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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
The presence of American bases and troops in the British Caribbean during the Second World War was the catalyst to an anti-Americanism which has continued to dominate political thinking in the area. This has been a rather ironic turn of events. Prior to the arrival of the Americans, there had been a growing sentiment among sections of the population for some sort of American take-over of the islands. After the Americans arrived, however, relations with the people of the islands soured. The idea of an American take-over died aborning, and by the end of the war, such ideas were no longer being entertained by the people of the British Caribbean. They were replaced instead, by an aggressive nationalism which called for self-government for the islands as an entity. Whereas in 1938, a British journalist could have written that “Trinidad (and Barbados and Jamaica) wants to be American,” it had long ceased to be true by the end of the war. A Trinidadian labor leader, at a regional conference in 1945, succinctly summed up the ideas of all of his confreres. “Whenever we pass into other hands,” he declared, “both hands must be our own.”
1 American bases were located on the islands of Trinidad, St. Lucia, Antigua, Jamaica and in British Guiana on the South American mainland.
2 Calder-Marshall, Arthur “Trinidad wants to be American”Living Age, 355(December 1938), 322–24.Google Scholar
3 The Barbados Advocate, September 20, 1945.
4 Calder-Marshall, Arthur Glory Dead (London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1939), p. 243.Google Scholar
5 CO 137/842. Richards, Jamaica to Secretary of State, September 28, 1940. Public Record Office, London.
6 Gomes, Albert Through A Maze of Colour (Trinidad: Key Pub., 1974), p. 57.Google Scholar
7 Calder-Marshall, , “Trinidad wants to be America,” p. 323.Google Scholar
8 844.34544/436 1/2. “Report of the United States Commission to Study Social and Economic Conditions in the British West Indies, November 13, 1942.” State Department Decimal Files, Record Group 59, National Archives, Washington, D.C. [hereinafter SDDF]
9 War College Group 100–12. War Plans Division of the United States Army, “A Strategic Study of Jamaica, 1940”. Military Intelligence Division of the United States Army Files, Record Group 165, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
10 Calder-Marshall, , Glory Dead, p. 245.Google Scholar
11 663 United States citizens lived in the British Caribbean in 1940. Consular Post Files, Trinidad, Box 114, Vol. 7, 1940; Consular Post Files, St. Lucia, 1940; Consular Post Files, Bridgetown, Barbados, 1940. Record Group 84, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
12 844.34544 1/2. “Report of the United States Commission, p. 95.
13 Ibid. p. 96.
14 Memo by Commander A.W. Radford for Chief of Naval Operations, June 19, 1941. Secretary of the Navy General Correspondence, Record Group 80, NAW. [hereinafter SNGC]
15 United States Consul, Port of Spain, to Secretary of State, March 18, 1942. CPF, Port of Spain, Box 118, Vol. 7, 1942.
16 For a study that is highly suggestive about colonial peoples and American soldiers during the Second World War, specifically in the Pacific theater, see Thorne, Christopher Allies of a Kind: The United States, Britain and the War Against Japan 1941–1945 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1978).Google Scholar
17 Caribbean Defense Command, Trinidad Base Sector, Historical Sector,“History of the Trinidad Sector and Base Command”, Ms. in the Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, Washington, D.C, 5:133.
18 Ibid.
19 American Vice Consul, Port of Spain, to the Secretary of State, January 27, 1942. CPF, Port of Spain, Box 118, Vol. 3, 1942.
20 Public Opinion (Jamaica), December 6, 1941.
21 Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, “Social and Political Forces in Dependent Areas of the Caribbean,” December 1944. Ms. in Box 953, CPF, Kingston, Jamaica, 1944, p. 171.
22 811.34544/3109. Naval Intelligence Report, "British Guiana: Strength and Effectiveness of Government: International Situation and Foreign Relations", July 21, 1943. SDDF.
23 811.34544/616. Letter from President, West Indian National Committee, New York, to Secretary of State, February 21, 1941, SDDF.
24 EF 13/44/1 14–1. “Communication from the FBI re Feeling of People of Trinidad on subject…Race Question, June 13, 1941” SNGC.
25 Newspaper clipping attached to 811.34544/3109, “British Guiana. …
26 Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, The Caribbean Islands and the War: A Record in Facing Stern Realities (Washington, D.C: Gov't Printing Office, 1943), p. 17.
27 844.00/153. Letter from Secretary, West Indian National Committee, New York, to the President of the United States, July 10, 1943, SDDF.
28 Office of Strategic Services [hereinafter OSS], File 19907. Letter from Trade Union Organizer, Albert Gomes to Dr. Field, Industrial Expert, AACC. Declassified with omissions 1/9/78.
29 844.00/274. United States Consul, Antigua, to Secretary of State, April 11, 1944. SDDF.
30 I-9C-15113. “Trinidad-Labor”, June 13, 1942. Office of Naval Intelligence Files, Record Group 38, National Archives, Washington, D.C. [hereinafter ONI].
31 United States Consul, St. Lucia, to Secretary of State, September 20, 1942. CPF.
32 C-10-M-25077. “Trinidad-Labor and Wage Situation During Construction of United States Bases”, March 16, 1944. ONI.
33 Selvon, Samuel Ways of Sunlight (London: Longmans, 1957).Google Scholar
34 OSS 19907. Letter to Dr. Field.
35 811.34544/2095. United States Consul, Antigua, to Secretary of State, May 1, 1942. SDDF.
36 Caribbean Defense Command, History, 5:134.
37 844D.4016/10. Naval Intelligence Report, “Disturbances in Jamaica”, June 18, 1943. SDDF.
38 Caribbean Defense Command, History, 1:285.
39 Ibid., 5:139.
40 United States Consul, St. Lucia, to Secretary of State, August 13, 1942. CPF, St. Lucia, to Secretary of State, August 13, 1942. Consular Post Files, St. Lucia, Vol. 8, 1942.
41 United States Consul, Jamaica, to Secretary of State, November 27, 1945, CPF, Kingston, Box 953.
42 Caribbean Defense Command, History, 5:28.
43 FO 371/26168. Governor, Trinidad, to Secretary of State for the Colonies, November 24, 1942. PRO, London, England.
44 Great Britain Statement of Policy on Colonial Development and Welfare, cmd.6175 (London, 1940).
45 For a further explanation of the Colonial Development and Welfare Legislation see Constantine, Stephen The Making of British Colonial Development Policy 1914–1940 (London, 1985).Google Scholar
46 Poole, Bernard The Caribbean Commission: Background of Cooperation in the West Indies (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1951), p. 147.Google Scholar
47 Ryan, Selwyn Race and Nationalism in Trinidad and Tobago (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972), p. 5.Google Scholar
48 C-10-j/24400. “Trinidad-Interview with A.C. Rienzi”, March 9, 1944. ONI
49 The Barbados Advocate, September 20, 1945.
50 Newspaper clipping in C-10-j/25064. “Adverse Reactions to Senators’ Resolutions”, September 13, 1944. ONI.
51 The Barbados Advocate, September 20, 1945.