Morris Cargill

THE PRIME Minister's televised speech to the nation on Sunday November 7th was, as usual, beautifully constructed and delivered. The Prime Minister is a true professional. It was such a fine performance that at the end of it I found myself wanting to give him a round of applause.

And then it hit me that I had been bewitched and had been treated to a well constructed dream. What reduced me to this lamentable sense of reality, was that he made no mention of the central cause of our woes, namely, our huge indebtedness and our financial chaos. To support the fine dreams so well described by the Prime Minister needs money which we haven't got. So dreams will come to naught, not only for lack of money, but for the lack of the necessary administrative competence, to which should be added the huge burden of crime and corruption. The Prime Minister was not just pulling a fast one. I believe in his sincerity. But it reminded me of a man I came across many years ago who believed he was a poached egg and was searching, in all sincerity, for a piece of toast to sit on. But at least his dream was to be part of an easily affordable breakfast.

The march

The much heralded march on Monday 8th was not particularly well attended. About 500 people turned up. The really large crowd consisted of the security forces: police mounted and unmounted, some army people and police, believe it or not, with riot shields and tear-gas guns. The air was pretty crowded with three helicopters. The three people who delivered the letter to the Prime Minister were thoroughly frisked for concealed weapons. The only thing that was left to do was to send in some Brengun carriers, a few tanks and a battleship in the Harbour with guns trained on Half Way Tree. The government really got the wind up, and all for a handful of peaceful and well mannered protesters. It must have had a bad conscience.

I have been thinking of joining one of these marches in my wheelchair, but I fear that the security forces may think that it is fitted up with a concealed machine gun. The whole business is becoming ludicrous.

Grenada

I am baffled by a letter in The Gleaner of November 9th from Mr. Richard Hart of London, England, referring to something I had written concerning the murder of Bishop. In a letter published by the Grenada Voice newspaper, those serving life imprisonment wrote to say that they, "fully and unreservedly accept responsibility for the tragedy which occurred in October 1983". Mr. Hart does not apparently regard this as an admission of guilt. Also I don't understand in view of this unreserved acceptance of responsibility, how Mr. Hart can continue to maintain that their trial and sentence was "a travesty of justice". Mr. Hart seems to be saying that some, at any rate, did not pull the triggers of the guns that killed Bishop and others. This is rather like saying that Adolph Hitler was not guilty of the deaths of millions of Jews, because there was no proof that he had personally administered poison gas to any of them.

This is a tedious discussion which I shall not continue. If Mr. Hart enjoys splitting hairs let me say nothing more to hinder his enjoyment.

Mr. Hart had been appointed by Bishop as Grenada's Attorney-General, and had it not been for his timely rescue by the Americans, he would have been in the midst of that nastiness, though I do not know whether he would have been one of those executed or one of those accused of executing. In any case, as I am quite fond of Richard Hart, I am extremely glad that the situation didn't arise.

I am also glad that he is now safely back in England. I don't know whether he is still a communist. I understand that he now calls himself "a retired revolutionary". Good for him! He likes to write history, and will now have more opportunity in his retirement to do so, and to give his history a suitable slant in the direction of his ideological preferences.

His older brother Herbert, one of my dearest friends, maintains jokingly that I was responsible for giving Richard a distaste for private enterprise by stealing from his stamp collection when we were both children. Herbert may be joking, but I think I probably did pinch a few, and if I did I unreservedly accept responsibility.