Giving the Reds a Chance

In Communism's most direct and successful grab for power in South America, a dentist named Cheddi B. Jagan won an election and took office four years ago in British Guiana. Britain's embarrassed answer then was a task force of three warships and 700 troops to depose him. Last week, after the Northwestern University-educated dentist swept another election (TIME, Aug. 12), a wiser, gentler Britain tried a subtler answer--dumping the difficult problems of running the poverty-stricken little colony directly into Cheddi Jagan's lap.

Sir Patrick Renison, the British governor, named Jagan as Minister of Trade and Industry, named Jagan's U.S.-born wife Janet, once a Chicago Young Communist Leaguer, as Minister of Labor, Health and Housing. To aid the nine Jaganites and the five leftists from splinter parties who won the 14 elective seats in the Legislative Council, Renison used his appointive powers to name nine additional councilmen who, though they are all nonCommunist, are friendly enough to Minister Jagan.

Governor Renison apparently hopes that Jagan in power will either mature or fail badly enough to break his spellbinding hold on the voters. The British do not doubt that Jagan is as Red as ever, but the line he now talks is quite different from 1953, when he promised to shoot the "oppressors." This time he shows more practical concern with the colony's huge problems--poor soil, soggy terrain, and torrid climate. He preaches cooperation with the Crown and with the firms controlling British Guiana's sugar and bauxite industries.

If Jagan gets out of control, the constitution, revised after the 1953 fiasco, gives the governor enough power to tame him. Though the new Cabinet is controlled 5 to 4 by Jaganites, the governor himself hangs onto the title of President and can cast a vote. As for the Legislative Council, the governor could, if necessary, appoint enough new members to gain a pro-British majority. In a deeper crisis, he could invoke emergency powers and assume direct control.

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