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¶ Trinidad, the second largest island (1,864 sq. mi.) and the first in industry. Lying ten miles off Venezuela's coast, Trinidad with its big oilfields is relatively rich. The islands that voted for Trinidad as the capital last week hope that Trinidad in return will lower its immigration barriers, give their people a chance to enter and share its wealth and bustle. Dry, schoolteacherish Dr. Eric Eustace Williams, 45, Trinidad's Chief Minister and political boss, did nothing to discourage this belief. A onetime teacher at Washington's Howard University, Williams turned from pedantry to politics in 1955, formed a new party, within eight months skyrocketed to power. Williams, is part of the Oxford-educated trio of Manley, Adams & Williams, one of whom seems certain to be The West Indies first Prime Minister. Lately, Williams has begun to overshadow the other two.
Tie to London. The new constitution does not please the trio, for it is studded with checks designed to stop The West Indies short of complete self-government. Britain will still control foreign relations and defense. The Governor General will be empowered to veto finance laws,. The Queen can make certain laws by an order in council. The 18-man Senate, appointed by the Governor General, will be able to hold up legislation in the manner of the British House of Lords. But the 45-member House of Assembly will be freely elected, and Jamaica's Manley successfully insisted that the constitution be accepted without major change. He argued that a fight over the constitution would only have meant delays in completing nationhood, and that the islands can soon rewrite the constitution anyway.
Moreover, the leading politicians do not want complete independence now; they prefer to preserve the umbilical cord to London. Britain has spent $50 million on the islands in the past ten years, pledges similar sums for the next ten. Despite the Socialist tinge in island governments, there is great respect for Western democratic concepts and British law, coupled with scorn for Soviet Communism. At most, the islands want Commonwealth status within the empire and expect to get it some time in the next decade.