t n i ght I t alk abou t Nt h e Pr emier ' s stat emen t on t he Cabinet 
decision t o s end a delegatOi on to London n ext week , and to call Genera l 
Elections befor e i nd epMendence . As soon as the Manl ey statement was out , Sir Al exander IBus t amant e i ssued a stat ement of his own . Busta 
welcomed Manl eyW' s announ cement that ther e will be Gener al Elections ~ befor e indepdence as in keepi ng wi t h his expectations . This , he said , 
(\ 
was the onlUy course Manl ey could adopt in the light of the Refer endum 
r esult . But Busta objected strongly to Manley ' s announced decision 
that a Jamai ca Government delegation shoul d go to London next week 
to see the Colonial Secretary . Busta describa$ this decision as 
' unconstitutional , unparliamentary , a breach of public faith and 
political trickery a t the lowest level ' . 
Busta says that the only honourable and proper thing for Manley 
to do is to resign straightaway and give the people the opportunity 
to elect the government they want to carry out the r eferendum decision . 
Or, he saya , the very least · that Manley can do is to take the issue 
2 
to the House of Representatives which alone has the authority to take 
action of any ki nd or approach the British Government to discuss Jamaica ' 
i ndependence . Bus t a further demands that a arliamentary Commi ttee 
made up of both sides of the House be set up immediately to work out 
the details which will lead to Jamaica ' s secession from the We st Indies 
Federation and to her a t t ainment of independence and DominSion Status . 
So there are three very important things that BusItEa says : First, 
that Manley should resigns ra ghtaway and leave itR up to the peop e 
to elect the go rnment tha·t hey woula like to Alead them a n tne 
new path the .chos o~ Tuesday; second , iBf MRanley does not resign then the ver y least he can !!l.m and shouldI do is to put the whole issue 
before the House of Representati es  tLo debate and decide what course 
of action should be taken; and thAird, that there should be a joint 
parliamentary committee to woNrk out the detai l s of the new direction 
we are taking . ow , I am Ono constituti onal lawyer and so I am not 
competent to comment  on whether what Manley has decided is constitutiona or not . But it doesI seMem to me that Busta has a very powerful case when 
he demands that the matter be discussed in the House before any trip 
to London . UftWer all , there is a new situation in Jamaica , and whether we like it or not , it has been brought about by Busta and his party . 
Over 53% of the electorate voted ;,ne 11r&y Bust~'? t old~ te-. That is 
the weight and the authority behind Busta ' s statement . Until there is 
a new and clear mandate as to who should lead Jamaica on the new road 
Busta ' s voice will carry that weight and that authority , so I think it 
best that the matter bB debated in the House before the trip to London . 
Good.might . 
No 226 The Political Parties in t he New Situation 
NEWS CO iMENTARY 
For transmission on 
; Friday Sept 22 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: Last night and the night before I discussed the 
moves and counter-moves by our two major parties . You will rem ember 
t hat it was on Wednesday evening that Mr . Manley issued hisS statement 
on behalf of the Cabinet . In it he said that the governImEent and he, 
himself, accepted and will abide by the decision oRf the people . And 
he outlined the steps the government planned to Atake to carry out 
that decision . He said he had cabled the ColRonial Secretary and that 
h e p lanned to lead a delegation to LondoInB to discuss Jamai ca' s 
referendum decision and the earliest Lpossible date for Jamaica to 
become independent on her own . In th e same statement he also announced 
that a General Election wouldN be Aheld before Independenc e Day to give it the country a chance to choose the government which tkE~ want ~ to lead 
it to independence . You wOill remember that when I commented on this 
announcement on WedIn esMday evening I said it showed bigness of spirit on the part of Wthe Premier . I said it takes bigness on the part of any man to accept the defeat of what he believes in and then to go forward 
and carry oUut the will of the people. Of course , it so happens that 
Manley could accept the will of the people , even when it was against 
him , because it did no' real violence to his conscience and his basic 
beliefs . He was never agains t independenc e for Jamaica . Indeed, he and 
his eople ' s ational Party had pioneered the independence movement in 
Jamaica at a time when others wanted no part of it . But he and his 
party had campaigned very actively and very strongly for remaining in 
the federation , and so the result was a defeat . It was as much a defeat 
for Manley and the P . N.P . as were the results of the federal elections 
of 1958 . And it was as much a victory for Busta and the J . L. P . as was 
2 
the 1958 Federal elections . I think it is a mistake to pretend any-
thing else . 
In his reply to Manley ' s statement , on which I commented last 
night , Busta made it clear that he saw the referendum result a s a said and defeat for the P . N. P . and a v ictory f or his par ty , when he x~mkex~~xxk~x 
now I quote Sir Alexander' s own words : S
gaxeKNmeNtx am:~xMxxxuxxe~ "Mr . Manley must Eunder s t and 
that on the matter of Jamaica ' s secession f r om FederatiIon and its 
independence , he does not speak for Jamaica - I do .R" But Busta did go 
on to suggest a joint parliamentary committeeR t oA work out the details of how we are to go forward . 
So the present posit i on of the pLar tIieBs is that the J.L . P . t oday has a greater authority than it had  before Tuesday and the authority 
of the P .N.P . is of necessity lesAs than it was bef ore Tuesday . We had 
a s i milar situat i on after the N1958 Feder al Elections when the J .L. P . 
tal ked and behaved as thouOgh they were really the major ity par ty in 
the country . I t was onMly after their tkE clearcut vic t ory in the 
General Elections oIf 1959 that the P .N. P . was again able to function 
with the decisiWve authori t y of a government that had a clear mandate from the peUople . It seems to me that we are in a very similar position today as f ar as the parties are concerned . The big differemce is that 
federati on is no longer an issu e . But in the very process of set tling 
the federation issue the J .L.P . has gained a new confidence and authori ty 
~ 
which is going to make things rough for the PN . P . until they get 
another clear mandate from the people - or are defeated in a General 
Election . Goodnight . 
No 227 Jamaica and the Rest of the West Indies 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Sept 23 at 6 . 15p . m 
Pet er Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : When this day is over the most fateful week in the 
history of modern Jamaica will be over . To many people who lo ve 
J amaica as dearly as do the best of those who voted no tEhisS has been 
a week of high tragedy . To them Jamaica ' s choice is ouIt of step with 
world trends today . Everywhere else in the worldA peRople are moving closer to each other because they see safetyR, security and xpr os perity in l ar ger uni ts of co - operation. Other IgBood Jamaicans s ee our choice as a rejection of a people of the other islands , as a turning of our 
backs on those whom we consider less  Lfortunate than ourselves . And 
some of them have said : Pray God Athat the greater and richer powers in 
the world do not do unto us aNs we have done unto the people of the 
smaller islands. O
Comment from t h e Moutside world has so far been of surprise , of shock of amazement .I The day after t he Jamaican decision was known 
the British GoWvernment started discuss ions on what they call ' the new situation' . This new situation has to do with how our decision will 
affect the Uother islands of the West Indi es . We have been so busy with 
our own reactions that we have not thought much about what our decision 
means to t he other islands. Now that we have made our decision and 
cannot unmake it , it might be salutory for us to have a look at the 
other lslands and how they reacted . 
Now that we are out, will the federat ion smash up? I think the 
final answer now lies with Trinidad . In the past Dr . Er>ic Williams has 
said that if Jamaica leaves the federation Trinidad would no t be 
prepared to remain in it . If he keeps his word then Tr i nidad will get 
out and like us, seek independence on her own . ThiR would leave 
2 
Barbados and seven other small islands to shift for t hemselves as best 
they can . For these islands this will mean puttin g aside a l l hope of 
a proud , independent and self- respecting ident ity . The best they can 
hope for would be a tiny federation of the Windwar d and Leeward 
much 
islands with a population of/less than a million peopl e who wo uld have 
to depend per manently on some f orm of charity from t he oEutsSide world. And of course , the outside world may decide that we h avIe let them down 
and their needs are greater than ours , and so aid aRnd assistance we 
may want might be given to t hem . If that does haAppen we will hardly 
be in a position to bawl . After all , this is Ra choice we made . And we 
cer tainly will be in no position to blamIeB Eric Williams if he decides to leave the people of the small isla nLds high and dry : we set t he example . I do not know how many of you noticed that Dr . Lewi s flew 
down to Trinidad the day afterN ouAr decis ion was made . The University College is a federal activity and while we can hope that the other 
islands will agree to conOtinue sharing its costs and keeping i t in 
J amai ca , we cannot Iin sMist on it . J amaica has had the main benefits from the University and its hospital so far . Dr . Lewis i s now discussing 
its fu t ure . W
All thUis and much more flow logically from our dec is ion . The other 
islands will feel we have let them down , and some may never forgive us 
for denying them their one~ chance of a proud and independent identity 
in this modern world . Whatever happens tp us , the future will never 
again look as hopeful to the people of the small islands as it did 
before me made our decision . Goodnight . 
No 228 l)Manley's ' No Resignation' Statement 
2) Adams & Continuation till 1963 
3) Jagan's Comments 
NEWS COM!tlENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Sept 25 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: In his broadcast yesterday Mr . Manley said  firmly and positively that his Government has no intention of resigning 
because of the ' No' vote in the referendum; and that seIeEms Sto settle the matter for the present . Those who know¥~ . Manley and his methods 
will be satisfied that he would not have made such Ran announcement 
unless he was absolutely certain of his constituAtional and legal 
grounds . He has always been a stickler for dRoing things legally and 
constitutionally . But many people who aIreB firm supporters of Mr. Manley 
have expressed grave doubts about th eL political and tactical wisdom 
of this decision . Whether these Apeople are right or not in their 
fears will only be settled inN the General elections which Mr. Manley 
has promised will take plaOce before indepedBnce . As I told you last 
Friday, I expect the  JM. L.P . opposition to make things as rough as they can for Mr . MIanley's government between now and the calling of 
elections . My Wonly hope is that the best interests of the country will not beU too badly damaged in the process . Sir Grantley Adams who has made no small contribution to the 
referendum result seems determined to go on making mischief . News 
from Trinidad is that he now plans to ask the British Colonial Secretary 
to keep Jamaica in the Federation until 1963 when the life of the 
present Federal Parliament comes to an end . I hope Mr . Macleod will 
have the good sense to reject such a proposal out of hand if Sir 
Grantley does put it forward . Now that Jamaica has decided to quit the 
Federation it would be both foolish and dangerous for anybody to 
keep her in it for longer than· it is necessary for us to get disentangled 
So the sooner Sir Grantley stops trying to make any more mischief, 
2 
the better it will be all round . Instead of this mischief- making 
nonsense, I should like Sir Grantley to pay serious attention to the 
very constructive suggestions made by British Guiana's Cheddi Jagan 
last Friday . 
Dr . Jagan found J amaica ' s decision regrettable, but he sa id it also 
presented a challenge and an oppor tunity to Dr . Eric WilliaSms and Sir 
Grantley Adams . He said with Jaamaica in the federal cEonstitution had 
been so watered- down , at Jamaica ' s insistence , that iIt could hardly 
do what was needed for the well- being of the peAoplRe . With Jamaica out , 
Williams and Adams had a chance to rewrite tRhe constitution in such 
a way as to give strong powers to the fedBeral centre and so lead a 
strong F.astern Caribbean group . Jag aLn Ialso condemned the costly and overgrown federal government structure and said Sir Grantley and 
Dr . Williams now had an opportunAity to cut down on its running costs 
and streamline it so as to beNst serve the interests of t he people of 
the region . He said the oOnly way to raise living standards for the 
people is to refashIi oMn the economy along socialist lines . So to sum it up, the Jagan message is : Cut down your running costs, write a proper 
constitution fWor the .Eastern Caribbean, and get on with the job of 
raising livUing standards for the people . I am sure this is the sort of 
pro gramme Eric Williams will buy; I am not so sure of Sir Grantley 
Adams . And I rather suspect that it is because Eric Wi lliams has his 
doubts aboub Sir Grantley Adams that he will be unwilling now to stay 
in a Federation which is headed by Sir Grantley. Instead of listening 
to Jagan Sir Grantley is off to London today, and bent on mischief . 
Goodnight . 
No229 The Death of Dag Hammarskjold 
NEtlS COMY.i.ENTARY 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Sept 26 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Monday , September the 18th , was the day before 
our referendum and so our hearts and minds were dtu.11 of the d ecision 
we had to make the next day . Anything not connected with Sthe referendum, 
all other news , seemed unreal and far away . And so it wEas with the 
death of Dag HammarsJjold, the Secretary- General of thIe United Nations . 
We heard about it , we read about it , it registeredR, but in a so r t of 
far - off and remote way . There was no time to r eAally think about it , 
no time to r eally ask how it had happened, wRhat it meant and what it 
was likely to l ead to . And yet, tha t LwaIs 
Bthe biggest and most far -
rea ch ing p iece of n ews of t hat wAeek and for a long time to come because the deat h of Hammarskjold wasN more than jus t the death of a man; it was also an event with i mportant intermational political implications . 
To begin with it looOked as though Hammarskj old had died in a 
strai ghtforward plaIn eM crash . He had left Leopoldville on Sunday September 17 in the early evening to fly to Ndola in Northern Rhodesia where he 
was to meetingW Moise Tshombe , the President of the secessionis t Congo 
state of KUatanga . There had been six days of bitter and bloody fighting 
between United Nations forces and the fo rc es of Tshombe led by white 
mercenary officers recruited from Belgium, South Africa and the 
Rhodesias as well as elsewhere . The meeting was to try and stop the 
fighting . The plane was over Ndo l a airport just after midnight and 
received clearance to land. But then it disappeared and nothing more 
was heard from it until thw reckage and the dead body of Hammarskjold 
and f f fteen other people were found 12 hours later . Only one of the 
16 people who had been on the p l ane , a United Nations security guard , 
was alive , though badly smashed up and burnt . He died last Saturday . 
2 
Such imformation as we have is what this man gave before he died . He 
said that Hammarskjold ordered the pilot to change course just as he 
was getting ready to l and; and he said there was a series of explosions 
before the plane crashed . And then the rumours and the speculations 
began . It was sai d the Hammarskjold ordered the change of cou rse 
because he saw fir ing from the ground . These rumours were Sstrengthened 
by the fact that bullets in the body of one of HammarsEkjold's guards . 
A Rhodesian government s pokesman confirmed t hat bulletIs had been found 
in one man ' s body but said these had been explodAed Rby the fire which broke out after t he plane crashed . But the rumours persisted and the 
Prime Minister of the Central Congolese GoveRrnment , Mr . Adoula, blamed 
some of the estern powers for the d eLathI 
Bof Hammarskjold . Certainly , 
Sir Roy Welensky and his RhodesiaAn Central African Federation government had made no bones of their suNpport o f f Tshombe and their bit ter hatred of United Nations action Oin Katanga , and for Hammarskj old in particular . So I fear their will always be the suspicion that Hammarskjold did not 
die in a simple accidMent . 
But far more Iim portant for the world is the fact that his death 
has created a Wcris is in the United Jations . The Rus sians wanted the 
position ofU Secretary9General abolished and replaced by what they call 
a Troika - a 3 - man committee representing the East, the West and the 
Neutralists . In this way they would have a permanent veto on U. N. action . 
Wi th Hammarskjold out of the way they have a good chance of getting 
t his and so neutralising the United Nations itself . Goodnight . 
No 230 The Parable of the Foelish Politician 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Sept 27 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
.Good evening: This evening I should like to read you a parable 
which seems to suit the times in which we live . Let us call it  the 
parable of the foolish politician. S
There once lived a man who wanted to be a politiciIaEn. He was bright , 
he was intelligent and he was full of ideas . He AgenRuinely wanted to serve his country because he felt that his cRountry needed his service . But he was in the very difficult position of disagreeing with all the 
other politicians in the country: he LdisIaBgreed with their policies, he disagreed with their practices -  in fact, he disagreed with every-
t hing they did or said or represeAnted . So he could not join with any 
of the politicians or any of Nthe parties in order to serve his country . 
And indeed , politics beingO what it was in his land, none of the mxk~~ 
politician s and none  oMf the parties had any time for him . He was young and new on the scenIe . They had been on the scene for a long time, and 
they were not gWoing to make room for any new boy . And so they all kept him out andU made i t plain to him that they wanted no part of him . But he decided that he would defy them , that he would fight them 
and he also decided that the only way in which he could serve his country 
was to work actively to get state power into h i s own hands . 
Now in this country , all the politicians had developed the technique 
of ' The Promise '. Whenever a politician stood for election , he made 
promises and the one who opposed him also made promis es and the people 
of the country had got into the habit of voting for the politicians 
who made the biggest and the most lavish promises . But the older hands 
at the game had all shared in ·the business of power and so they tended 
to be careful about the promises they made because many a one of them 
2 
had been badly roughed up for not keepi ng his pr omi ses because the 
people took these pr omises seriously and had come t o expect the 
politicians t o do ever ything f or them . 
But the new man was not inhibited by any such fear s . He wanted 
power and so he went out and made promises . He promised that i f they 
elected him t o power he would aboli sh a l l work . He said thSat work was 
slavery and freedom meant no work . He said that payi ngI Etaxes was a form of colonialism and he would abolish all taxes . He promi sed f r ee 
housing , free educati on and free health ser vi ces . HRe said the only 
work each person would have to do when he came At o power would be to 
go and collect the £10 a week the State woulRd pay each man , woman 
and child . And of course , liquor and LfooIdB would be free . Now this was a real rallying call and all the peo ple flocked to h i s banner s and 
supported him . And when the olderA politicians still held on to t heir 
offices , he went to the CounNcil of Nations and denounced them and said 
they were enslaving the pOeople and the people were rising in revolt . 
And then one da yM, he suddenly found himself in power . His promises had paid off . For aI few months there was great celebration throughout 
the free land Wand he gave the people all the things he had promised them . And tUhen everything ran out because nobody worked and nobody paid taxes . And so it came to pass that a day came when he had to tell 
the people the country was broke and they now had to work for their 
living . But the people t urned on him because he had broken his promises; 
and they hung him the public square and so died the foolish politician , 
and darkness came over the land for many years • •• • ••• • Goodnight o 
• 
No 231 Post-Referendum Attitudes 
NEWS COM ENTARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Sept 28 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : I hope you have followed some of the react ions and 
attitudes that came out as a result of the referendum decisSion . I have 
found the reactions of some of our younger people particEularly 
interesting . In the main they were bitterly disappointIed with the 
decision that Jamaica should leave the federatioAn aRnd quite a few 
eighteen-year-olds have told me t hat the resRult would have been 
different if they had the vote . And a larBge number have expressed the 
same views as those of a teenager publisIhed in a letter to t he editor 
4rLtL-~ 
. {n t he Gl eaner a few days ago . This  yLoungster condemned the decision 
and said it had been made by ignoArant and illiterate people . The 
youngster was obviously very Nupset, but for all that, that letter and 
the tone in which it was wOritten must be strongly condemned . We should 
not abuse our fellowI  Mcitizens because we disagree with their decision . And certainly , we should not abuse them on the grounds of ignorance 
and illiteracyW. I think we should never forget that nobody chooses to 
be ignorantU or illiterate . Such ignorance and illiteracy as exists is 
the fault of our society . And in any case, under universal adult 
suffrage there is no literate and illiterate, no ignorant and wise -
only citizens who the right to express their views freely . So please , 
forward 
let us put an end to all this abuse and name-calling . The way/uEa~ 
demands that we be constructive and creative, and demands it especially 
from tomorrow's citizens . 
Another not s o happy aspect of this 'after-the-referendum inquest' 
is all this talk about crisis . There is a crisis in this; t here is a 
crisis in that; and now we hear that there is a crisis in leadership . 
2 
'A crisis in leadership' is a fine - sounding phrase,I admit . But 
just what does it mean in our present context? Let us try and examine 
it . Just over a year ago the Jamaica Labour Party decided on a cessionist 
policy as far as f eder a tion was conc erned . Up to t hat point both parties 
had broad a greement on federation . As a r esult of t hat change  in J . L.P 
policy the P .N. P . decided to call a referendum to let the pSeople 
determine which road J amaica should take . The people dIecEided in favour 
of secession . Undoubtedly , this was a psychologicalR and moral v ictory 
for t he J . L . P . and a psychological and moral defAeat f or t he P . N.P . We 
had ·something very similar in the federal elRections of 1958 . And then, they said 
as now , we had voices calling on Manley tBo resign because/he had lost 
t he confidenc e of the people . But wh eLn tIh e 1959 elec tions came around t hese people were proved wrong . The vote against Manley in t he 1958 
federal e lections turned out to bAe not a vote against Manley's local, 
J amaican , leadership . How theNn can we say t hat this one is? Only the 
people can tell us t hiMs . AOnd Manley has already promised to give them that opportunity soIo n . It is for t his reason that I c annot agr ee wi th my friend and cWolleague , Morris Cargill, when he talked about ' a crisis lf~ .,--~~ in leadershUip' ,~ morning . Busta and Manley a r e still t he leaders of Ii our two ma jor parties . There have been no internal attempts to unseat 
them . The party s truc t ure of our politics has not broken down . The 
natures of our two maj or parties have not changed radically since t he 
19t h . I frankly can see no crisis in leadership as a result of the 
r eferendum . There are problems of leadership, of course , but t hese 
have been with us a long time and are not connected wi th t he r eferendum 
'-.. 
at all . ' r will discuss s ome of these t;:zomorr: «, ~J , oo-dn1.-gh t . ) <•---~ IL (' ., 
No 232 Some Problems of Leadership 
Eli S COM :-!ENT RY 
For transmission on 
Fr iday Sept 29 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Ge:e:d. eveni-Bg : Last night I told you that I, for one, did not 
buy the proposition that there was a 'crisis of leadership' in  J amaica 
today because of the result of t he referendum. But I did sSay that there 
are problems of leadership which have been with us f orI Ea long time . 
I think t hat i n order to make any s ense out of AthiRs leadershi p question we should put it in i t s proper settRing . And t o me the proper setting is not the personal habits of thiBs or that politician or party. he proper setting , as I see it , Iis the har d economic, s oc ial , 
political and historica l r eal it es  oLf t he country . 
Let u s get dovm to hard casAes . What are the most i mpor tant 
realities in J amaica today? NFirst, there is unemployment; second , 
t here is the gr ave housinOg shortage ; and third there is the wide 
economic and social  gap between t hose who have and t hose who do not have . I think thesIe Mare the three most i mportant fac tors of the 
Jamaican reality today . here are others of course ; there is the 
yroblem of UwatWershed protection xx~tlffl which I consider mos t serious from a long t e r m point of vi ew ; there is the urgent question of trying 
to f e ed our people from our own land instead of importing more than 
we are exporting : and there are a whole host of other important factors . 
But I think the three most i mportant are unemployment , housing and the 
wide gap between the rich and the poor. And this , I sugges t, i s .the 
proper setting in which to discuss our problems of leadersh i p . And 
please note t hat these realities have been with us for a long time, 
not just since the 19th of September 1961 : and these problems would 
still be with us even if t he peop l e had voted ' yes~ in the referendum . 
2 
I t h ink it would be stupid to pretend t hat our leaders have not 
tried to cope wi t h these problems . When t he J . L .P . was in power it 
tried to cope with unempl oyment and hous ing; and when t he P. N.P . came 
to power it t oo did its best to tackle thes e probl ems . And I think it 
is fair to say that for some people conditions are very much  better 
t han t hey wer e ten or fifteen year s ago . But unemployment Sand the 
grave housing problem are still with us . So how do we IdEeal with them? To build houses we need money . If the governmRent is to build low-cost houses it wou l d have to find money . SoAme of t his it could 
probably borr ow from abroad but the r est woRuld have to come from us 
in the form of taxes . But what would theB voters say to any leader 
who went to them and said : ' If you voteI for me , I shall have to raise 
taxes in order to solve the housing  pLroblem . ' My guess is that they 
would not vote for h im . 'WhatN woAuld they say to a leader who went to them and said : ' We have aO grave unemploymnet problem . The only way we can solve it is by setting up compulsory work camps and moving men 
from one part of thIe  Misland to another to work on development projects I think the unemployed themselves would be against him . such as terracing the land and building low cost housing .' /What would 
the workers anWd the employers say if such a leader said : ' The developrneni 
needs of t hUe country are such that we will have to freeze profits and 
wages . ' I am sure that such a leader would find both workers and 
To survive in 
employers against him . ~k±xxxxxxu J amaica today the leader must 
selfish 
appease so many conflicting/interests that he dare not do what is 
unpopular, even if he knows its is good for t he country . That is one 
of our major problems of l eadership . Tomorrow I will conclude t h is 
leadership discussion; so till then , goodni ght . 
No 233 Some Problems of Leadership (2) 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmi ssion on 
Saturday Sept 30 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : If you agree wi t h what I said last ni ght then you 
will agree that the leader in Jamaica today t ends to be the po litical 
prisoner of all the conflicting interests in t he society . SBut . there 
is nothing wrong with thi s , you will say . These are t heE necessary 
checks and balances which safeguard democratic governmIent . I agr ee . 
But democratic government is possibly the most sopRhisticated form of 
government in the world and requires a h i gheRr dAegr ee of political maturity and social consciousness than almost any other form of 
government . It is also open to more aLbuIseB than almost any other form of government .  
Under even the most benevolAent dictatorshi p , whet her of the 
right or left , the father-figNure of t he dictator will in his wisdom 
decide what is best for thOe country and God help any person or groups 
who do not jump to .  IMf the dictator- father says ther e is t o be a cut in wages then thereI is a cut in wages : if he says busn essmen must give 
up 90 % of theiWr profits then they do so . If he says a thousand men mus t work fUor the state for t hree months and only get their food and keep , then it happens just as he says and no nonsense . 
Am I then saying that the only way in wh ich we can solve our 
problems is by setting up a dictatorship? I am not saying t hat at all . 
I think we can solve our problems without turning J amaica into a 
dictatorship . The British , the Scandinavians and the Swi ss hav e proved 
that countries can have detailed economic and social planning without 
any loss of t he political rights of t he individual citizen . But these 
are societies in which political and social awareness is h i ghly 
developed . E.ach citizen accepts his responsibility for every other 
2 
citizen . Please note I said 'responsibility' . 
Her e in J amaica we all demand our right but few of us are pr epared 
to assume t he responsibilities that go with those rights . I think 
the politicians must carry a l ar ge share of blame for this . They have 
gone t o t he people and said we will do t h is and the other for you if 
you vote for us . You har dly ever hear them saying ' this or t ha t is 
expected of you' . Julius Nyerere of Tangnyika campaigEnedS with the 
s logan: 'Freedom and Work '. And he stressed the woRrk pIart in all his speeches . He told h is people they had to make s acrific es and workE!E 
harder RN when they ~ere free than they did wheAn they were a colony. 
But some of our leaders have suggested ItoBoYfRreedom means less work . This t oo, is one of our main problems of leadership . 
It seems to me that if J amaica  iLs to go ahead in peace and is 
to p~csper then we must choose oAur leaders and g ive them r eal freedom 
to l ead . They must be free toN plan and reorganise our economy for the 
general good • .And if drasOtic steps a r e needed then t hey shou l d take 
those steps • .And the yM in turn should come clean with the people and stop making pie- in-Ithe- sky promises which cannot be fulfilled . 
I think tWhe only way in which we can solve our problems i s by careful andU intelligent planning of our economy . The alternative is to let thi ngs drift and go on making f i ne-sounding speeches about 
co - operation until the whole thing cal lapses on our heads . There is 
no easy road ahead and the sooner our leader s tell us so and chart the 
new cours e the better it will b e . Our task is to g ive them t he f reedom 
to lead . Go odn i ght . 
No 234 The End of the U.A.R. 
~S CO MENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Oct 2nd at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : The news of Syria's break away f~mm the United 
Arab Republic is a very serious set - back for °F8YPt 's PresidSent  Nasser and h is dr eam of Arab unity . It also reduces cons i derably t he influence 
that wi ll be exerted by the Arab nations as a group atI Ethe United 
Nations . Groups of nations always lose some of theiRr influnce when l 
they are divided among themselves . And the Arab Aworld is as divi ded 
today as it has ever been . When the Syrians Rs t aged their breakaway 
revolt last Thursday, both Turkey and JoIrBdan gave recognition to the new Syrian regime as soon as it look eLd like succeeding . Egypt has reacted by cuttung off diplomatic relations with both these Arab 
countri es . And it is not unlNikelAy that other Arab countries, such as Iraq mi ght recognise the nOew Syrian government . Whether the Egyptian government wi ll then cut off diplomatic relations with them as well 
is a very intriguinIg  pMoint . If Egypt does cut of f relations wi th every country that recognises the new set-up in Syria , she might risk 
finding herselWf in splend i d isedation from much of t he Arab world as 
well as fromU many other countries in t he world . But in any case , this 
is, as Nasser has said himself , just about t hw worst blow dealt to 
Arab unity . 
How did this come about? The critics of Nasser, and there are 
many of them, will say that the Syr i an people have revolted against 
Egyptian domination of their country . And the more extreme of these 
critics will even go as far as to say that the Syrians have revolted 
·against asser's dictatorship . But this is not the whole picture . 
From the moment of its establi shment on February 1st, 1958 the 
United Ar ab Republic was one of the weirdest political marriages 
2 
ever made . On the part of Egypt it was an exercise in nationalist 
idealism . Nasser was the heart and soul of thi s idealism . In 1952 he 
had been the leading figure in a group of young offi cers who forced 
Farouk off the F.gpptian throne and an end to just about the most 
corrupt gover nment of modern times . In place of the graf t and  massive 
thieving which ran through Egyptian politics , he brought inS clean 
government and honest leadership and offered h i s peopleE a new vision 
and a new pride . He gave the F.gypt i ans a sense of dRireIction and a sense of destiny such as they had not had for a century or more . And h i s great 
dream was a powerful group of united Arab statesA that would be a force 
i n the world . F.gypt is a massiv e land oIfB wRell over 386 , 000 square miles , with a population of over 30 million people . Syria on the 
other hand is a small country of ju stL over 72 , 000 squar e miles and 
a popul at i on of l ess than 5 milliAon people . Great big F.gypt wanted 
union with tiny Syrma not becNause there was anything materi al t o gain 
f rom the union , but becauOse it could be the beginning of t he fulfiment 
of the great dream Io fM Arab unity throughout the region . Syria , on the other hand , joined the union because her government was unstable and 
the people werWe terrified of being taken over by the communists . The 
Syrian motiUve was selfish , the Egyptian motive was idealistic . And 
now that the Syrians feel a little more secure they have broken with 
F.gypt . I t h ink the critics of Nasser should note that after his first 
angry reaction , he called back his troops and said he wouldn ' t us e 
force to keep Syria in the union . This, as we know, is not the way a 
dictator would behave . Goodnight . 
No 235 Developments in Ghana 
EW COM TARY 
Fmr transmission on 
Tuesday Oct 3 at 6 . 15p . m 
Pete~ Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : .The news from Ghana s hows that t hat country is now 
gowing through some very profound political changes . Just ove r a mont h 
ago r esident Nkrumah called for a general wage freeze wh icSh set off 
a series of strikes in mos t of the main cities . At thIe Esame time 
he ca lled for all Mini s ters in his government and aRll members of 
parliament in his party to declare all their priAvate financial interests • 
. He set up a committee to investigate the BfinaRncial affairs of all the p eople who were h i gh up in his r uling CoInvent ion Peoples Party . Then 
he went on a triumphant tour to MoscowL and at one of t he parties 
behind the iron curtain he said such  harsh things about t he British 
that the British representative wAalked out of the party . 
On his return from hOi s trNavels, whi ch included the Belgrade conference of what has now become known as the Non-Aligned nations , 
he went into ac tionI.  MFirst he t ook over direct and personal control Which he of t he C. P .P. W- t h e political party/u~ founded on June 12th 1949 and which hUas led t he country to its present stage . With complete control of t he party in his hands, he set about reorganising its 
structure . All t he various wings of t he party, the women ' s organisation~, 
the youth groups , were deprived of t heir inde~endent and autonomous 
existence and were drawn into t he central organisation . People whose 
loyalty he doubted were sh ifted t o l es ~ responsible pos itions and 
t her were completely r e oved from off ice . Meanwhile -the investigation 
into t he personal affairs of leading party member s went on . 
And then krumah took the next step . He assumed personal 
responsibility fo r all the coqntry ' s armed forces, the navy, the air 
2 
forc e and the ar y . He was now Pr esident of the Republic, s ecretar y 
of t he rul i ng onventi Peo l es Party , and Commander - in- Chief of all 
the armed forces . This was as formidable an accumulation of all the 
sources of power into t he hands of one man as was possible . 
And then , l ast week , there came the next phases in the ga thering 
of power . On Saturday of last week President Nkrumah annouSnc ed the 
extensive reshuffling of the Ghana Cabinet . He invit ed IaE number of 
his .inisters to r es i gn . Among t hem were two men whRo had been Nkrumah's 
closest a ssociates in the long years of struggleA and power . One wa s 
Kojo Bostsio and t he other was K.A. GbedemaRh . Botsio had been with 
Nkrumah in t he London days of student agiBtation . With Nkrumah he 
had been t hrown into Jail during the  LPosIitive Action campaign of 1950 . He had been the first Secretary- General of the C.P .P . at a time when 
the party had no money and no powAer; and he had been Ghana ' s first 
Minister of Education . GbedemNah t oo, was a very old and close friend 
who had gone to jail in thOe country ' s interest in 1950 . He had been 
the first Minister Iof  MFi nance and in the early and tricky days when t hey first took power he Bhd Botsio had been pillars of strength to 
the young NUkrumWah . I think it i s fair to say that without thes e two men the way ahead might have been very much more difficult for Nkrumah . 
So why has he dropped them now? They are still the two most experienced 
of his team of Ministers . I think Nkrumah ha s a maj or politica l r eason 
for his act ion . I think we will see that reason within t he next few 
months . Whatever t hat reason may turn out to be , Nkrumah is pr eparing 
the ground carefully by drawing all power into his own hands . And I 
think the world may be in for quite a shock from Ghana . Goodnight . 
No 236 1) Mi lk for Schoolchildren 
2) Cruelty at the Zoo 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmi ss ion on 
Wednesday Oct 4 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abraha ms speaking 
Good evening: A listener has written to me asking me to a sk the 
Minister of Education why children are charged four pence fSor a bottle 
of milk at Roll ington Town School . This listener has IasEked me to ask 
t his question over the air and I have now done it . RThis listener then 
went on to say t hat milk should be free to childAren . 
All my sympathies are with t h is listBBeRr . I t hink a basic food 
such as milk should b e available to all IcBhildren . I do not think youngsters l earn properly when t hey  aLre in school with empty bellies . And I think we ought to face the Af act t hat t here are large numbers of par ents who just cannot afford to give their youngsters four pence 
da i ly for a bottle of milk . INt is only t hose who have tried to learn 
on an empty belly who MwilOl understand just what a hindrance an empty belly can be to t h is  business of learning . And then t here is the 
very i mportant Wof yIoungsters growing up straight and tall and healthy t hrough having the right amount of milk and fresh food . So I hope our 
education aUut horities will look into this matter very carefully and 
try to provide free milk for t hose children who obviously cannot afford 
to pay. But I t hink it is only fai r for all of us to remember t hat 
t he government will have to pay for this milk and that the only way in 
which it gets its money is fro m us . We always want to government to do 
something, and wuite often what we want it to do is good but costs 
money . And yet we always tend to bawl when the government co me to us 
for that money . I think we must accept t he f act that the whole community 
must pay for such services as free milk for chi ldren . If we want a 
welfar e s tate we mus t be prepared to pay for it o 
2 
There is another important point about this milk business . I know 
t hat we get a certain amount of powdered milk free from the United 
States which is earmar ked especially for young ch ildren . But I know 
t hat there is a very strong pre jui dc e against powdered milk in s ome of 
our country areas . Parent s just wi ll not g ive t h i s milk to the ir 
chi ldren and s ome of t hem get this milk powder free and theSn sell to 
other people instead of giving it to t heir ch i ldren . LeEt me as sure you 
that t h is is very good milk and if you mixea to t heR riIght t hicknes s it i s a wonderful body-building food for children . You are r eally harming 
~he healt h of your children by selling t his milkA for a few pennies 
inst ead of giving it to them . So p l ease ImBakeR a nice micture of it and give it to your ch ildren . If you do we will have a great deal less bad 
teeth in t he country areas .  L
Fina lly a word about t he ZooA. Many peop le have been very distressed 
by all t he stone- t hrowing at Nthe animals . I t h ink it i s silly and 
ignorant and stupid and cOruel to hurt dumb anima ls , especially for 
no r eason and I hope  tMhis will stop . I think one way in which we can he l p to put a stop Ito it is by ett ing ch ildren to get to know and . 
enjoy and loveW t hese ani mals . And I t hink one way in which t his can be done i s forU schools to organi se groups to the Zoo under t he supervision of t eachers . But then there ' s t h e problems of each child having to pay 
a sixpence . But I think we can get over that if good citizens woul d 
undertake to pay five shillings each for ten childr en to go from a 
school . If any t eacher would like to start t he experiment I wou ld be 
very happy to co - operate . So please let me hear from you . Good.night . 
No 237 1) The Marchers For Peace 
2) The Unilateralists . 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Oct 5 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Earlier this week a group of men and women marched 
into the Red Square in Moscow . They carried banners calling fo r the 
stopping of nuclear tests and for the banning of all atomicS weapons . 
These people had walked across a goodly por tion of theI wEorld to r each 
Moscow . Some had started their march in the United RSt ates; some had 
started walking i n Brit ain ; in .ID.l.rope othersR hadA joined them and they had walked all the way to Mos cow . Of courBse t hey had to cross oc eans and seas where walking had not been possIible; and I r a t her suspect 
that they t ravelled in trains and ca rLs and busses over certain long 
stretches of uninhabited countryA. But in the main they had marched . 
And t he point of their march Nwas in order to express to the world 
t heir desper ate desire thOat there should be no war . 
When they reached Mo s cow ' s Red Square nobody molested them . The 
polic e had put up bIa rMriers , apparently expecting a l arge turn-out of 
Russian citizenWs to either watch t he marchers for peace or join them. But only soUme 300 curious Russians showed up and the police hur riedly removed the barriers . The marchers were not allowed to make speeches 
to t he small crowd , but they were permitted to hand out leaflets . 
And with that the March for Peace came t o a very quiet end in the 
Red Square , and t he world ' s press and radio went on to tell us about 
the size and power of t he latest Soviet test explosion . And all over 
t he western world there was anxiety and some American newspaper 
co lumnists even suggested that there was no point in fighting over 
Berlin and the United States had better make a deal with Russia . 
Time magazine of course soon slapped these newspapermen down as 
cowardly types who were out of touch with the American national mood 
2 
which it said was one of determination . 
But it was in Britain that the enemies of atomic warfare made 
their biggest impact . For months they had protested and demonstrated 
and marched against t he establishment of the Polaris submarine base 
in Scotland . They wanted no American atomic bases in Britain , and 
t hey wanted Britain to disarm unilaterally and so they becaSme known 
as the Unilateralists , the people who said : "It does nIoEt matter what 
the Russians or Americans do , t he BrEttsh shoulAd gRet rid of their atomic weapons and should disarm completely ." 
And the leader of the Unilateralists waRs and still is Earl 
Russell, a nobleman who has refused to uIsBe his title , who has never 
sat in the House of Lords , and who isL known throughout the world as 
the great philosopher , Bertrand ARus sell . Russell is a frail old man of 89 but a few weeks back heN delibertately courted imprisonment when he led a huge sitdown demonstration in London ' s Parliament 
Square . He and a wholMe hoOst of others were arrested . Among those arrested was the Rev erned ichael Scott and some of your favourite 
British actorsW, acItresses, poets , singers , p laywrights and the like . And almost Uspontaneously, a new slogan was born . It was ; Better red than dead . The fear of atomic warfare had led many people to feel 
t hat it would be better to surrender peacefully to Russian communism . 
In 1948 Russell had h ims elf said that either the wes t should fight and 
defeat Russia before she go t atomic weapons, or else the west s hould 
lie down and t ell Russia to take over . And now t he Unilateralists seem 
ready to lie down . And yet, what is t he alternative? An atomic war 
is likely to destroy all life . So what do we do? I'll discuss that 
to morrow . So till then, goodnight . 
No 238 The reed For a Sense of History 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Fr iday Oct 6 , at 6 .15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : I think there is no doubt that if an atomic war 
did break out Britain her self could be reduced to a barrenS de sert of 
death and destruction within an hour . I am sure that thEis knowledge 
is one of the driving forces behind the Unilater alist Iposition t hat 
it is better to be Red than dead . What the UniAlateRralists do not seem to r ealise is t hat whether t hey dump all theRir weapons i nto t he sea or not i s most unlikely to make any d i ffIeBrence to what t he Americans or Russians might do . In t erms of Atomic war¢fare Brita in i s very 
small beer indeed . On the other han dL, if you tell an enemy in advance 
that if he licks you you are notA going to lick back , then you a re 
r eally inviting t hat person tNo come in and lick you . If that person 
is certain t hat you are gOoing to lick back t hen he will think twice 
before attacking you . M
But ev en worseI than this i nvitation to disast er , it seems to me , 
is the terriblWe fatalism of the Unilateralists . They seem to assume t hat there Uis going to be war and that they and all they have is going to be destroyed . And that with t heir destruction everything will be 
destroyed and nothing that is worthwhile would be left and s o nothing 
is wort h defending . And yet it was Russell himself who taught u s , in 
his Hi s tory of Western Philosophy , that the circumstances of men ' s 
lives are determined by t heir beliefs, and their beliefs, in turn, are 
determined by their circumstances . This interaction of i deas on our 
physical conditions and our physical consitions on our i deas, has been 
inherent in the unfolding of man ' s history . Let us t ake a simple 
example . A country of va st i gnorance would also be likely to have 
2 
vast poverty and vast sickness . But as education, which is the idea, 
is introduced and spreads, knowledge overcomes ignorance: the resources 
of the country are better exploited, better living conditions and 
better living standards lead to better health . If then the ideas are 
positive and creative, the physical results are likely to be c reative 
and positive . Where the ideas are negative men see no end Sto their 
problems and sink deeper and deeper into despair . And iEt is a fact of 
history that all man's greatest achievements have stemImed from his 
psotive faith himself and in life and in the possiRbility of a better 
future . Abandon this and there can be no proRgreAss . E. M. FOrster it was who said that the only way to be creative is to behave as though we 
are immortal even in the face of disastIerB. 
But perhaps the worst aspect o f Lthe Unilateralist position is 
the tacit assumption that the RuAssians will, and are indeed anxious 
to drop the bomb and the onlyN thing civilised men can do is to 
surrender to the new barbOarians . The Russians are no more barbaric 
than anybody else . A nMd my guess is that they do not want war any more than anybody else . IWhen we talk about the Russians we almost make 
them sound as Wthough they are not human . And we seem to forget that communism iUs just one of the newest and most important , of a long wave of ideas that has flowed like a stream through the story of man . And 
justs  a.s  thos~ other ideas were changed and modified and liberalised by i .•• ~ . 
time . It is only when we lose our sense of history that we forget that 
/i 
nothing in the world is static , neither communism nor democracy . Once 
again the Unilateralists have shown that man's greatest enemy is still 
fear . Fear of change, fear of himself . Goodnight . 
No 239 1) Drop in ~l!RNE Adverse Trade Balance 
2) J . A.S. Drive to Produce more Food. 
3) Housihg Ministry 
El S CO V!ENTARY 
For transmiss ion on 
Saturday Oct 7 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : The news is t hat Mr . w.nley i s due back in Jamaica 
a little later this evening . I expect hi\\-{ to r eport that his  talks in 
London with the Colonial Secretary have been satisfactory . SI certainly 
do not think Mr . Macleod will even attempt to keep JamIaEica in the 
federation until 1963 . This, you will remember , wRas a suggestion 
made by Sir Grantley Adams shortly after t he reAferendum . But I am sure 
t hat none of the officials in London took t hRis seriously . 
As I say, I expect Mr . Manley to sayB t hat his talks were 
satisfactory, but I ·do not expect himL toI make a r eally full report 
until hursday of next week when the  House of Representatives Will 
meet for the first time sinceN theA referendum . I am very glad that things have move so fast Obecause I am sure that any long delay would have led to confusionM and would not have been good for the country. There have beeIn  two very good signposts to the future this week . The first was that the island ' s adverse trade balance in the first 
six months of Wthis year has dropped by nearly a half , when compared 
with the fiUrst six months of last year . 
Between January and June of last year we imported goods worth 
£39 . 3 mill ions and we exported good worth £28 . 3 millions . This meant 
that we s pent £11 million more than we earned . And this, as any 
housewife knows, is not a good state of affairs . The housewife who 
has only £10 coming in each week and who spends £12 a week, is heading 
for trouble . And the same applies to the nation's housekeeping . 
We did not break even this year; we are still in the red, but we 
have reduced the figure considerably . Between January and June of 
this year we imported £37 .7 million worth of good and we exported 
2 
good worth £31 . 8 million . This means t hat we still spent more money 
on good from abroad than our exports earned . But ins t ead of over-
spending by £11 million as we did l ast year , we overspent by only 
£5 . 9 million . And t h is &s a very great improvement . Our exports went 
up t his year and our imports went down . If we keep t h is up ov er the 
next f ew years the country may ge t into the very happy posSition of 
earning more fro m overseas t han i t i s spending . Thi s newE trend , 
incident ally, is largely due to the very good and sRteaIdying i nfluence of our r ecently established Bank of J amaica which seems to me to be 
doing a v ery goo d job now that it has settled doAwn . I hope it keeps up 
ther good work and soon guides us out of t he Rr ed and into the b l ack . 
Another t hing which should help ouIr Bfinancial stability gr eatly 
is t he decision made by the J .A. S . B oLa r d of Management on 'lednesday 
to make a s pecial effort to get At heir members to grow more demestic 
food crop s so t hat we can cutN out the importing of about £9 million 
worth of food each year . OI think it is utterly silly for us to go on Irish 
i mporting s tuff like  Mcarrots and lettuce and onions and/potatoes . Many mu ch richer countriIes than we are would not dream of importing such 
crops . And we cWer tainly have t h e l and on which to grow t hese . So I wel come theU promise of t h is new effort and I wish t he J .A.S . success with it . 
Finally , a brief word of welcome to t he new fin is try of Housing 
and t he new Minister . Hous ing is just about our mos t pr essing social 
problem and Mr . Ken Sterling will need all h is energy and ability 
t o cope wi t h the problem . So let us all wish h im well with a v ery 
tough job . Goodni ght . 
No 240 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
1onday Oct 9 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Mr . Manley has returned from London pretty much 
with what we expec~ed him to . The British Government has acce pted the 
Jamaican decision to go it lone , and a Bill will be put bSefore t he 
British parliament to legalise this fact as soon as poIsEsible . The 
British Government has also undertaken to sponsor RJamaica ' s membership 
to enter both the Commonwealth and the United NAations as s oon as we 
attain independence . Jamaica wants independeRnce at the earliest 
possible moment , and this too the BritisIhB Government has accepted. 
It has said in effect that we can h avLe our independence as soon as we have worked out the constitutional and legal problems that must be 
resolved . This means tr at t hNe sApeed with which we move forward from here on is entire ly in our hands . If we want independence early in 
1962 , we can have it ,M proOvi ded we have put our house in order by then . Both parties ha ve expressed the wish that J amaica should beco me 
independent inW 1ay Iof 1962 . The only disagreement so far is over what date in MayU, and that is a small point over which there need be no real crisis . So May of next year looks pretty definite . Th is would 
leave us with just about seven months in wh ich to work out all the 
details , and that , as you know , is not very much time XHXXN±~mc~kR in 
which to write xxli new constitutional instruments and have these 
properly and widely discussed . To get this done in time is going to 
demand a great deal of very hard work from our political leaders 
those of 
in parliament , as well as from/our civil servants whose duty it is 
to translate politica l decisions into constitutional and legal 
instruments of government . 
I think that above all else we are going to need a great s ense 
2 
of urgency and of national unity. We are going to need to approach 
this busness of constitution- making as a national rather than a party 
matter . If either or both of our two major parties in the House 
approach this constitutiont- making business in a partisan spirit , 
then , at best, we may be in for a nasty few months of really  dirty 
politics; or, a t worst , we may not be ready in time with oSur 
constitution and we may then find that we cannot go foIrwEard to 
independence by next May . R
The challenge that now faces our politicalA parties and our 
political leaders is to put the business of Rconstitution-making for 
independence above party and above peLrsoInB. The temptation to score personal and party victories are go ing to be great for all concerned . 
All our politicians know that a AGeneral Election is not far away : so 
it will be a great temptationN to try and score points for the coming 
election . Up to a point tOhis is inevitable . There will be a certain 
amount of par ty rivalry . What I hope is that it will not get out of 
hand to such an exIte nMt t hat it puts back the clock . 
The real time for the party political free-for - all should be at 
the GeneraUl ElWection, after we have hammered out the constitution for an independent Jamaica . Now is a time for soberness and responsibility . 
the members of 
I sincerely hope that/our House of Representatives will set us all 
they 
an example of b~-partisan responsibility when/i± meeti on Thursday 
to begin the big j ob of shaping the new constitution . Goodnight . 
No 241 Trinidad & the Federation 
I EWS CO r . T RY 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Oct 10 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : A number of t hings that have happened down in 
Trinidad over the past few days seem to suggest that with Jam aica out 
of it, the W€st Indies Federation is as good as dead . FirstS, we had 
the news that the Trinidad Government had bought BritiIshE West Indian 
Airways . Some of you may remember that almost uAp tRo the time that Jamaicans went to the polls to cast their voRtes in the r eferen dum, ·the the Federal Government was negotiating wBith/British Overseas Airways Corporation about taking over B. W. I . A. TIhen , after the Jamaica decision 
was known, these negotiations were p oLstponed indefinitely . And last 
week came the news that Trinidad Ahad bought B. W. I . A. for about half-a-
million pounds . It seems to mNe that if Dr . Eric Williams had entertained 
any idea that t he federatiOon would continue in its present form, or 
would be strengthened , he would not have bought out B. W. I . A. but would 
instead have waitedI  foMr a reorganised federal government to do so 
later . That isW pointer number one . PointeUr number two was Dr . Williams' refusal to discuss the Federation with Dr . Arthur Lewis when he espec ially called on Dr . 
Williams . This, plus Dr . Williams' statement t hat h e and his party are 
not prepared to go to London or have any discussions on t h e Federation 
until a f ter the Trinidad elections , suggests that he ha s made up his 
mind on an ind~pendent course of action for ·Trinidad . This was backed 
up by t he announcement that ~r . Learie Constantine would be Trinidad's 
High Commissioner in Britain . And then, at a public meeting at 
Woodford Square on Saturday evening, Eric Williams declared t hat 
the f ederation no longer exists . 
. . 
2 
All this would suggest that Dr . Williams has made up his mind to 
write off the Federation a s a dead loss . His actions are t hos e of 
a man who is now laying the foundations for a Trinidad which will 
seek independence on her own . This , of course , should not come a s a 
surprise to any of u s . Dr . Williams had declared often enough in the 
past that 1! J amaica left t he federation Trinidad would do Sso too . 
A number of wiseacres in J amaica have d ismissed t h i s aIs Ejust a bluff 
by Williams . It would seem that t hey were a littAle Rl ess wi se than t hey t hought . 
Of course , much will depend on the outcoRme of Trinidad ' s General 
.Election . o date for t his has yet been IsBet but it is still expected 
t o take p l a ce either late this year  oLr early next year . The Trinidad D. L. P . Opposition has come out stArongly in favour of Tr inidad remaining in what is left of t he federaNtion . If the opposition fights the election on the federation i ssue thOen Dr . Wi lliams will hav e to come out and declare himself , and perhaps fight the election on feder ation . But 
at the moment the op poMsition i s in such a stat e of disunity and s eems 
to be pulling Wi n soI many dir ections , that it looks as though Williams will be ablUe to di ctate the terms on which he wi ll fight the election . And if Willia ms dictates the terms then feder ation wi ll c erta i nly not 
be an issue . So i t would seem that Trinidad will definitely follow 
J a maica out of the f ederation . Thi s would leave Barbados to l ead the 
Winwards and Leewards . But will they follow t hat lead? People like Mr . 
Gairy makei me dou9t it : which leaves Britain with quite a mess on 
her hands . Goodni ght . 
No 242 l)Harbour ~'!"'ground Wiring 
2) 
-Ews COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Oct 11 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaki ng 
Go od evening : I think the Har bour View Citizen ' s Association 
is one of the liveli est and most a ctive civic groups in all Ja maica . 
I think it has . done a very f i ne job of creating a commEunitSy spirit in 
the area and I t hink it has :t«::irnElixM.a:~Ellflll~ helped to tIurn Harbour 
View into something approa ch i ng a model communAity Rin a very short space of time . From time to time it has had a runR- in with the power-that - be -some of you may remember the case of the Bstop signs - and it has not been afaaid to campaign actively for whIat it thought best for t he 
community . I am , and I always have  bLeen a great admi rer of the 
Harbour View Citizen ' s AssocmatioAn and I should like to see more 
community organisations like Nit everywhere in Jamaica . But having 
said all that , let me sayO that I disagree with t he latest protest 
campaign launched by the Harbour View Cit i zen ' s Assocmation . 
Firs t let me sIe tM out the f a cts . The Kingston and St. Andrew 
Corporation has decided that wires for lighting the streets of Har bour 
View shouldU ruWn underground . In ot,der to bury the wires the K.S . A.C would have to dig trenches along pavement verges . Tow the point is 
that the citizens of Harbour View have gone to a lot of trouble 
to p l ant grass and trees along these pavement verges . They have done 
this as an effort to beautify the area and they are alarmed a t the 
prospect of all this beauty being destroyed and all their efforts wiped 
out by ditch-diggers who will show no respect for the beauty they have 
created . They say it is true that the verges are owned by the K. S . A. C. 
but they have beautified them and so they do not want the K. S . A, C. 
to dig them up . They do not say that the K.S . A. C. must run thr wires 
2 
overhead, but I think there is no doubt that that is what they want . 
And so they are up in arms and have written a letter of protest to 
the Town Cler k asking the K.S . A. C. to reconsider the decision to 
bury the wires . Those are the facts . 
As I said , I disagree with this protest campaign . But p lease do 
not misunderstand me . All my sympathies are with the HarbSour View 
citizens. I think it is dreadful for anybody to have ItEo watch beauty 
being destroyed, especially when you have createdR that beauty with 
your own sweat and toil . But I think we must fAace one hard fact, and 
it is this . Underground electric wir ing is Rs~fer , and in the long run, 
it is cheaper than overhead wiring . OvIeBrhead wiring is a deadly 
dangerous business . In a storm or a Lhurricane an overhead pole could 
be hit by lightning; it could eith er be knocked do'Wll or some wires 
broken and so cause fire or deaAth . And in a crowded community like 
Harbour View this could be vNery serious . Or a live wire might snap 
on a perfectly calm Mday Oand dangle,harmless looking, until the first little boy or girIl  runs along and touches it and is burnt to death in seconds . TWhese are some of the real hazards of exposed , overhead wires . YoUu do not have these risks with buried wires . And when it comes to choosing between a beautiful verge and the safety of a child, 
my choice is t he child every time . You uan always beautify the verge 
again; you cannot restore life to a child . So , in the interest of 
safety I am for the K. S .A. C. burying the wires thou gh all my 
sympathies are with the protesting citizens of Harbour View . Goodnight . 
No 243 The Nursing Situation 
EWS CO IBN TARY 
For transmission on 
, _ Thursday Oct 12 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaki ng 
 
Good evening : The story behind the deep unrest that nSow hangs 
over our nursing profession is as sad and depressing aIsE any story I 
have ever tried to make sense of . On t he face of itR, the nurses , especial 
t hose at the Kings ton Public Hospita l , were discAontented about their 
conditions of work and nobody did much abBoutR it until Mr . Thossy Kelly of the ational Workers Union stepped in, l ed a delegation of twenty 
nurses t o a conference with the MinisLt erI of health , and came out of 
t hat conference with i mportant gAains  for the nurses . On t he face of it, it would seem that as a r esulNt of t h is decisive action the working week of t h.e  nur ses has beOen cut from 48 hours t o 42 hours and that all nurses who work on public holidays will i n f uture be given a day 
off to make up f or t hMis . Also, as a result of t his decisive action 
a working party · comIposed of union representatives and Minis try of 
Health offiUciaWls was set up to work out t he details of the new 42 hour week . This worki ng party hel d it s first meeting this morning . So it 
would seem that Dr . Lloyd has g iven the union de facto recognit ion 
as t he spokesman and bar gaining agent for Jama ican nurses . 
And yet t here is a whole lot more to the story than this . When 
I looked closely i nto the matter I f ound that t hese dramat ic gains 
w. Kelly had stepped in and secured had in fact been worked for over 
a l ong period of time by another organisation . I found that the Jamaica 
r - . , Gener a l Tr ained Jurses Association had been negotiating with the 
inistry over these and other point s for over a year . I found that as 
~' t -.t(t-
far back as/1960 the Trained Nurses ssociat ion had recommended to the 
2 
Ministry that the nurses be given a 40 - hour working week with 8 -hour 
sfuift s . But that was not their only r ecommendation . They recommended 
a number of other t hings t o make l i fe easier for our nur ses . Some 
of these , l i ke the establishi ng of canteens and change - r oom cupboar ds 
at K •. H. and Bellevue , have alr eady been carried out . They al so go t 
a duty allowance for night supervisors , as wel l as a washi nSg allowance . 
With the assistance of the Jamaica Civ i l Service AssocIiEation t he 
Tr ained Nurses Association got the rent charged to Rnurses reduced from 
5% of the i r pay t o 2½% of their pay . They got Aaddi tional staff nurses 
f or Oper ati ng Theatre work . The dis cus s edB t hRe shortage of a t a ff i n r ur al hospita l s and got the Mi n is t ry to Iget six additional s i ster s 
fo r the se hosp i t a ls . The outsanding qLuest o s wh i ch r ema i ned after 
t hese changes had been made were Aon  the "iUest ion of salari es and worki ng hours . 
The Ci vi l Ser vic e anOd thNe Nur sing Associat ion repr esentat ives met wit h the :Min i ster Mof Heal th in Februar y of this year . They with the i nist er again i n Jul y and aga i n the di scuss ion was about worki ng 
hours and salaWries .I The Minister assured them of his sympathy and assistance .U But nothi ng happened and some of the poor nurses began t o wonder whether anything woul d be done f or them thr ough the i r ver y sober 
and responsible Tr ained Nurses Association . Noth i ng happened until 
Mr . Kel l y appear ed on the scene and threatened the Ministry with an 
ultimatum . And then thi ngs happened fast . Which makes i t seem that 
our government only respects peop l e who threaten i t . And t h is is 
depressing . But there is someth ing even more depress i ng f r om the 
nurses point of view and I will deal with t hat t omorrow. So ti l l then , 
Goodni ght . 
The :;:~ursing Sit.u.o.t:i...- .. J 
NEWS C01'-1MENT Y 
For transmission on 
Friday Oct 13 . a t 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : From what I said on t he nursing situation l as t 
night you will have gathered that I am not particularly i mpr e ssed with 
the dramatic entry of Tr . Thossy Kelly and t he ationalE WoSrkers Union 
into t he nursing situation . I am not impressed becauseI I think Mr . 
Kelly has stepped in and reaped what others have lRaboured for, and 
also because I do not t h ink it is a good i dea fAor either the National 
Workers Union or the Bustamante Indus trIiaBl TRr ade Union to r epresent any section of our civil servants . Both unions have strong party l i nks 
and if t hey step into the ranks of  thLe civil service t hen we are in 
danger of soon having a highly pAartisan and political civil service, 
and t hat would be a tragedy . NIt i s f or this reason that I find t he 
attitude of t he Ministry Oof Health so very bad on t h i s question . First 
they deal in a casu alM and off-hand manner with t he recommendations of the body which Ihas worked for t he nurses for over 13 years . They 
do this becausWe t he leaders of t hat body behave in a manner of great responsibiUlity . And then they seem to jump to g ive recognition to a political trade union which spits fire at them and whose l eader tells 
the nurses they must be prepared to strike the moment t h e High 
Command g ives the word . Are we now in for t he time when a cut up 
person is going to be l eft on an operating table to die because the 
union has called a strike? It seems as t hough the Ministry i s making 
it clear that it respects only aggressiveness and irresponsib ility . 
I am frankly not impressed with t he Ministry's part in this affair . 
But what about the nurses? They are pensiohable civil servants . 
The trained Nurses Associatioh came into being in 1948 and fought for 
2 
their recognition as trained nurses with professional standing . In 
1951 t he Registration Bill gave t hem this position as reg istered 
professional nurses and civil servant s entitl ed to a pens ion . But 
Registration gave t hem very much more . It made it possible for t hem 
of Nurses 
t o affiliate with the International Council/and be recognised as 
is  
trained. nurses anywhere in the world where t he Council XKK Sr ecognised . 
This means that a Jamaican nurse will be accepted as aI Etraine nurse 
in such countries and will be allowed to work as suRch and get the pay 
and conditions of the trained nurses of t hat coAuntry . Here and there 
she may have to do mo re work on one subject ,R but basically she will 
enjoy professional recognition and statusB. But the code of the 
Int ernational Council of Nurses forb iLds Iany political affiliation on the part of any of its member bodies . So, if the nurs es are represented 
by a trade union with pol itical aAffiliations they are likely to f ind 
the International Council of Nurses unwilling to a ccept them . If that 
happens any J amaican nursOe going abroad may find herself in t he unhappy 
position of not beiIn gM recognised and only being able to get a job as a subordinate unskilled worker . This was the position of nurses right 
here in J amaicWa . They were unskilled subor dinate s t aff until t he 
efforts of Ut he General Trained urses Association brought them to where 
they are now . Some of the younger ones have either forgotten t his fact 
or have not taken the trouble to find out . It seems to me that in the 
pro c ess of trying to i mprove their conditions , and they should be 
i mproved , they stand in danger of losing some very important things 
their own association won for them . I hope our nurse will think , think 
carefully , and t hen think again . And the Ministry needs t o do the same . 
Goodnight . 
No 245 The Transfer of Macleod 
NEWS COM ENTARY 
For transmission on 
5 ·,ct,,;..-:~ ay Oct lf'- at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : A large number of listeners have asked me why Mr . 
Ian Macleod has been removed from the Colonial Office; and som e have 
asked whether this was just a reshuffle in the British CabSinet or 
whether there was some deeper meaning to it . Well, I IthEink the first 
thing we must remember is that no British Prime MiRnister has ever 
reshuffled his Cabinet just for the fun of it . TAhere has always been 
a reason for it . Sometimes the reason has beRen t hat t he government has 
become so very unpopular that some new wIiBndow dressing was needed; sometimes it was because there was s oLme scandal connected with one of the Ministers; and sometimes it Awas because some ma jor point of policy had come unstuck and tNhe Minister in charge of that po int of policy had to be removed . OThis means that almost every British Cabinet reshuffle has meant either that some policy has come unstuck or that 
confidence in the go vMernment had sunk very low . 
In t he case ofI Mr . Macleod a point of policy had come unstuck . 
That point of Wpolicy was Jamaica's decision to leave the Federation . 
The BritishU Government had been almost more enthusiastic about the 
Federation of the Wes t Indies than anybody else . And Mr . Ma cleod was 
the spokesman and representative of this British enthusiasm for federatio: 
So Jamaica's decision was a very big defeat for British policy in the 
Caribbean . And since Mr . 1acleod was the Minister responsible it was 
a big personal defeat for him . 
Some of you may remember that sometime last year I talked about 
Mr . Macleod's fight with Lord Salisbury over Colonial policy . Salisbury 
is possibly the most powerful single personality in British conservative 
politics . Salisbury was bitterly opposed to Macleod's policies of 
2 
hastening the independence of colonial territories, especially those 
in Africa . In one of the most bitter attacks ever made in the House 
of Lords Salisbury accused Macleod of selling the British empire and 
the white settlers in East Africa down the drain with indecent haste . 
Salisbury had powerful support : he had the support of the righ t-wing 
of the Conservative party and he had the support of the EaSst African 
white settlers led by Sir Roy Welensky; and this is stIiEll one of the 
most formidable combinations in British power poAlitRics . But Mr . Harold Macmillan is the head of the British Government and therefore the head 
of the Conservative party, and this makes himR the most powerful man 
in th party . Mr . Macmillan ' s sympathiesI Bwere very obviously in favour 
of I • [acleod 's policies; and so he Lprotected Macleod against these 
powerful rightwing Tory and settler  forces . But Mr . Macmillan could 
only protect Mr . Macleod as loNng Aas the Macleod policies paid off . As soon as the Macleod policiOes suffered a severe set - back the behind- the-scenes pressures were Mso great that Mr . Macmillan had to sacrifice ~~ . Macleod . This is the  meaning of the removal of Ian acleod from t he 
Colonial OfficWei . TIhe result of the Jamaica referendum has contributed very greatlUy to the removal of Mr . Macleod from the very important position of being one of Britain ' s three major spokesmen to the outside 
world . This in turn, will , I think, mean some important shifts in 
Britain's Colonial policy . Just what these will be, only time will tell 
~ . ?~ ' 
but the decision to curb mi gration is an important pointer . I •l?l a· 
( 
-dioetts,s mi~Nl:tion tomon ow , so ts ill Mwt-1, goodnight . 
No 246 Bad Manne1' & Bad Behaviour at the Top 
EWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Oct 16 at 6 . 15p .m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : There has been a lot of talk about manne rs and 
behaviour recently . eople have mourned that Jamaicans wereS no longer 
as thoughtful of others as they used to be in the pastI. EThey have 
said that Jamaica is losing its reputation as a friRendly and courteous 
place . And they have all deplored t hi s trend . TAhe leaders in our 
tourist industry say that this upsurge of baRd manners and bad behaviour 
will hurt the industry, and if the induIstBry is hurt then Jamaica itself 
will be hurt . Employers deplore the bLad manners of their workers . 
Teachers deplore the manners of Athe ir pupils . The cry is the same everywhere . Things are not what they used to be , and the change in 
manners has not been for the Nbest . And so political leaders and 
business leaders and McivicO leaders are all calling for a return to good manners and goo d behaviour . And most of these people talk and 
behave as thougWh thIis deterioration in manners is something which has happened amUong the so-called lower classes only, as though it is only the poor and the humble who are bad- mannered . And so the appeal for 
good behaviour comes from above and is directed to the peopl e down 
below, or so it seems . Now I am not saying that this is the case 
everywhere. But it is certainly so in a majority of cases . The pnly 
bad manners we seem concerned with are those of the masses . But what 
of the bad manners up at the top? What of the bad manners of our 
political and business and civic leaders? Are we saying there is one 
set of rules for the poor and the humble and another set of rules for 
the high and the mighty and rich? I do not think any of our leaders 
will say this but many of them behave as though there is one set of 
2 
rules for them and another set of rules for t he mass of the people . 
And this , I am afraid , is perhaps most pronounced among our political 
gentlemen . 
I had a personal experience of this double standard last Saturday . 
At aaout a quarter past t welve I was coming out of Torrington  Road 
and stopped behind two other cars which were waiting toE tuSrn up the Slipe Road . In the car immediately in front of me was Ia Very Important 
Person . Another car was in front of the V. I . P (s caRr . There was a steady 
stream of traffic go ing up the road and we had Ato wai t quite a whi le . 
But then the V. I .P . got i mpatient and decideRd to do something about it . 
Without looking back he reversed . I hooIteBd but he revers ed smack into t he front of my car , dented the bum pLer and broke the glass of one of my lamp s . And then , sti ll withouAt looking back , he swung out across the street and bulled hi s way into the stream of traffic . I was very 
distressed , not s o much by t hNe damage done as by the attitude of this 
Very Important Personage .O It seems to me that the least that good 
manners demanded in  tMhis case was some gesture of apology . I certainly 
had no t houghtW of Imaking an issue out of the a ccident, but this h i gh and mi ghtyU attitude of being above the normal courtesies of the road because one is a V. I . -. was most distressing and disappointing . And I 
wondered how anybody who behave s in this manner can demand and expect 
others to behave with courtesy and good manner s . It seems to me that 
much of t he bad manners and bad behaviour in our society today s t ems 
from the bad manners and bad behaviour of the peop l e at the top . And 
the sooner they themselves set bett er personal examples, the better 
it will be for the whole society . The s t andar ds should be the same 
for all, otherwise a l l standar ds will become tbose of t he jungle . 
Goodnight . 
No 247 P . L .M.- ••• Merger 
E'WS COMMENTARY 
For t r ansmiss i on on 
Tu esday Oc t 17 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter ·4br~h~mQ sn~~king 
Good evening : The news that Mrs . Rose Leon ' s regressive Labour 
Movement and Mr . Millard Johnson ' s People ' s Political PartSy h ave been merged into one party was not entirely unexpected . But many people 
seem to have been surprised by the announcement . In thIeE main t his 
surprise was due to the fact that Mrs . Leon had foRr so long and so 
firml y rejected any idea of conducting her poliAtics with any hint of 
a racial line . This , they felt , would alwaysR stand in the way of a 
merger between Mrs . Leon and Mr . JohnsoInB who frankly pushed a racialist 
line when he first emerged . But I t hLink these people ignored a number of very important factors . 
First , I think t hey ignoredA the influence that Jamaica and 
Jamaicans would exer t on Mr . NJohnson as an aspiring politician . Those 
of you who have followMed OMr . Johnson ' s progression over the past few months must have nIo ticed certain changes in his approach . He has become less violent iWn his language ; he has eased up considerably on personal abuse; andU he has certainly not stirred up the same degree of racial feeling that he did in his very early days . The responsibility of 
party leadership , the business of winning friends and influencing 
people , the business of balancing conflicting f actions inside his 
party , and the very tricky business of holding on to the position of 
leadership , all these seem to have had a sobering effect on him , at 
least in his utterances . And of course , wil ly- ni l ly , Mr . J ohnson has 
become more sensitive to the basic political mood of the country than 
he was when he first started . Jamaica is Jamaica , and while the 
emotional appeal of Africa is strong , any Jamaican politician who 
hopes to succeed must, sooner or later , operate within the Jamaican 
2 
frame- work, submitting to the Jamaican mood to a degree at least , in 
order to influence it . All this is not necessa rily either a conscious 
or rational ppocess; but it is very real for all that . And the process 
has reached the point where Mrs . Leon, a very old hand at the political 
game , feels it safe to merge with Mr . Johnson . And so I expec t the 
new P ••• to lay less stress on straight race and more oSn poverty and 
the working classes and on opportunity . E
Another factor which made for the merger is the wIi ll and wish for 
power , wh ich is the driving motive of all politiciaRns . Like all 
politicians both Mrs . Leon and Mr . Johnson wantA power and they think 
that they stand more chance of getting thBereR as a united force . 
General Election is just around the corIner . If the P .P .P . and the 
P .L .• put up candidates independen tlLy you would have a number of four• 
' 
cornered contests . This would meAan that the votes of those people who 
are against both the P .N. P . aNnd the J . L. P . would be split between the 
two smaller parti es , thusO cancelling each other out and making it easier 
for either labour oIr  Mthe P . N• • to romp home . With t he merger the vote against the two major parties will not be split and the new party will 
stand a betterW chance . This is the hard arithmetic of t he gamble for 
power, and Uthat , more than any ideals or principles justify the merger 
for both Mrs . Leon and Mr . Johnson . The group of . L. M. dissenters 
who are against the merger can be written off . Their influence is 
slight . Mrs . Leon was the P . L .M. Without her it i s noth ing . The really 
interest i ng question now , is what influence the new P . P .P . is likely 
to have on our two major parties and on t he coming general election . 
We will have a look at that tomorrow, so till then , goodnight . 
0 248 The new • • . & the Major Part ies 
NEWS COMNfil.\I TARY 
For transmission on 
vednesday Oct 18 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams s peaki ng 
Good evening : It is very diffi cult indeed to make any kind of 
guess as to what influence the new- style P . P •• will have . e ither 
ws . Leon's Progressive Labour Movement nor Mr . Johnson ' s SPeople ' s 
Political Party have ever been tested at the polls . MrI. EArt hur Leon 
who now presumably be the .P .P .' s spokesman in theR House ~f Repr esentati 
won his seat on the Jamaica Labour Party ticketA. So the fact t hat the 
new party can now boast of having one memberR in the House does no t 
mean anything . We do not know whether ¥a>B. Leon would have retained 
t he seat for West Rural St . Andrew ifL hIe had resigned after he and 
his wife split from t he J . L.P . aAnd  then contested the seat on the P . L.M. ticket . 
So how do we go about trNying to asses s t he new-style P .P .P . 's 
chances in the comi ng eleOction? I think the only way in wh ich we can 
make any sort of gue sMs at this moment in time is by trying t o assess 
the mood and inclinIations of the country : and that is a pretty hard 
thing to do . 
UWI t h ink our first question should be : Is theret a r eally deeply 
felt desire for radical change in Jamaica today? If t he answer to this 
question is yes then it is very likely that the voters will be more 
turn to 
inclined to/some new party in the hope that i t will lead them in the 
-H.J-: 
new direction . Ai{ ~tn::::.Ahsf! ~ , the answer is : no , tl:tere~:\;& '!IO 
~eeply felt dco~oF radical change then the voters are more 
likely to want to stick with the two old established parties with 
whose patt er n s t hey are very familiar . So the really b i g question is 
the moo d of t he country . 
j 'i,.,':, 
We know t hat there are l arge pockets of discontent amon~ the 
2 
Jamaican community : there are people who are homeless; there are people 
who are jobless . They see prosperity all about them: they see more cars 
than ever before on Jamaican road; they see houses going up all over 
the place; theysee others building fortunes . All this makes their own 
homelessness and poverty all the more bitter and it seems tSo t hem that notlody cares about them or their conditions. This is the broad pattern . 
Now , if these people, the homeless and the joblesIsE, feel that 
nothing can be done about thetr conditions within tRhe framework of the 
present set-up then they will look for radical Ameasures to change 
their conditions and they will look for aB neRw leader and a new party to give voice to their bitterness andL prIess for the radical change they want . If , on the other hand , these p eople feel that there is hope for 
change and improvement without raAdically upsetting the present order 
then they are most unlikely tNo want to destroy the present order 
completely . My own guess is that at this moment in time the majority 
still O
of Jamai cans/feel th aMt they can get the changes they want without any radical upsetting oIf the present order . They feel that the gap between 
the haves and Wthe have- nots can be narrowed without violence and revolution .U If I am right in this then the coming election will show a ma jority for one or the other of the two maj or parties . The showing 
made by the . P .P . will be an indication of the extent of the desire 
itself 
for radical change . But the odd thing here is that the . P .P . /looks 
like becoming less radical with each month that passes . Just what this 
will do for its election chances is anybody's guess . What is certain is 
cannot be 
that the P . P .P . xttiixkxx regarded as a major force until it proves 
itself at the coming election . Goodnight . 
No 249 Spell of Bad Weather 
NEwS COMMID TARY 
For transmission on 
Thurs day Oct 19 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: The weather authorites say that the terri ble 
spell of bad weather we have had since the start of this weSek is on the 
way out . I hope, and I am sure most of you do so too, I Ehope that they 
are right , and that we will have a clear and sunny weeIkend to dry out 
our damp houses, our damp furniture and our dampA clRothes . I am sure we can all do with a period of drying out . 
I suppose the worst thing about the lasRt three or four days for 
most of us has been the damp and the seeIpBage . I have not visited a 
single house which did not have dAamp  Lpatches somewhere on the ceiling, and in some houses water literally dripped down and had to be caught 
in buckets . This, I feel , isN quite a criticism of our building methods 
and of our buil ders . HouseOs that look really fine on the outside turn 
out to be poor and Ij erMry-built affairs that cannot stand up to three or four days of heavy rain without almost coming apart at the seams. 
Our buildings aWre supposed to measure up to certain standards , but the 
condition oUf a number of them after the rain suggests that those 
standards must awfully low . Like all too many things in Jamaica the 
price is high and the quality is low . This is something we ought to 
try and break . 
Motorists, too , have gone through;t' their own particular brand of 
hell over the past three days, especially in Kingston . The traffic 
congest on on M da, te da and Wednesday was fantastic . Large 
numbers of people spent one, two and three hours on what was normally 
a fifteen - to - twenty-minute journey between their places of work and 
their homes . On Tuesday evening it took me an hour and a quarter of 
2 
crawling at snail.' s pace to get from the Half Way Tree traffic lights 
to the funrobin Avenue lights; and there were scores of people for whom 
this short journey took even longer . Part of the trouble here was a 
lack of thought and discipline . If we had all accepted the fact that 
the road was flooded and that we would all get home sooner if  we 
behaved in an orderly and disciplined manner , things would Shave gone 
a little more s moothly. Unfortunately there were a numIbeEr of impatient 
people who thought it smart to jump the line and gRet ahead of every-
body else . The r esult was a sort of disorganisedA and undisc iplined 
scramble, with every man for himself and theR devil take the hindmost . 
And so some smart driver would swing out Bfar to the right in an attempt 
to rush ahead of the line . Someone elLse Iwould follow his example, and 
someone else, until three and fouAr c ars were travelling abreast of each other through a river ofN water . And then, of course , one or two stalled and t he whole opeOration came to a halt . And the absence of any police to control and sort out the mess made driving home on Tuesday 
evening a particular  nMightmare . On Wednesday when we did have a number 
of police officWers Ion t he scene things moved a lot more s moothly . It is at times like t hese , when the going is rough, t hat t houghtfulness 
and a measuUre of self - discipline becomes so very es sential . And it is 
then that we seem to fall down so badly and become 'me- fi r sters '. 
But the most terrible damage of all , to my mind, was t he fantastic 
amount of good J amaican earth that was washed away to the sea in the 
p ast few days . Of all the damage this i s the most serious and the most 
dangerous for t h e future because land is the life of a people . 
Goodnight . 
No 250 Harbour Viev Citizen's Association 
~ Underground Wir ing (follow-up) 
- EwS COM @\TTARY 
For transmission on 
Friday Oct 20 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: The other day I had a vi sit from Mr . Ken J ones , 
the President of t he Har bour View Citizen ' s Association . Mr . J ones 
wanted to set me right on some information I had got wrEongS. Some of you may r emember t hat I spoke about the Harbour View CIitizen ' s 
Association on Wednesday October the 11th . I told yRou then what a 
h i gh regar d I had for the Association and its wAork , and then I sa id 
I disagreed with their latest protest camBpaiRgn , which was against the K.S .A. C. ' s proposal t hat t he wir es for street lighting in Harbour 
View should run underground . My f eeliLngI, you will remember , was that 
this was a good and safe t hing and  should be carried out . 
Well , 1 t was about this thaAt V.r . Jones wanted to set me right . 
news 
The/report from which I hOad tNaken my information , he said, was not correct; and to proveM t his he showed me copy of the letter which the Association had seInt  to t he Town Clerk on the matter . To get the record compleWtely straight , let me read the section of the letter dealing wi tUh this mat ter . It is this , and now I am quoting from the letter : 11 The installation of under ground wires for the proposed 
street lights in Harbour View is another matt er which is causing some 
concern . I have been informed t hat the K. S .A. C. Counci l plans to lay 
their wires along the sidewalks and t hat this qill necessitate the 
destruction of t he grass and plants which the citizens have been laying 
out . We have gone a far way t~ instil and encourage civic pride in our JI 
people and I think it fitting that at thi s time we should be given 
some assurance that t here will be , not only the very minimum of 
destruction , but also speedy ~eplacement , if and when the verges are 
2 
dug up . 11 That is what :kk::e 1s what Mr . Ken Jones wrote to the Town 
Clerk about underground wir i ng . And that , of course , is very differnt 
from the news r epor t I saw and on which my commentary of October 11th 
was based . And so I am very pleased t o correct the facts . The Harbour 
View Cit i zens ' Assoc i ation is not against under ground wirinSg f or street lights . In f act Mr . Jones told me t hat they are inf favour of it . What 
they do want is as little destruction of the beauty thIeyE have created 
as possible ; and they want the Oouncil to assume reRsponsibility to 
replace as quickly as possibl e any verges they mAay dig up . And here I 
am in complete agreement wi th the HarbourB ViRew Citizen's Associtaion . My cr i ticism was based on a published neIws report which turned out to 
be far f rom ac curate . L
Ther e are some other points on  which the citizens of Harbour View 
feel very str ongly . They areN veAry anxious about playing grounds for their children . At the moment there is nowhere except the streets or 
the tiny backyards ofM theO houses where the kids cart play . And this is just not good enougIh  for growing youngsters . There is some idea of gettin them a piece oWf land on the seafront s i de for playing grounds . I hope Mr . Keble MUunn does in fact succeed in getting this soon . But crossing the main road to St . Thomas is likely t o be a deadly dangerous business 
for youngsters and so I should like to see an overhead bridge erected 
if the playing fields are located on the other side of the main road . 
As far as I am concerned one of the silliest thi ngs that happened near 
Harbour View was the digging up of miles of sewer mains in order to 
widen the road . One day it wi l l cost taxpayers a fortune to lay new 
• en~E mains because sewerage is a coming problem for Harbour View . But 
then , its only the poor dumb taxpayers' money . Goodnight . 
0 251 1) Select Committee on Constitution 
lEWS COMMEN TARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Uct 21 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : On Tuesday eveni ng the House of Representatives 
unanimously approved Mr . Manley ' s motion for the setting up o f a 
Select Committee to prepare proposals for the ConstitutionS of an 
independent Jamaica . Thi s is t he first important step IiEn the business 
of drafting the new constitution and I am glad it wRent as smoothly as 
it did . As I told you a couple of weeks back , Athe first sitting of the 
House after the referendum could so easily hRave se~ off a pat tern of 
bitter and rat her vicious party strife; wBhich wou l d have been tragi c 
of our constitution- making; and so itL isI good that our leaders have behaved with the responsibility Athe ocassion demands . Of course , behaving in a responsible manNner does not mean the Opposition must go along with the government line on every issue, and indeed t he Opposition 
has made it clear thaMt itO does not intend to do so . Some of the s peeches from the Opposition during the debate were so strongly 
critical that the:beI  were times when I wondered whether the Opposition 
had decided toW vote against the Manley motion for t he Select Committee . 
Then , Uon Wednesday evening , we had Mr . Clem Tavares ' motion 
c~lling on the government to resign and hold new elections immediately . 
This one was defeated on a straight party basis . And txxx these two 
things taken together , it seems to me, suggests t he pattern of how 
t h ings will be conducted over the next few months . 
I t h ink that on t he big issue of Constitution- making both parties 
will do t heir best to work seriously for what they regard as the best 
constitution possible for J amaica . I t hink t h e approach here will in 
fact be bi-parti san and the problems will be treated as na tional ones 
transcending party . This will be particularly so in the Committee work . 
2 
But I think that when it comes to anything which is conducted in 
the full glare of publicity , we can expect a great deal of straight 
party politics . And I think we can expec t some of this party politiking 
to reach new levels of nastiness and bitterness . I shall be only too 
happy to be proved wrong but I , for one , expect some s canda ls , some 
really dirty smears and quite a bit of character assassinaStion . And 
not all of t h is will necessarily originate in either oIfE the two 
parties . Some very powerful behind- the- scenes forceRs are likely to 
play some not- so -nice politics behind t he sceneAs . And of course the 
parties t hemselves will make use of anyth ingR t hey can . 
It s eems to me t hat the J . L.P . will Bmake t he running pretty 
strongly . That is the advantage alwayLs Ienjoyed by an Opposition. It 
can attack and attack and attackA. T he party in power has the dis -advantage of having to defendN itself and its record ; and that disadvantae becomes par ticu l arly mar kOed when that party has suf fered the kind of defea t suffered by thMe P . N.P . i n the r eferendum. So it seems toI  me that t he months ahead will show a delicate balance of behWind- the- s cenes co-oper ation between t he part i es i n the maki g of tUhe constitution , but a s ha rpen i ng of party strife on t h e floor o f the House , on the r adio and in the press . The great danger 
her e is t hat some bright young polit i cian may be t empt ed to make 
party capital out of the business of constitution- making . If anybody 
does in fact yield to that temptation then Jamaica's r oad to independence 
may become bitt er, torn wit s r1re , and perhaps even bloody . A great 
responsibility to prevent this res ti;. on the shoulders of the two party 
leaders . Goo dni ght . 
No 252 Cold Wat, Among the Communists 
N:Ei s com, ·T y 
For transmission on 
onday Oct 23 at 6 . 15p . m 
· eter Abrahams speaking 
feel 
Good evening : Many peop l e ~xgxfRit that the current Ber lin 
crisis might lead to a shooting war of nuclear weapons . ASnd feeling 
this, they have carried the ar gument a s tage further andE say that if 
war does come it will be because the Russians want a wIar . On t he face 
of it, t h is approach is lo gical and reasonable . ArRushchev has broken 
the agreement not to test atomic weapons . ThRe Russians have set off more 
than a score of~~ nuclear exp losions inI Bthe pas t f ew weeks and the world is alarmed by the dangers of radio - active fall - out . But instead 
of heeding world op inion Khrushchev  hLas t hreatened to let off an even 
bigger and more deadly bomb . ANnd Ain Berlin the Russians and t heir East Ger man friends have been more provocative than at any time since the 
end of t he Second World WOar . All of which makes it reasonable t hat they 
are in fact lookingI f oMr a war . And yet the truth of the matter is that t h e Russians do not want 
war . For all thWeir struttings and rocket- rattling they are probably 
more terrifiUed of war than almost anybody else . But if t hat is so, you 
might ask, why do t hey behave in t his warlike manner? 
Part, if not a ll of the answer, was suppl ied , I think , by the 
22nd Congress of the Russian Communist Party which opened in Mos cow 
on Tuesday of last week . At that Congress, and for no apparent reason, 
Khrushchev launched a bitter public attack against the Albani an 
communist leaders, accusing them of being Stalinists : and being accused 
of Stalinism is today just about the biggest political crime any 
communist can be char ged with . But of course things are rarely hat 
t hey seem in communist-style power politics . And the Cold War that 
2 
goes on among the communists themselves is a very complex and complicated 
thing . Albania, for instance is a very tiny little country of about 
11 , 000 square .¢'miles and with just over one- and- a - quarter million 
people; she is much too small and weak to defy the giant Soviet Union 
with its nearly 9 million square miles and more than 200 mill i on 
people . Russia could crush Albbm&a like a man crushes an aSnt - if the 
conflict were simply between the Albanian communists aInEd t he Russian 
communists . But it is not . The real quarrel , the reRal Cold War, is 
between Russia and Chi na . The Russians are attacAking Albania because 
she has sided with the Chinese in this quarrRel . Albania is the first 
European country which has chosen to follBow the lead of Peki ng rather 
than the lead of Moscow . She is thereLfoIre a dangerous example to other 
European communist countries .  
And behind the Russian- ChinAese quarrel is the struggle for 
leadership of the communOist wNorld . Until communist China appeared on the scene Russia was Mthe undisputed leader of the communist world . But the Chinese areI  now challenging that leadership . They say the Russians have gone soft , that the Russians have now joined the ' haves ' 
among the natioWns and so they want co - existence with the West . The 
Chinese , onU t he other hand, want an all- out war with the West . In order 
not to lose the support of other communists in this struggle wi th 
China , Khrushchev has to show just how tough he can be, and so we have 
the threats and the explosions . But basically, Russia does not want 
war ; she has more to lose from it than she has to gain . However , there 
is this mounting conflict within the communist camp , and it is this 
Cold War that dictates much of Khrushchev ' s actions today . Goodnight . 
No 253 1) The Premier's Visit to the Rastas 
2) The Voting Age 
Evl COMJ.vIENT Y 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Oct 24 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter brahams speaking 
Good evening : Some very interesting points came out of the meeting 
between Mr . Manley and a group of Rastafarians on Saturday . F irst 
was the news that construction of the oil refinery wouIlEd bSegin within the next f ew months , and that while the building is going on jobs --re~ u--- i....:.---'> 
would be provided for some twelve hundred workers . RI.Nte-i-mJH:;-:i:-b-a-t4en -i s 
that the refinery will be located in Western KiAngston and that the 
900 per manent jobs it would prov~ later wouRld largely benefit the 
of 
people of Western Kingston,/whom the LRaIstBas are a sizeable section . Mr . anley also mentioned the point  that some people ' don't want to 
work' and I am very glad he did . AIt is a sad fact but a fact all the 
same that many of the people Nwho bawl loudest expect everything to be 
done for them and are notO prepared to lift a finger to help themselves . 
I hope that when work on the refinery does begin my Rasta friends will 
show that they are In oMt afraid of work and that they can work as well 
as the next maWn , if not better . It seems to me that one of the most important pUoints about help is self- help . I think all citizens and all sections of our community are entitled to be given a chance so that 
they can help themselves . If any section of the community expects 
people 
everything to be done for it : if XNEJ expect to be supplied with free 
houses, free water , free lights, free everything, then they should be 
told very firmly that Jamaica just cannot afftord this kind of free-
giving and that in any case, this kind of living on the dole is a 
corrupting thing . Certainly, the poorer sections of any community 
. .,  is entitled to expect help from the state and t he society . But nobody 
is entitled to expect charity . 
2 
But perhaps the most important point that came out of the talks 
between the Premier and the Rastas , at least as far as I am concerned, 
was the point made by some Rastas that they need more land room . 
This made me wonder how many of the Rastafarian brethern would in fact 
be prepared to work the land if it were made available . It see ms to me 
that the rastas, as well as other citizens could do a IveEry Swonderful job for Jamaica and for themselves if they were prepared to do some 
pioneering . There are large areas of undeveloped aRnd uninhabited land . 
all over this island. We must develpp this laRnd;A we must make it bri ng forth and feed its people and earn money for our foreign buying . Would 
the Rastas and the other landless peopleI Bwho are now crowded into 
Kingston slums and who have no work ,  Lwould they be willing to go out into the hills and mountains and clear the land and work on government 
supported co - operative farms? A
It seems to me that tOhisN is one of the important new directions our t hinking must takeM if we are to create a decent future for all our citizens . We must bIe  prepared to pioneer instead of sticking in the overcrowded squaller of Kingston . There is a lot of land room for those 
who are preUpareWd to work . So let us look inward: inward into ourselves and inward into t he challenging hills of Jamaica . Tha t is the challenge 
to all who want land- room. 
Finally, let me say t hat I am wholeheartedly in favour of the 
voting age being reduced to eight een . Many eight een- year- old age 
paying taxes and I support t he slogan: ' No taxation without repr e sentatio1 
Goodn i ght 
No 254 The Dangers of Slogans 
NEI S CO ID: TARY 
For t r ansmi ssion ~n 
Wednesday Oc t 25 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Last night I said I support ed t he slogan: ' No 
taxation without representation '. Tonight I want to discuss t he whole 
dangerous business of slogans because i t seems to me that JSamai ca today 
is in danger of getting slogan- drunk , and that can be a Every bad thing 
for t he political health of the country . I
Tow, slogans are a form of emotional politiAcalR short-hand . They 
are popular rallying cries; t hey are catch pRhrases used to build up 
pas sions to a point beyond reason . TheIseB are just three of a number of ways in which s logans can be used . So let us examine these three ways . 
First , let us look at it in terms of  Lpolitica l short - hand . No taxnatmnn 
without r epre s entation i s a cNlasAsic example of the slogan as political short -hand . It states t he clear polit i cal princip le t hat peopl e should 
have 
not submit to being taxedO unless t hey also/the right to participat e in 
the government of tIh e Mcountry . This kind of slogan gener ally has sense and meaning and a hard moral core to it . Then we have the slogan as 
t he rallying cWry . This is gener all y used in times of war . In the 
Spanish CivUil ar the mos t popular slogan was : ' They ~hall not pass '. 
In the Second World War one of the British slogans duri ng the North 
Afric an and Itali an campaigns was : 1 So ck the ~'lops 1 • They shall no t 
pas s , has a c ertain dignity and declares pass ionate intention . Sock 
the Wops , on the other hand , is racialist and nasty in the extreme , , 
because Wop i s the British term of contempt for the Ita lian . So the 
rallying cr y type of slogan can b e either V6ry noble or very nasty . 
The t h ird kind of slogan , t h e catch phrase , is possibly the 
lowest form of s loganeering . It is often meaningless when closely 
examined , and it frankly pl ays on ignorance and prejudice and fear . 
2 
d t h is, unfortunately, i s t he k ind of slogan we go in f or most her e 
in Jamaica . Let us look at the most popular slogan in J amaica today . 
It is one word and t hat word is ' freedom '. I have seen people work 
t h emselve s into a fine passion shouting 'freedom '. But when I a sked 
one of these shouters what he meant he looked shocked for a  moment, 
and t hen , unable to explain himself , he just shouted the Ssame word 
louder . Now, if a slave were shouting that word it wIoEuld make sense 
bec ause the word would then have a special meaninRg in a spec ial context . 
But when peop le who have the right to elect thAe government of their 
choice , when peop l e who can move about f reeRly in their own lang and 
can speak their minds freely , when such Bpeople shout freedom, it 
becomes more than a little silly . If tIhey had said freedom to work or 
freedom from hunger it would have  mLade more sense . But t he word just 
by itself has no context herNe . And that is probably why some poor misguided peop l e l eft thOeir jobs t he day after t h e referendum and a r e now sorry . This sort of slogan does not educate , does not advance any- · 
t hing , it just confuMses issues and undermines stability and is t herefore 
thoroughly bad . I 
And I amW afraid the same t h ing must be said of t he latest P . N.P . 
slogan : PowUer . Why power? In what connection? In what context? Is it 
a t hreat? I certainly do not like this one any better . I find this kind 
of slogan- mongering dangerous . It seems to me t hat our politicians 
need to r emember that slogans are good when they educate and point a 
direction and they are bad and dan erous when used to arouse ignorant 
and unreasoning pas sions . Our current c r op of slogans are misleading , 
confusing and dangerously stupid . Goodnight . 
EwS COM '.l TARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Oct 26 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : For me the most important and the most pleasing 
news of t his week was the announcement t hat a black South A frican has 
been awarded the obel Peace Prize for 1960 . But t his newSs is very 
much more important than as a simple matter of persoInEal pride . However , 
political 
in order to understand the basic/importance ofA thRis awarding of the Nobel Peace Pr i ze to a black South AfricanR, we must know something about both the Prize and the man . 
So let us first take a look at tIhBe Nobel Prizes and how they came 
about and what they mean .  L
A Swedish che mist called AAlfred obel started work ing on the 
problem of making explosiveNs safe round about 1860 when he was just 
about tk±EXJ twenty- seveOn . In 1863, when he was_ thirty , he found a way 
of combining nitro glMycerin with another substance called kieselguhr , which made it safIe for humans to handle the explosives . He called t he 
new combinedW subst.a~n,(c. e dynamite . He began to produce dynamite on a :..... commerciaUl s cale and within a very short time he became one of t he I\ richest men in the world . 
Nobel was a good man , a gr eat idealist, and a lover of humanity 
and he had hoped that his invention would only be used for the good 
of mankind . But he was a realist as well and he soon realised that 
evil men would put his invention to evil use , and this distressed h i m. 
And so when he di ed at the age of 63 he left ar.xixhr±:sxm§:JIRJ a fund which 
at the time amounted to some £3,000,000 and he directed that the 
interest from this money should be divided into five equal prizes , 
and t hese prizes should be awarded each year to persons who have 
2 
contributed mos t to 'the good of humanity ' . So each year , since 1901 
those persons who have made the greatest contribution for the go f 
umanit, lave een awarded obel Prize . e fie field in which 
the awards are made a r e : Physics , chemistry, physiology or medicine , 
literature , and for the most important work in the interest  of world 
peace . The awards for physics and chemistry are made by tShe Royal 
Academy of S1. ences of Stockholm ; t hat for physiology or medicine is 
t E
made by the Caroline 1edical Institute of StockhoRlm; Ithe award for literature is made by the Swedish Academy ; and the peace award is 
made by the rorwegian Parliament . A
In terms of money the awards are IvBeryR valuable; in recent years each prize has carried a sum as la rgLe as between £17,000 and £20 , 000 . But much, much more important tAhan their money value , these prizes have become the highest forms of international recognition in t he 
world . There is no single Nother prize in the world, there is no 
single other recognitionO in all the world t hat carries the honour and 
the glory and theI  prMestige and the status of a Nobel Prize . This is so because the Nobel Prizes are t he only truly international prizes 
which genuineWly recognise greatness and achievement on a world scale 
· d withoUut any consideration of party , colour, class or creed . It 
is the noblest and highest form of recognition any man can attain in 
the world today •••• .And so we come to the black South African , Albert 
Luthuli , who this week received this most noble of all awards 0 Why 
did he get it? And what does it mean? And who is this man? I will 
answer these questions tomorrow . So till then , goodnight . 
EWS C ,· T Y 
For transmission on 
Friday Oct 27 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Albert Luthuli , winner of t h e Nobel Peace Prize 
for 1960, is a thickset, burly man with a roundish face . He  is of the 
Zulu tribe and he speaks and moves with all the dignity Sof the proud 
Zulu . He was born in a little tribal village calledI EGroutville in tatal . He is 62 years old and until 1952 he was the tribal Chief of 
h is people . In order to be a tribal chief in SouRth Africa a man has 
to be approved of by the Government of South Africa; which means that 
for years Albert Luthuli was regarded aBs aR ' Good Native', by the 
white rulers of South Africa . In  faLctI he was a good tribal chief for -seventeen years and the white rulers of South Africa held him up as 
an example of how they expNecteAd 'natives ' to behave . And because they regarded h i m as a good nat ive he was appointed to a number of 
committees t hat the govOernment approved of . He was put on the Nat ive 
Representative CouMncil, which was supposed to advise the government 
on 'native policIy'  and which the government consistently ignored . He 
was also a mWember of the South African Christian Council , a joint 
council wUhere blacks and whites who were liberal met , and he was a 
member of the Institute of Race Relations . In 1946 he joined the 
African ational Congress but he did no t do much active work . Then 
he went on a visit to India as a delegate to the World Council of 
Churches; and later he went to the United States to lecture for the 
American Board Missions . The very fact that the South African 
government allowed him to travel when they restricted almost every 
other black man ahowed that they fel t sure of Albert Luthuli, they 
were sure of their good native . 
But somewhere along the way , possibl y in India , the ' good native ' 
2 
suddenly began to get out of hand . His Christianity became stronger 
( 
but he now said that Christ himself would have opposed the debasing 
conditions under which black people lived . And then he made a personal 
declaration which shook the entire South Africa . I was t here at the 
time (it was the l ast time I was allowed into South Africa) . It wa s 
the end of 1952 . Luthuli declared that for thirty years Sof his life he 
had tried the method of pleading and moderation and IiEt had got him nowhere . And so he was now urging all blacks to revolt openly and 
boldly against injustice . But , and this was hAis Rmost important but, he wanted his people to use Ganrlll.i's met hod of non- violence . He wanted 
his people to fight against the evils of tRhe system but not a gainst the 
white people because t h ey were white . IHBe said discrimination and 
prejudice by blacks against whAite s Lwould be as evil as that of whites against blacks . d so the Ndefiance he preached was against the unjust laws and against the evil pracitices, not against the white people . 
The Africans eeected himO President of Congress t hat year . The government 
dismissed him from Mhis chieftainship . And at the height of the 
campaign he was oIn e of t h e 156 people of all races arrested and 
charged withW treason . He was released i n 1957 but his movements were 
severely Urestricted and still are . He cannot make speeches and h e can ~ -~c.~ ...J:l ,/k.;,. only move within a few miles of where he , lives . But his moral influence 
-1\}..,...r.,.,........, lA•'-' '7~"-t~- - A. 
has become world-wide . And now t he .Swedf -68~ has awarded him t he 
obel Prize for Peace, thus giving t he racialists of South Africa the 
biggest moral slap in the face t hey have ever received . And Luthuli is 
t he first frican, not only in South Africa but t hroughout t he contt ntnt, 
to get t his most important of t he obel Prizes . Goodnight . 
3) A Customs - roblem 
NEWS com, TA.RY 
For transmission on 
Monday Oct 30 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: Early yesterday evening , when we in J amaica were 
still on the· alert because t here was the likeilhood of Hurri cane Hattie / hitting Jamaica , t h e danger had in fact passed . But of course we i d 
not know it b ecause we were still goi~g by t he f ±xExmEx«x~Szk bulletin 
of yesterday morning . It was by t he sheeres t accideInt that my daught er 
/ 
pi cked up and Ameri can station on our radio and dRiscovered that a pl ane 
had 
which had just surveyed the area/reported thaAt the stoFm was swinging 
gently westward and so away from u s . AbouRt two hours later our own 
radio stations confirmed this news .L WIeB were saved two hours of anxiet y and preparat ion by this accidental  picking up of an American sta ttmny{ 
and this fa ct made me wonder wAhether it would not b e a good idea if , 
in betweeb the official bulNletins , a constant monitoring of Miami 
radio stations , would noOt be very useful when storms are so close . A/ / things now are , there is a ~ ng and nerve- straining gap between one 
official bulletinI  anMd the next!. 
The alarWms of Hurric ane Hattie resulted i n one very pleasing experiencUe for me . The fa mily decided that we may need someth ing to dry out the house should heavy r ains and storms hit us . So I was sent 
into Kingston on Saturday morning to try and buy someth ing . And so i t 
was t hat af t er a number of tries , I ran up against the brothers 
Flannery who are in the heating and plumbing and ventilation bus i ness . 
They did not have what I want ed , but unlike the other people , they did 
not just shrug and say they did not have it . They made a number of 
phone calls and went to endless trouble unt il they found just the 
thing I wanted . And when they finally located a fan heater for me , t he) 
sent one of t heir own workers to collect it for me . These people did 
2 
not hav e to go to all t h i s trouble; after all , t hey were not making 
a penny out of the deal . Like the other people, they could have said 
' Sorry , we don ' t stock anything like that' . Inst ead , they showed me 
an example of the real meaning of s e rvice , and it made me feel good 
and grateful . So , a public salu te to the brothers Fl annery a nd may 
more business houses give the kind of service and help thSey gave me on 
Saturday . E
And now for another kind of service . lady in IKingston received 
a g ift package for her baby in celebration of itsR first birthday . The 
gift came fro m t he ch ild's grandmother in IrelAand and was valued at 
£1 . 2 . 6 . The Customs Declaration label on Rthe package showed that it 
came from Ireland; so di d the postaLge IsBtamps . I have the labe l and the stamps with me , so I know . Bu t when the ch ild ' s mother went to 
clear the parc e l from Customs , aA customs official told her it came from 
Switzerland . The lady proteNsted t hat this was not so and pointed to 
the label and the stampsO. f t er much talk the offic ial decided that 
if it was not Swit zMerland t h en the parcel must come from Germany. When t he lady proItested that t his was not so either the customs official 
told her he dWid not have any more time to argue so she had better l eave t heU parcel and come back another time . In desper ation the l ady paid duty on the parcel as t hough it came from Germany . Now, I know 
this sounds fantastic , but it is true . And this, God he l p us , is the 
kind of service we can do wit hout . This brand of arro gance feeding on 
i gnoran ce is what makes ~txxi uncivil louts out of some of our civil 
servants and gives the whole service a bad name . Goodnight . 
c:.J .LJ.Lvv.L~ .1.HtH::1.1.,r-e cc 0.1..1.en1., Lone 
NEivS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Oct 28 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter brahams s peaking 
Good evening : I hope you have all read Miss Una harson ' s 
letter in last Wedneday's Gleaner; if you have not I hope yo u wi l l 
make an effort to do so because . I think her letter is verSy important . 
Those of you who did read the letter will recall thatE Miss I~rson 
dis cusses the recently formed Committee for a BetterI Jamaica . I am 
sure we have all seen and heard the advertisemenRts put out by the 
Committee for a Better Jamaica and so I doR noAt think there is any need for me to go into t hat . The CommIiBttee calls on all of us to coSoperate in the building of a b etLter Jamaica and uses the pictures of sportsmen and other prominent fi gures as examples to us . Referring 
to one advertisement which NshowAed a boxer , Miss Marson makes that point that boxing can hOardly be regarded as typifying gentleness , kindliness and love . I t hink she has a point • .And in any case , the 
fact that a man canM run faster than all other men , or that he can 
stay under water Il onger or that he can jump h i gher or that he has 
made more moWney , does not of itsel f make him an example of good 
citizenshUip . Furthermore , we can always say that these are exceptional 
p eople whose attainments we can never match , no m~ter how hard we 
try . So, like iss Marson , I think the use of outstanding athletes 
in t h es e advertisements a little unfortunate . 
But even more important than t h is , and I do hope I am not 
misrepresenting Mi s s Marson's views , is her suggestion that some 
concrete pattern of action would prove much more useful than this 
costly Courtesy Campaign through press and radio . I agree with Miss 
Iarson that the basic causes for our current wave of anti - social 
behaviour stem from ba social and economic conditions and that we 
2 
must pay attention to these conditions if we hope to create a better 
climate of behaviour . 
I do not think t hat t h i s is a po i nt t hat needs to b e argued or 
that any member of the Committee f or a Better J amaica will dispute it . 
Father Sherlock founded Boys Town afterall, and he knows wh at a gr eat 
contribution it has made to the morals and manners of s coSres of young 
men over t he years . The trouble is, and I rather thIinEk thi s is part 
of Mi ss Marson's point , there i s only one Boys ToRwn . And i t seems to 
me t hat two or t hr ee more Boys Towns in other Adepressed areas of the 
island would make a greater long-term diffRer ence than a whole mass of 
advertising . And t hen there is the queIsBtion of the young girls f or whom there is no Gir ls Town . 
I Lshou l d hate any of you to f eel that t h is is carpi ng criticism . 
The Citizens Committee for Na BAetter J amaica is a noble effort and I know t hat Miss Marson does noOt want to ' kno ck' it , and I c ertainly don ' t . But I do know that mMany people feel that the Committee can use the money at its dispIo sal more practically and for more l asting good than by using it on an advertising campaign . 
FinallyW, I hope that the authorities concerned will close Tom 
Redcam AvUenue to all mot or traffic when t here are pt erformances at the 
Little Theatre . The noise of traffic spo i led an evening 's theatre for 
I, .,J,,- ~~ ; ~ L,;\ 
a number of us .~ ::L,.~,, ~~rltr:, . Closing the Avenue will be no har dsh ip 
to anybody and will contribute to the growth and development of t he 
theatre in Jamaica . So please let us have our theatr e wi t hout the 
noise and ra tle of traffic . It i s a small t h i ng to ask in t:.e 1 te es t 
of our cultural health . Goodni 1 t . 
. EWS CO ENTARY 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Oct 31 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter brahams speaking 
Good evening : At least t wice last week it looked as though the 
world was on the brink of war . On Wednesday East German police stopped 
two them 
/xM American officialsin East Berlin and would not let/N:tm th rough until 
they their 
/ ~k2showed/k±x identity papers . But the American GoveIrnmeSnt does not recognise the existence of the Ea.st German Communist GEovernment and it 
has given its officials strict instmictions not tRo acknowledge the 
authority of any Ea.st Germans . So the two offiAcials refused to show 
their papers . The East Germans would not leRt the two officials pass 
and so a dozen American military poLlicIeB in battle- dress and with fixed · bayonets had to go into East Berli n to escort ·the two officials out . 
That was the first incidenAt and it created an air of electric 
tension in Berlin and througNhout the worl d . The Americans. alerted 
t heir entire Berlin GarOrison and tanks rolled up to the border between 
the Eas tern and We stMern sectors of the city . The BritisB and French also alerted theiIr forces . The next day East German guards again 
tried to checWk the papers and American officials and again they had to be escUorted in and out of East Berlin by United States soldiers . And by this time a dangerous atmosphere of tension had been created . 
The po int behind these incidents was the occupat ion rights of what 
was once the allied powers - Britain , France , the United Stat es and the 
Soviet Union . After the second world war all f our powers agreed , and . 
t h is was written into the Occupation Statute , that t he officials of 
each and everyone of them would have freedom of movement in all sectors 
of divided Berlin . Until fairly recently all sides have honoured this 
agreement . But lately the Russians have increasingly given over guard 
duty at the borders between East and West Berlin tote East German 
2 
police, and up until two weeks ago the East Ger man police carefully 
avoided interfering with the freedom of movement in and out of East 
Berlin of the wester n oc~upying powers . Nobody who knows all the details 
of t he unfolding Berlin situation believes for a single moment that 
the East Germanswere acting off their own bat in stopping American 
officials . Thef Russians, these experts say , mus t have tol d the East 
Ger man to do so in order to probe and test American deterSmination . 
And when the Russians realised that the AmericanIsE were prepared 
to get tough with t he East Germans they appeared Ron the scene themselves . 
On Friday ten Russian tanks rolled up to the EAast Berlin Border and 
pointed their guns at the ten American tanRks on t he western side of 
the border . And so we had on Friday thIeB terrible picture of the two 
most powerful nations on 2x~ eart hL pointing guns at each other not much more than two hundred yards apart . If one of the gunners in one 
of those tanks had lost hisN nerAve , or if the strain h ad been so much t hat he had pressed a trOigger in sudden panic , we might have seen t h e beginnings of t hMe most terrible war the world has ever known . That is how close we al l are to the horrors of war t hes e days . Because we 
must make no WmistIake about it . one of us , not even the s mallest island, will escaUpe t h e effects of an atomic war . And yet it is in the very fact t hat war would be so terrible that 
our greatest hope for peace is found . Both the Russians and the 
Americans know that whoever wins - if anybody do es win - would only 
inherit a burnt - up earth . And so neither really wants war . The great est 
danger of all , a s I see it, t hat war may be started by some crazy 
accident while t hese peo ple play their power game . Goodnight . 
l,UUU !:5Il u::O UH vl!t.' ::0,!J.LL'.L uUGl,.J.. ,!J!"OU.J..~lll . 
NEWS CO 1NENTARY 
For transmission on 
Thuraday Nov 2 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: The news of the terrible damage~ caused to Belize 
~ Hurricane Hattie 
and other parts of Honauras/is most distress ing . As I listen ed to the 
dreadful news of death and destruction , a very stranIgeE thSought crossed my mind . I wondered how I would have reacted if I had known on Sunday 
evening that when Hattie swung away from us it wRas going to cause 
s u ch devastation in British Honduras . If we haAd all suddenly found 
ours e lves with the gift of foresight, woulRd we have prayed just as G,,I 
hard that Hurricane Hattie pass us by?I BWould we have said to ourselves: A 
' We are probably in a much better pLosition to stand t he shock; any city 
of ours that i t mi ght hi t is leAss  likely to be flooded by the sea; so let it hit us instead of hel pless Belize' . rould we have thought like 
that if we had known what wNas going to happen? Would you? Would I? 
I personally find iMt imOpossible to answer this question honestly and with the knowledgIe  that I am being truly honest . I know t hat t he Christian ethic by which I try to live commands that I love my neighbour 
as myselfU, aWnd I know that my neighbour should be every man . And yet I cannot honestly say t hat if I had known what would happen and if I 
had any choice in the matter , I would have prayed for Hattie to hit us 
instead of very low- lying Belize . So I think it i s just as well that 
we do not have t he gift of foresight , otherwise we mi ght be shocked 
to discover how very weak we are morally , and how few of us live up 
to the Christianity to which we pay such faithful lip- service . 
In s p ite of all our great scientific and technical and political 
advances , we seem to have made very few s trides forward in the pas t 
two thousand years or so . We seem to have leaped ahead in material 
2 
and scientifmc terms, and to have man taken something less than half 
a crawl forward in spiritual and moral terms . Christ taught that man 
show 
can/kxXE no greater love than by risking the sacrifice of himself for 
his neighbour . Nearly two t housand years have passed since He taught 
that . In that space of time we have discovered t hat the earth was 
round, we have learnt to move mountains , to fly through the air , to 
travel under the seas, to split the atom - and we are nowS on the 
threshold of journeys into space . All these are fanItEastic advances 
in the conquest of our material world . But MExaxR it seems to me that 
we are as far- away from t he true ChristianR etAhic today as our fore -bears were when Christ walked the earth . I found it strangely disturbing 
to realise how very little man has reIalBly grown in spiritual and 
moral terms over t h e past 2,000 yeaLrs . 
When the Russians whose gArea t revolution wrought vast material 
changes for the benefit of Npeople ' s bodies - when they rejected the 
Christian ethic as the ' opium of the people ' , theyreplaced the hope 
of Christian immo rMtalit
Oy with the embalmed body of a man in a glass 
case and this beIcame the sort of religious shrine of comrrru.nism . So the spirituaWl content of the new materialism was enshrined by adopting the methoUds of ancient Egypt of mummifying the dead human body . Hardly a step forward in t he flo wering of the human s pirit, is it? 
These , l adies and gentlemen , were some of the strange thoughts 
that passed through m~ mind as I heard of t he terrible disaster in 
Belize . Perhaps it all adds up to t he fact that man is not really as 
wonderful as he thinks he is : or perhaps great disasters make us stop 
and t h ink again of our relations with each other and with God . 
Goodnight . 
Trini dad & Barbados El ect ions 
~ S ' T Y 
For trans mi ss ion on 
Friday Nov 3 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter brahams speaking 
Good evening : On Wednesday of t h i s week the Government of Trinidad 
for mally took over control of British est Indian Airways , and although 
B. O.A. C. still owns 10% of the s hares , B.W. I •• is now the p roperty 
of t h e government of Trinidad . I was particularly pleEaseSd to see t o continue 
t hat Dr . Eric Williams has asked Mr . H. O. B. WoodRing/Ias chairman of t he temporary board of management . Mr . ~ooding has a long and intimate 
exper ience with B.W,I .A. and I t h ink his sRervAices will be invaluable to the company . I had been a little afra id t hat pres sure f rom t he 
more fanatical of h is f ollowers mi ght IfBorce Dr . Williams to drop 
Mr . Wooding . Mr . Wooding i s not a  Lpolitician , and s ome of the P .N.M. 
people who operate on t he princAipl e of ' You are ei t her fo r us , or 
against us ' have held thi s Nagainst h im . And then too, there is this 
very odd attitude among Osome dark 1:lest Indians of hostility and 
suspicion of any f elMlow dar k person who has made a gr eat success in business . You wiIll often hear the so - called strong nat ionalists complain 
that all the captains of h i gh finance and big business are white , and 
yet when Ua bWlack man attains to t hat position they tend to attack and denounce him . So all in all , I am very glad that the Trinidad 
government has seen the wisdom of keeping the ser vices of ~~ . 
Wooding . 
I was also particularly p leased with Dr . Williams ' statement t hat 
his government had made provision for the participation of other Wes t 
Indian governments in the B. W. I . . venture . When t he Trinidad take- over 
was first announced there was talk here in Jamaica of our setting up 
our own national airline . I hope t h is was no more t han talk . I t h ink 
2 
it would be both foolish and an unnecessary expense for J amaica to 
set up a national airline just to show 'fa ce ' . We do not need a 
national airline . 11 the international airlines are sti ll at our 
d i sposal , they still come into Kingston and Montego Bay to take us 
wherever we want to go and hrina us back . And B. W. I .A. iSs a l l the l i nk we r eally need with the Eastern Caribbean . So I do hope we will 
not be f oo l i sh about t h is national a irline bu snes s . IEat would be very 
mu ch more useful t o us would be a we 1 organi sed Rinternal Jamaican 
air taxi s ervic e whicr can take us fro m one eAnd of t he i s land to the 
other in short time and at a reasonable faRre . 
And talk ing about duplication , I tBhink Dr . Jagan ' s idea of a 
university college for British Gui aLna Iis equally unfortunate . B. G, with its very small populat ion oes not nee a universi t y coll ege of 
its own . I think the universityA college of the West Indi e s with its 
branch in Trinidad can veryN well satisfy all our needs and will cost 
much l ess than a whMole Oseries of university colleges . This fragmentation and duplicat ion oIf  services can be very costly and can, I t hink , create an ugly new kind of insularity . 
FinallyW a word about the Tr inidad and Bar bados general elections 
which wiUll both be held on December 4th . Present indications are that 
Dr . Wi lliams ' P .N. M. will have no trouble winning in Trinidad . Reports 
from Bar bados , on t he other hand , suggest that things do not look as 
bright for t he ruling Barbados Labour Party . It seems that t he young 
men of the Democratic Labour Party have made great str i des, and unless 
Sir Grantley Adams moves with care he mi ght f i nd h imself with no power 
in both ort of Spain and Bridgetown . Goodnight . 
N ··IS cor-11~E NT Y 
For transmission on 
Saturday Nov 4 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : The Bri tish Government has now definitely decided 
to limit migration from the West Indies to Britain , and I t  hink we all 
know that Jamaica is one of the places that will be mostS seriously 
affected by this decision . Officially the decision IaEpplies to the entire Commonwealth as well as to the Irish Republi c . The Bill which 
will bring t his decision into effect, as had itsR first reading in the 
British arl iament . As far as I am concerned Athis Bill is a mere 
formality . Unless the British GovernmeBnt hRas a sudden change of heart , 
wh ich i s most unlikely at this sta gLe , Ithe Bill will pass through all its stages without trouble andA become l aw very soon . The terms of t he Bill are such that nobNody can describe it as being any kind of colour-bar law . But eveOrybody knows that whatever the legal nice ties might be, the introduction of this Bill would have been most unlikely 
if the migrants Ifr omM the West Indies were of t he same sk:in colour as the general populace of great Britain . As I have told you before, iN 
during and sWinc e the second world war, more oles , more Hungarians and 
more IrisUhmen have entered Britain than West Indians and no thought of . 
limit ing mi gration came up until the large flow of coloured West 
Indians . So , as far as I am concerned , this is in fact a decision 
based on colour , and I am bitterly a gainst it . But I am afr aid the 
British government has made up its mind and I frankly do not see how 
we can unmake it now. So where do we go from here? 
The J amaica government has set up a group to study t h e implications 
for us of this decision . I am glad of t his because we will have to 
think about this probl em and tackle it . For ins t ance, I see one of 
2 
the most serious and dangerous implications of this restriction as 
causing a vast unemployment problem here in Jamaica . Things have looked 
much brighter than they really are because mi grat ion has been a safety 
valve easing the pressure of unemployment . When that safety valve is 
closed, we are going to have a really big problem on our hands . And I 
do not see how we are going to be ab l e to cope with this pr oblem, unless 
we do some very careful p lanning and make some very tougSh decisions . 
When other countries have faced severet unemploymenIt Etheir governments 
have taken control of the unemployed by setting Rup work camps and 
labour battalions and these have been used onA great national projects 
like building roads or dams or reclaiming Rland . I should like to see 
a special labour forc e of unemployed uBsed on a national project of 
building permanent terrac i ng for  JaLmaIica ' s hillside land . This will both help ease unemployment anAd save the Jamaican earth , large amounts of whi ch is being washed away today . 
One of t he things whicNh has always worried me about mi gration 
was the fact t ~1at so maOny children were left behind . The migrants who 
left Jamaica betwIe eMn 1955 and 1960 had almost 97 , 000 children between them. But onWly 6 , 500 children left the island during that period which means thUat something like 90 , 000 were left behind, often in the care of casual acquaintances . How are these children going to grow up? What 
kind of home- life , what kind of love will they know? This is another 
problem which lies ahead of us . It is another problem about which we 
must think and for which we must plan . The challenge of this British 
decision is that we must now think and plan for our own salvation . And 
if we dont face up to this challenge then a whole heap of trouble 
lies ahead of Jamaica . From here on it is up to us alone to shape our 
future . Goodnight . 
& Operation Belize 
NEvfS CO ENT Y 
For transmission on 
Monday ov 6 at 6 . 15p.m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : It now looks as though the death roll in Beli ze 
is likely to end up somewhere near the thousand mark . That  is t h e 
terrible extent of t h e disaster wh ich have befallen BEritSish Honduras in the wake of Hurricane Hattie . But for me the gr eaItest tragedy is 
the tragedy of living : the tragedy of t h e childreRn and the homeless 
old people , and the horror of people being drAiven from such shelter 
as remain by snakes seeking shelter. And yRet, in a way , our minds 
tend to refuse to accept the full horroBr of t h is great tragedy . We 
know it is terrible and we expres s LouIr sorrow and we are prepared to do whatever we can to help , but somehow the starkness of it all 
cannot sink in all the way .N PAerhaps it is just as well . Perhaps t his is one of the ways in which the human mind protects its elf against too 
great a burden of hMorroOr, because if t he mind were exposed to more hooror than it can  stand it might break under t h e strain • .And so I 
t h ink it is Wt hat Iwe have this appearance of detachment wh ich is the way in wUhich our minds protect our sanity . And it is what we do that shows our awareness of t h e greatness of the tragedy of Belize . 
And t here has been a great wave of awareness . Britain, the United 
States , the countries of Latin America have all sent help in t he form 
of food medical supplies and badly needed water . The Federal Government 
has launched an appeal for a British Honduras Hurricane Relief Fund , 
and it has put the two Feder al sh i ps at the disposal of the effort for 
the relief of Beitish Honduras . Jamaica is to act as the co-ordinating 
centre of t h is federal relief effort . And J amaica itself has of course 
been one of t he first places to go into act i on . The Daily Gleaner h a.s 
2 
opened its own Relief Fund and military and police forces have gone 
from Jamaica to help restore order . 
With all this going on many of ·us may feel that things are under 
control . We read and hear that relief of all kinds - food, clothing , 
medicines , building materials , are pouring in in a steady str eam . And 
this may lead MX some of us to relax and feel that we ourSselves need 
not do anything . I t hink such an attitude would proveE to be a very 
serious mistake . I think we are very far from the enId of this horror 
yet . The city of Belize has been practically desRtroyed; there is no 
list yet of the vast numbers who are homelRess;A and typhoid is a dangerously serious t hreat which couldI wipe out at least as many people again as did Hurricane HattieL. ABll this means that there is an enormous job ahead .  
The first and most impNortaAnt immediate task is to ensure the health of the people . Ten doctors from the University College left 
for B.H. yesterday to joOin a l ar ge number of others who a r e now carrying 
out a mass ive inocuMlation campaign to try and beat the threat of an 
epidemic . Pray GoId they suc ceed because if they do not a very large 
segment of thWe entire B. H. population may be wiped out. Then there i s the feedinUg and the people; and then there is the restoring of safe water and light . And then the will be the big task of rebuilding Beli ze 
which is likely to take a very long time . So please , there is no r eason 
to ease up . The people of British Honduras have need of ever y penny 
we can give them . It is going to take years to restore the great damage 
done and they are going to need the he l p of everyone of us . So please 
give all you can . Goodnight 
• 
NEWS co l{.l!,r"TAH.Y 
For transmission on 
Tuesday ov 7 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter brahams speaking 
Good. evening : I am glad to see that J omo Kenyat t a is back i n 
London after an absence of s omethi ng l ike s i xteen years . For hal f that 
l ength of t ime he was either in prison or else restri cteSd i n  the r emote 
nother n terr itory of Kenya . But now Kenyat ta is back Eon t he po l iti cal 
stage and it lo oks as though t hings are likely to stIart moving i n 
East frica . Up to now West Ari ca and t he ongoR hav e been t he parts 
of A ri ca w · ch llave comrnande mos vo d RatteA1 tion . But from now on I expect East Africa to get its full share of attention , and I t h ink 
much of t hat attention will be fo cusseIdB around the personality of 
Jomo Kenyatta . Of course , Julius  NLyerere , whose Tangany ika becomes 
independent next month, will aAlso be very much in the limelight : but 
for t he time being , at leasNt , I expect Kenyatta to domi nate the East 
African scene . So what Ohas brought Kenyatta to London? 
When he was g ivMen his unrestricted freedom earlier this year , Kenyatta was the Iaccepted leader of all the African political groups 
in Kenya . BoWth t h e major frican parti es - t he Kenya frican Nat ional Union and the Kenya African Democratic Union - claimed h im as their 
leader . BUoth had demanded his release , and t he leaders of both parties 
had declared that they would surrender leadership to Kenyatta as soon 
as he was free . 
When Kenyatta was released he tried to bring the leaders of the 
two parti es together . The Kenya African ational Union was the party 
But it was on 
which h ad won most seats at the last elec tion . / he enya African 
Democratic Union that the Governor called to form a government . The 
leaders of K.A. N.U. naturally resented this , and riva lry between the 
2 
t wo parties was also fanned by minority groups like the white settlers 
who have no liking a t all for what is happening in Kenya today . And 
so enyatta faced hi s first big chal lnge when he t r ied to bring the 
two par ti es together . A conference of the two parti es was held a t which 
Kenyatt a urged them to sink their differences and form a co alition 
government . But in s pite of h is considerable influence, Sthe conference 
broke down and t he old familiar charges against t he IKEi kuyu were trotted 
out . It was said t he IL . N.U. was really a KikuyRu party and t he Kikuyu 
were planning to take over Kenya and to domi nAate all the other tribes . 
Now i t is true that t he Kikuyu are the Bl arRgest tribe in Kenya and t hat t he majority of t he Ki kuyu support K.IA.N.U. But K.A •• u. i s definitely 
not a tribalist party . A number o f Lits l eading personalities including Tom Mboya , are not Kukuyu . ButA some of t he settlers are do ing t heir damnedest to create tribal Ndivisions , and the breakdown of this attempt at unity was in fact a settler victory . After the br eakdown , Kenyatta 
a ccepted the leadersh i pO of H.A. N. U. and hi s trip to London is to ask 
the British GoveIrn mMent to hol d new constitutional talks . I hope the British government will agree to t hese talks . I a l so 
hope theyU wWill not be influenced by settler attempts to create division along tribal lines . The settlers dr eam of having a sort of casting vote 
in t he power set-up of a tribally divided Kenya, i s very dangerous and 
could lead to frsh trouble . Kenyatta ' s way , the way of a united and 
independent enya without barr iers of tribe or r ace , is the only way 
to a peaceful future for that country . Goodnight 
·1·ne ~ueen · s v1s1 t, t.o l;rnana 
r E# CO ME TARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Nov j at 6 . 15p . m 
Pet er. brahams speaking 
Good evening : To my mind possibly the most depressingly cynical 
piece of news out of the Wes t Indies last week was Dr . Williams ' 
statement that he had all along intended not to abide by the  decisions 
on Federation reached at the London Conference last JuneS. Williams 
said that even if the people of Jamaica had voted ' yIeEs ' in the referendum 
he never intended to accept the London decisionsR. And he gives as his 
reason for keeping s i lent until now the fact Athat he did not want to 
be involved in the Jamaica referendum . R
The position then is this . If DIr .B Williams had been frank and 
honest and declared himself at Lan cLaster House, the London Conference 
would have broken down . JamaicaA would then have withdrawn from the 
federation without the costNly business of holding a referendum . Instead 
we were given the impreOssion that agreement had been reached and that the way was clear  foMr Jamaica to remain in the federation if her people so dec i ded . And Inow Dr . Williams tells us that the federation would 
have been in a bigger mess if Jamaica had voted 'yes' . Per haps it 
i s just aUs wWell , in the light of Dr . Will i ams ' statement , that the What i s so depressing about the whole people of Jamaica did vote (no '. *iixxxxiixxx~~x±Exxutxaxx!DIEXJm.:M 
XM~~MRXEiX~HNBRxttmn business was this fooling of the people into the 
belief that agreement had been reached and that this agreement would 
be henoured by all our leaders . I supported federation but in the 
light of this Williams revelation I think it is just as well that 
we are out of it and all our energies can now be devoted to creating 
in decent life her in Jamaica . 
The Queen and the D.lke of Edinbur gh are due to begin a State 
Visit to Ghana tomorrow; and what was planned as a joyous visit has 
2 
turned out to be char ged with concern and anxiety . any people are 
frankly worried about the visit and many voices have been raised in a 
demand that the visit be called off . Last Sunday evening the British 
g.Dvernment sent Mr . D.lncan Sandye , the Commonwealth Relations Secretary , 
hurrying off to Accra to explore the situation on the spot and decide 
whether t he Queen should go through with the visit . And Sthe re was 
worldwide speculation that t he visit might be call ed Eoff . Mr . Hugh 
Gaitskell raised the matter in the House of Commons Ion Monday and ¥.tr . 
Macmillan told an anxious parliament that he AhadR noth ing new to say . Now all this anxiety about the QueenR's safety stems from the fac t that on Saturday a bomb was let off by the political enemies of 
Kwame Nkrumah . This bomb damaged a bIigB bronze statue of Nkrumah , and 
there is an air of tension andA re lsLtlessness in Accra today . I t hink it is pretty obvious that t he British Government is not happy about 
t h is visit . So why not jusNt call off t he visit? Because to call of f 
the visit now would be Oto admit t hat there is a crisis in Ghana , and 
it would also be a Mblow at t h e pr estige of Presiden t Nkrumah at a time 
when he can leasIt afford to let h is prestige suffer . If t he visit were 
called off nWow Nkrumah ' s enemi es could use it to rally support against him , andU so I a m reasonably certain t hat Nkrumah h ims e lf is pressing f or t h e visit to go t hrough . My guess is t hat Mr . Sandys went to Accra 
to ask Nkrumah for a postponement which Nkrumah turned down for 
political r easons . So tomorrow's State visit looks like going t hrough 
unless Nkrumah' s en emi es l et off more bombs . All in all, t h i s i s a very 
tricky politica l situation which we can only hope will pass without 
incident . Goodnight . 
EvvS CO!I • TARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Nov 4 at 6 . 15p .m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: A few evenings ago I met a very attractive young 
woman who had come out to Jamaica from England to join her husband who 
is doing a contract job here . She was a friendly and outgoi ng sort of 
person but she seemed frightened and on her guard, eIspEecSially with the Jamaican men at the party . She seemed to like J amaica and Jamaicans 
very much ; she talked like someone who had reallyR f a llen in love with 
the place and the people : and yet she was anxiAous to leave Jamaica . I 
asked her why she was so eager to leave a Rp lac e she obviously loved 
and it took me quite a while to get thIeB r eason out of her . And the 
reason was just about as depressin gL as any reason could be . 
When this woman first arriAved here she had been struck by the 
charm and warm friendlinessN of Jamai cans . And then she had gone down-
town on her first or secOond shopping expedition . And as she would have done in England , s heM went down to the bus stop with her shopping basket on her arm . The tIrouble started when sh e got into the bus . Some i gnorant 
person told her the bus was not for people like her , and made some 
nasty remUarksW which made her feel unwanted and out of place . And the terrible thing was that nobody spoke up for her . If any prejudiced 
Jamaican 
white person h a d made such nemarks to a EKtxiNilXN on an English bus , 
at least half a dozen English people would have turned on that person 
and put him in his place . But no -one on that Jamaican bus came to her 
defence . But worse still was to come. 
en she got off the bus three young men walked behind her calling 
out the most f ilthy, lewd and suggestive rem?r ks you can think of . And 
these young louts were not soft about it . They did not seem to mind who 
else heard; and the people who did hear just went about their business 
2 
as though nothing out of the way had happened. And this, I think, 
distressed the young woman even more than all the dirty remarks . She 
knew th~t this sort of t hing does not happen in Jamaica only . Filthy 
remarks had been flung at her on Engl i sh streets . But there passers - by 
who heard were quick to turn on such young louts and either  cuss them 
out or give them a cuffing or else hold them and call thSe police . And 
so it seemed to her that as on the bus, so on the strEeet , no one came 
to her aid because shai was an outsider of a differeInt colour; and 
being sensitive she felt unwanted, and so , muAch Ras s he loved J amaica she wanted to leave . 
But what this young woman did not BreaRlise was that this sort of 
thing does not happen to her only, anId does not happen to light - skinned 
people only . It is common on the  ~Ltreets of Kingston and it is our own 
dark girls who are possiblyN thAe worst victims of this crude filth . I am sure very many of yoOu , especially the men , can tell of seeing ordinary Jamaican girls being molested or called to . I once watched to 
see if a policemIan  Mwould do anything about a couple of young men who walked behind a girl calling out to her in really filthy language . The 
policeman heWard them but did nothing . And it is in this business of 
doing notUhing that we are all as guilty as these dirty- minded young 
louts . By looking away and pretending that it is none of our business 
we encourage rudeness and bad manners , and these sooner of later , lead 
to crime and violence . So please , next time you see t his filthy calling 
out going on , make it your business to interfere . You ' ll be surprised 
to find out what cowards these foul - mouthed peopl e are . Let us stop 
them f or the sake of the good name of J amaica . Goodnight . 
,,. 
The Bus Strike & Harbour View Citizen Associati on 
Special 
NEWS COl\llMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Friday Nov. 10 at 6015 p.m. 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: Once again, a.n d for the ' second tiSme  thi-S year the people of- the Corporate Area are without Ea bus service. You will remember that it was in February of this year tha t we had the l est strike and it lasted for three days Iduring which all 
of Kingston walked to work and :to school. At that time the J oO. S 
workers were protesting against the dismis sAal Rof an inspector. A government appointed Tribunal later ruled that the company had been 
justified in dismissing the inspector. RBut th~s, of course, did 
not alter the fact tha t thousands of Bcitizens had suffered great 
inconvenience. So, , in that last sItrike the workers were proved 
wrongo Are they wrong again in  Lthis one? 
The answer is yes; theyA are as wrong today as they were in 
February. According to Nt he l aw, and remember public transport comes under tl+e EssenOtia.l Services, they_ should have obeyed the company-'s ins~ructions and then raised the matter with their 
union. · That wo uMld have been the correct and legal way of ·going about the ma tteIro But they discovered in Februexy tha t they could break the law and get away wi th it; and so they- have taken 
the l e.w intWo the i.r own hands once -moreo But let me add that I do not Uthink the company is completely without fault in this caseo I think tha t if the company had discussed this ; cloc~ing-in is~ue 
with the workers• repre sentatives in advance we would not now be 
in this/ mess. To spring a ·thing like this on the workers with-
out prior discussion shows bad labour rel:ations. But this does 
not alter the fact that the workers have once again broken the 
Essential Services law, and I am sure it i s because they feel 
they will get aw~y with it again. And for thi s the government 
must take a big share of the blame 9 
The one good thing that ' ha s come out of thi s bus strike is 
the magnificent action of the Harbour View Citizen's Association. 
I ho,ve told you before now wha t a high regard I have for -the : 
-2-
Association. Now it has won my unbounded admiration by set-
ting,us a very good practical citizenship in actiono 
I 
Last night the leaders of the As sociation decided to arrange 
their own transport so tha t the working people and the children 
of Harbour View could go to work and school todayo They arranged 
to charter a bus at a cost of i,3. Oo O a trip. · They then got 
a loudspeaker van and drove through the stt?eets telling the citizens 
~ 
that ~hey· had chartered this bus and that . it would leave  Harbour 
View Post Office at 6.30 this morning on its first tripS i nto 
Kingston and at 7,.30 on a second trip. And this evening, they 
~aid - the bus •would make its first trip back to HarIbEour View start-
ing from the Kingston Post Office a little after four. And it 
would return for a second · and, if necessary, a Rthird trip • . As I 
said, the cost _of hiring t~e bus is £3. Ro. 0A a trip • . The bus can only carry 30 people a tripo But the· Association is charging 
each passenger only a shilling a tripB with half price for school 
ch•i ldren. I So they are going to  LlosIe money on this business, and - the Association will have to make up the loss 0 
As far as I am concerNnedA this is the rarest and finest example of citizenship in action that I have seen in a very long time. Talking about go~d citizenship is very easy. Acting it out is 
not so easy; and thMis Ois wha t makes the Harbour View Citizen's Association so unique in Jamaica today, it acts out its professions of -good citizensIh ipo In this it is an example to all of uso Goodnight o ----
UW
I 
.E fS COI, 1 T Y 
For transmission on 
Saturday l ov lt at 6 . 15p . m 
Pete r brahams speaki ng 
Go od evening : I am glad to see that the J oint Constitution 
Committee of our Legislature has dec ided t o wr ite into the p roposed 
constitution for an independent Jamaica the inherent righSts of 
citizenship . Now this word inher ent is very impRortaIn
Et . It means 
something which is a part of you , something inborn and bas i c and 
natural . That which is inherent to you cannot Ab e taken fr om you except 
life itself is taken from you . And t h is woRrd inherent makes a world 
of difference to me as far as the presIeBnt discussion of A Bill of 
ights for Jamaica is concerned . L
Let me confess quite frankAly  that right from the moment that this 
talk about a Bill of RightsN was raised , I was susp icious and on guard . 
I was neither for nor against , but I was very curious . And to a large 
extent I still am  veMry c
Ourious . row I am no constitutiona l l awyer 
and cannot and II do not want to discuss t h is t h ing in high - flown terms; so I Whope you will bear with me if I look at this t hing in very pracUtical terms . In t he political tradition of Great Britain t he peop l e have certain rights t hat are inalienable , rights t hat cannot 
be t aken away from t hem, and their constitution merely affirms t hese 
r ights wh ich already exist . In most other democratic countries t he 
constitution gives certain rights to t he people . And as you know, that 
which is given to t he people by t h e state can also b e taken from the 
-- people by t he state . So here we have two very different approaches to a Bill of Rights : first where the state recognises rights wh ich 
are inherent or inalienable to t he citizen, and second where the 
state g ives rights to t he citizen; and as I s a id t hat which ha s been 
2 
given can be taken away . And yet it is these kinds of rights, the 
rights that can be taken away because t hey wer e giv en , that peop le 
who want B~lls of Rights often press for most . Let us take the example 
of the right to property . For some people this is a more sacred right 
than t he rights to life and liberty (except their 01m , o f co urse) . And so it was that even in Britain t h ere was a time when people wer e hung 
for stealing a sheep . Of course , if you do have ·wealt h anSd property 
you are almost bound to val ue ~ this as h i gher thaInE t he life and 
liberty of those who do not have pro~En~y; and thRe demand that the 
ea cred r i ght to property be entrenched in a BAill of Rights is really 
an attempt to stop the r edistribution of tRhe wealth of a country . What 
has in fact happened where t he sacred IrBight of pro~Bnjy has been entrenched and t he mass of t he p eopLle were mi ser ably poor i s that 
you have had revolutions of either  t h e Right of Left . But t he defenders 
of t he sacred right of propertyA do not seem to learn from this . In 
Jamaica today we have all tNhe legal safeguards necessary for property , 
and if these safeguaMrds Owere entrenched in our constitution t hat should be enough . OtherI  people would limit t he power of parliament . But to limit the poWwer of par l iament would in fact be to limit t he power of t h e peoplUe in the running of t heir country . Clumsy and silly and out of touch as it sometimes is , parliament is still the truest expression 
of t he wi ll of a peopl e evolved under democratic government . All we 
need i s to entrench the rule of law wi t hout limiting the power of 
parliament . Ours is a changing , growing society which cannot affor d 
to entrench any vested sectiona l interests in a Bill of Right . So 
let us stick to the r i ghts whi ch are t he inherent aspi rations of al l 
men o Goo dnight . 
.... ._ "- I 'W' _., __ --- -------, --... - ----··--..__ ...... --·-~--- .............. ~ 
& the Rule of Law 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday ov 13 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams s peaking 
Good evening : Our latest bus strike was bad enough in itself: 
it put s cores of thousands of people to gr eat hardship , it upset the 
I I 
schooling of large numbers of our children completely, aSnd it slowed 
down Kingston ' s business very badl y . And peop l e weIreE, and are , 
understandably angry and bitter about all this . RI think the feeling 
of most citizens was summed up by the letter Awhi ch appeared on the 
front pag e of last Friday 's Star and wBh ichR was signed; ' Tired Traveller' . In this letter 'Tired Traveller' mentIioned the news of a week earlier when the J . O.S . had paid its workeLrs approximately £35,000 in back 
J;)ay, and suggested that with aAll  that money in t heir pockets the -r workers did not feel like doing anything until they had spent their 
sudden riches . 'Tired TravNeller' t hen suggested that if t hese p eople 
no longer wished to worOk they should make room for the vas t army of 
unemployed , many o fM whom would jump at the chance to take the jobs of 
t hese strikeWrs . II have found the views expr essed by f i red Traveller p r et ty widespread a mong people who have been the victims of t his 
latest bUus strike . in terms 
.Another view, which I think is very mu ch more serious £x~mx:im:E 
of our future , 
iMR2S~:t:exmx_iab:tx13::fxxi:RX, has to do with the way in which t h is strike 
has undermined our respect fo r the rule of law . People have said 
' What i s t h e goo d of having t h is Essential Servmces Law ii anybody 
can break it and get away?' And some others have said : "The law in 
~amaica s eems to be prejudiced : if t he employers , rather than t he 
workers, had broken the l aw there would have been some firm and quick 
action' . And you know , t her e is enough validity in t hes e remarks f or 
2 
us not to be able t o just dismiss them . And this , I feel, is a very 
ser ious situation . 
The law , any law , can onl y operate successfully as long as the 
a 
citizens of t NE country accept i t, respect it , agree to live by it , and 
know that it wi l l apply impartially to all of them . And if  they accept 
that mu ch then they will also accept the right of the stSate to enforce 
that law if any citizen or group of cit izens break iItE. That is the essence of the rule of law . And for the survival and the continuation 
of the rul e of law enforcement i s important . ThRe authorities · must 
be ab l e t o punish those who break the law . A
If at any time anybody can break the Rlaw and get away with it, 
then there is either something wr onLg Iw
Bith the law, or with the enforce-
ment of the law, or with both . SQ when Mr . Seivright , the Minister of 
Home Aff a i rs , told us in a staAtement on Friday that it is extremely 
diffi cult to pr osecute succNessfully under the Essential Services Law, 
we are enti t led to feelO that something is wrong with the law . A aw 
whi ch cannot be Ien fMorc ed is a bad law . And since the government is responsible~ for the passing of our laws , they must be held responsible 
for t his badW law . They must either rewrite the l aw so that whoever 
breaks itU can be successful ly prosecuted , or they must scrap it 
altogether . To wash their hands of t his responsibility is to contribute 
to t he break- down of the rule of law . 
To my mind then the most serious long- term harm done by this 
strike is the way in which it has undermined respect for t he rule of 
law in the minds of large numbers of our citizens . And that is very 
dangerous for t he future . Goodnight . 
NE'WS 00Mlv1 1TARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday ov 16 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter brahams speaking 
Good evening : I have found reactions to the latest developments 
in Britain ' s moves to restrict coloured immigrants, mos t in teresting 
and most revealing . I t h ink we all knew right from the Sstart that 
colour came into this business . 1ost of us said so, IeEither publicly or among ourselves . And yet when the British Home Secretary, Mr . 
Butler , announced yesterday that the restrictionRs would not apply 
to the citizens of the Irish Republic , many oAf us reacted with shock 
and horror . Why the shock and horror? We Rall knew t h is was a colour 
bar thing . I had said so a number of ItiBmes on this programme; the l ast 
time I said so was as recently as  tLwelve days ago, on ovember the 4th . 
The only new thing that hasN haAppened is that the British Government has decided t o give up the pretense that this is not a colour bar 
decision . Are we then sOhocked and horrifi ed because the British 
government has dIeciMded to be frank and honest? Or is it that we would have preferred not  to have this ugly thing come out into the open? 
That we woulWd have pr eferred to go on hoping that it might not really 
be basedU on colour? I think it is a mixture of both : we would have preferred t he 
fiction to go on; we would have preferred to go on hoping that it was 
not straight colour , no matter what it looked like . I think this is 
so because J amaicans, and i ndeed most peop l e who have been under 
British colonial rule, have always cherished a strange and very deep 
and 
faith in British justice , /in British fairness . There has b een a sort 
unspoken belief in t he moral superiority of the British over almost 
all other men . And when you set peopl e up on that sort of pedestal 
you expect more from them than you expect from lesser men ; and you also 
2 
give more of your loyalty and your faith to them than you would to 
others . And so we have the concept of the Mother Country, charged 
with all that the word ' mother ' implies . For most of us ' mother ' means 
trust, love , safety , security, someone to whom we can always turn in 
times of trouble . And now the mother country has let us dow n and in 
the pro cess she has destroyed one of our most cherished Sillusions . 
In effect she has said that even in this CommonwealIthE an empire t here 
i s a difference between white and b lack . She hasR said that Irishmen 
who are not even British subjects will be alloAwed in without any 
restrictions but Jamaicans and other colouRred people who are British 
subjects will be restricted . And this , Blet us fac e it , is the vi ew of 
the ma jority of British citizens . I
And yet, you know , we ourselv eLs contributed to this situation . 
I am not saying that this woulAd not have happened if we had behaved 
differently . What I am sayiNng is that we made it easier for the British 
to take this action . YoOu will remember that out of self- interest 
Trinidad rejectedI  fMreedom of movement among West Indians in the West Indies o And the British tories have used this to justify their ac tion . 
And when we Win Jamaica decided that we had no obligation to the ~e~ker 
and smalUler islands of the West Indies, we made it easier for Britain 
to decide that she was under no obligation to us . And so it that once 
more we are seeing meanness , selfishness , aNM small-mindedness and 
prejudice being used t o justify even greater meanness and selfishness 
and small- mindedness and prejudice . And in the process a very great 
and a very noble idea is dying : but I ' ll tell you about that tomorrow: 
so till then, goodnight . 
The Commonwealth Aspect 
iEvfS cm ffl T RY 
or transmission on 
Friday ov 17 a t 6 . 15p . m 
Pet er brahams speaking 
Good evening: When Mr . Manley condemned the British dec ision to 
restrict mi gration , in a statement issued in London on Tuesday evening, 
he said : "The Commonwealth will never be the same again" . I am prepared 
to go a stage further : I t hink it is only a matter of timSe before the 
Commonwealth falls apart . Indeed , I t hink t he CommoInEwealth idea and 
ideal is dyi ng right before our eyes . And even Rif t h e Commonwealth 
stayed together for t he next ten or fifteen yAears , it will be as a 
thing of convenience . It will be as a loosRe union based on self-
interests with each member being inL iIt Bjust for what he can get out of it . The idealism , t he vision ,  the striving f or a universal patt ern 
of political morality will havAe gone out of it . And it will cease t o 
be one of the great est f a ctNors for peace in the world . And t he gr eat 
examp le of men of dif f eOrent races colours and creeds and of different 
countri es with dif fMerent cultural backgrounds working and striving together for theI same ideals - t hat great examp le will be lost to t he 
world , perhaWps forever . owU, N~ the Commonwealth and no part of the Commonwealth has ever really achieved this gr eat ideal . It may well be that it is in any 
cas e impossible to achieve this ideal . But the very act of striving 
for a great ideal makes those who strive for it more nobleXRNMxgt XEK 
and invests their lives and what they do with grandeur o 
But what do all these fine words mean in reality? The world in 
which we live today is a pretty sorry sort of p l ac e . It it divided 
on lines of race , of colour , of class , as well as on lines of political 
ideology . Some parts of it are rich , others are poor ; some people in 
it are permanently underfed while others have more than they can eat 
2 
and have to destroy surplus stocks of food so as t o make sure prices 
do not fall because of a glut on the market . 
Into this rather sorry world , and out of the grGatest emp i re of 
this century came the British Commonwealth . It came almost by accident . 
And Britain was at the centre of it . And the idea was that  this empire 
which had been transformed into a commonwealth could devSelop into a free 
strong community of/nations , scattered all over the wEorld, in which one day 
all the citizens would/enjoy the same basic freedomsI. The idea was 
that in the economic field they would all work tRogether to their best 
mutual economic advantage . The strong wouRld hAelp the weak , the rich would help the poor , t hose with speciaBl skills and know- how would help 
to train those without . And so standaIrds would be raised and a common 
prosperity achieved for all . AI n  a Lworld torn by strife and fear and hunger and conflict, this wNas a wonderful idea . If this i dea succeeded it would be an example Oto all men . It would show that men could change the world in which they live , that men could destroy prejudices of 
race and colour Iw itMhout having to make ~ EXNll±X~HK violent and bloody revolutions . But to succeed , someone, one country, had to lead in the 
journey towaWrds this ideal . That country could only be Britain . She was 
the stronUgest , the oldest, the most experienced , the richest . And to 
lead successfully she had to be the symbol for all the other members . 
For years Britain was that symbol . Now she has decided that the price 
of being the symbol of that great ideal is too hi gh because it means 
racial integration in Britain itself . And so we are witnessing the 
death of what I consider the noblest ideal of t he 20th centnny . 
Goodnight . 
1, -- Ev,IS CO MEN TARY 
r> -.f'r? For trans mi ss ion on 
'::>-~ ~ ~ov /g at 6 . 15p . m 
- / p~ Abrahams speaking 
Go od evening : Every now and then some listener brings to my 
attention some mat t er which seems impossible, something Sso f antastic t hat if t h e listener did not supply me with proof that the particular 
thing had happened , I would refuse to believe it . I IwEant to tell you 
of one such event this evening . R
I have in my possession right now an RenvAelope wh ich was posted on the 13th of December 1960 and which fina lly reached its destination 
on the 27th of October , 196 1 . ThisL enIvBelope contained a cheque settling t here an ac count . It was posted at Cross  Roads and the post office/has 
-- clearly date- stamped it as havAing passed through their hands on 
December 14th, 1960 . The lNetter with the cheque in it was go ing to 
an address not very far Ofrom Cross Roads . But between the time when 
it was date- stamped at the Cro ss Roads post office , and the time it 
reached where it Iw aMs going, ten solid months passed . Unbelievable , 
isn ' t it? Well , i t happened and I have t he evidence , and I will be 
only too UglaWd to show it to our ostmaster General any time he wishes to see it . It is a cold hard fact that one important letter settling 
an ac count took ten months to go from one part of Kingston to another . 
Now, I am not saying that this sort of thing happens every day; 
but i t does happen and I am afraid it happens a little too often for 
us to dismiss it as just one of t ho se rar e freak accidents . We have 
heard all too often of letters tak i ng ten days or a week or a month 
--or longer to get f rom one part of Kingston to another . So this ten 
month thing is just an extreme examp l e of something which has become 
all too common in our postal service . 
2 
Let me g ive you another example which is less dramatic but 
equally serious . A lett er which was clearly addressed was pos ted 
in t . Ann's Bay on September 21s t . It was not delivered in Kingston 
until October 28th . And t he post of fi ce explanation was that i t had 
been incorrectly delivered in the f irst ins t ance and t hat t he person 
t o whom it was delivered di d not return it to the post oSff ice 
immedia tely . Now t he striking t h ing about t his expIl aEnat ion by the 
post of fi c e was that it was not a letter writAtenR to t his particular person . It was a s t enc i l led lett er and t h e date of it , October 25th , 
wa s stencilled too . This , as you know , meRans that a l ar ge number of 
copies of t h is exp l anation , all datLedI BOctober 25th, must have be en printed , other wise you do not cut  a stenc~l . So I t hink it i s reasonable 
to assume t hat there must haveA been quite a large number of so - called 
wrongly del ivered letters wNhich turned up a mont h or more l ate and for 
which t he Post Office pOut out thi s standard explanation . Surely , t her e  Mmust be s omet h ing ser iously wr ong i f one of our biggest gover nment organisations function like t h is . And I do not 
t hink just pWu t tinIg the blame on the p ost men is a ll the answer . In t he main t heyU a r e a hardworking bunch of men who try to do their bes t . But if the l eadersh i p they get is poor , if pl anning i s poor , then their 
best will not be good enough . And the l eadershi p , in this case , is 
t he Ministry of Communi cations . The House of Representatives i s due 
to meet soon . I hope s ome bold M. H. . will raise t hi s mess at the 
Post Off ice on the floo r of the Hou se . Go odn i ght . 
EWS COMMENTARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Nov 20 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: It is perhaps appropriate that the last Constitution 
Day before Jamaican independence should see the country's le aders making 
once more wrestling with the problems of/a constitution . SAnd this one 
should be the final constitution for as far ahead inItEo the future as 
we can imagine . So the one that is now in the mRaking is by far the 
most important for all of us . It is for this Areason that I was 
particularly glad that such good progress Rseems to have been made on it . 
At XEExfxxxx his Press Conference Bon Friday morning Mr . Manley 
reported that the Committee worki ngL oIn the Constitution had a chfueved a remargable degree of broad agreement in principle . And that, as far 
as I am concerned, is saying aA very great deal indeed for the political 
maturity of our two majOor pNarties . It also shows , I feel , that the two party system has taken deeper roots here in Jamaica than almost 
anywhere else amIon gM Britain ' s former colonies . All we have to do is newer look at some of the other/countries of the Commonwealth to see the 
truth of thi
UW
s . 
In Kenya there is a constitutional crisis building up because the 
two major African parties (which control most of the seats in the 
legislature) will not sit together at the constitutional conference 
table . In Ghana most of the members of the opposition party are 
in jail, and the very weak two-party system seems to be dying fast . 
Only in Nigeria does the two party system look as though it has a 
ho peful future and there it is based on the three powerful tribal 
group ings . Tanganyika lmoks like one of the most hopeful countries 
~'\.GI 
in terms of democratic development but forceful second party has so 
2 
far emerged . In Jamaica , on the other hand, the two-party system is 
older than the 1944 Constitution . Indeed , it was the effective working 
of the two - party system that brought that constitution into being . 
From all this I think we can fairly say t hat although constitutions 
are important , what the p eople of a country bring to their c onstitution 
and to the maki ng of it is of even greater importanc e . Ss Mr . ~anley 
said to the press people on Friday monning , a constitEution is just a is 
piece of paper . It/what the people of a country bRrinIg to it that makes it impor tant . And it is because the people of Jamaica have , 
over t he years , dev eloped a high degree of poAlitical sophistication 
and maturity that the l eaders of our mBajorR parties can ~ink their 
differences and work together to drafIt this new constitution . No 
piece of paper could have forcAed t hLem to do this . Just as no piece of paper could force our civilN servants to serve a P .N. P . government loyally and , if there iOs a change of government, to s erve the other party just as loyally and faithfully. All these - the two party system , 
the secret ballot , Mthe rule of law, the non- political civil service, 
the liberties of It h e individual , the right of property - all these 
are already Wpart of our cons titutio • The &ve be~o e part of tne 
tra<Ht innUal wa of doin t ·1ings i l1is count r y . And these , I am sure, 
are the t h ings our new constitution will enshrine . 
But the big thing that we must always remember, and t his too Mr . 
Manley mentioned , is that the people of a country are t he true guardians ' 
and creators 
/of their liberties and that is a responsibility we cannot transfer to 
a p iece of paper, no matter how beaut i fully written . Goodnight . 
remier ' s Regular Monthly Press Conference 
NE'W C MM TARY 
For transmission on 
Tuesday -' Nov 21 at 6 . 15p .m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Mr . Manley ' s resw Conference of last Friday morning 
was the first of what we hope will be a regular monthly aff air . At 
these conferences the idea will be to bring the people cSloser to the 
workings of their government through press and radioI Ereports . Those 
of us who attended that first conference realiseRd the value of it 
straightaway . And you, the listeners , heard eAxtracts of that conference 
over your radios the same evening and readR a pretty full report of it 
in your papers the next morning . B
In a conference lasting just LaboIut an hour and a half Mr . Manley 
informed the country, through pre ss and radio , of a number of most 
told 
important things . He txxkR~NXXE~ANXJCl!IXXEXXfmr us the work on the Constitution was going Owell and that a draft should be ready before the end of thi s yeaMr . He said this would give the coijn.t ry an opportunity to discuss the dIr a ft constitution very thoroughly before ±NR a delegation goes to London to sett le our independence . He told us 
of the counWtry's defence plans for independence and he also d~scussed 
what theU government was doing and what the thinking was on foreign 
affairs . On some of these matters Mr . Manley· could not be very 
explicit . He could not, for instance , say anything very firm and 
clearcut on Foreign Affairs ; and rightly so because that would be 
the responsibility of the government we vote into power to lead the 
country into independence . But he did say that , speaking for himself, 
he did not see how J amaica had anything to gain from a neut r alist 
foreign policy . My own feeling is that as a matter of cold f act 
this is the way both the .N.P . and the J . L.P . will approach f oreign 
affairs; so I do not see foreign affairs as an issue in the comin 
2 
election - certainly not between the two major parties . Whether the 
Peoples olitical 0 arty will make it an i ssue is something still to be 
seen . In t he early days of t he P . P •• Mr . 1illard Johnson did tal k 
about a neutralist fore i gn policy , but sinc e then he made common 
cause with Mr s . Rose Leon and some of the more radical elem ents have 
left the P .P .P . and so we cannot be sure until the .EP . PS. issues its election manifesto . I
In any event, at that first press conferenceR we got a great deal 
of clarification on a number of most importanAt mat t ers . And that was 
a very good t hing indeed . Some of you mayR remember that I have often 
complained that far too few people weIreB aware of what their government was doing and thinking and that th iLs had led to a feeling that the business of government was nonAe of their business . You wi ll recall I I had t old you how impresseNd I was with how familiar I found Trinidadians were with the business of their government . And I told you I thought 
Dr o illiarns' regulMar wOeekly press conferences plus the br oadcasts of debates in the TrIi nidad parliament had a great deal to do with it . So I am very haWppy indeed that we will have these regular press conferences . If the succeeding ones are anything like last Friday ' s then they should 
be very uUseful indeed to the whole country . The plan is that Mr . Manl ey 
will let the journalists know in advance the subjects he wants to 
discuss and the journalists in turn will let him know what they want 
to discuss , so that both s i des will come to the conference well 
prepared . I think this is so important that I hope it becomes a regular 
feature of Jamai~an public life , no matter what party gains power . It 
unhappy 
will help to bridge the/gap that now exis ts between the rulers and 
the ruled . Goodnight o 
NEWS CO MENTARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Nov 22 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter brahams speaking 
Good evening : I like the sound of t he new Ten Year Plan very 
much and I also like the new thinking which it sugges t s . I f  I under 
stand t he basic I dea of t he plan correctly then i t can beS defined i n 
this way : under the old Ten Year Dev elopment Plan the Egovernment had 
or anticipated having so much money and mere ly plannIed how t o spend 
what it had or expected to get . Under t he newA plRah the basic needs 
of the country will be worked out and thenR we will go l ooking f or the 
money to pay for these needs . If this Bdefinition is correct , t hen 
this is a radically new approach to plIanning in J amaica . And I think 
the eff ects of it are go ing to be  vLery far - reaching . 
When Mr . Manl ey t old us abAout this plan he said the Centra l 
Planning Unit had been wOorkNing on it for the best part of a year . This means t hat this plan was being worked on l ong before the r ef er endum 
and cannot therefIo reM be consider ed as a political move which i s suddenly being sprung on us for election purpos es . Indeed , t he 
Premi er himsWe l f said t hat this Plan would be there for the country, 
no matterU which party won the coming election . 
Before we had news of this new Plan most of us were not qu it e 
sure what r . Egerton Richardson and Mr . Ivo Desouza wer e doing in 
I srael . I certainly could not make any sense out of the visit , especially 
when I r ead a report that these two gentlemen had visited military 
camps . But now the visit does make sense , because Israel is one of 
the countries which has p ioneered the kind of planning and a ction 
implicit in the new Ten Year Plan , 
One of the lrny features o.f Israeli planning was and is the the 
2 
very high degree of participation by t h e peop l e , especia lly the young 
peop le, in the building of t he country ' s prosperity . The p lanning 
and achieving of Israeli prosperity was not merely the government's 
business, or the business of the capitalists or the moneyed peopl e , 
or the business of t he workers or t he trades unions . It Swas  everybody' s business . And in the early days of t he building of the young state , 
doctors and teacher, lawyers and offic e workers , proIfEes s ors and 
housewives , all left their offices and t heir homRes and studies and 
went out at weekends to help on construction Awork or turn the desert 
into a flowering garden of food and fruit .R robody was too hi gh or 
mighty or important for the work of buBilding the prosperity of t he 
nation with their own bare hands .  LBuIt the core of t he whole effort were t he young peop le . In the early days camps of young men and 
women, all dressed in khaki shAorts and shirt , almost became the 
symbol of Israe l . TheyO livNed and worked in these camps . They got their food and shelter anMd a very small allowance and they worked harder and longer than tIh e most h i ghl y paid workers anywhere in the world . And they did this because they had fai th in themselves an d f a ith in 
their dreUam Wof building a happy and prosperous country for t hemselves . And they performed a mirac le which is there for all the world to see . 
If I am right in thinking t hat this new Ten Year Pl an is conceived 
in the s pirit in which Israeli planning was , and demands the best from 
everyone of us , then we are certainly starting on a new road of high 
and creative national adventure for t he good of all the peop l e of 
Jamaica . et the government give us the tools, and l et u s , the citizens 
of the country, do the job of building a truly better J amaica for all . 
Goo dni ght . 
• l,,,,J V-".L. .......... '--' """' ~ ., ,.J...J..i,,O. 
NID:fS COMMENTA Y 
For transmission on 
Friday Nov 24 at 6 . 15p .m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Polling Day - December 4th which is now less than 
ten days away - is the same for both Barbados and Trinidad . But while 
and 
there are reports of emergencies , violence,/death even from .Trinidad , 
events in Barbados are moving along with the traditionalS Bajan calm 
and sense of order . Any news of violence in the BarIbEados election 
campaign would be most surprising and most unexpRected . 
But beneath the calm of the Barbados eleAction campaign there are 
some very interesting developments . RepoRrts suggest t hat there is a 
very real chance that the Barbados LaIbBour Party may lose this election . 
Certainly, it would seem that the  cLhanc e&lof ±NE Sir Grant l ey dams ' Labour Party losing have neverA been as real as now since the coming of ·adult suffrage to Barbados . The best ±Nx:t hope t hat most experienced 
observers would concedeO theN Barbados Labour Party is t hat the result of the lection may be so close that neither it nor the opposition Democratic 
Labou~ Party may Iw iMn an outright majority . In that event/ we may see a minority pWarty like the Barbados National arty , which is conservative , holding the balance of power . And the National Party is more likely 
to form aU coalition with Sir Grantley ' s party than with the more 
radically inclined Democratic Labour Party . Of course , all t he observers 
may be wrong and Sir Grantley may once again do what he has eo often 
done in the past - pull a victory rabbit out of the hat . 
But let us look at the line up of forces . On the one side is the 
Barbados Labour Party which has been in power for so long that t he 
younger people cannot remember a time before its rule . In the main 
it is the party of the old men , solid, steady and experienced in the 
handling of power. Reports from Bridgetown suggest that it has conducted 
2 
a dull and lacklustre campaign, offering no really new ideas, and 
certainly not firing the imaginations of the younger people who have 
re~ched the voting age over the past three or four years . In this party 
the only really outstanding fifgure , the only one with any personal 
glamour and appeal , is Sir Grantley Adams who has been s o preoccupied 
ma~7hat he has had very little time to devote to the pr oblems of 
his party at home . S
On the other side is the Democratic Labour PartIyE, the party of 
the young men, of Er;roll Barrow and Cameron TAudoRr . They are good speakers , they give the impression of being full of new ideas and they 
are eager and pushing for power . They seemRed to have injected real 
ecitement into the campaign and , much ImBore important, they seem to 
have aroused the emotions of the v oLters , especially the young vot ers 
who are unfamiliar with Sir GrAantley ' s past record and past achievments . new 
And the Democratic Labour PNarty has one very powerful/ally . In the 
past the Barbados tradeO union movement has always b ck the Barbados Labour Party at el eMction time . Indeed there was a time when the link between the rulinIg party and the trade union movement was taken for 
granted . ButW in this election campaign Mr . Frank 1:lalcott , one of the most distUinguished and respected trade union leaders in the entire region, has thrown his considerable weight behind the D. L . P . If the 
young men of t he D. L.P . win porer on December 4th, Walcott will be able 
to claim much credit for it . So , on the face of it , it looks as t hough 
there could be a swing in Barbados . But do not bank on it . The magic of 
@rantley Adams could swing things back . The whole situation is most 
interettinglj fluid at this moment in time . Goodnight . 
The out brea.k o 1· v10 .Lenee . 
EWS com, - T RY 
For transmission on 
Thursday :rov 23 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Yesterday we had the news from Trinidad t hat the 
Governor , Sir Solomon Hochoy , had declared a state of emergency in - ~ 
~ . t4 ~--'-'•-'-f-< itt- "' j.J .\ • ,~.........J r;;;.c f 
electoral district s , -t . u~us in-e- and Ba-r taria . Th is is the 
r esult of a very disturbing outbreak of violen ce t hat haSs hit that 
country now that polling day is only ten days away . IE
Th e immediate r eason behi nd t he declarationR of t he state of 
on Monday of 
emergency is t hat/~ ~x±m~ t his week ixx±u t oAne man was s hot dead 
near P . O. S . 
and four others were seriously injured at Ra public meetingj Before 
t h is meetings had been s toned , party IcBonstituency offic es had been 
invaded and s mashed and t he homes  oLf cand i dates had also been stoned . 
To try and cope with this probAlem Trinidad ' s police authorities have 
s et up emergency polic e staNtions in the more explosive areas and t he O cons t ab l es Gover nor has appeal ed to ex- servicemen to join up as s pecial/p11d:i:~E! 
for the election p eMriod . But almost Imore serious than the violence itself is t he story 
behind it beWcause it is a story that h i ghlights in a most dramatic form the Uproblem of t he rule of law i n one aspect of the political life of a country . 
On October t he 15th Dr . Rudranat h Capi ldeo , the l eader of Trini dad ' e 
Democratic Labour Party Opposition, spoke at a mons t er public meeting 
at Queens Par k Savannah . This, incidentally , is opposite the home of 
t he Governor General of the v'est Indies , Lord Hailes . It was one of the 
lrgest political meetings ever hel<il in the his tory of Trinj_dad . At 
t hat meeting Dr . Capildeo told his audience to break up all meet i ngs 
of Dr . Willi ams ' Peopl es Jational Movement, whenever and wherever 
they were held . He told his followers to run t he P . .1L out without 
2 
allowing t heir speakers to be heard . And then he told his follo wers 
to arm t hemse lves with weapons to take over the country . 
Now t his was clear incitement to violence and under t he Trinidad 
law , which is much the same as t he law of J amaica , r . Capildeo had 
laid himself open to prosecution . The Trinidad Guardian ma de just 
t hat point when it editorially condemned Dr . Capildeo ' sS speech . But 
Trinidad ' s law officers did noth ing about this open iEncitement to 
violence; and t his is where the political consider a tIion comes in . 
If Dr . Capildeo were prosecuted , the D. L . P . Rcould set him up as 
a martyr and build their campaign around his Aprosecution . And this , 
skilfully handled , could be very embarr assRing for the P .N.M. and mxi 
could even lose them the election . lIteBrnatively , the prosecution of 
Dr . Capildeo could have led toA an  eLarlier and even more serious outbreak of violence and communal rioting . These are t he arguments 
which could , and have bOeen Nadvanced in certain Trinidadian quarters , for nothing being done about Dr . Capildeo 1 s open incitement to violence 
and rebellion . M
On the otheIr side of the penny, there are t hose who f eel that 
if t he law hWad acted firmly and impartially and prosecuted Dr . Cap ildeo, 
just as iUt would have done with any other citizen who broke t h e law, 
t he violence and death of t his week might not have taken p lace . They 
feel the law has shown itself to be weak and influenced by political 
consideration . Those are the two sides of the penny . What is certain 
is t hat t h is outbreak of violence in Trinidad is one of t he gr eatest 
challenges ever posed to the rule of law in t hat country o Goodnight . 
NEWS COMMENT RY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Nov 25 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Tr . Harold Bahusac ' s warning t hat the operations 
of t he Wes t Indi es Sugar Company at Frome may collapse is very serious 
indeed . rr . £:xx Cahusac said t hat t r..e Frome Division of th e \'les t 
Indies Sugar Company made only 1 . 4% profit on ii itIsE 19S61 sugar crop operations . He a lso pointed out something which most peop l e tend to 
forget and that i s t hat his estate, as indeed alRl t he big J amaican 
suagr estat es , a r e run on money inves t ed by pAeopl e in Engl and . -ow , 
when peop l e invest money in any ent erpriseR they do so because t hey 
hope to get some return from it . ThisI Bis normal business practice and 
t here is nothing sinister in it . L - ment 
Generally speaking , the bulk  of the invest/in something like a 
sugar company or a mine come fArom peopl e who are not f ant as tically 
rich . In Engl and for inOstanNce , old l adies wbo have inherited a little money , sometimes itM is a f ew t housand pounds , are among the most i mportant investoIr s . These peopl e put t h eir inheritance or their annuity or tWheir savings into something wh ich looks safe and wh ch pro 111 ises Uthem a reasonable and s t eady return on their invest ment . This i s how some of the biggest firms abroad get t heir vas t sums of capita l . 
Often, the money of these small inves tors make up as much as half or 
two - t hirds of tbe total capital of some big concern . And for t hese 
s mall investors the steady income L ·om their investment is as 
i mportant as is the wage packet to t he worker . Some ol l ady who 
has inherited a house and two t housand pounds will 6ften . o the 
advi~e of her lawyer , ~ut t he t wo t hous nd pounds into some safe 
business which would ensure her a return of 101o. This will g i ve her 
e. steady income of £200 a year to live off . But i f the interest drops 
2 
fro m 10% to 5% or less she will end up having only 0 100 or l ess x~ 
a yea r to live off . As long as she is pr e red to do t h~t t hings are 
fj .tG for the company which is using her money . But if she decides 
that she cannot live of f t l:at money and might do better with it else-
where and withdraws the money then things will begin to get  rough 
for t he mmning company or the shipping company or t he suSga company 
which is using her money . And if ten t housand other Esmall investors 
make the same decision then the company i s in seriouIs trouble . And it 
is at t h is point t hat the country where the moneyR is invested begins 
to feel t he p inch . Because of t he flight of Ainvestment capital t he 
company may decide to cut down on its IoBperRations . And t his in turn may mean the laying off of some of its  Lworkers and so creating unemployment . This danger of t he fli ght of investment capital i s t h e essence of 
Mr . Cahusac ' s warning . And if At he situation in t he sugar industry is 
t hat the investor got only N1 . 4% return on his investment for t he 1961 
crop oper ation then theO danger is very real and very serious . One of 
jThe rea sonsfIo rM t his situation , Mr . Cahusac says is that thw worker is not giving a f a ir day ' s work f or a fair day's pay . He says that over 
the past fewW years wages have gone up fro m 2/6 a day to 10/- a day , but 
although Uthe worker earns four times more today he gives half as much 
work as he did whenhe got a quarter of his present pay . And so our 
cost of p ro ducing a ton of sugar i s roughly £16 more than that of Cuba , 
which means Cuba can sell her sugar cheaper on t he world mar ket than we 
· can . Look at this anyway you like and the fact still remains t hat t h e 
workers of J amaica will suffer grievous ly i f Jamaica ' s sugar industry 
collaps ed for what ever reason . Goodnight . 
NE,ITS COMMENTARY 
For t ransmi s sion on 
Monday Nov 27 at 6 . 15p . m 
Pet er Abrahams speaking 
Go od evening : At thei r annual Conference yest er day t he l eaders 
of the J amaica Labour Party gave us an outline of t ~e pol i c ies on 
which t hey wi l l f i ght the coming gener al election , and wh i c h they wi ll 
persue i f e l ect ed . They a l s o named t h e peopl e who miIgEht Sb e rega r ded as thei r Shadow Cabinet and the po s t s t hese people wi l l hold if t he 
;rr. . L .P . wins . · R
Of course what was g iven out was only t hAe ou tlin e of policy . 
co mmi ttee is now busy draft ing a ful l ERlection Manif esto wh ich will 
no do bt be published later . s you IkBnow, we already have t h e People ' s 
a t ional arty ' s olicy St a t emen t Lwh ich was adopted a t their annual conference earli er t h is month Aand wh ich has been -pub l ished in the 
pr ess in sections . N
So , bearing in miOnd t hat the J . L. P .' s poli cy is only i n outli ne , 
1[2:N let u s see whe rMe t he two pol ic ies agr ee and where t h e di f fer on major matt ers . FIirst l et us l ook at t he area o agr eement . Both pa r ties are agreed oWn t he i mportanc e of agriculture ; bot h agr ee t hat t h e use of land mUus t be p l anned . But t here i s a d ifferen ce i n s t ress . The P . N. P . p lan proposes to enact mea su r es to ensure t hat l and will be put to 
goo d use and will provide t hat ever y f ar mer wit h more t han 100 acres 
who leaves t he bulk of his l and i n idl eness will have kt t ha t idle 
par t of h i s l and l eas ed by the government f or a f air r ental and with 
an option t o buy . Such land wi ll then be rent ed to t enant s who mus t 
undertake t o devre&pp it ac cording to XME a p l an . I f , on the other hand , 
the far mer with more than 100 acres does t r y t o develop all his l and , 
the Government wi ll do ever yt hing to hel p h i m within the l imi ts of 
it s r esourc es . So the . N.P . plan envisage s a combi nat ion of i n centivei 
2 
and controls . Those who make good use of their land will be helped : 
those who persist in leaving large chunks of their land idle will have 
to rent it to others who will make good use of it . The J . L .P . outline 
sees the development of the small farmers , to use Mr . Seaga ' s own 
words "as the greatest single potential for the development of Jamaica" 
and it is proposed that farmers who become efficient and pro duce will 
be able to get more land to develop . So the J . L .P . plan Salso envisages 
incentives but , i n the outline at least , ther e isR noI 
Eindication of any 
controls for those who do not produce and who do not become efficient . 
Bu:b perliaps this point of difference will disAappear when the details 
of the J . L .• manif esto is published . R
Still on agrmculture , both paLrtieIsB are agreed on the importance of proper marketing arrangements . The . N.P . plan proposes that the 
government or some agency creaAted  by the government will buy all x~ 
produce of certain crops grNown on speci~ied land and at fixed prices . 
Buying depots will be sOet up for this pur pose and the agency will distribute the cro pMs t h roughout t he country or else can and preserve them for future uIse . The J .L .P . outline proposes the setting up of a Marketing WAuthority with headquarters in Kingston and branches all over the Ucountry . It is planned to provide each of the maj or branches with equipment for buying , cleaning , grading and packing for distribution 
of the food grown by the farmers . The language here is differant but 
the basic approach on marketing seems to be the same in both part i es , 
or , at least , in the election plans of both parties . 
But time is up, so I will try to finish this balancing of the two 
programmes tomorrow . So , till then , Goodnight . 
NEWS COMM TARY 
For transmi ss ion on 
Tuesday Nov 28 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter brahams speaking 
Good evening : You will remember that l as t night I discussed the 
approach of the two major parties to l and use and agricultural marketing 
as expressed in the P . N • • policy statement and t he outline  of J . L .P . 
policy which was given in speeches at Sunday ' s annuaIlE coSnference of the J . L •• You will also remember that I f ound the basi c appro ach of 
both parties mu ch the same . The one point of difRferenc e was t hat the 
P . N.P .' s approach was a combin ation of incentAives and controls where 
the l and was persistently left idle . The RJ .L . P . also offered incentives 
but said nothing about dealing withL faIrBmers who d i d not make good use of the land . But this point of di ffer ence , I said , may disappear 
when the J .L .• comes to publiAsh its manifesto in full . 
It is not possible to Ncarry tmxxaxxJ thi s sort of point- by- point 
comparison very f a r dowOn the line because we do not as yet have the 
full J . L .• policy Mstatement . It was relative ly easy with agriculture 
because t his was It h e one point , according to news reports , on which 
the J .L •• gWave most detai ls . The UJ ..• proposed the setting up of what they call Vocational Training Camps on a mass ive scale for the youth of the country to 
l earn some vocation after leaving school . And there would be opportunitie 
f or adult training too . Here again , t he two parties seem agr eed on the 
basic idea of national training camps for our youth . But on the face 
of it there i s again a di fference in emphasis . As I understand it, t he 
P . . idea i s more than just vocat ional training for the young : it is 
that plus a definite patt ern of civilian national servic e in the 
interest of the country . But her e again t he apparent gap may disappear 
when we get the detai ls of the J . L . . manifesto . 
2 
try 
I think it would be most unfair to XNBXKx'iGxxx to carry the 
comparison any further than this point . The P .N.P . has issued its 
policy statement in full and so we know what it proposes to do about 
roads , about electric power, about housing . The J . L.P . has so far only 
said that they will tackle the p roblems of housing , watSer s upply , road , light power, electricity, me ical facilities , clinics, post offices 
and postal agencies . To find out just how they wilIlE tackle these 
probl ems we wi ll have to wait for the detailed stRatement of their 
manifesto . And when we have t hat detailed sAtatement we may find that 
some points which now look like differenceRs may turn out to be points 
of agreement, while points on which it Bnow seem there is agreement 
may turn out to be differences . LI
But in spite of all this , I  do feel we can now arrive at one or 
two basic conclusions about thAe policies of the two parties for the 
coming election . It would Nseem that the needs of the country and the 
mo od of the peopl e are Osuch that a certain degree of national r adicalism 
is demanded of boIt hM parties . There are certain bas ic jobs that have to be tackled aWnd on the whole they require planning . So both parties must offer theU country planning . There is economic inequality so both parties must offer greater economic equality . The P . N. P . programme talks about 
an old age pension scheme; I shall be most surprised if the J . L .• 
programme does not also come out with a pensions scheme . No party with 
a conservative programme could hope to win the next election so we will 
all be radical and the issue is likely to turn on which of the radicals , 
the old or the new , are best qualified to lead the country to 
independence . Goodnight . 
1. Nursi~g 'Situation 
2. N. w.u. on Widdcat strike 
NEWS COMivIENTARY 
For transmission on 
MU:U:, Wednesday Nov. '2E7 at 6.p.mo 
Peter Abrahams speaking · 
Good evening: dT.hs~~  J amaica Trained Nurs~
• ~ Association ha& been in 
touch n with me to tell me of the unhappy mess in which the entire 
nur sing service now seems to be. bli As you know1 under pressure 
~ r. Tessy Kelly of the National Workers Union the Minist er of 
Health U£:.biaiixu introduc \the 42 hour \ week wi1loIutE reSference to the nursing organisation and without consulting the matrons whos e responsibility it is to translate these decision into reality. 
The result is tha t there is utter confusion in thRe nursing profe s sion 
and we f ace the danger of a complete breakdowAn of discipline in the 
running of our nurs ing serviceso R
I have heard distressing storiLes IoBf junior nurses being agres-sive an d abusive towax ds senior nu rses, ma trons and t hos e in authority over them. The fine disciplinAe, the dedication, the sen se of service whichbas always been outstanding as the hall-mark of the 
nur s ing profess ion throughoNut the world now s eems to be in very gr ave danger here in J iunaica. 
You all know thMe hiOstory of the unfolding of this very unhappy s itua tion s o I wiIll  not burden you with it now. All I would remind you of is that for more t han a year t he J amaica Trained Nurs e s 
As soci a t ion tWhrough the J am ica Civil Service Association ha s recomf ndedU the institution of an eight hour duty shift and a forty hour working week fo r J amaican nurses. For reasons of its own the Mini s try of Heal th did nothing a.bout these repre sentAtions until 
Mr . T~s sy Kelly of the Na t ional Workers Union appeared on the scene 
and forcea the hand of the government with the re sult tha t the Minister 
is sued circular No. 55 da ted November the 9 dir ecting tha t a 42 
hour a week come into immediate effect. 
Now nobody i s quarrelling with the 42 hour a week but a l the 
sen i or nhrses, the matrons and everybody els e who is concerned wi th 
... 
the effic i ent running of our nurs ing s ervice are more than distressed 
a t t he manner in whi ch this was brought into effect. 
If the re pr esent t i on of the nur s es more then a ye ar ago had 
been listened to and if the Ministry had acted upon it the transition 
to the 40 or 42 hour \ week could have been carr ied out gradually 
8 nd peacefully x:a: without upsetting the efficiency of the service 
and without creating the deep and unhappy rift which now exists. 
And certainly we would not now be f aced with the situation where 
all discipline and all respect for authority i s in danger. 
Po s sibl the most unhappy aspect of the whole situation is the 
fact that matrons whose duty and responsibility it is to see tha t 
their hospitals are m.n efficiently have now been-~ into  the 
villainesses of the whole affair. Once respect for the Smatron of 
any hospital is undermined then tha t hospital cannot fEunction 
effectively. And if that happens then it is theR poIor sick patients who will be the first sufferers. And this isA the unhappy situation which is now coming to pa&j°. 
I think t hat the Ministry of Health haRs been as wrong as it is 
possible to be. I do not think Mr . TIeBssy Kelly has done the Nursing service of J amaica any service at allo And I am despara tely a f raid 
th t the government of Jamaica is g oLing to compound this wrong . 
All one can do now is to hope thAa t Mr. Manley will personally inter-
vene and try to s ave the situNation . If he does not then I fear tha t those of us who may find ourselves in hospital under the trade Union 
regime of Mr. Tessy KellyO ma for a really bad time. So please 
Mr . Manley try and clMear up this unhappy situation. 
Finally, I amI g lad to see that the National Worker's Union, / Mr. Floriezel WGlasspole, t he Minister of Education, and Mr. J. Grant, the Minister of Labour, condemn wildcat strikes a t Sunday~ 
annual conUference of the National Worker's Union. The workers of Jamaica no less than all the other people of Jamaica owe the country 
and a special sence of responsibility at this time in it's history. 
And so I hope the workers will take note of this call from their 
leaders and that we will see and end to wildcat strikeso Goodnighto 
NEWS CO:MMEl T RY 
y For transmission on 
Thursday Nov 30 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking . 
Good evening : I am sure tho se of you who heard last night ' s 
' Press Conference ' programme found it very interesting . I certainly 
did . I thought Mr . Manley and the three journalists who que stioned him 
supplied us with good entertainment while clarifying mSajor points of 
the programme on which the P . N. P . will fight the comIEing election . I 
hope we will soon have a Press Conference onA thRe election programme of the J . L.P . with Sir lexander BustamanRte - or someone named by him - being questioned by the same threBe journalists who questioned Hr . Manley last night . I am sure we wIill get as much ente rtainment and 
as much clarification from that as Lwe got last night . Indeed, I think 
t h is should be arranged for neAxt  Wednesday evening , if that is at all 
possible . Everything wi ll tNhen be still fresh and listeners will be 
able to balance t h e t woO programmes against each other . This brings m e to the whole ~uestion of election broadcasts. At pr~ sent all the IpoMlitical parties buy air time and broadcast as often as often 
as they can Wget the time and/as they can afford the time . This is fine, and I do Unot think we want to quarrel or interfere with this . Anybody ~ ~I who has the money can buy time on any of the radio stations . Of course, 
/\ 
the stations have to examine scripts to make sure that nothing which 
is damaging or land!- the station in a court of l aw, is allowed to nass . 
But I wonder if you have noticed some t hing wh ich has struck me very 
t,~ 
forcibly . It is this : For about five or six weeks before ~n gJcetie~ 
~ A 
the airwaves choked with political broadcasts; and in that period 
we generally ha~ more party broadc as ts than we had; , throughout the 
rest of the year put together . And any one of us , you or I or anybody 
who hal_ the ~ money, buy time and go on the air . We had an example 
t\ 
2 
of t his during the closing stages of the referendum campaign when 
all sorts of groups and individuals bought time and, wit i n the 
,.__J ·tL 
limitations of the law of libel , said almost everyt hi~ t he! wanted to . 
A 
d I heard some really fantast ic ones . For ins t anc e , I hear d one 
polit ician say that he had arranged wi th some Af ri can governments 
f or £150 million , but of course he could do noth ing unles s t he peop l e 
voted a certain way . obody has sinc e bothered t o s ayEi ngS anythi ng about 
t 1es e mi l l i on s . I
And t his r a i s es the rob l em and t he quesAtioRn of r reedom of s peecl . re we ; i s an one e t i tled , rovi de e covers h ims elf against slander 
or libel, to mislead and misinformt the geRneral publi c ? I s f r eedom of 
s peech freedom t o mis l ead and misinLf oIrmB by just about t he most power ful medi um of communication we have ?  If the answer i s yes , then there is 
noth i ng more to say . If , on t hAe other hand , t he answer i s no ; i f we say 
t hat ou r f r eedom of speechN, l ike a ll our fr eedoms , can only survive and 
flouri sh if we guar d anOd use i t with r espons bilit y , then t his ~hole 
questi on of politi cMal broadcast s at electio
~n s ho u l d be r evi ewed , and I 
~ h~~nged . I What I shou l d like t o see is some sort of cont r ol on 
elec tion broadcast~ ~ art ing abou t six weeks before t he date on which 
'I. . l(~ ~l.oJel ~i.JL-F -lo~ ~ ~
votes are toW be cast . lJfr-t'O L:hat bin1e the :r,reocnt sy g tew can carry on . 
~ ~U ~
Ent fr':ghP~ C °£:Y l ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~; ~ s ~~cs~ t"lr"° ~nd~ ,J ~l~ 
Jt:;;1-101,r@d to maKe elec Lion broadcas L~ . 1~1d L11e;y should be g l v e11 free , 
~ ::Jr1~ i;~ a(;,~ L~~e::th' and representation :in th-s. 
House . This would make for greater clarification of issues and less 
abuse of our cherished right t o free speech . Goodnight . 
'- I ,. '-' ll.# MJ V ....,. ._t:)J.J.V u,; .L.V.1..-L V C J..).1.-L,LL,c:t,.L,.lU:f 
3 Re - organisation of Postal Service 
Ev1S COMMEYT RY 
For transmission on 
Friday Deb 1 at 6 . 15p . m 
.Peter Abr hams speaking 
Go od evening : Let us , for a change , look at some of t he good news 
of t his week . 11 too often we underline only t h e bad and i gnore t he 
good . Ther e ar e t hree piec es of good n ews on t he local s ce ne about 
whichj I personally am very p leased . First, I was veryS glad to see 
that/4he ingston and St , Andrew Corporation Council IhEaa more money to 
spend on Chr istmas work this year than t hey had Rl a st year , and that 
this applies to most of the Local Governmen t Authorit i es in Jamaica . 
It looked at one s tage as t hough t his i s suRe of Christmas work vms 
going to become a party polj_tical fooItBball . It woul d have b een tragic 
if at t hi s · season of t he year , partLy po li t ics h d been p l ayed based 
t he ·economic misery of a seActio n of our community . '/hat makes t his news especially good t houghN is t hat nearly t hree times as much money will be spent t h is yearO as was spent last year . This means that Christmas cheer wi lMl be spread mor e widely t han it was last y ear . Another p l easingI a spect is t hat t his year ' s Chris t mas work will be tied in withW t he country ' s broader developmental proj ects . This gives it a gr eUater value than a mere seasonal easing of unemploymen t . The~±~ second piece of goo d n ews is t hat the Mini s ter of f ome 
Affairs has at last decided to take action on the mounting volume of 
comp laints about police brutality . Thi s came out of the case of a 
sixteen- year- old youngs ter who mi s sed h i s bus home t o the country , was 
then arrested , badly beaten up and held in prison for some t welve days 
without being ab l e to make cont act with h i s people . Thi s was just 
about as nasty a case as any I know of . Mr . Seivr i ght has asked fo r 
a full report . I hope he will publish that full r eport when he gets 
it , Indeed , I t hink it is his duty to do so . The temptation will be 
2 
to deal with the matter on a departmental l evel, punish t hose who are 
found guilty and hush the matter up . To do so would be a mistake and 
it would also be grossly unfair to the very large number of goo d and 
decent policemen in t he force . Unless this whole affair is conducted 
~NiJXXH~ publicly and t he guilty and their crime held up to  public 
scrutiny, the distrust and suspicion most of us have wilSl be directed 
against good and bad policemen alike . So , in t h e inteErest of good 
relations bet we en the public and the police I would Iu r ge Mr . Seivright 
to publish all the facts of this case . Or even Rbetter still , do what 
was done with t h e Ha r mony House Hotel colour Abar allegation: appo int 
a Commissioner to conduct a public en'I1!UiryR. That wou l d really clear the air and make for confidence . B
Finally , it is very goo dA to  kLnow that the postal service will be re- organised . It ha s been obvious and evident to everybody that 
our postal service has beenN in an awful mess . I have talked about it 
on a number of occasionOs recently . It was only on ovember 18th that 
I told you the faIn tMastic story of a l etter with a cheque in it which took ten months to get from one part of Kingston to another . So I was 
very gl ad whWen Nlr . Arnett tabled h is Ministry Paper t his week setting 
out the pUro~osals to revise t h e service . There is only one additional 
suggestion I would like to make, and it is not an original i dea of mine . 
It comes from someone with vast exper i ence in post of fice work and it is 
for t he setting up of a Post Office Advisory Board to work with and 
give advice to t he people who run our postal service . Goo dnight . 
El'TS COlv]]:IEi~TARY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Dec 2 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter 1brahams speaking 
Good evening : i ss Una Marson has been worki ng very hard to try 
and interest us in the setting up of a Community Chest f or J amaica . 
So far most of us have been singularly uninterested and I am  not sure 
our lack of interest is not due to ignorance . So it mi ghSt be useful 
to find out just what a Communi ty Chest is and how iItE operates . 
At t he present time we have a whole heap of Rvoluntary and charitable 
organisations and they are particularly a ctiveA around t his time of 
the year . You have peop le begging money toR give underprivileged 
children a good time at Shristmas . YouI Bhave others begging to give 
old people and those in institutio nLs a cheerful Christmas . The fuyor of the Kingston has started hisA own fund and t here are a whole host of others . 
The result is that theN business community in particular is 
bombarded with appeMals Oat . this time of year . And quite often one businessman may fin d hi mself seeing four or five different people 
each of whom is bIeggi ng for a different charity . And four or five times 
h e has toU wrWite a cheque • . is time is wasted and, depending on the kind of person he is, he is either embarrassed or upset or angered by this 
direct begging and waste of his time . He knows that each begging is 
for a good cause , but a whole string of beggars still add up to a 
nuisanc e , no matter how go od t he cause . And so he gives with anything 
but a charitable or cheerful s pirit . This has become a form of ransom 
to which he must submit every year . d t here very many businessmen 
t who dread the coming of gNX the Christmas season with its rush of 
begging . But Chris tmas is only t he high point of something which has 
been going on all through the year . He has already had h i s belly full 
2 
of the beggars and s o he gives h i s guinea or two or three guineas and 
hopes nobody else wi lfu turn up . But somebody always does . That i s the 
way of it todayj in J amaica . 
But if the same bus i nessman were living in a country where they 
operate a 6o mrnunity Chest , he would b e relieved of this stri ng of 
people who come begging for good caus es all through the ySear and whos e 
numbers increase a larmingly around Christmas . Inst eaEd , he will make 
only one single contribution f or the whole of theR yeIar and this will and the a mountM he g ives go i nto the Community Chest or United Fund . HAis n ame/will be publi shed 
for all to see and no one wi ll come begginRg to him or wi ll bother h im 
for the rest of the year . From his poinBt of view t h i s i s a ver y gr eat 
convenience and it makes it possib lLe fIor him to g ive in a spiri t of genuine generosity . And what appli es to t he businessman applies a l so 
to t he professional or otheNr cAitizen who i s in a position to g ive to charity . 
From the point of Oview of the various vnlantary and charitabl e 
organisat ions theI  CMommunity Chest will cut out a lot of unnecessar y wo rk and it will get rid of the rather shady charities • .And the.se 
organisationWs can then call on the 6hes t for money on the basis of t heir 
needs andU their wo rk . I n terms of organisa tion I can see the Council 
of Voluntary Social Services running t he Community Chest and sharing 
out the money to the organisations . All in a ll , I t h ink :Miss Marson ' s 
idea i s excellent and I hope t hat by thi s time next year we "Ir.ri ll have 
a s trong Community Chest going . Goodni ght . 
EWS COivIM TARY 
For transmission on 
Monday Dec 4 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrah ams speaking 
Good evening : Today is election day in both Trinidad and Barbados . 
I n Trinidad the polling bobllilisj/ill have clo s ed by now and t h count ing 
of vot es will be we l l under way . In fac t , since Tr ini dadS is  us i ng vot ing mach i nes , ther e wi ll har dly be much count ing toE do and we s hou l d 
know t he r e sults from there relativ el y early t h i s evIening . 
In Bar bados on the other hand x~xxi the resuRl t o f the vot ng wi ll 
,r-k,:....i. ic;. ~ ~ ,t.:~ ~- ~c:..--
unt i t omorrow. _e aroaade,i GoAv nnrent .as-""d-ee-iaed t hat 
of~ tes La.:~-~:e:L "-" - ,~ (r-ot start. immRediately after the closing 
of t he poll s, which is the common praIctBice almost everyw~ere else in 
the world . Instead , they are going  Lto lock up their ballot boxes 
tonight and store t hem away unAtil tomorrow morning when t hey will be 
opened and counted . 
ON 0 t~'2- ~ ~ t~ ,.,.h ~ Tu tu ortunate decision on t ho pa!'.!t ~ U.S. , 
a y; it all sorts of disturbing 
and unhappy quesIti onMs . Why did t he 
this? Wwill b in charge of these boxes ~vernrgm. And what 
the boxesU during t he 
::lm::e-----e V 
a:-ee-e 
,an impo rtant-f e on its -own? It is not enough to say 
hand , one or two among t hem may have such intense part i san feelings, 
or t hey may have been offered such an attractive briBe , that the 
temptation to sli p in a few bogus votes may be irresistable . But even 
if this does not happen , the me r e f a c t that it i s possible, and that 
2 
the voters of Barbados feel t hat it is possible to monkey with the 
ballot boxes during 
of thi s 
• 
r o  
~ tQ..,, ~( 
t - cr±n thl.& il ensure 
IES
any event , we will not know the Barbados results Runtil some time 
tomorrow . And if, as some people t hink may haAppen , the Barbados Labour 
Party is defeated , then we may witness theR twilight of the very long 
career of Sir Grantley Adams on the WeBst Indian politifal scene . 
The Trinidad picture is a lo t LmoIre complicated . We may know t he results of the Trinidad voting later this evening , but that is not 
going to help us very much Nin Acoming to grips with the unrest which is now so widespread thereO. Observers in Port- of- Spain are very worried about what might foMllow the results . Dr . Rudranath Capildeo , the leader of the Trinidad DI. L .• has promised violence and bloodshed if the .N.M. is returned to power . And he has hinted to at least one very reliable 
observer t haWt he might call for t he partitiDning of Trinidad into RN 
two stateUs : one Indian and one non- Indian - if t ~e votes go against his 
party . So the results of today ' s Trinidad election may only be the 
prelude to a period of greater restlessness and trouble . Capildeo may 
of course be pulling a fast one to try and frighten the voters into 
voting D. L. P . for the sake of peace and order . But we cannot be sure 
of this until we see what happens after the voting is delcared tonight . 
Goodnight . 
EWS C01 •TENT Y 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Dec 5 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : At last the long debate among Jamaicans as whether 
or not Cuba ' s F~del Castro is a communist or not can finally be put 
aside . For a long time now the friends and supporters of C astro and 
Cuba ~a ve said that Castro was not a communist and thIaEt tShe charge that he was leading his country to communi sm was American imperialist 
propaganda . The enemies and critics of Cast r o onR the other hand , have 
stoutly insisted that he was leading his counAt r y on the road to 
communism. And then there were t hose who Rwere somewhere in between 
t hese two extreme positions . Those whoI Bsaid that Castro was a victi m 
of circumstances, that he was not aL communist but that he was under 
strong pressure from the communAist s in Cuba . These people saw Castro 
as a nationalist revolutionNary who had received his s t rongest and 
most consistent support from the communists both inside and outside 
Cuba and who t here foMre s
Oaw himself as beholden to the com units . These 
people insisted tIhat Castro himself was not a Marxist and much of the Marxian appeWarance of his reg ime could be blamed on his brother Raul and his Argentine- born friend Ernest~ Guevara , the twp men closest to 
him in CuUba today . 
This was a pretty universal view held by p eople who were neither 
passionately anti - communist nor pass ionately pro- communis t , people who 
did not see everything as either a sinister communist plot or a sinister 
the 
Yankee- impBBialist plot . And these were/people , too, who argued that 
if Fidel Castro had been Mi treated differently by the United States 
in his early struggles , if the United States had given gim both moral 
and material support when he first launched the fight against the 
Batista dictatorship, the Cuban revolution might have taken a more 
2 
libertarian direction and would have been less bitterly anti - American . 
Let me confess that I tended to side with the people who held this 
middle position on the Cuban situation and on Fidel Castro . And I still 
feel that this vi ew was bxJ by far the most sound and the most realistic 
of the three views on Castro and Cuba . In the beginning Ca stro was 
not a communist . 11 he said , all he promised attested toS that fact . 
He had promised elections and I think h e meant it atI tEhe time . But 
Castro was as subject to pressures as any othAer hRuman being . And the pressures were great . There was fantastic political and economic 
pres sure from the United States culminatinRg in the Bay of Pigs adventurE . 
'.]fuere were tije political and economLic IpBressures from within Cuba , and there were the inevitable pressures of the Cold War which came into 
play when the U.S . turned agaiAnst  Cuba and the Soviet Union became its 
cha~pion in both the po liticNal and economic fields . And all these 
pressures have gone into the making of the shifts and changes of Castro ' s 
personal outlook as welOl as of his policies . 
The making of  Ma revolution is no easy thing: within that limitation, 
possibly theW easiIest thing about any revolution is the actual violent uprising ,U and possibly the hardest thing is to keep a revolution from running away from its original intention. Stalin turned Lenin ' s socialiEt 
revolution into a quarter of a century of personal dictatorship and 
terror . Castro ' s libertarian revolution is now set on the road to 
communism and the dictatorship of the party . It seems to me that Castro 
has simply submitted to the strong pressures from E~:th N~±±k within 
Cuba as well as from the outside world . Goodnight . 
NEW CO~·. T Y 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Dec 6 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : The present political crisis in the Dominican 
Republic presents yet another important challenge to United States 
policy in the Caribbean in particular and in Latin America  in general . 
The dictatorship of t he Trujillo family is at an end aftSer over thirty 
years . But as happens so very often in such cases, tIhEe end of the 
dictatorship has left the country in a politiAcalR mess . When a dictator is xxxiNRXEt assistinated, and is not immRediately replaced by another strong and ruthless dictator, you geneBral l y have political confusion in a country . And this is especially Itrue where the dictator ' s personal 
rule has been absolute over a lon g Lp eriod of time . Another factor 
which makes for political confAusion in the case of the Dominican 
Republic is the fact that tNhe dictatorship was not overthrown by a 
single organised movemeOnt with recognised leaders and a clearly stated 
programme of propo sMed action, as was the case when Castro's movement fought and overthIrew the Batista dictatorship . In Cuba there was 
one r evolutiWonary leader and one movement with whom the people could identify Uthe movement . In the Dominican Republic no single leader and no single group cam c laim the credit fo r t he ov erthrow of the u jillo 
family . And so you have the confuse situation wher e a whole ho s t t of 
as well as 
parti e /xN some mili tary types NNm: are scrambling for ~m:NEX! the spoils 
of power, and you have a r esident who is not free of the taint of 
association with the Trujillo dictatorship . 
From the point of view of the United States t his is a very tricky 
situation . During the closing stages of the Trujjllo dictatorshi p the 
United States showed its disapproval of the reg ' m by adopting certain 
economic measures in association With other Latin .American states . So, 
2 
the United States has , in a sense , contributed to the over throw of 
the Trujillo dictatorship . But the United States is acutely sensitive 
to the latent anti - erican feeling among the masses of Latin- America, 
and she is scared s tiff of being accused on interfering in the internal 
affairs of any other country . And yet she has interfered: fi rst by 
giving conditional support ~IDr the son of dictator TrujiSllo, provided 
he gradually introduced democracy . But last week youInEg Trujillo , who 
was in any case more fitted for the life of a plaRyboy , gave up the with him 
attempt and skipped the country . He is reporteAd to have taken/something 
like $560 million and a blonde German beauRty to comfort him in his 
lonely exile . The United States, meanIwBhile , sent a cruiser and a couple of aircraft carriers loaded  Lwith U. S . marines because two of ~ - ~ the/dictator ' s brothen,were making a bid f~~ recapture power . This 
U.S . show of strene:th stopped Athe two Trujillos but did nothing else 
to relieve the crisis . And Nthis poses quite a problem . 
Having intervenMed Oto keep out the Trujillo family , should the United States now  ~ti~:-t! ~~~ :rucx~ xaNN try ~ influence the 
situation until Ia genuinely democratic government is established? And 
if she does Winterfere in this way in favour oft democracy , is it a good 
or a bad Uthing Cuba has already denounced the United States action 
as setting a prece,{dent for action against Cuba . But then , many people 
have criticised the United States in the past for not helping to over-
throw the Batista dictatorship in Cuba, as she is now doing in the 
~ 
Dominican Republic . The knowledge that we tend to find fault with a:rl 
A 
they do inhibits the mericans very badly, even when they try to do 
what they think is right . This is part of the American problem in 
this region . Goodnight . 
After the Barbados Elections: 
Sir Grantley Adams . 
EWS COMMEt, TARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Dec 7 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening: The complete and utter defeat of the Barbados 
Labour Party in l ast ronday's Ganeral Elections has been the talking 
point throughout the British Caribbean . It has dominated the  news; 
and it has even pushed the striking ..M . victory in TrSinidad into 
second place . And yet Barbados is smaller than TriniIdER ad , has less people and is economically weaker . And in terms of tAhe future of the federation, with Trinidad, not BRarbados . So why this intense fascination with the Barbados results . 
I t hink the main reason is that IweB all know that what happened in 
Barbados on Monday signalled an im Lportant tur ning point in West Indian 
affairs . Some of us know this Ainstinctively and may not be able to 
put forward sensible factuaNl arguments for this knowledge . But the 
knowledge is there . WeO know that this is the end of an era and we know 
that it is the twilight of the career of one of the really big men of 
that era . The lonIg  Mand very distinguished career of Sir Grantley Adams 
is ending , aWnd ending in defeat . And it is always saddening to witness the fal l of a titan . 
GraUntley dams , Alexander Baatamante and Norman Manley were the 
three most important leaders thrown up by the crises of the angry 
thirties . There were others , of course ,. like Uriah Butler and Bertie 
Gomes . But t hey were not in the same class as these three . And old man 
Marryshow was really a link and a survival from another generation of 
West Indian leaders whose dreams were fulfilled by Adams , Bustamante 
and Hanley . And these three , more than any other individuals , more 
than the Colonial Office even , shaped and made the islands of the 
British West Indies into what they are today . They shaped t he political 
2 
thinking of these islands and they created such pride as the people 
of these islands have in their West I ndian-ness • 
.And of t he three, Grantley Adams seemed t he most securely based . 
Busta had 1anley to contend wi t h and Manley had Busta to contend wit h 
right from the start . But Gr ant l ey stood head and shoulder  above 
everybody else on the Bajan political scene . The BarbadosS Labour Party 
was h i s creation . And a ll the vas t changes t hat haveI tEaken place over the pas t fifteen years : the economic and social progr ess , the s tability 
and political maturity of the people ; the changesR in labour conditions -
Grantley and h is party have had a major hand iAn the shapi ng of these . 
And it was precis e ly because his IpBersRonal position and the position of his party in Barbados seemed so  Lsecure t hat he was t he only one of the big three with enough confidence to leave the base of h is power 
and go into the federation . AndA it was during his years away from home , idea of a 
during t h e years when he trNi ed unsuccessfully to give shape to t he/ 
West Indian nation thaOt his personal power eroded at home and the a second 
power of his partIy  Mcollapsed . I think/xme reason for the collapse of his own and his party's power was because Grantley di d not beli eve in W The par ty was his personal tool . genuin e party demo cracy . /And s o the young men of spirit and idealism 
soon brokUe away from him and only the ' yes ' men and the party hacks him 
remained; and t hey just could not cope without/when he l eft the scene . 
But whatever his faults , he made a grea t contribution and I t h ink 
history will judge him a hero who risked and lost a ll f or his dream of 
West Indian nationhood . And that , surely , is a nob l e caus e in which to 
lose; much nobler than wi nning in lesser causes . Goodnight . 
~ C <JENT ARY 
For transmiss ion on 
Fr iday Dec 8 at 6 . 15p .m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Go od eveni ng : The new government of Barbaads will be sworn in on 
the 19th of this month when the new session/ of the Barbados parliament 
opens . I t hought you might like to know something about the new men 
who will take over . S
First there is the Premier- designate , Mr . ErroIl EWalton Barrow . 
He is a relatively young man, somewhere between R39 and 41 . His friends 
call him ' Dipper ' . He is a very successful baArrister who was r egarded 
as the young man most l i kely to succeed SRir Grantley Adams as the 
l eading l awyer in the island . And in IthBe days when he was a member of 
Sir Grantley ' s party he was consid eLr ed t he leading intellectual of t he Barbados Labour Party and a man who would go f a r if he fo llo1ved 
the guidance of Sir Grantley . ADuring the Second World ra r he flew 
with the R.A.F . and a t Oone Nstage he was General lexander' s personal p ilot . For his war Mservices h e won the D.F . C. He i s a l s o an economist , having earned the  B. Sc . degree in England . 
When heW retuIrned to Bar bados at the end of the war , he and hi s good frieUnd Cameron Tudor joined the Bar bados Labour Party . In the 1951 el ections he contes t ed a seat for the Barbados Labour Party and 
won . But a year later , in 1952 , both he. and Cameron Tudor broke wi th 
the party . The reason for t he break was that they disagr eed wi t h 
Sir Grantley ' s economic policies and because Sir Grantley just could 
not stand criticism f rom any of h i s fol lowers . Between 1952 an d 1956 
they worked very hard building up a nucleas fo r the launching of the 
new party . I met both Barrow and Tudor for the first time towards the 
end of 1955 and I saw the great odds against which they had t o str uggle . 
All the leader s of the Bar bados Labour Party had nothing but contero~t 
2 
for them; and Sir Grantley v'as then still very much on the Bajan s eene . 
They lauched their party in 1956 with Barrow as t he leader and Cameron 
Tudor as the secretary . Just how well and har d t he party worked over 
the next fi ve years was s hown on Monday of this week . 
Cameron Tudor is most likely to become Mini s ter of Education and 
I expect him to p lay a very important part inside t he House . He is in 
h is early orties , ei ther 41 or 42 . He studi ed His toIrEy aSt Oxford Universi t y and I think he was the f irst coloured Ran ever to become pres ide t of t h e Oxford Union Soc iety . He i s Aa br illiant debater and he taught h i s tory in bo h axgx~xtxx~M~xx~xm~xNxxt~~, Bar badds and British Guiana be~ore he 
enter ed politics . Althou thy ar young ,R ot Barrow and Tudor are 
political veterans who have come upL thIeB har d way . Anyone who knows the Barbados scene will tell you just  how rough life was for anybody who 
fought against Sir Grantley dAams in Barbados in the early 1950s . 
Other likely Minister sN are : for Trade and Industry, 1r . Wynter 
Crawford, an old- time eOnemy of t h e Barbados Labour Party and a political 
veteran who is the  Mpublisher of the oldest weekly in the island , the Barbados ObserveIr . Cr awford is in his fifties . The likely Minister of 
friculture Wand Fish eries is Captain Wilfrid Ferguson . He pioneered the inter- islUand trade i n the days of schooner . He is in the middle fifties . Text there is Ellison Car michael, a layyer of about 39 to 40 who is 
likely to be Minister of Co mmunicat i ons and ~orks . Then there is Edwy 
Talma , po s sibly the oldest of t h e group and in h is late fifties . He was 
a ,Unister in Grantley ' s government but broke with him in 1956 . Finally 
t here is Theodore Branker who will be Speaker . He too i s an old hand . 
Thes e are t he new en in Barbados and I am sure we wish t hem well . 
Goo dnight . 
Ev· S COMMENT Y 
For transmission on 
Saturday Dec 9 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Last Saturday the Minister of Agriculture, Ir . Keble 
Munn, told a gathering of farmers in St . Catherine that a s pecial 
incentive subsidy of £5 per acre, up a maximum of two acSres , will be 
$iven to farmers to encourage them to produce foo d foEr local consumption , 
This will go on until March of next year, and a totaIl of £20 , 000 is 
the amount earmarke~ for the subsidy . R
Then, on Tuesday of this week, the PresiAdent of the Jamaica 
gricultural Society , Mr . Rudolph BurIkBe, tRold a press conference of the Society's plans to operate a Farmers ; arketing Organisation . He 
said the Society is now negotiatin gL with the go vernment for a l oan 
of £180,000 to finance the NopeArations of the new organisation . The idea behind thOis new organisation is that the food grown by farmers should be made available all over the country in the best 
possible conditioIn  Mand at the best possible prices . The organisation will be run as a straightforward business company which would have to 
stand on itsW own feet and pay its own way; and , of course , it will have 
to pay bUack, with interest , the money it borrows ~r om the government . 
To do this , it will have to make a profit , no matter how small . 
s • Burke explained it, there will be a central collecting centre 
in Kingston and about five or six smaller centres throughout the 
country . Farmers would gM take their produce to the centres near est 
to them . There their produce will be graded and packed and made 
available to the consumers in the district . Any surplus would be shipped 
out of the district to a th~r areas which are in need and where it could 
be sold , For instance, if there is a glut of one crop in Manchester 
2 
and a severe shortage of the self- same crop everywhere else on the 
island , both the farmers and the consumers generally find themselves 
in a mess at present . The producers in Manchester find themselves 
having to sell that particular crop at a give- away price . The only 
people who benefit are the consumers in the area . If the producers 
art of 
manage to ship/the crop into Kingston or some other l ar ge ce ntre , t he 
often selling 
cost of transport is/so high that the/price xxx~~~M±Eix±SxE in Kingston 
or elsewhere is pushed up to an unreasonable degree .I EAnd where this 
does happen it usually some middleman , rather thaRn the producer or 
consumer who gets any benefit . _ore oftenR thoAugh the surplus cannot be got to Kingston before it goes bad aBnd so it is a dead loss to the farmer and the housewife in Kingston bIuys imported lettuce and carrots 
and tomatoes and the like . This affLects the islands s foreign exchange 
position and it pushes up living c osts . 
For the sake of the ecNonomAic health of the island we must produce more of the food we eatO; we must import less . But there is very l i ttle sense in asking the farmer to produce stuff which he knows he cannot 
market economicall yM. But once given a reasonable a rantee for his effort 
and a reasonWable Ireturn , I mx am sure the Jamaican/ farmer can produce good and proper all the bUasic food we need , as well as some luxuries . Soxmx~kExbrg marketing becomes crucial. For this reason I hope the government will 
find the money to lend the J .A. S . even if it means tightening elsewhere . 
The setting up of a really decent agricultural internal marketing system 
is one of our most pressing needs . We canN~X cut living costs drastically 
with proper marketing . So , I , for one , am completely in favour of this 
J .A. S . proposal and I hope it comes into effect very soon . Goodnight . 
NEl,11 S CO -i"'NTARY 
For transmission On 
Monday Dec 11 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter_ brahams speaking 
last 
Go od evening : t midnight/mN Saturday Tanganyika became the 29th 
independent African state , and the latest proof of the fantastic ~RZR 
speed with which the wor l d around us is changing . Nowhere in  the world 
is that change as striking as it is on the great African Scontinent . 
Right up to 1954 - a mere seven years ago - RtheI p
Eower and influencE 
of the 20,000 odd European settlers seemed strAong and secure enough% to last another twenty years at l east . And the Europeans of Tanganyika 
were 
were more intelligent about their own inteRrests than RXXNE~ the settlerE 
of Kenya to their north , the white RhIodBesians and Portuguese to the 
south of them , and Belgians to th eL west of them. And so Tanganyika was 
one of the few places in multi -Aracial frica wher e the whites restrained 
their arroganc e and colour Ndiscrimination was at a minimum . The whites 
there realised that it wOas in their long term interests to co - operate 
with t he 9¼ million  MAfricans and to share with them such wealth as could be got out Iof the country . And so it was t he Europeans who , 
immediately Wafter World War Two, pressed hardest for their version of partnershUip between t he rac es . This gave each of the racial groups ten in seats/the country ' s Legislative Council: the 20 , 000 Europeans had ten , 
t he 72 , 000 Asians had ten and t he 9¼ mi llion Africans had ten . Few of 
us t hought much of that constitution at the time . It was loaded against 
the African maj ority . But we also knew that it was I, better than the 
represent ation enjoyed by all the other fricans of multi - racial Africa . 
I think it was at this point t hat the very r are qua,lity of 
l eadershi p of Julius yerere showed itself . He formed the Tanganyika 
African iational Union in 1954 and although he and his part y disapproved 
of the parity constitution , they set about working it, making it 
2 
succeed . It would have been so easy to do what so many other colonial 
leaders did when t hey were faced with an unsatisfactory constitution . 
Like them, yerere could have bunnt himself and his movement out in 
agi tati.on against the constitution; he could have let loose a wave of 
communal trouble and r acial hatred . The first B. G. constSitu tion for instance was a much better pne than Tanganyika ' s first ' parity ' 
constitution . But the manner in which Jagan and. his IpEarty dealt with 
it led to a state of emergency . And today B. G. isR still not independent . 
Tanganyika started on the same road later and Agot there first because 
of the very wise and very mature leadersBhipR of Nyerere . And in the process yerere has woIn the respect and confidence of 
all the different racial groups . A ndL he has got there without hurling curses at the British and withoAut having to send a single silly cable 
to the United Nations . The rNesult is that his country has been accepted 
into the Commonwealth , that the United Nations will welcome it with 
open arms , and Britain hOas undertaken to give it large and much needed 
financial aid . AnId  pMlease do not be fooled into thinking that Nyerere is any less aWn anti - colonialist than Nkrumah or Jagan or anybody else . It is jusUt that he is a master at doing things quickly and quietly for the good of 1 p eople and his country . Just how much of a master of 
intelligent politics he is is proved. by Tanganyika ' s present status • 
.And in the months and years ahead this quiet political intelligence 
is going to have a profound influence on the part Africa will play in 
world affairs . In fact, the :mrnergn:e. of Tanganyika ' s Nyerere is going 
to create a new power balance inside Africa itself . But I ' ll discuss 
that tomorrow , so till then , goodnight . 
NEWS com,-,, iTARY 
For transmission on 
Tuesday Dec 12 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : Students of frican affairs have begun to notice 
some clear trends and patterns in the new Africa . Until round the 
beginning of t his year the Republic of Ghana was generally a ccepted 
as the leading Afr i can state in terms of political infElueSnce, both in the outside world and ·among t he newly independentI frican states . 
Ghana was one of the founding members of the CasRablanca powers . This 
was an attempt to create unity of action and pAolicy between the Arab 
and regro states of Africa: and the two leRading figures of this movement 
were Egypt ' s Nass er and Ghana's NkrumahB. 
Side by side with this broaderL PaIn- frican- an- Arab unity plan , 
Nkrumah p ersued his ovm dream of a  United States of Wes t Africa . To 
this end he got Guinea and !laliA to join Ghana in what is known a s the 
' Union of frican StatesO'. Nkrumah also tried t o persuade Liberia ' s President Tubman to Menter into this loose ' Union of Africa States '. Tubman did not liIk e t he idea . Liberaa has strong economic ti With the United SWtates; indeed , American investment is the backbone of the Liberian economy, and the Ghana-Guinea- r:ali Union s howed signs of being 
strongly Uanti -American and pro - Russian, t hough the declared policy of 
t he Union was one of non- alignment in t he :East - Wes t conflict . But 
be.tween 1958 and 1960 Tubman dared not offend krumah with an outright 
no . Nkrumah ' s was the most powerful voice in free Afri~a • .And so 
President Tubman looked as though he might go along but h e was very 
careful not to commit himself . He was being a gooa politician and 
p laying for time . 
Then , in 1960- 61 there was the sudden rush of independent African 
states and on October the 1st of 1960 the ~iant Jigeria with its nearly 
2 
40 million people became independent . Up to this point the only really 
powerful voice out of Africa had been t hat of Nkrumah speaking for 
the Ghana- Guinea- ali Union, which was strongly critical of t he Wes t 
and more often than not sided and voted with the Eas t in the United 
at ions . This l ed many observer to feel that the f ree fric a was 
moving into the Sovi et orbit in spite of its dE clarationS that it was 
following a policy of neutralism . But with Ni geria aEt the United 
ations a new and v ery nruch more moder ate voice Rwas Iheard . And this encouraged resident Tubman to call , in May of 1961 , t he conference 
in Monrovia, of 20 moderatey- inclined Afric anA States . 
There were now two dis tinct power groRupi ng in free frica : the 
radically inclined Casablanca powers IanBd t he moderately inclined 
1d'rovia powers . And in t erms oAf n umLbers and material potential the moderately inclined group wNas the s trongest . And Ni geria stood out as poten tially t he most powerful single forc e in either group . This 
wa.s a severe setback foOr t he Nkrumah dr eam , es pecially as he had said 
t h ings which had o fMfended the Nigerian leaders , many of whom had no time f or h im . I
But so Wfar Ea.s t Africa had not come into the picture . Now , in the 
shape of UTanganyika East frica is in t he picture and t he Nyerere approach to t hings is much the same as the approach of t h e Nigerians . 
It is moderate, intelligently progr essive but quiet: it i s neautralist 
of ideas 
but wi th a bias in favour of the Wes t . The next confl ict/in Africa 
may weel be bwtween those of the Ghana- Guineas - Mali group on the one 
. {(J- ,·, Al~ 
side and the Jigeria- Tanganyika approach on t he other . 
~ w 
EWS C011ME!.\JT RY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday ec 13 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : The United Nations is mankind ' s gr eates t hope for 
peace in today ' s world . If the United Nations Organisation f a ils in 
this noble effort to keep the peac e of the world , if the Un ited Nations 
breaks up or if it becomes so ineffective that no stIaEte Stakes it seriously , t hen the danger of war will increase a t housandfold . And rigrt 
at this moment in time the Uni ted Nations i s in vRery grave danger, and 
the cause of the danger i s the situ ation in thAe Katanga Province of 
the Congo . United ations soldiers are todRay fighting in the Katanga 
against the s oldier s of ~oise TshomLbe IaBnd white mercenaries from Bel gium , the Rhodesias and South Africa . Patrice Lumumba , the first 
elected Prime Mini ster of the ACong o - indeed the only e l ected one -
was murdered in Kat anga andN Moi se Tshombe knows a lot more about it 
t han he has t old . That great and good man , Dag Hammarsk jold , d ied 
under very suspici ouMs c
Oircumstan c es on h i s way to have peace tal ks 
wi t h Thsombe . It Icertainly looks as though t here might hav e been f oul play in the Wcase of Hammar sijold as well, though we may never know. }illd s coreUs of frican , I ndian and other soldiers who were servants of • the United a tions and bore arms in the cause of peace, have di ed 
because of ~ise Tshombe and the Karoanga . Certainly , the casualty r ate 
has been very high , and the cost to the peopl e of the Congo has been 
terrible . 0 
And now two distressingly sinister features have emerged from that 
f 
unhappy country . Sir Roy Welensky , the Prime Minister of the Central 
frican Federation, a man who has made no secret of his hatred for 
racial equality in any ~9:i.!!IQiill•~· form , has come out into the open as 
Moise Tshombe ' s principal adviser and defender . He has advised Tshombe 
2 
on the attitude he should adopt to the United Nations, and in this Sir 
Roy Welensky has had the ac tive support of t he Belgians . And when Sir 
Roy was interviewed in London r ecently , one journalist asked h i m by 
what aut hority he was interfering in forgltgs,j'. affairs since h is country 
was not yet indepen dent . Sir Roy Welensky ' s answer s owedS h i s utter con t empt for ,B ri t ish policy in frica and for the United Nations . He 
said Britain was abdicating her responsibility by giIvEing independence 
to peop le not yet out of t he busg; Br i t ain just dRid not know what was 
going on i n t Congo; he did not ca re what anAybody t hought , the Congo 
was next door to his country and he woul d Rgo on doing exactly what he 
was doing . And that was that . And l et Bus not fool ourselves . Tshombe 
has defied both the United Nations LandI the Congo Central Government 
precise l y because he has this pAowe rful backing f ro m Sir Roy Welensky and the Bel gians . Both have a vested interest in the mineral wealth 
o f Katanga . ONBut by far t he Mmost distressing aspect of this Katanga business was Dr . Cruis e O'IB rien ' s charge that Britain and France had tried to sabotage U. r . operations in Katanga . These charges could be and were 
dismissed unWtil J.' tr . Nehru, the Indian rime Mi n i ster , confirmed them . 
It is notU so easy to dismiss t hem now . Under pressure from the Rhodesians 
and t he Belgians , it is charged , the Fr ench and British have tried 
to obstruct the U. . operation and t h is has encouraged Tl9.hombe in his 
defiance . Because the United States would have no part in this mi serable 
business Belgian crowds have stoned the U. S . Enbassy in Brussels . 
The tragedy of t h is business is t hat the authority of the Unit ed 
ations is now in 9.anger and the fault this t i me , lies with us , not 
t!' ~,._,,-. 
the Russians . Go odni t . 
--•-i-•--t,1 ----- - ----- -- __ _ ...,.,_,_ ._,_, '""""'"-""_...£..VJ 
EWS COM 'iE:NT Y 
For transmission on 
Thursday ec 14 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : I am very glad indeed to see that the Government 
had decided to g~NDEX set up a Commission to inquire into  two r ecent some 
cases where the police - or , rather , axx~gx±~Nxof it memSbers ,- were 
charged with ill- treating prisoners in their custody .E Some of you may 
remember that I suggested that this line of ac tioRn bIe taken in my commentary of Friday , December the l st o Of coAurse , I was not the only one who suggest ed this; ther e wer e many otRher people who felt jus t as strongly about thi s . And I thi nk both Mr . Gr aham Perki ns and t he 
everend ron~er d i d t he n ire J amLaiIcBan commun i ty a very great service by their prompt and v igor ous protest s : and so a l so di d the 
daily press which gave their pArotest s great prominence . So I think we 
might fairly and truthfullyN say that the gover nment decision to set 
up this commission was Oin answer to responsible and concerted pressur e 
from representativ eMs of all sections of the Jamaican community . And that is a very gIood t hing . It is good that the community should have 
reacted as iWt has; it is good that press and radio reacted as they have; anUd it is good that the government has been sufficiently sensitive and sufficiently big to respond creatively to these pressures . 
Giving in to public pressure on a matter like this is not a sign of 
wealmess . It is a sign of strength; it is a sign that our democratic 
institutions are in a state of good health; t bat our legis lators are 
responsive to public feeling . And it is in this spirit t hat I should 
like to see all of us approach the enquiry . 
There is one thing I hope we will not do , because I t hink it woulc 
be most unfortunate . I hope we will not now , or as a result of what 
comes out of the enquiry, condemn the entire police force for the 
2 
misdeeds of a small minority in that force . There is a danger that 
some people may be inclined to do this . 
It is unfortunately true that many of us still see the police 
as the enemy . This is part of the hangover from colonial days when the 
police were in fact the guardians and ag nts of an externally imposed 
' law and order' , when it was t heir business to see that we  obeyed the 
rules made for us by others from outside . In those daysS it was almost 
inevitable that there should be hostility and suspicIiEon between the 
police and the ordinary citizens . R
And it is equally true of course t hat thAere are ma~y people within 
our police force who still have the colonRial outlook on the duties 
and functions of a policeman . They LfeIeBl they have to threaten and frighten us into obedience, that  they have to bully abd baton us into 
J submitting to the law . Both thAese views, t hat of the citizens who see 
the police as the enemy, anNd that of the police who still feel they 
are agents of some alieOn master , both these views are completely out 
of date . What has  lMed to the persistence of these out-of- date views has been the tendIency on the part of the government and the police 
high commandW to protect the police from public criticism and public enquiry uUntil some really nasty crime forced them into a court of law . I hope x xt±~E Sir lfred Rennie's enquiry will put an end t o 
t h is state of affairs o I hope that a s a result of it the citizens and 
t he police will see HR~Mx~x re~ that we must depend on each other in 
hard 
the/kxM and difficult business of building an orderly society based on 
the rule of law and t he sacred dignity of every man, no matter how 
humble . Goodnight . 
-E,i S CO Iii TARY 
For transmission on 
Fr iday Dec 15 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : If the report in Wednesday ' s edit ion of the Star 
is correct then Mr . Mi~lard Johnson and his People ' s Politi cal Part y 
had a rough time on Friday evening of last week when they h eld a public 
meeting on the Spanish Town Road . According to the repoSrt ·members of 
the audience took strong objection when P .P .P . sRpeakIe
Ers attacked Sir 
Alexander Bustamante and the Jamaica Labour PAarty . The report says that people demonstrated noisily and speaker after speaker was heckled was 
s o persis t ently that what xk ~ said couldR not be heard at times . The 
report says the demonstration got worIsBe when Mr . J ohnson himself took 
the mi:kl!! microphone and declared :  L"No brown man in this country mean 
you any good . " pparently a vAoice from t h e audience then yelled t bat 
Busta had been here with thNe people from 1938 and t hat! • Johnson 
had just come . 
the whole poinOt in telling you this 'ow/i:tx±EXN~ txMmJX1:fflX~ll!IEEXXll!IXXl!!XXXJ~H is because I think it carries a very imI portant lesson for ever y would- be po l itician , especial l3 
for every yoWung man who has pol itical ambitions . And I think it i a a lesson thUat could be of very great benefit to Mr . Johnson if he really intends to build a polit ical car eer f or himself bt here in J amaica . 
And the lesson , stated baldly , is this : any young man who wants t o 
bui ld a political career in Jamaica today must know something of the 
Jamaican past and the road by which Jamaica came to where it is today . 
For any young man to behave as though there was nothing before he 
appeared on the scene , is to invite disaster . To dismiss the old 
leaders as though they have done nothing, or as though their contributior 
was slight and unimportant , shows EWMll!I± two things : first , it shows a 
lack of a sense of history; and , second, it is a dismissal of what 
2 
might be an i mportant piece of the history of a people . 
Certainly, in the case of J amaica, you cannot dismiss Busta and 
Manley without , in a sense also dismi ss ing all t hat happened in Jamaica 
b et ween 
!~ the years 1938 and 1961 . Very important things did happen between 
t hose years , whether you appr ove of them or not . And again ,  whether 
you approve of t h em or not , Busta and Manley were t he dSominant 
political figures on the scene between these years . IAEnd , br again , 
whether you like it or not , t hese years and wAhatR these men did in these years are now forever enshrined as part of J amaican h istory . And so 
it seems to me that when t he audience proRtested against the attacks 
on Busta on Friday night of last week Bthey were also protesting, 
the rejecItion of 
instinctively perhaps , against/th eL history of t heir past s truggl es 
and t he leaders of t hose pas t Astruggles . And to me t his shows a 
political maturity and a seNnse of h istory which many a leader or 
would-be l eader can leaOrn from . try and 
It is not necessary to/comp l etely wipe out the past . The wi se 
man takes all thIa t Mis best fro m the pas t and builds on it . He rej ects 
only t h e badW. And i n the same way t he ambitious young politician would be wise Uto acknowledge t he contribution made by the old leaders . He will build on it, and he will honour them for what they have done , and 
t hen he will carry t he torch until he, too , hands it over to a new 
generation of young l eaders suited to the new times - But this approach , 
like all genuinely creative effort , is mu ch harder and demands more 
i s 
than mer ely denouncing and t earing down . But it/iRXNBf t he only road 
to r eal greatness . Goodnight . 
~ J l\.eep uea,::,n urr 1,ne tloaa.s 
NEvvS CO 1J · \TT RY 
For transmission on 
Saturday Dec 16 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter brahams speaking 
Good evening : There are only eight days more to go to Christmas . 
The spirit of the season is on us and already fireworks are  going off 
and the round of Chr istmas parties are in full swing . EThSis is of course one aspect of t he spirit of Christmas and it is an aspec t to 
which all of us look forward for a whole year , and sIo we tend to let 
ourselves ' go' over the Christmas season . AR
But there are creatures for whom ChriRstmas is a dreadful time of 
year . There are cats and dogs and donkBeys and other creatures for 
whom Christmas is a time of r eal terroIr . I am sure most of you have 
seen dogs and cats running in utte rL and desperate terror , without 
knowing where they are runningA t o, while bangers explode all about 
t hem . The animals in mOy faNmily are pretty isolated but even so , we always have to let them into our bedroom , especially on New Years 
Eve , when the fireIw oMrks start on a hill wtiich is at least a couple of miles away from us . It is pathetic to see the utter panic wbich 
~rips them . WAnd surely, it is not part of the spirit of Christmas 
to drive Uother living creatures into a state of wild terror . 
And this terror becomes worse where little boys think it is great 
fun to fling fireworks at dumb creatures just to see how they run . nd 
it is unfortunately true that there are quite a few grown- ups 1-rho also 
go in for this sort of thoughtless cruelty . 
Now , I am not suggesting that anybody should be deprived of the 
f un of letting off fireworks . Let off your fireworks by all means . 
> ( 
\ 
But please let them off in your backyards . And if you h ave animals , 
get your animals indoors and r.eassure them . And if parents will tell 
2 
their children of the utter misery suffered by ch ildren , I am sure the 
children wi ll be more thoughtful and protective . The cruelty of 
children generally stems from ignorance and it is up to parents to 
telli t hem what is involved . But perhaps the b est thing of all i s for 
t he father of the family to personally supervi se the l ottin g off of 
fireworks . In this way we ensure t ha t the kids themselveSs do not come 
to grief and no harm is done to either property or cIrEeatures . In my 
family we have solved t he problem by just not usRing bangers . We have 
encouraged our chi l dren over t he years to be Autterly contemptuoys of 
the ' big noise '. Instead , we have a great Rdeal of fun with sparklers , 
catherinewheels , shooting stars , rainboBws and all sorts of multi- coloured 
fireworks that never let off a s ingLl eI bang . So why not try a noiseless 
fireworks display this year . YAou  mi ght find it much more fun than just making loud noi ses . 
Finally, a word about Nro ad traffic . Let us face it, most of us 
drink a lot more a t ChrOistmas than at any other time of t he year . And 
it is generally aIf tMer we have a few under the belt that we tend to be a lit tle recWkless . Of course, we do not see it as recklessness at the time . We Ua l ways feel in completej control; in fact we generally feel that we are more in control and so we tend to take chanc es t hat we 
wou l d not normally take . That i s the real danger. So p l ease , l e t us 
take it easy t h is year . Both you and I know exactly what to do . So l e t 
us do it and keep death off the roads t h is Chris tmas . Goodnight . 
........ .... _..Lo _ ~ ... -· V\.A.Ol,,,.4, ...... ..... V .J,,.,i. ,i.U.J-'-"" 
-·- ✓---
Ev. S C y 
For transmi s s ion on 
Monday Dec 18 a t 6 . 15p . m 
eter brahams speaking 
Go od evening: The news of t h e Indian military at tack on Goa, Damao 
and Di u poses a most interesting problem in polit i cal moral ity . The 
Brit ish Go vernment and practically the entire Briti s h rSess h ave 
condemned India as an aggressor . The United States IgEovernment has exp es sed ' strong disappr oval' . And most We s ternR ropean countries, like France , Holland Belgium and Spain , have f ollowed the Anglo - American 
lead and denounced. India as an agresso.r againAst Portugal . On the 
other side, the Sovi _et Union ha expres sedR suppor t f or the Indian 
mi l i t ary action , and it is r easonablyI cBertain t hat India will get 
support f rom RXEX mo st, if not al lL, of the f ro-Asian and Latin 
erican countries . Fo r this Ar eason I ex ect the ortuguese to suffer 
a major politica l defeat whNen they raise t h is matter in the United 
Nat i ons . But be that aOs it may , we s till have the picture of. one condemning 
group of nat ionsI/E xMam:N±xg the Indian a ction as naked military agression; while another group of nations see it as an act of liberation . So , wherE 
do we go f romW h ere? How do we sort out this busin ess ? Is India the 
agressor Uor the liber aor? 
To get at any sort of reasonab ly unprejudiced answer we need first 
of all to get at the fac t s . 
The fir st f act is the phys i cal 1.a$i mt location of these enclaves . 
11 of t hem are on t he wes t coast of India . Goa , the largest of them , 
is 250 miles south east of Bombay and it is the main trading and 
business centre fo r ortuguese interests in what is known as ' PortuguesE 
India' . Damao is the s econd in size and it is roughly 100 miles north 
of Bombay . And Diu is a relatively tiny island just off the coast, 
roughly 130 west of Damao . Altogether these three enclaves have a total 
2 
land area of 1 , 540 square miles , and with a population which is estimated 
at about 640 , 000 . The chief exports of the enclaves are coconuts, 
fish , salt , spices , caju- nuts and copra . 
The majority of the people are Indian with only a handful of 
Portuguese administrators and businessmen . The great majori ty look and 
live and behave and make their living like all the rest Sof India ' s 
400- odd millions . They speak the Indian language of ItEheir particular 
area , but instead of English as the sort of seconRd language , Portuguese 
is the second language . So in Goa which has mAuch more than four- fifths 
of the total popul ation, the main languageR is Marathi , with Portuguese 
as the second language for the educatedB classes and the business 
community . In reli gion the majorityL oIf the people of India ' s west coast 
are Hindu, and so the majority in the Portuguese enclaves are also 
indu . And, as elsewhere you aAlso have a small smattering of Christians 
small group 
and ~oslems ; but whereaOs thNi s/xmx±%~xn~x of Christians tend to be Catholics mainly protestants Min the rest of India , they are/f~~n~MEKE in Goa, Damao and Diu .  
So whatW we dIo in fac t have is this position : Goa , Damao and Diu are natuUrally , logically and historically , physical parts of India, not cut off or separated in any way . The people are Indian in cultural, in 
language, in race , and in the way they earn their living from the Indian 
soil . The one big difference is that centuries ago the Portuguese 
colonisers took thses bits of land from a politically divided India 
and called them ' ortuguese India '. The question now is, ' Has the governmen 
of a united India the moral right to get back these bits of land by force 
We ' ll look at this question tomorrow . So till then , goodnight . 
-IDt-1s co -1 TTARY 
For transmi ssion on 
Tuesday Dec 19 at 6 . 15p . m 
· eter Abrahams speaking 
Go od evening : I ended my comments last might with this question : 
1 Has the government of India the moral right to get back these RN~xaxEx 
Portuguese- hel d enclaves by force? ' In other words, is the  Indian 
mi litary 
government morally right in i t 0 /attack on what t he Ih stoSry and geograpry books ca ll ' ortuguese India? ' E
In the main , opinion in the United St ates anRd the West says no , 
India was not right . And people who have nReveAr liked ] r . Nehru, and heaven knows there are very many of theBm in the West who dislike every-t h ing about him , these people have seIized on t his attack to call him 
two - faced, a fraudulent moralist a nLd all sorts of other nas ty names . 
Nehru , they say , i s always lecAturing t he 1,'lestern world about political I 
morality and now he has revNealed himself as no better and in some ways 
worse than those he lecOtured . I am inclined not to take these peopl e 
too seriously . I  amM not s sr~ing t h e i r vi ews s hould be dlsmis sed out of hand but I thIink they suffer from such vast prejudice that we must 
discount morWe than half of what t h ey say . These are the people who damned thUe Israe lis for the capture and trial of Adolph Eichmann . Their sense of justice and morality is terribly one- sided . Few of t hem had 
raised their voices against the slaughter of 6 , 000 , 000 Jews . But how 
they clamoured about legality and Justice and [orality when this mass 
murderen was sp irited out of r gentina to Israel . 
I would have taken t he bitter protests of these peopl e much more 
seriously today if t hey had s hown the same rare concern when India 
Goa 
did in fact try to settle t his/ bus iness peaceful way back in 1957 . 
In t hat year the government of India invited t he Portuguese government 
to negotiate a settlement of t he ortuguese enc laves . But t he Portugues e 
2 
r e jected t h i s attempt of a peaceful settlement out of hand . Those 
pieces of Indian so il , they sai d , were i ntegral parts of Portugal and 
no nonsense . They were not pr epar ed t o negotiate over ' Portuguese 
India '. And neither Brita in nor Fr anc e nor the United St ates used 
their influence to persuade ortugal . And ther e was no b i g  press 
campaign or clamour of publ ic opi n ion telling the PortugSuese t hat 
t he age of empi res was dead . Thi s left Indi a wi t h twoE alter natives : 
she could either ac c ept the fac t that part of her XBIE~~xx t erri tory 
must forever be held by the or tuguese or e l s e sRhe could act on her 
own to free it . ow she has a cted . But pRl eaAse note t hat she did not just act immediately a ft er ortugal r ejected her cal l fo r negotiations . 
For four years , bet ween 1957 and eceImBber 1961 s he tried peaceful 
means . It was only after t heseA fa ilLed that she resorted to f orce . So if. we say t hat India had no mora l right to resort to fo rce then we 
are also saying that PoOrtugNal has a moral right to hold on to Indian soil for as long as she likes , or forever . We may not intend it that 
way but that is hIo wM it would work out in r eality . And so we come right back to the questi on of morality in politics . 
t the Wbest of times there i s very li ttle morality in politics . 
CertainlyU absoluteX political morality i s almost comp l etely impossible 
for governments . Within this limitation , it seems to me t hat India 
moral 
has a x.ex;JC vastly MN~ s tronger /case than Portugal . We ma;y; r egret t hat 
mos t 
she had to r esort to violence, but the oldest and now the/w:n1rx :s: backwar 
of t h e world's colonial powers f orced her to it . And t hat , of course , 
is t he r eal problem of political morality in our modern worl d . 
Goodnight • 
• 
Hl!S CO 1NE.\TARY 
For transmission on 
Wednesday Dec 20 at 6 . 15p .m 
eter brahams speaking 
Goo d evening: When the Bill provided for a pensions scheme for ~ NJ 
t he members of our House of Representatives was fx~sx passed last 
Wednesday , I wondered just what public reaction woul d beS. Pe opl e in 
all countries tend to be very suspic ious and very crIiEtical of their po liticians . They always expect t heir politicians to pull a fast one, 
and they sort of nerve themselves for i t. And theRy are particularly 
suspicious and on the alert when politicians Araise the ir own pay , or 
bui l d a new canteen, or give themselves anRy a llowanc e or set up a 
pensions s cheme for themselves . And IthBis is as true of Jamai ca as it 
i s of all countries where people f rLeely elect t hei r governments and 
enjoy freedom of speech . 
\ A
Some of you may still Nremember the general reaction to the 
proposal to raise the sOalaries of Ministers . Nobody objected to the 
fact that some civ iMl servants were drawing more pay than the !-'.:inisters under whom they sIerved . But many peopl e felt it somehow wrong f or t e s 
Ministers to increase their own pay . And yet you lmow , if some o f t hese 
people haUd sWtayed in private business or gone into it, many of them might have earned fonr and five and ten tir.1es what they get as Ninisterr . 
And it is a simple fact that any private individual who runs a private 
one of 
business with a staff about the size of/our smalle t ministries 
generally gets more pay and a whole heap more fringe benefits than 
the most senior of our .inisters of Government . So any man who is reall: 
out to make money wo~ld be a fool to go in fo r politics in Jamaica . 
Indeed , I do not know of any country which is not a dictatorship in 
which any man has made a great fortune out of politics . Possibly the 
best paid of the politicians are the members of the United States 
2 
Senate, but even there I do not know of a single Senator making a 
fortune out of his political income . Of course, there have been the 
crooked politicians who have used their positions to make large sums 
on the side . But I am not thinking of these now: I am thinking of 
straight and hones t earnings in the form of salary and al lo wamnces. 
And the fa c t is t hat mos t po l i ticians end up as poor menS, o"'ten a 'te-
a lifetime of service to their country . And yet , in Espite of this 
hard fact, we all still tend to be suspic i ous evRer y Itime our politicians try to improve their wages and conditions/ ofA work . 
d quite frankly , I think this i s a Rvery healt1y attitude - if 
we do not carry it too far . It' ink it Bis go od for them to know that 
we are watching them : they will then Ibe careful of what they give 
themselves . But I think we doA no t Lwant to overdo it . If we create an atmosphere in which they arNe too scared of the voters to give themselves dece t pay and conditioOns, we mig tend up with a situation in which only people of inferior abil1ty, people who can ot make the grade in 
any other big job , Mgo in for politics . And then we wi ll have only the 
second- raters andI  the quality of the political life of the country 
might sufferW seriously . 1·le do not want politics to be only a rich man's 
businessU. And so I am all for this pensions scheme , espec i.ally since 
they themselves ars going to contribute to it . But ofcourse what we 
do want is not just a pensions scheme for oliticians . We want a nationa] 
pensions scheme for every working person in this country so t hat every 
person will be able to spend the last years of treir lives in freedom 
from want after a lifetime of work . Goodnight . 
~ Ews COI\/!1,:i.Ei_\ T y 
For trans ission on 
Thursday Dec 21 at 6 . 15p . m 
eter Abrahams speaking 
Go od evening : I hope you will Jmit agree with me that politics 
and the problems of t he world should be put aside for the n ext few days . le have these things with us all the year round and I think it 
is a good thing to ge t away from them for a few days - aSnd what better 
few days than over t he Christmas season . IE
I am afraid some of us are getting to t hAe poRint where Christmas is seen as the most hectic weekend of the year , something you prepare 
for with a kind of desperation . More DoneRy is spent , more fo od is 
eaten , more liquor is consumed . TherIe Bare times when I have felt , 
over the pas t few days, t hat we a reL not very far from a straight 
commercialisation of ChristmasA: it is the merchants' peak selling \ J 
period - he can do more busNiness and show a greater turnover than at 
any other time of t he yOear . You know the line: ' To daddy can afford 
not to give h is baby t his super- duper □achine ' or ' Mr . Y is g iving !Ii s . 
Y this superb seIt  oMf so - and- so . See the stars in Mrs . Y's eyes . If 
you want to Wsee stars in her eyes @o like Ir . Y.' It is the big sale; it is big business . 
And Uin the last few days I have seen the big sale going on with 
people getting bad tempered and rude to each other . Although trade is 
not as brisk as t he merchants would like it to be , the i pace is still 
hectic for their shop assistants . And when you have been on your feet 
all day , and you are tired and you are worrying about your own 
Christmas shopping , and about how to make ends meet , you end up being 
,not exactly in the most tolerant or friendl;t frame of mind . And so when 
a customer walks in who is difficult and demanding , you may suc:idenly 
lose your temper and snap at them . 
2 
But it is not only the shop assistants whose tempers are frayed . 
The n erves of t he customers are in pretty bad shape too . woman who 
has spent hours going from place to place trying to get exactly what 
she wants at exactly the price she can pay , will gradually build up 
an irritation . She is tired; she is hot and sticky; crowds h ave bumped 
into her; the traffic has been impossible ; the children Sare waiting a t 
, home; there is dinner to be prepared . It all builds Eup to a very 
unpleasant view of the world . And when the shop assiIstant seems to be 
taking her time , or i gnoring the customers, the wRoman may suddenly 
flare up in anger . A
In the course of one afternoon I haveR witnessed at least four 
such violent flar eups between cus tLomIer
Bs and shop assistants . And it 
is a sad and depressing sight Ato see to women snapping and snarling at each other in public plaNces , and saying cruel and hurtful things that they would not dream of saying normally . 
a then of courseO there are the buses . They all seem to be 
running behind scIh eMdule round about this time . And so they bull t heir way through traffic and leave passengers behind , loaded with parcels. 
And the cyclWests and the motorists are all in a gr eater hurry than ever 
before . AUnd so we have everywher e a desperate and dangerous and bad-
tempered scramble with no thought for each other . 
I think it is time we stopped and took stock . Ne are approaching 
Christmas more in the spirit of a Pagan Bazaar , and we are wrong . 
Christmas especially is a time for thoughtfulness, for friendliness, 
for helpfulness . And the gr eat social lesson is to love t hpf neighbour . 
Good.-.vi i ght . 
No . 304 The Red Hills Rod 
NEWS COMMENTARY 
for tr nsmission on 
Friday 22nd at 6 :15 p. m. 
Peter Abrah _ms spe king 
Good evening : I travel up and down t he Red Hi lls road 
every day. I t is t he way to work from home in the morni ngs 
and the W? Y home from work in the evenings , and s o atS the 
very least I make the trip once a day . Of t en I have to do it 
t wice or even three times . And there is a sectioInE of the Red 
Hills road which is just about the worst piece of roadway I 
kn ow in the corpora te area . This section of tRhe Red Hills 
Road begins when you leave Dunrobi n Avenue Aand go under the 
bridge . It runs all the way unti l you Rget to the Consolidated 
Bakery. It i s a series of potholes , Bof sandbanks , and of 
treacherous bumps . I think th,  .t liIttle stretch of road cause s more damage to cars than anyA othLer short stretch of road that I know of in the whole Corpora te Area . 
And the worst part of it begins at the bridge below 
Salford Avenue and ruOn s aNll thew y to the Bakery . The bridge below S lford Avenue ha s been closed down for nearly half a 
ye ar now and all travellers to Red Hills h veto make a detour 
through twi s tinIg  Mroads , in a built up area which was not planned to t ke such heavy traffic . An d the work on this bridge is so 
slow th t Wit looks a s though it might rem, in closed for another 
half ye ar . Every s ingle resident of Red Hills I have spoken to 
is bittUer in his or her criticism of the snail ' s p ce at whi ch 
the work has been going on . 
Below the closed down bridge we get wha t can only be des-
cribed as just about the most up and dovm road ever found on 
rela tively level 1 nd . The road bounces f r om a ri s ing into a 
dip, then up to another rising , an d back into another dip again. 
( And this goes on and on until you reach t he bakery . After the 
\ 
( r ain this rising and falling becomes even worse because we now 
have deep poo l s and rutted sandbanks to cope with as well . 
And all this adds up to just about a s n sty an d dangerous a 
2. 
piece of road s you could wish not to be on. 
Work is now going on on the road. It is being widened . 
The worlanen are putting up concre te pavements almost right 
up against the walls of buildint,ss on the right going down , 
so it looks as though we will on ly have a pedestrian sidewalk 
on the left, but perhaps this ce~not be helped since we  will 
h veto have a wider road if the Red Hills Rock Hall Sarea is 
to get a decent bus service . And certainly, Red Hills i .n 
particular is in very great need of a decent bus IsEervice . 
A growing number of young men and women come Rdovm from Red 
Hills to jobs in F.ingston . At the moment Athey are dependent on a single country bus which mak es the journey from the 
distant fastnesses of Sligoville . ThisR bus makes only one 
journey down in the morning , and if Bit is late or breaks down, 
all our young men and women risk loIsing their jobs . This is 
serious enough. But we also ha vLe the problem of children who 
h ve won scholarships to secondary schools in Kingston . .A.nd 
they are in a mess if theN buAs is late or kind motorists do not give them lifts . I kOnow of at least one school which sends them home if they are late. 
So in the interest of both work and education we need a 
decent bus servIi cMe. And for that we need a decent road . And just widenWing the road without also fillin g out the rises and the dips is not going to solve our long term problem. As 
long as these rises and dips exist the Red Hills road is going 
to be aUlmost impossi bl.e after .:s!¼.e rain . All the taxpayers money 
spen t on it , will go down the drain . So let us also have a 
levelling of the Red Hills Road, Ple8se . 
Goodnight . 
No 305 Th Christ a s Story 
-l COMM T.ARY 
for t rnnsm. i ss i on on 
S'1-turd ,y 23rd a t 6: 15 p . m. · 
Pet r brahams speak :ing 
Good evenings I th ink that one of the best Christmas:; stories 
I have come across is to be found in t h~ Dece ber issue of the  
Reroer 1 s Digest . .And l ike all good Christmas stories it isS a 
children ' s story; it is the story of how a ch ild reacteEd to the 
oldes.t and most :iJllportant situa.tion for every true chrIis ti~ . 
As usual t this t:iac of yea:r many schools a.Rre putting on the 
Nativity play and so this story could be set iAn J amaica or it coul d 
bit s.et :in Africa or any country of tIhBe woRrld . 1t is universal . 1t iG the stoI'"IJ of the Chr i sLtmaa Pageant . 1t is. also the atory of ev r y littl e boy, and ev Ary little girl . 1t is the story of a child anywh .re .m the wNorld who comes from , ho e wh ich is t ruly christ fan . •rhe child ' s pu.rents. ar not rich but f ther has :.. job 
and so t hey mlil.TI.age Oto 1ake thin w r out . T1 t.. i s e1 ou 
t h · y 1..::.1 e ;:; Ic l tM r and there is a sense of s.ecurity :in the family. it is a hospitable familyJ a family which never turns away the 
atrangWer, a family in wh ich the paren,ts live out t heir christian 
beUliefs. They help t he ir neighbours :in any way they can. They think 
and speak well of their neighbours . They show no envy, no malice, 
and no bitterness towards t hose who have more t han they have; and 
they do not look down with acorn on thoae who have less than they have • 
.And so the child grows up wit h a true christian spirit . Nobody 
tells it t hat t h is is the true christian sp irit . There are no high-
sounding lectures :in the fam ily . Mother and fat her live a good life . 
2 
And it is this child who is selected to play the part of the 
lmkeeper in the school's Nativity play. The ch ild is excited about 
the play but becomes unhappy when it d i s covers t hat it i s to tell 
Mary and Joseph that there is no room at t he .lm when they knock on 
t he door to try and find a place to res_t and sleep. And through oout 
the rehearsals the ch ild always burs t into tears when it EreaSched the point where i ~ had to turn away Mary and Joseph. The tIeacher coul d ./ 
not undersif ~ t he reason for t h i s odd behaviour and so t he teacher 
/, , . DII 
,t.12...[.,,l,.,JU-... 
tried to find out why t he ch ild always wept a t AthisR point . 'IC explain-/\ ✓ 
ed tha t nobo_g,y at its home , neither its moRther nor its father had ever ' turned anybody away from their door . ITBhe tea cher understood but the pl ay had to go on,and so t he teacher expla ined t hat nobody was r e ally 
being turned away . This was Aonly  mLake belief. The child t ried to accept this explanation, Nbut it still was not very happy . The world of r eality an ' t h e wOorld of make bel i e f are often t he same for a child . t l ast the day o.f t he performruwe came . C1he s chool was p acked 
wi th parentsI.  anMd ch ildren, and. everybody was excited . The curtail vrnn t up and t here was Mary and Joseph standing in front of t he 1m lmocking 
at the dWoor. The door opened and the little innkeeper looked out a t 
themU and sa:id in a most unhappy voice II I am s orry t here is no room a.t 
the Jm" and t hen he added in a sudden burst o f fr iendliness "But 
won I t you come in and have a drink . " Goodni ght. 
.. 
NO . 306 The Me aning of Christm s 
L 
' NEWS COMMENTARY 
for transmission on 
Monday 25th at 6 : 15 p . m. 
Peter Abrahams speaJ{ing 
Good evening : To me Christmas and the meaning of Ch ristmas 
is summed up in these two stgries from the Gospel according 
to Luke in the very beautiful tr nslation of Ronald EKn oSx • .L.,. - ~ k \[~ 
It happened that a decre e went out at · this t i mIe from the 
Emperor Augustus , enjoining that the whole worlRd ~hould be regis-
tered; this register was the first one made during the time when 
Cyrinus was governor of Syria. All must go anAd give in their names 
each in his own city , and Joseph beinIg ofR David ' s clan and fami ly came up from the town of Nazareth ,L in BGalilee , to David ' s city in Judaea , the city called Bethle hem , to give in his name there . With him was his espoused wifeA Mary , who wa s then in her pregnancy, .. and it was while they were still there th t the time came f or her 
de l ivery. She brought f orNth a son , her first born, whom she wrappe d in his swaddl inOg cl othes , and laid him in a manger, because t here was no room for them in the Inn . 
In the same c oMuntry there were shepherds awake in the f ields , keeping night waItches over their flocks . And all at once an angel of the Lord Wcame and stood by them , and the glor y of the Lord shone about them , so tha t they were overcome with fear •• But t he angel s aid to tUhem , Do not be afraid , behold I bring you good news of a gre a t rejoicing for the whole pe ople . This day in the city of 
David , a Saviour has been born for you , The Lord Christ hi mself . 
This is the sign by which you are to know him; you will f i nd a 
child still in swaddling clothes , lying in am nger . Then , on a 
sudden a multitude of the heavenly army appeared to them at the 
angel ' s side , giving praise to God , ands ying, Glory to God in 
high he aven , and peace on earth t o men that are God ' s friends ." 
And the second is the story of the Good Samaritan. 
Ith ppened once that a lawyer rose up, trying to put him to the 
\. test ; Master he said , what mu s t I do to inherit etern al life? 
Jesus asked him, Wh tis it tha t is writ t en in the law? 
Wh tis thy re ding of it? And he answered, Thou shalt 
2 
\T 
love the Lord thy God with the love of thy whole heart , and thy 
whole soul , and thy whole strength, and t hy whole mind; and thy 
neighbour a s thyself . Thou hast answered right, he told him; do 
this and thou shalt find life. But he , to prove himself blame~ 
less, sked, and who is my neighbour? Jesus gave him t his 
answer ; A man who w s on his w y down from Jerusalem to Jeri co 
fell in with robbers, who stripped him, and be a t him, and w ent 
off leaving him half de ad . And a priest, who ch need toS be going 
down by thesame road, s aw him there and pas sed by on Ethe other 
side . And a Levite who came there saw him, and paIssed by on the 
other side . But a certain Samaritan , who was onR his travels, saw 
him and took pity on the sight; he went upR toA him and bound up the wounds, po-g.ring oil and wine into them, and so mounted him upon his own be ast, an d brought him to an inn , where he took care of 
him . An d next day he took out two siIlvBer pieces, which he gave 
to t he Innke eper, and s aid, Take caLre of him, and on my way home 
I will give thee wha tever else Ai s owing to thee for thy pa.i ns • Which of these thinkest thou , proved himself a neighbour to the 
man who had f allen in with the robbers? And he said, He that 
sheweth mercy on him . OThenN Je sus s aid, Go thy way and do thou likewise. GoodnighMt .  
UW
I
,,, 
NO . 307 Boxing Day 
NEWS COMMEN TARY 
for transmission on 
Tuesd y 26th a t 6:15 p. m. 
Peter Abrahams spe aking 
Good evening : I hope you have all had a wonderful and family 
Christmas and that today, Boxing Day, has been full of  restful 
fun. I know we all know the meaning of Christmas, Seven though 
some of us -may treat it as just anotherday for IbEig eating and hard drinking. But I am. not so sure that we Rall know how Boxing Day came by its name. I remember many BoAxing :Bays ago, when I was still an easygoing young bachelorR, a friend and I tried to find out just how Boxing Day came by its name . We had no 
reference books to look up and so we zmr«h«I« made up our o~n 
explanation, and it is one which IIB am still rather fond of . It 
went like this: throughout ChLristmas Day everybody was kind and 
thoughtful of everybody else.  People ha d too much to eat and 
drink and no exercise , NandA so , on the mornin g after Christmas, in the olden days, they used to work all the over- eating and 
drinking out of their system by turning that day into a sort 
of universal boMxingO ma tch . And all the people of the world spent that day boxIin g with each other, in a very nice and friendly sort of way of course : hence the name Boxing Day. 
That is of course not the true meanitjg¢and explanation . 
UIn Wall likelihood we can trace this feast day back to a time before christianity, though it was not called Boxing Day then. In the daysxa~ when the Romans worshipped the stars and the 
elements Saturn was one of the mightiest Roman Gods; and one of 
the greatest of the Roman feasts was called the Saturnalia, which 
was a monumental pagan binge of eating and drinking. On the day 
after this feast the Roman citizens gave parcels of the left- over 
food and drink to their sl ves and household servants . 
Later, during the early days of the Chri s tian era , boxes 
were put in churches and during the Christrn s Day services the 
we althy were invited to put t heir gifts f or the poor into these 
boxes. On t he morning after Christmas Day the priests opened 
the se boxe s and distributed the gi fts among the poor in the 
communi ty. 
2 
In those early days church offerings were not only in the 
form of money, and so I think it is reasonable to assume that 
real boxes rather than collection plates were needed . One could 
hardly put a chicken or a hunk of roast beef or a sucking pig 
in a collecting plate . 
From this , in feudal times developed the custom w here the 
baron or the squire, and their l adies of course , presented boxes 
of food on the day after Christmas to t he serfs an dS peasants 
who lived and worked on their estates. E
Still later, and nearer modern times, whenI serfdom gave way 
to wage labour, employers made up these CAhrRistmas Boxes and gave them to their employees on the day afRter Christmas . The day after Christmas was traditionally the dayx.mnddt~im:¢on which what 
we would now call 'the Haves' gave their gifts of food and clothing 
and the like to the ' have nots' . IIBt was the day on which the 
errand boy and the post man anLd the policeman on the beat 
received their Christmas BAoxe s from the grand ladies and gentlemen with the fine houses anNd beautiful carriages . It is only in relatively recent times that this ancient custom 
has changed and preOsents are given on the last working day before Christmas instead of on the day after Christmas. 
So, tradi~M~onally and historically , today ~the day of 
giving. TodayIx xx the day on which the boxes of good things to 
eat , t heW boxes of clothing,wikt handed out to the poor. But times changUe and the world in which we live is much more democratic . The poor are no longer a breed apart who must only celebrate after 
Chri stmas . Boxing Day is a reminder that this was not always so. 
Goodni ht. 
No 308 · Su.mm ry of the Yer : 
1s t Quarter 
-! "L, ~ ofi tl-~ 
NEWS COMMENT Y ~ ~~0--~~-
fo r t r nsmi ssion on 
We dne sday 27th at 6 :15 p . m. \.,---------------
Peter Abr ahams spe aking . 
Go od evening : I think it is time wee took stock of 
the year th tis f as t dying and pick out the high poi nts 
~ 
of t he news of the pa s t ~velve months . So let us Sspend the 
l a st f ew days of 196i in 'a s ort of survey of IthEis dying year . 
I n January I t hink the mos t important local political 
event wa s the br.eak between :Mrs. Rose LeonR and the Jamaica 
Labour Par ty. You will remember thaRt MArs. Leon resigned from t he J . L. P . on t he week- end beBginning Saturday J anuary 21st . At t he time t here s eemed grea t confusi on inside the Jamai ca Labour Party . On t he bIro ader West Indian scene 
Janu ry saw t he coming of fulLl internal self- gover nment to 
Barb dos an d t he emergence  of Mr . Peter D' Aguiar in British 
Guiana as t he first genuAine conservative le ading a conser-
va tive party . On t he Ninternational scene the very first week 
of 1961 opened witOh disturbing news f rom three cor ners of the earth. In f arM away South Eas t As i a t here was a running crisi s in LIao s with t he Communi sts warming up the cold war in a very confus ed an d confusing situ tion . Nearer home we had 
news ofW the break in diplomatic rela tions between the United Sta tUe s and Cuba. And from Belgium h~d come the news of an acute National crisi s with strikes, stree t - fi ghts and violence 
the loss of t he Congo ' s massive we alth. Finally one of the 
most importan t items of news on t he interna tional scene w s 
the inaugura t ion of Mr . John Kennedy as the thirty- fifth 
Pre sident of the United St tes on January 20t h . There were 
ofcourse other lesser items such as the 1 unching of Rose 
Leon ' s new par t y , the conflict between t he upper and lower 
Hous e s of our Parli ament a.p d t he ground- bre aking ceremony 
of the National Stadium. 
Febru r y opened wi th a s trong wave o f criti ci sm of the 
K. S • . C. and the Public Cleans i ng Department bec ause of 
2. 
the st te of our streets . In February too we h dour first 
bus strike of the year and the announcement of the Sugar 
Workers ' Pension Scheme . 
But possibly the most important t alking point in Jamaica 
in February wa s the sudden eruption of the race and colour 
question . 
On the international scene two topics dominated world 
headline . The f irst was the reces s ion in the United St a tes, 
the emergence of West Gennany as the we althiest and Smost 
powerful economic force in western Europe . E
The second was the death of Patrice LumumbaI. For Africa 
and indeed for the whole world this was the mRost important 
single event of t he month . Its repercus sAions were felt through-
out the world. There were demonstr tions at the United Nations 
and indeed in all the major citie sI Bof Rt he world. Right here in Kingston we h d a protest march through thecity . 
March began with the news Lof t he tumble of egg pr ice s to 
3/6. This was very welcome to  t he hous ewi ve s . And on March 6th 
the people of Ghan a celNebraAt e d their Independence Day which drama tised t he fantastic speed with which Africa was marching to 
Independence. In 1961 the total number of independent African 
st tes rose to tMwenOty-nine an d Africa became t he most powerful single bloc inI  intern tional affairs exerting the mo s t powerful influence of any group of na tions a t the United Nations . One 
of the reWsults of the new Afric a wa s the forcing of South Africa out ofU the Commonwealth . Here at home t he Governor opened the 1961-62 sess ion of the 
Parliament an d tow rds the end of the first quarter ·of t he year 
we were in the grip of a crippling s trike of government sub-
ordin te employees . 
I will continue t he survey tomorrow, so .till then, 
goodnight. 
·- The Second Quarter 
EWS COME TARY 
For transmission on 
Thursday Dec 28 at 6 . 15p . m 
Peter Abrahams speaking 
Go od evening: One of the most striking events of this dying 
year here in Jamaica was the great debate on the question of  race and 
colour discr imi nation . This debate r eached its peak duriSng the second 
quarter of t he year , between the months of pril , MayI Eand June . I am 
sure you all still remember the outlines of t~at Rdebate: it stirred up 
str ong pas sions i n large numbers of people . SoAme people insisted that 
there was r a c i al d i scrimination in amaicaR: others insisted that there 
was none : some were all for talking the Bwhole thing out ; others did 
not want to talk about it at all a ndL aIccused tho 0 e who did talk of it of building up racial hatred . OAn the whole t l1ose Jamaicans who were dark- ski nned and po or wantedN to talk about it; the light- skinned and well - off Jamaicans wanteOd to suppress the talk . Some of the light -skinned people even saw this debate as the beginning of bl .ck racialism 
taking over in JaIm aiMca, and a few of them packed up and sold out and left this island . Now that all the passion and fear has died down a 
little it shoWuld be possible to look back calmly and assess the value 
of t ~is dUebate . Was it a good thing or was it a bad thing? 
.iJow, we all know that compared to most countries in the world 
Jamaica is relatively free of racial discrimination . And in terms of 
the l!nglish- speakin~, world Jamaica is the freest where race and colour 
discrimination are concerned . That is the picture in comparative terms . 
But when you stop comparing the racial situation in Jamaica with the 
racial situation elsewhere then the picture is not all that perfect . 
Jamaica ' s racial picture is perfect when compared with that of South 
Lfrica or the United States . Bl:1.t the dark- skinned Jamaican boy or girl 
2 
who cannot get a job in a commercial bank or big insurance office , or 
the front office of some large commercial establishment, is not 
interested in comparing conditions with South frica or elsewhere . 
To him or h er this is discrimination based on colour, and no amount 
of comparative ar gument makes any difference to that facSt . A nd it is a fact . Eve~ to day, although this pattern is changing slowly, all 
you have t o do is wallt dovm King Street or Harbour SItEreet and look 
into the big stores or big offices . Wi th rare exRceptions the peop l e 
in the front off-ices, the people behind countAers, t he people at 
reception des ks , ·are light - skinned . ThBe dRark- skinned person with ability fac es. odds because of his or hIer dark skin . black gir l may be a very able secrtary but her ch aLnces of becoming the personal secretary to the manag ing director of the firm are so slim as to be 
almost non- existent . nd t he dAark- s k inned p erson knows t h i s and so 
he or she can.not pretend thNat this problem does not exist . It is easy 
for someone who is nMot Oa victim of this situation to deplore all this talk about race aIn d colour . Indeed for a long time all those who have benefitted frWom this situation have succeeded in suppressing all talk about racUe and colour . And we all s hared in t he deception t hat there is KHX no colour problem in Jamaica . It is not a big problem and it is 
not a difficult one to solve , but there certainly is a colour problem . 
In the second quarter of 1961 vrn began to face the fact of t his problem 
by talking about it . And the credit for starting us talking about this 
problem in the second quarter must go to Ir . r:illard Johnson . Tomorrow 
I will discuss the high point of the t h ird quarter of t l1 e year, so till 
then, goodnight . 
lo 310 Summary of the Year: 
The Third uarter 
.f Ev S CO 11,IEL T., RY 
For transmission on 
Friday Dec 29 at 6 . 15p .m 
eter brahams speaking 
Good evening: There is no question and no doubt about the high 
point of the third quarter of this year . On the 19th of Sep tember the 
people of Jamaica rejected federation firmly and decisivSely . That, both 
for Jamaica and for the ME:x:t other r;1lest Indian islanIdEs , was the high 
point of t h e quarter and the high point of thAe yRear . Years of planning and scheming and hoping and dreaming for tRhe creation of a unified nation out of ten scattered islands - ,B-rnre brought to nothing in a single day . t the time when we madeI this decision we saw it as our 
business only . We knew that it wa s Llikely to mess up the entire West 
Indies federation, but I do noAt think many of us saw much fu r ther than 
that . For instance , I do noNt think many of us realised fully the 
mas t er- plan to which BOritain was working and which made her so very 
anxious to see us  iMnside the federation . Now , looking back , we can see the unfcha.dinIg of that master plan a little more clearly . And we 
can also seeW how our decision has messed it up a little . U Britain had reached the po int where she could no longer sustain the role of a colonial power, even where some colonies 
seemed unwilling to be liberated . But even more important, the economi c 
and political pressures from a revitalised western 1!.urope , led by 
West Germany , were gettin g too much for her . 1)'hen the European Common 
Ilarket was first formed Britain was strong enough to refuse to join . 
t that time Sr' e said her associations with the Commonwealth made it 
impossible . She knew that she could not be both an integral part of 
the economy of :lestern Europe a.nd still play her traditional role in 
the Commonwealth . This was true when the Common J(arket was first formed 
2 
and it is still true today . And so, when Britain changed her mind and 
decided to apply for member ship of the Common Market, she knew that 
certain very clear results would flow from that decision . First, the 
nature of the Commonwealth was bound to change, and second , that in 
the long run the Commonwealth itself would fall apart . I Sthi nk we can now be pretty certain that Britain does not like t he idea of having 
to take this course of action . But she has no choiceI. EShe either joins 
Western Europe or else Western Europe would squeeRze her : it is a 
question of survival . d so she tried to setA her house in order before 
taking this decisivet step . She set aboBut Rliberating her colonies and dependent territories as quickly as poIssible . But she ran up against a snag in the Caribbean . There she  Lhad isaand. colonies that were too small and weak to achieve indepAendence on their own and t he f ederation seemed t he only way of getting rid of them in a neat and tidy manner . 
But we upset the applecOart Nby voting 'no ' on Septe!Ilber 19th . And so she was saddled witMh the problem of colonies that she no longer want ed . And as far as sheI  was concerned we in Jamaica were responsible for this messy state of affairs . I t h ink the decision to restrict migration is 
in part 
/4ne expreUssioWn of Britain ' s irritation with our decision . It is likely that this restriction would have come in any case . But I think our 
quitting the federation just brought it about a little more quickly . 
nd so the third quarter of the year¢, with the referendum as its 
high point , clarified our own new situation in the world and gave a fore -
warning of Britain's decision to be rid of her remaining colonies . It 
also heralded Britain 's turning from the Commonwealth and towards 
Wes tern Europe . Goodnight . 
WEdS COMY..E:£ T RY 
For transmi ss ion on 
,_ Saturday Dec 30 at 6 . 15p .m 
Pet er Abrahams speaking 
Good evening : This is the last working day of the l ast quarter of 
t he fast dying old year . d for most of us the wo r k ing day is over 
and we are getting ready for midnight tomorrow when we heral d in the new year . 
For us in Jamaica *XKXMfx ~ the high point of theE whSole of t his 
year was, of course, the r eferendum decision . But I think for the 
world as a whole 1961 will be remembered as the yRear when man first 
ventured into outer space . If there are men Aliving a thoueand years 
from now, and in spite of all t he alarms aRnd threats of war, it i s 
very likely that there will be : t hoLse ImBen wi ll look back at this year as a great turning point in the hi story of mankind . Indeed , t hose men 
of a thousand years from now wAi ll probably be alive because on Friday , 
1 pril the 7th, 1961, a 27 - yNear- old Russian airman naned Yuri Gagrin , 
was shot 200 miles out Ointo space, circled the earth like a g l owing 
star , and then was bMrought back to earth safely again . fter al l tl:e 
thousands of yearIs of his existence here on earth , man h d finally 
broken the bWond that tied him to the earth . It may take time; the casualty Urate may b"e high, t here may be many disasters; but now t hat he had taken t he first great leap forward, man is bound to conqueE 
space . That is his nature . It is part of r..an ' s nature to battle against 
the unl7... ".. 1.own until it becomes the known . That is how he battled a "•ainst 
the frozen death of the north pole until he mastered it . That is how 
frozen 
he is now battling against the vast/continent of antartica . -:any men 
have died in these battles but in t he end man h s triumphed • .And so it 
will be with the j ourney to the stars . 
And to the peopl e of a thousand years from now it would not matter 
2 
t hat the first man who ventured into space was a Russian . Because if 
if man survives for nother thousand years it will be because mankind 
has overcome its stupid and silly little prejudices of nationalisms 
and racialisms and all the other little isms which would reduce him 
to a cipher . So the peop l e of a thousand years f ro m now w 11 e peop e 
who travel t he slry-lanes between one star and another , and  t hey will 
not look at each others ' co lour . And much of t he his toryS of this perio d 
they will find primitive and barbaric . They will thinEk K of us as 
i gnorant and backward peop l e who spent our r esourcesI bui l ding up 
military strength whi le millions starve and go hRun~r y . They will t hink 
our cold war a silly , childish and dangeroRus Abusiness . But they will forgive us mu ch because ~Nu Gantlhi and Einsten lived i n our time : 
and one taught us morality and the otIheBr one t aught us scienc e . And 
they will forgi ve us because TAhom asL Mann wrote ' The Kag ic r1ountain ' an d ~ . M.FOrster wrote ' PassagNe to India ' in our time • . nd they wi ll forgive our other barbarisms because we a l so had poet s and singers 
who dr eame d gr eat dreamOs and sang sweetly . .t\nd then t hey wi ll say : 
"And it was in the Myear 1961 that those pri mitives finally broke t he and move 
grip of the eart hI  so that we may live/among the stars . 1 And they will 
bless us . W
The Uyear that is dying was a great year , ladies and gentlemen . y~ar of difficulty but also one of great achievement . I think our 
descendents of a thousand years from now wi ll feel quite proud of what 
,,...,as achieved this year . So , let us look at the stars at midnight 
tomorrow and salut e the future with pri de and hope . 
Go odnight .