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Efforts were also under way to rebuild Grenada's shattered police force, which has only 100 men, one-fifth of the number before Bishop took power. Noted regional Police Adviser Michael Baugh: "They are in a hell of a state." While U.S. soldiers repainted police stations abandoned after the 1979 revolution, the British government offered Grenada $1 million toward training and equipping policemen and dispatched advisers from Britain to Belize to rally the Grenadian department. Next month, 50 Grenadians will go to Barbados to study police procedure. "In three years we hope to build the force up again to 500 men," Baugh says. By then, it is hoped, the local police will have taken over from the Caribbean peace keepers.
Steering Grenada back to stability is a delicate task. Says U.S. Ambassador Charles Anthony Gillespie: "There is a commitment to the ideal of democratic government, but it would be a mistake for us to try to direct that process." Yet sometimes it is difficult to relinquish the tiller. U.S. diplomats publicly dismiss fears of a leftist resurgence, but in private they are less sanguine. Says one U.S. Army officer: "There is a lot of concern that once things get rolling here again, these people will go out and elect another Bishop." ∎