West Indian Federation
Although the British West Indies Conference has recommended the establishment of a Committee to discuss terms of federation between the participating units, the determined opposition of Mr. Bustamente, of the Jamaican delegation, to such a step must not be considered an isolated outburst. The argument for closer union appears overwhelming ; an ever-increasing population of about 3,000,000, faced with limited and rapidly diminishing natural resources, and condemned to an appallingly low standard of living by antiquated and restrictive agricultural processes, must be con- sidered as a whole if some solution is to be reached which will utilise the varied economic Potentialities of the islands. But the application of any such all-embracing solution is bound up with the question of self-government, and the Jamaican population makes up almost half that of the West Indies altogether. Mr. Creech Jones, in one of his speeches to• the Conference, has said that the discussion of federation will not hinge on the question of increased responsibility in the individual territories ; at the same time, self- government in the West Indies can only be a satisfactory ideal if it is qualified by the concession to a central federal government of certain defined functions. The Caribbean Labour Congress, meet- ing recently, called for such a federation, and the present Conference took a similar line—but federation without careful consideration of its organ of government could well lead to the unbalanced position which it was trying to avoid. The Jamaican delegates feared that federation would retard the individual development of their own colony, and wondered what "little St. Kitts" could do for Jamaica ; but the danger might lie in the little that the larger units would do for the small. Federation is by almost general agreement inevitable, but the Conference acted wisely in proceeding with deliberation in the working out of its details. The establishment of a West Indies University should do much to equip the Islands with capable administrators with vision large enough to consider the general rather than particular interests.
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