The Future of the Caribbean
Welfare and Planning in the West Indies. By T. S. Simey. (Oxford University Press. 15s.) PROFESSOR SIMEY was the welfare member of what was irreverently known in the West Indies as the Stockdale Circus, which comprised the Comptroller of Development and Welfare, Sir Frank Stockdale, and his small staff of expert advisers. Such a body of trained observers from outside, unhampered by the routine responsibilities of day-to-day administration, and free to consult official and unofficial alike, has an opportunity of reflecting at leisure upon local problems and advising on long-term policy which is denied to the ordinary administrator. More particularly is this so in the case of such a problem as that of the British West Indies, that group of colonies scattered over an area extending as far as from England to Cyprus, where economic and racial diversity are combined with a remarkable uniformity—what Professor Simey calls a " basic pattern "—which holds out more than a hope of ultimate unity. No single official in Whitehall or the Caribbean could have given us such a compre- hensive and valuable survey of the fundamental problems of the British West Indies.
The main question to be decided is: What shape is their promised independence (for all Colonies have been promised independence) to take, and through what steps is it to be achieved? Professor Simey makes no attempt to give a direct answer to this question, but he offers a number of stimulating suggestions. He starts by drawing a lively and authoritative picture of West Indian conditions and origins, which goes far to explain the inherent difficulties. While race relations, as he rightly points out, are, on the whole, better in the British West Indies than in other parts of the Empire or the
United States, " the darker complexioned masses of the West Indies frequently suffer from profound feelings of inferiority, which stand out as the most powerful single factor in moulding the personality of the individual and in shaping the patterns of social intercourse. A society cannot be a healthy one in which so many people suffer from a constant regret that they,-are what they are, and do their best to give their children characteristics commonly supposed to be better than their own." This is due, in the main, to the fact that West Indian society has no firm foundation, either economic or social. Emancipation brought with it no alternative structure of civilisation, but only a passionate determination on the part of the peoples of the West Indies to insist upon their newly-won inde- pendence and equality, without too much regard to the obligations they involved. This explains their tendency to aggressiveness, their criticism of " imported " officials and their occasional outbreaks of lawlessness and violence. On the social side it is responsible for the marked irregularity of family life, and on the economic for the alleged laziness and indolence of the average West Indian.
Professor Simey discusses the lines upon which a possible remedy for this state of affairs may be sought under the heads of economic development, social welfare and international co-operation. He questions whether it is really more important to raise standards of living by subsidies from outside sources than to work for a self- sufficient West Indian economy even at the cost of some lowering of standards. It might even be possible, he thinks, for some inter- national authority, on the lines of the T.V.A., to solve the economic problem not only for the British West Indies but for the Caribbean as a whole. He points out that the T.V.A. was the answer evolved by the New Deal for a " problem astonishingly similar in principle to that with which the British Empire is confronted in the British West Indies," and suggests that "much the most hopeful line of action in the future would be in the direction of transforming Development and Welfare into an agency of this kind."
On the political and so..rial side he sums up by stressing the necessity of developing some sort of institutional framework to stimulate the influence of the spirit. A radically new approach is necessary if a new society is to be built up, and scientific sociology must be called in to help in its evolution. Such steps as have been taken since the Royal Commission reported have brought about no real improvement, and the dominant factor in the situation is still the great gulf which yawns between the governments and the peoples. Throughout his argument Professor Simey emphasises the impossi- bility of achieving any real progress without the help of the West Indian himself, and makes a strong plea for a more sympathetic approach by the officials both of the Colonial Office and of the Colonial Services if the great opportunity offered by this important and difficult region is not to be lost. With this conclusion we must
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