Trinidad Again - Post Tanzania

• Author: Albert Fiadjoe
• Profession: Professor of Public Law at the University of the West Indies and a former Dean of Law
• Pages: 56-89

56 | Telford Georges: A Legal Odyssey

TRINIDAD AGAIN – POST TANZANIA

After six heady years in Tanzania, Telford returned to Trinidad in

1971, to resume his position on the Bench. Trinidad was still reeling

from the Black Power disturbances which had rocked the society in

1970. A state of emergency had been declared and many persons had

been detained without trial. Wooding had retired as Chief Justice, as

had Sir Hugh McShine, and Mr. Justice Clement Phillips had been

appointed to act as Chief Justice. Telford was immediately appointed

to act as a Judge of Appeal. Among the cases he heard, with Mr.

Justice Fraser and Mr. Justice Clement Phillips, was an appeal against

the conviction of the accused officers and other ranks in the Court

Martial following the 1970 attempted coup. They found for the

appellants, much to the annoyance of the Attorney General and the

Prime Minister.

In 1971, the Williams administration decided to respond to the

radical groups which were calling for a new political and economic

order as well as for constitutional and electoral change. In the speech

from the Throne at the opening of Parliament in June 1971, the

Governor-General, Sir Solomon Hochoy, announced Government’s

decision to appoint a Commission “to consider the Constitution of

Trinidad and Tobago and matters related thereto and to make

recommendations for the revision of the said Constitution and for

matters of constitution reform in Trinidad and Tobago.” Further, the

Commission was required to submit a draft Constitution for Trinidad

and Tobago based on the opinions and recommendations received in

the course of its deliberations. The Commission was duly appointed

under the chairmanship of the distinguished jurist Sir Hugh Wooding.

Fresh from Tanzania which had earned him a reputation of being

forward looking, Telford was seen by Williams as being ‘politically

correct’ to join the team of commissioners and it was felt that he

would bring a certain measure of credibility to the team. Telford was

appointed Deputy Chairman to Sir Hugh.

Trinidad Again – Post Tanzania | 57

Telford accepted the challenge willingly. Since he was already

employed by the Trinidad Government, he saw the appointment as

part of his job and he refused any remuneration. Even though he

considered Wooding a conservative, he knew he could work with him.

They had had a long relationship, though more formal than personal.

It was Wooding who had invited him to join the Bench and Telford

had given him every support during the period they worked together.

Telford had long learnt that the best way to establish credibility and

win approval in a working group is to work hard. He pitched himself

into the task and when it was decided to produce a document outlining

the provisions of the existing constitution and the purposes they serve

as a basis for discussion at the hearings, he willingly undertook to

produce the first draft. The result was a booklet, “Thinking Things

Through”, which was circulated for public consumption.

Perhaps the most controversial issues dealt with by the commission

were the abolition of the Privy Council as a final Court of Appeal and

electoral reform. He was unhappy with the present dispensation in

both cases. Although he had no preconceived ideas when he undertook

the assignment, Telford did consider the idea of a second house with

nominated members as unnecessary. Its purpose essentially was to

provide a brake should an elected government receive a majority in

the lower House which would enable them to pass legislation effecting

a constitutional change. The composition of the Second Chamber was

such that that would not be possible unless the independent nominated

members agreed. As far as Telford was concerned, there should be a

more sensible democratic way of achieving that end. Although he had

long supported the abolition of the Privy Council he had never given

serious thought to an alternative system to the Westminster model of

government. It was during his deliberations with the other

commissioners that Anthony Maingot, a sociologist, introduced him

to the West German model of a mixed system of proportional

representation. He found this model to be practical and simple to

operate and one which seemed particularly sensible for the ethnically

mixed Trinidad and Tobago. The problem was to convince the other

members of the commission. One of his most useful attributes was

the gift of persuasion, fuelled by his capacity for reasoned and sensible

arguments. He first tackled and won over Hamilton Maurice. Maingot,

58 | Telford Georges: A Legal Odyssey

who had first broached the idea, De la Bastide and Ryan were with

him from the beginning. Sinanan, whom he regarded as the Williams’s

man on the commission, and Dumas and Lutchman who were in the

employ of the Trinidad Government, were not expected to accept the

idea. The big task was to convince Wooding, for whom he felt that the

idea of proportional representation would have been extremely hard

to swallow. Wooding was very British, steeped in British traditions,

and the British had rejected that system. But in the end, during a visit

to Tobago, Wooding surprisingly accepted the idea.

The final report and a draft constitution were presented to the

Governor-General in January, 1974. Among the key recommendations

were the abolition of the Privy Council as the final Court of Appeal;

the abolition of the Senate and the establishment of a single Chamber

called the National Assembly; and the introduction of the mixed system

of first past the post and proportional representation; and that Trinidad

and Tobago should become a Republic with an elected President as

Head of State and a Prime Minister as Head of Government. The

report was not popularly received. The principal opponent was Dr.

Williams himself. According to Telford, Williams must have felt certain

that Wooding would have produced the kind of report he wanted.

When this did not happen he instructed his director of Personnel

Administration to critique the report and produce an alternative

document. Later that year Williams, in an eight hour speech over two

days in Parliament, launched a blistering attack on the commissioners,

accusing them of being in the pockets of the West Germans and of

wanting to destroy his party, the P.N.M. At the end of his tirade, he

dismissed the Report and put Parliament on notice of his intention to

take steps “to draft a Constitution acceptable to the country as a whole,

not inconsistent with international good sense, and avoiding, like the

plague, all the mischievous procedures adopted in other countries, or

the indigestible diet that has been put up for us, this patchwork of

ideas in the Constitution.” By this time Wooding had died and Telford

as Deputy Chairman pondered whether to respond publicly to Williams’s

charges. He had already taken up a position as Professor of Law at the

Cave Hill campus in Barbados. Having reflected on the matter, he felt

sure that any response he could have made would make no difference

and, decided to let the matter rest.