Mr. Smith goes to Vienna: Britain's Cold War in the Caribbean 1951–1954

Abstract

The relationship between decolonisation and the Cold War strategies of the imperial powers is an area of study which requires further research. Events in the Anglophone Caribbean during the early 1950s illustrate this complex relationship by revealing both the extent and limitation of British Cold War campaigning in the imperial periphery. In particular, contacts between the Jamaican communist Ferdinand Smith and the World Federation of Trade Unions in Vienna prompted the British to conuduct a vigorous anti-communist campaign in the Anglophone Caribbean. However, British counter-action was restrained by fears that non-communist nationalist politicians would exploit the Cold War for their own ends.

Notes

Spencer Mawby is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the Univeristy of Nottingham. He is the author of Ordering Independence: The End of Empire in the Anglophone Caribbean 1947–1969. Email: [email protected]

¹ G. Horne, Red Seas: Ferdinand Smith and Radical Black Sailors in the United States and Jamaica (New York, 2005), ch. 9.

² Although the terminology varies to some degree this tripartism is evident in D. Philpott, Revolutions in Sovereignty (Oxford, 2001), chs 9–10; J. Darwin, ‘Decolonization and the End of Empire’ in R. W. Winks (ed.) The Oxford History of the British Empire Vol. V: Historiography (Oxford, 1999), 546–50; N. White, Decolonisation: The British Experience Since 1945 (London, 1999), ch 1; A. McIntyre (1997), British Decolonization (Basingstoke, 1998), chs 7–9; J. Springhall, Decolonization Since 1945, (Basingstoke, 2001), chs 1 & 8. By dividing metropolitan factors between economic constraints and a failure of will, Hyam generates ‘four main options’ in R. Hyam, Britain's Declining Empire (Cambridge, 2006), p. xiii.

³ M. P. Bradley, ‘Decolonization, the Global South and the Cold War’ in M. P. Leffler and O. A. Westad (eds), The Cambridge History of the Cold War Vol 1: Origins (Cambridge, 2010), 464–485; M. Berger, ‘The Real Cold War was Hot’, Intelligence and National Security 23/2 (2008), 112–126. Bradley' s contribution to The Cambridge History of the Cold War suggests that the influence of the superpowers on the global south was circumscribed by the impact of revolutionary anti-colonialism and the legacy of imperialism. Berger's review of some Cold War literature, including the Cambridge History, explores the relationship between the establishment of ‘the third world’ and the Cold War and suggests that the kind of nation state system which emerged was a product of the interaction between decolonisation and superpower conflict.

⁴ C. Fraser, ‘The PPP on Trial: British Guiana in 1953’, Small Axe 8/1 (2004), 21–42; R. Drayton, ‘Anglo-American “Liberal” Imperialism, British Guiana and the World Since September 11’ in Wm. R. Louis (ed.), Yet More Adventures with Britannia (London, 2005), 321–342; C. A. Palmer, Cheddi Jagan and the Politics of Power (Chapel Hill, 2010), ch. 1; C. Seecharan, Sweetening Bitter Sugar: Jock Campbell, the Booker Reformer in British Guiana 1934–1966 (Kingston, 2005); S. G. Rabe, US Intervention in British Guiana: A Cold War Story (Chapel Hill, 2005), ch. 1.

⁵ See for example W. James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia (London, 1998).

⁶ N. Dawes, The Last Enchantment (Leeds, 2009), p. 138. In the novel, Capleton returns to Jamaica a decade before Smith.

⁷ Horne, Red Seas, 9.

⁸ T. Munroe, The Cold War and the Jamaican Left (Kingston, 1992), ch. 2; R. Hart, The End of Empire (Kingston, 2006), chs 2 & 16.

⁹ A. Defty, Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda 1945–1953 (Abingdon, 2004); L. Schwartz, Political Warfare Against the Kremlin (2009), chs 2–3.

¹⁰ The National Archives, Kew [Henceforward TNA]: CAB 134/2, AC(M)(51)2^nd mtg., 24 July 1951, AC(M)(51)5, 20 July 1951; CAB 134/3, AC(O)(50)9, 28 March 1950; CAB 134/4, AC(O)(50)1^st mtg., 25 January 1950, AC(O)5^th mtg., 22 May 1950.

¹¹ TNA: CAB 158/16, JIC(53)73, 7 August 1953.

¹² Munroe, Cold War, 99–112.

¹³ TNA: CO 968/248, AC(0)(52)45, 17 July 1952 including Jackson to Under-Secretary for War, 17 June 1952, Extract from minutes of Official Committee on Communism, 24 September 1952.

¹⁴ TNA: CO 1031/126, Rance to Lyttelton, 20 May 1952.

¹⁵ TNA: CO 968/248, Trinidad (Rance) to Secretary of State, 31 October 1952, Foot to Luke, 3 November 1952.

¹⁶ TNA: KV 2/3603, Civil Censorship Austria (British Element), Postal Intercept, Jagan to Smith, 18 March 1952.

¹⁷ TNA: CO 1031/13, Governor (Trinidad) to Secretary of State, 30 April 1952.

¹⁸ TNA: CO 1031/14, Extract from Trinidad Despatch, 20 May 1952.

¹⁹ Daily Gleaner, 30 April 1952, 1, 13.

²⁰ TNA: CO 968/249, Foot to Secretary of State, 18 March 1953, Secretary of State to Jamaica (Foot), 25 March 1953.

²¹ TNA: CO 968/250, Memorandum on ‘Jamaica: Repressive Measures Against Communism’ (ud).

²² TNA: CO 968/250, N. D. Watson report on Measures to Combat Communism in the West Indies, May 1953.

²³ TNA: CO 968/250, Note of a Meeting between SLOs in Barbados, 15 June 1953, Lyttelton to West Indian Governors, 12 August 1953.

²⁴ Hart, End of Empire, 76.

²⁵ TNA: KV 2/3610, Note for File, 4 January 1954 contains a summary of postal intercepts, Special Branch surveillance and monitoring of British Communist Party headquarters.

²⁶ Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Affairs, UWI, Mona: Richard Hart Papers, CLR #41, Janet Jagan to Hart, 28 April 1954.

²⁷ Cheddi Jagan, The West on Trial, 159.

²⁸ TNA: CO 1031/140, Political Reports for the Windward Islands, December 1952, January 1953, May 1953, September 1953.

²⁹ TNA: CO 1031/126, Renison (Acting Governor) to Lyttelton, 21 July 1952.

³⁰ TNA: CO 1031/127, Rance to Lyttelton, 17 April 1953.

³¹ TNA: CO 968/250, Note of a Meeting between SLOs in Barbados, 15 June 1953, Lyttelton to West Indian Governors, 12 August 1953.

³² TNA: CO 1031/119, Savage to Secretary of State, minutes by Vernon, 13 July 1953, Mayle, 14 July 1953, Barton, 14 July 1953, Rogers, 15 July 1953, Lloyd, 17 July 1953, Lyttelton, 20 July 1953.

³³ TNA: CO 1027/14, Ingram to Peck 13 July 1953, enclosing memorandum on Information Work in British Guiana by Ingrams, 13 July 1953, Ingram minute, 13 July 1953.

³⁴ TNA: CO 1027/14, Vernon minute, 5 August 1953, Fisher (CO) to Young, 19 February 1954, Rogers minute, 21 April 1954, Rogers minute, 3 May 1954.

³⁵ TNA: CO 1031/127, Rance to Lyttelton, 14 August 1953.

³⁶ TNA: CO 1031/1961, Foot to Wallace, 27 January 1954.

³⁷ Daily Gleaner, 9 January 1954, 6, 15 January 1954, 14.

³⁸ TNA: LAB 13/603, Minutes of Meeting on the WFTU, 17 December 1953, with Working Paper on the WFTU.

³⁹ Wallace noted references to Comrade Conrad Forbes and Comrade Cecil Dick during meetings of Joshua's PPP on St. Vincent. See TNA: CO 1031/264, Governor (Windwards) to Secretary of State, 13 August 1952, enclosing PPP resolutions, Wallace minute, 3 October 1952.

⁴⁰ TNA: CO 968/250, Memorandum on Communist Activities in the Caribbean Area.

⁴¹ TNA: CO 1031/140, Windward Islands Monthly Report for October 1952.

⁴² TNA: CO 1031/141, Windward Islands Monthly Report for October 1953; CO 1031/334, Windward Islands Monthly Report for December 1953.

⁴³ TNA: CAB 158/16, JIC(53)73, 7 August 1953.

⁴⁴ Hart, End of Empire, ch. 3.

⁴⁵ TNA: CO 968/248, Rance to Luke, 13 November 1952 covering Herbert to Colonial Secretary, 8 November 1952.

⁴⁶ TNA: CO 1031/132, Governor (Jamaica) to Secretary of State, 15 August 1952, with Political Report for July.

⁴⁷ TNA: CO 968/250, Memorandum on Measures to Combat Communism by Watson (ud), Note of a meeting between Security Liaison Officer and Special Branch Officers, 15 June 1953.

⁴⁸ TNA: CO 1031/126, Rance to Lyttelton, 24 March 1952.

⁴⁹ TNA: CO 968/250, Memorandum on Measures to Combat Communism by Watson (ud), Note of a meeting between Security Liaison Officer and Special Branch Officers, 15 June 1953.

⁵⁰ TNA: CO 1031/126, Rance to Luke, 6 November 1952 covering Record of a Meeting of the West Indian Independence Party, San Fernando, 29 October 1952, Shaw minute, 7 January 1953.

⁵¹ G. E. Eaton, Alexander Bustamante and Modern Jamaica, 53–57.

⁵² Daily Gleaner, 8 March 1954, 1.

⁵³ R. Hart, Towards Decolonisation (Kingston, 1999), ch. 11.

⁵⁴ TNA: CO 968/302, Jamaica (Foot) to Secretary of State, 28 December 1953, Renison to Secretary of State, 31 December 1953.

⁵⁵ TNA: CO 1031/1961, Wallace minute, 1 February 1954.

⁵⁶ TNA: CO 1031/1961, Foot to Secretary of State, 29 March 1954, Secretary of State to Foot, 16 April 1954.

⁵⁷ O. Nigel Bolland, ‘Tubal Uriah Butler’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (oxforddnb.com).

⁵⁸ TNA: CO 1031/126, Rance to Luke, 15 October 1952 enclosing Weekly Intelligence Summary, 14 October 1952, Governor's Deputy to Lyttelton, 28 November 1952.

⁵⁹ TNA: CO 1031/128, 49^th Political Report on British Guiana, 10 August 1953.

⁶⁰ TNA: CO 1031/119, Colonial Office memorandum on Political Situation in British Guiana (ud).

⁶¹ TNA: CO 1031/119, Governor (Savage) to Secretary of State, 25 July 1953.

⁶² TNA: KV 2/3613, Head Office to Security Liaison Officers, 30 April 1954 with memorandum on WFTU Intevention in Jamaica and the Activities of Ferdinand Smith.

⁶³ ProQuest: The Manchester Guardian, 24 March 1954, 7; New York Times, 23 March 1954, 6.

⁶⁴ Horne, Red Seas, 271–2.

⁶⁵ Hart, End of Empire, ch. 16.