Quiet Revolution

Hot, verdant Jamaica is a richly productive Crown Colony in the British West Indies, but the bulk of its black inhabitants lives in poverty. The war has strangled its exports of rum and bananas, and the shipping shortage has brought the island's home economy to a new low. As 1943 began, transportation was almost at a standstill; some towns had been dark nine months because there was no oil for lamps; meat, bread, salt, rice, fish and matches were either rationed or unavailable. Economic ills weakened political or der. During a funeral procession the coffin of an unpopular public magistrate was broken to bits.

Something had to be done, and London hopefully sent constitutional reforms for Jamaica's consideration (TIME, Feb. 22). To demonstrate political unity, Jamaica's Governor Sir Arthur Richards publicly shook hands with Norman Washington Manley, democratic, popular Irish-Negro leader of the People's National Party, one time Rhodes Scholar and personal friend of Sir Stafford Cripps. W. A. Domingo, a Negro labor leader, was released from the detention camp where he had been held without hearing for 18 months. Also out of jail was the rambunctious labor demagogue Alexander Bustamante. Governor Richards announced an expansion of public works to reduce unemployment, said that a minimum-wage law would be considered and an effort made to hold living costs at 60% above the 1939 level.

Manley's People's National Party campaigned vigorously for self-government, shorter hours and better working conditions. Thousands of signatures were obtained for a resolution: "We do now with one heart and voice demand a form of government freely elected by all the people, responsible to us and free to carry out effectively the policies that will make our country a better place."

Jamaica's Legislative Council finally met to discuss the liberalized constitution. In a "scene of greatest cordiality" it was unanimously approved. It will be at least a year before the new voting regis ter can be completed and the constitution put into operation. But if it goes into effect as approved, Jamaica will at last have full adult suffrage.

In a country where few are well-educated, where the population is 95% Negro and mulatto, the new suffrage was a broad, democratic gesture by the Colonial Office in London; and the constitution itself was important as an expression of a new and more enlightened British colonial pol icy. Some English on the island thought last week that the constitution might eliminate "experienced legislators" and produce a "working-class landslide." But Governor Richards seemed unworried about the possibility. Norman Manley, who works as hard for unity as he works for freedom, hopefully declared his confidence "in the good sense of the public."

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