Let’s get all the facts
Dear Editor,
In his column in the September 2 Observer, “The masters of the dew”, Louis Moyston went just slightly off track with some information relative to the elections of 1944 which marred an otherwise interesting and engaging article.
First, the JLP was formed out of the BITU on July 8, 1943, and not “in 1942”, as was stated.
Second, the PNP failed to field candidates in 13 constituencies (41 per cent of all the seats) and not “in 11”, as opined by Mr Moyston. These included all 10 seats in the County of Cornwall and one each in St Thomas, Portland and Clarendon.
Third, the results of the 1944 elections given as “JLP 19 seats, the PNP 6 and Independents 7” are also erroneous. The official results of the election showed the JLP winning 22 seats to the PNP’s five and the other five going to the Independents. Many people are confused by the political manoeuvres which occurred in the aftermath of the elections that affected the seat distribution.
By the first sitting of the House in January 1945, two of the Independents – FLB “Slave Boy” Evans and JZ Malcolm – joined the PNP and the JLP, respectively, leaving Harold Allan, Roy Lindo and Rev Enos Philips as the only Independents, until certain other developments increased that number later in that same first term. Then came the closure to a six-month exercise of continuous magisterial re-counts in June that year which resulted in the PNP’s Wendell Benjamin losing the South Manchester seat to the JLP’s Lawton Bloomfield. But this score of JLP 24, PNP five and Independents three which stood in June 1945 would change over and over again for the next four years until it eventually reached JLP 18, Independents 8, PNP 5 and AIP 1 on the eve of the second elections in December 1949.
Fourth, there was no party in the 1944 elections called “the Other P party”. I guess what Mr Moyston referred to as the “Other P” was just the term for the grouping of the other minor parties contesting the elections – hence “Other Parties”, as defined by the electoral office. Those mainly included the Jamaica Liberal Party, the JAG Smith Party, the United Rent Payers Party, the Jamaica Radical Workers Union, and the Federation of Citizens Associations, which fielded interesting candidates like AGS “Father” Coombs, Stennett Kerr Coombs, Vivian Durham and Rev Henry Messam.
I must also point out that another columnist, Chris Burns, in his piece of August 16 about Independents in the 1949 elections, also got sidetracked into the “blunder booth”. That year, only two Independents – Sir Harold Allan and Stanley Scott – were victorious and not five, as stated by Mr Burns in his list which incorrectly included Aabuthnott-Gallimore, BB Coke and Herman McMorris.
Both Aabuthnott-Gallimore and Coke were JLP winners in 1944 who resigned from the party in 1947 and lost their seats as Independents in 1949 to Rupert Wilmot and Donald Sangster, respectively. As for McMorris, he was never even elected to the House. He lost as PNP by 497 to Independent Rev Philips in 1944 and then as an Independent by only 149 votes against Percy Broderick, Sr whom the PNP selected as their torchbearer in 1949.
For the benefit of everyone, especially the younger readers, it is really essential that we all do the research and get all the facts straight. All the time.
Troy Caine
St Andrew
trodencorp@gmail.com