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blocked by cars and oil drums and grazing goats,
and also set guards to patrolling the coast at night. Most of them were armed
with conch shells with which to sound a warning if necessary; conch shells have
been used for this purpose on Anguilla since the
earliest settlement. A few of the guards also had walkie-talkies, of the kind
found in toy stores, with which to make contact directly with Ronald Webster at
his command post in the police station.
With the Kittitians gone and guards
posted, the Anguillans settled back to see what would happen next. This was the
same day, May 30, 1967 ,
that Biafra declared her own independence from the
Federation of Nigeria.
The following day, Robert Bradshaw
sent telegrams to the Prime Ministers of Barbados, Guyana , Jamaica and
Trini-dad-Tobago asking for the loan of armed forces—and ships to transport
them in—so he could put down the insurrection on Anguilla .
He also made the same request of Great Britain .
Everyone regretfully refused to take part in the affair.
But Bradshaw's actions weren't
confined to asking everybody else for help; he also counterattacked. Mail
delivery to Anguilla had virtually ceased back at the
beginning of the year, but now Bradshaw ordered that all mail of any kind
addressed to Anguilla should be held in the Basseterre
Post Office. He froze all Anguillan accounts in St. Kitts banks and declared an
embargo on all financial transactions with Anguillans—no selling, no buying, no
lending.
Finally—all this on the thirtieth
of May—Bradshaw declared a state of emergency; not on Anguilla ,
on St. Kitts . The declaration gave him many extraordinary powers, the
most unusual of which permitted burial without inquest or autopsy of anyone
dying during the time of the emergency, which is to say, during the period that
the Emergency Regulations were in force. All the Emergency Regulations would be
found useful by the St. Kitts Government in the days ahead—including this one.
•
Meanwhile, the Anguillans were
gradually beginning to understand that the last swing of the bat had killed the
donkey. Throwing the Kittitian police off the island had not after all been a
simple difference in degree from shooting up the police station; it was a
difference in kind. Bradshaw's actions of May 30 demonstrated this in Anguillan
eyes much more than their own actions of the day before.
Anguilla ,
without thinking about it or planning it, had stumbled into open revolt.
But in spite of all
temptations To belong to other nations, He remains an Englishman!
—W. S. Gilbert, H.M.S.
Pinafore
5
The
day after the Anguillans realized they'd rebelled—which is to say, two days
after the rebellion-Peter Adams sent a telegram toU
Thant at the United Nations. It outlined the problem and asked the "United
Nations and men of goodwill everywhere for help."
Never
has a rebellion turned so consistently to authority rather than from it. The rebel flag, flying at the airport and all over the island, was Great Britain 's flag, the Union Jack.
Adams followed his message to U Thant with a personal visit, at the head of a
delegation of four, to Robert Bradshaw. They met with Bradshaw, Paul Southwell
and Eugene Walwyn, Bradshaw's Nevisian supporter who was now the Kittitian
Attorney General. Adams handed over a memorandum stating the current Anguillan
position—it said, among other things, "Anguillans are not prepared to accept
NO for an answer"—after which he and his delegation went back home.
The
Kittitian Government replied in a Cabinet Statement on June 1. Since the
Statement began by saying "that this is the very first occasion on which
an approach of this sort con cerning the
wishes of the people of Anguilla has been made to the Government/' it came
as no surprise to the Anguillans that the rest of it was also obtuse. The
Statement presented the standard argument that since Peter Adams had been
behaving himself in the Legislative Council all these years, and had signed
and also set guards to patrolling the coast at night. Most of them were armed
with conch shells with which to sound a warning if necessary; conch shells have
been used for this purpose on Anguilla since the
earliest settlement. A few of the guards also had walkie-talkies, of the kind
found in toy stores, with which to make contact directly with Ronald Webster at
his command post in the police station.
With the Kittitians gone and guards
posted, the Anguillans settled back to see what would happen next. This was the
same day, May 30, 1967 ,
that Biafra declared her own independence from the
Federation of Nigeria.
The following day, Robert Bradshaw
sent telegrams to the Prime Ministers of Barbados, Guyana , Jamaica and
Trini-dad-Tobago asking for the loan of armed forces—and ships to transport
them in—so he could put down the insurrection on Anguilla .
He also made the same request of Great Britain .
Everyone regretfully refused to take part in the affair.
But Bradshaw's actions weren't
confined to asking everybody else for help; he also counterattacked. Mail
delivery to Anguilla had virtually ceased back at the
beginning of the year, but now Bradshaw ordered that all mail of any kind
addressed to Anguilla should be held in the Basseterre
Post Office. He froze all Anguillan accounts in St. Kitts banks and declared an
embargo on all financial transactions with Anguillans—no selling, no buying, no
lending.
Finally—all this on the thirtieth
of May—Bradshaw declared a state of emergency; not on Anguilla ,
on St. Kitts . The declaration gave him many extraordinary powers, the
most unusual of which permitted burial without inquest or autopsy of anyone
dying during the time of the emergency, which is to say, during the period that
the Emergency Regulations were in force. All the Emergency Regulations would be
found useful by the St. Kitts Government in the days ahead—including this one.
•
Meanwhile, the Anguillans were
gradually beginning to understand that the last swing of the bat had killed the
donkey. Throwing the Kittitian police off the island had not after all been a
simple difference in degree from shooting up the police station; it was a
difference in kind. Bradshaw's actions of May 30 demonstrated this in Anguillan
eyes much more than their own actions of the day before.
Anguilla ,
without thinking about it or planning it, had stumbled into open revolt.
But in spite of all
temptations To belong to other nations, He remains an Englishman!
—W. S. Gilbert, H.M.S.
Pinafore
5
The
day after the Anguillans realized they'd rebelled—which is to say, two days
after the rebellion-Peter Adams sent a telegram toU
Thant at the United Nations. It outlined the problem and asked the "United
Nations and men of goodwill everywhere for help."
Never
has a rebellion turned so consistently to authority rather than from it. The rebel flag, flying at the airport and all over the island, was Great Britain 's flag, the Union Jack.
Adams followed his message to U Thant with a personal visit, at the head of a
delegation of four, to Robert Bradshaw. They met with Bradshaw, Paul Southwell
and Eugene Walwyn, Bradshaw's Nevisian supporter who was now the Kittitian
Attorney General. Adams handed over a memorandum stating the current Anguillan
position—it said, among other things, "Anguillans are not prepared to accept
NO for an answer"—after which he and his delegation went back home.
The
Kittitian Government replied in a Cabinet Statement on June 1. Since the
Statement began by saying "that this is the very first occasion on which
an approach of this sort con cerning the
wishes of the people of Anguilla has been made to the Government/' it came
as no surprise to the Anguillans that the rest of it was also obtuse. The
Statement presented the standard argument that since Peter Adams had been
behaving himself in the Legislative Council all these years, and had signed
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