DR HAMID GHANY

As the pub­lic con­sul­ta­tions on the Green Pa­per on in­ter­nal self-gov­ern­ment for To­ba­go are about to get un­der­way, it is use­ful to re­view the pre­dom­i­nant is­sues sur­round­ing the union of the for­mer British colonies of Trinidad and of To­ba­go. The de­ci­sion by the British Gov­ern­ment to for­mal­ly uni­fy the colonies of Trinidad and of To­ba­go in a se­ries of leg­isla­tive en­act­ments be­tween 1887 and 1899 ought to be con­sid­ered in or­der to have some ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the is­sue of in­ter­nal self-gov­ern­ment for To­ba­go more than a cen­tu­ry lat­er.

At the end of the Sev­en Years War in 1763, To­ba­go re­mained a British colony, but dur­ing the Amer­i­can War of In­de­pen­dence, France cap­tured To­ba­go in 1781 and the is­land was for­mal­ly ced­ed to France by the Treaty of Paris of 1783. The British cap­tured the is­land again in 1793 dur­ing the French and Napoleon­ic Wars, but it was re­stored to France by the Treaty of Amiens in 1802.

The Treaty of Amiens was the same treaty that saw the ces­sion of Trinidad from Spain to Britain af­ter the is­land had been cap­tured by a British ex­pe­di­tion in 1797. How­ev­er, To­ba­go was re­cap­tured by Britain in 1803 and was for­mal­ly ced­ed by France to Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. As a con­se­quence of these im­pe­r­i­al treaties, Britain found it­self pos­sess­ing the colony of Trinidad and the colony of To­ba­go, but at that time they were not unit­ed.

Trinidad was made a Crown Colony and by 1832 was giv­en a leg­is­la­ture that con­sist­ed on­ly of nom­i­nat­ed mem­bers and no elect­ed mem­bers. To­ba­go, on the oth­er hand, had a tra­di­tion of elec­tion with its own As­sem­bly that first sat in the 1760s. The British Gov­ern­ment did not im­me­di­ate­ly move to make To­ba­go a Crown Colony in the way that it had done with Trinidad.

How­ev­er, af­ter the Morant Bay up­ris­ing in Ja­maica in 1865, the British Gov­ern­ment was keen to con­vert most of its colonies in the West In­dies in­to Crown Colonies. By do­ing so, they were abol­ish­ing elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tion and on­ly pre­serv­ing nom­i­nat­ed mem­ber­ship of the leg­is­la­tures with the Gov­er­nor mak­ing nom­i­na­tions on be­half of the Crown. To­ba­go was made a Crown Colony on Jan­u­ary 1, 1877.

The eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion of many British West In­di­an colonies had be­come quite per­ilous by the late 1870s and the British Gov­ern­ment ap­point­ed the Cross­man Com­mis­sion in 1882 to ex­am­ine the fi­nan­cial state of af­fairs of Grena­da, Ja­maica, St Vin­cent, St Lu­cia, To­ba­go and the Lee­ward Is­lands. The Cross­man Com­mis­sion rec­om­mend­ed a fed­er­a­tion of St Vin­cent, St Lu­cia, Grena­da and To­ba­go.

While the fed­er­a­tion was ef­fect­ed in 1885, there were par­al­lel dis­cus­sions go­ing on in the Colo­nial Of­fice about a pos­si­ble union be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go. It was dur­ing the tenure of the Gov­er­nor of Trinidad, William Robin­son, and the Gov­er­nor-in-Chief of the Fed­er­a­tion of Grena­da, St Vin­cent, St Lu­cia and To­ba­go, Wal­ter Sendall, that colo­nial con­sen­sus was achieved on a union.

As a con­se­quence of that, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 44) of the British Par­lia­ment joined the two colonies as one and by virtue of an Or­der-in-Coun­cil made on 17th No­vem­ber, 1888 (S R O & S I Rev XXI­II, p 297) the union came in­to ef­fect on Jan­u­ary 1, 1889.

The Gov­er­nor of Trinidad be­came the Gov­er­nor of Trinidad and To­ba­go as To­ba­go was with­drawn from the fed­er­a­tion to which it be­longed. The Gov­er­nor of Trinidad and To­ba­go ap­point­ed a Com­mis­sion­er for To­ba­go who re­port­ed to the Gov­er­nor on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of To­ba­go.

This Or­der-in-Coun­cil al­so abol­ished the Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil of To­ba­go and cre­at­ed the need for the British Gov­ern­ment to es­tab­lish a sin­gle leg­is­la­ture for this new twin-is­land colony and al­so to en­sure the con­tin­ued op­er­a­tion of all laws in force in Trinidad and all laws in force in To­ba­go.

By an Or­der-in-Coun­cil made on Oc­to­ber 20, 1898 (S R O & S I Rev XXI­II, p 298) that came in­to force on Jan­u­ary 1, 1899, To­ba­go was made a ward of the colony of Trinidad and To­ba­go. It fur­ther pro­vid­ed that all laws that were in force in Trinidad on Jan­u­ary 1, 1899, would al­so ex­tend to To­ba­go and that all laws that were in force in To­ba­go, at that date, that dif­fered from the laws of Trinidad ceased to be in force. The leg­is­la­ture in Trinidad be­came the leg­is­la­ture for the twin-is­land colony and all fu­ture laws en­act­ed by that leg­is­la­ture would be deemed to ex­tend to To­ba­go.

Lit­tle did the British Gov­ern­ment know how fun­da­men­tal a po­lit­i­cal and le­gal de­ci­sion they had made that would have high­ly sig­nif­i­cant ram­i­fi­ca­tions for the twin-is­land colony long af­ter its uni­fi­ca­tion by im­pe­r­i­al law. The po­lit­i­cal, psy­cho­log­i­cal and le­gal ef­fect of the de­ci­sions ex­pressed in the 1899 Or­der-in-Coun­cil have lin­gered over the years up to the post-in­de­pen­dence era of the twin-is­land state of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

To this end, one can un­der­stand why the is­sue of in­ter­nal self-gov­ern­ment for To­ba­go is a mat­ter that has been de­bat­ed quite open­ly in the post-in­de­pen­dence pe­ri­od and re­mains a very live is­sue to this day.