The 1959-1962 Administration

• Author: Trevor Munroe/Arnold Bertram
• Profession: Rhodes Scholar and Fulbright Fellow, political scientist, labour activist and politician, is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of the West Indies, Mona/Distinguished commentator on Jamaican Social History and Political Development is a former Legislator in both houses of the Jamaican Parliament and a former Minister of ...
• Pages: 223-264

The 1959–1962 Administration / 223

The 1959 Elections: Background and Results

The victory of the PNP in 1955 was the first electoral success by the

nationalist party. Unfortunately, by the time it came, the expulsion

of the Left in 1952 had deprived the national movement of some of its

finest cadres who had been in the vanguard of the party’s pioneering

efforts in the field. Their absence created a void in the PNP’s

organizational and educational capacity, which would not be fully

recognized until the Federal debacle between 1958 and 1961.

In the ten years between the introduction of Universal Adult Suffrage

and the PNP victory, the national movement had been forced to contend

with the cultural conservatism and pro-British orientation of Bustamante

and a significant section of the Jamaican people. After winning the

election, Norman Manley, in his first address to the House of

Representatives, set out to regain the momentum for the self-government

campaign by affirming the determination of his administration ‘ to achieve

self-government … achieve a Federation of the West Indies and to strive,

with all that we have, to maintain and advance the social and economic

life of the country’. 1

Manley’s first priority, however, was the economic and social

development of Jamaica and the people who had elected him to lead. To

this end, he immediately set out to recruit the best international expertise

to assist in Jamaica’s development. He had conceived of a Central

Planning Unit, which would attract investments of some $55 million to

The 1959–1962 Administration

Chapter 6

224 / Pre-Independence Administrations

create 250,000 new jobs in five years, and as far back as February 1950,

he had settled on George Cadbury, Economic Adviser and Planner to

the Saskatchewan Provincial Government, to head this unit. Next,

Manley convinced Arthur Goldschmidt,Acting Director General of the

Technical Assistance Administration at the UN, to release George

Cadbury who was one of their consultants. Samuel Moment, a marketing

economist who had worked with Bonneville Power Administration in

the USA, as well as the aluminium industry during the Korean War, was

also recruited to advise Manley on his negotiations with the bauxite

companies.

The constitutional proposals in April 1957, providing for internal

self-government, were particularly gratifying to the Party and its leader.

The Royal Proclamation which gave effect to the amended Constitution

was fittingly read by Governor Foot before his departure from the island.

At his swearing-in ceremony, Foot had unreservedly committed himself

to the campaign for self-government by declaring, ‘We in this small island

will help to show the world that free institutions and representative

government are not the preserve and privilege of a few great nations.’

He had certainly honoured this commitment.

In the field of education, the PNP provided unprecedented access

and quality, and laid the basis for a vastly improved Jamaican labour

force. However, it was in the economy that the results were most

spectacular. In the bauxite industry, Manley had immediately reviewed

the 1950 agreement, negotiating an escalator clause whereby one half of

the total income tax and royalty would vary with the price of aluminium

itself. In addition, the profit and tax payment would now be computed

in US dollars, a much stronger currency than the British pound. The

new agreement also increased the assumed rate of profit from 60 cents a

ton to $3.85, for income tax, while the old royalty of 10 cents was

increased to 40 cents.

These new inflows wiped out Jamaica’s trade deficit overnight. It

was a proud Norman Manley who informed the House of Representatives

that

The 1959–1962 Administration / 225

The present gap between imports and exports is of the order of

£18m … [and] will be wiped out entirely as bauxite and alumina

become the largest by far in our export returns.2

Despite measures such as the Hotel Incentive Act, no government

had actively promoted tourism in Jamaica. Abe Issa, as a member of the

Jamaica Trade Development Board, had tried unsuccessfully for years

to convince successive governments that tourism could become Jamaica’s

major industry. As Abe recalls:

I spoke to Busta, I talked to Sangster, I discussed it with Manley,

I pleaded with Nethersole; they all said the same thing: tourism

could only be small fry. I kept telling them that they were wrong,

tourism could be our biggest industry. And when they asked me

why, I told them – the world is our market.3

Finally, in 1955 Abe convinced the Minister of Trade, Wills O. Isaacs,

that tourism could become Jamaica’s biggest business. The Tourism

Board Law was passed and the antiquated Jamaica Trade Development

Board was renamed the Jamaica Tourist Board, with Abe Issa as

Chairman, a position he held from 1955 until 1963. Visitor arrivals, which

numbered 75,000 in 1950, grew to 316,000 by 1965, while earnings rose

from £3 million in 1950 to £23 million over the same period. In a radio

broadcast on November 10, 1957 Manley was able to report that:

The Jamaican economy is expanding at a rate faster than that of

most countries in the world — actually at a faster rate than any

other West Indian island, at a faster rate than Puerto Rico or

England, or the United States or even Canada, which is way up

on top in the world so far as speed of expansion is concerned. 4

The major setback for the PNP came in the Federal Elections of

1958. Manley had always been a confirmed federalist and for him,

Jamaican independence was only viable in the context of a West Indian

Federation. The Federal Parliament was to be convened in 1958 and it