Chief Minister Hubert Hughes has reported having met with members of the United Nations Decolonisation Committee of 24 while in New York last week. He was at the time speaking with reporters at a press conference on Tuesday, June 12.
Here is what he said:
“While in New York, I had a meeting at the United Nations with the Decolonisation Committee and they are ready to give us all the technical assistance to move into our self-determination project.
“They are inviting me to come up toNew Yorkon the 20th of this month. The Decolonisation Committee is going to have a very important meeting on decolonisation and they asked me if I can’t come, to send Mrs. Josephine Gumbs-Connor who did a very good presentation in Ecuador the other day, and I would be trying to send her to represent us. They also asked me to send them a letter formally to invite them to come to Anguilla and this letter will go off soon to them.
“So we are moving ahead, and the whole idea is that no one must ever dream or think that any Government in Anguilla, any Chief Minister, can putAnguillainto independence on his own. The people will have to decide. Whether the British insist on that or not, we, the members of this Government, have decided that the Anguilla people will have to decide whether they want to stay in slavery or go on to freedom.”
Later on, the Chief Minister stated: “We are being administered from Britain, and can you say that we are being protected? Can you say that allegations of corruption did not exist? Can you say that? And we are British. So, as far as I am concerned, we will do much better if we were not stuck with the restrictions and the burdens of colonialism – much better.”
Chief Minister was asked: “In terms of the call by the Father of the Nation for a referendum to be held, has a time-table been established for that process to go forward?”
The Chief Minister Hughes replied: “In my mind, I would think that this thing should be done as soon as possible, but we have not yet established it. We are going to set up a committee – more of less an independence committee – to deal with this issue of independence; and we are hoping to have a lot of town hall meetings to meet with the people, to discuss with the people, to solicit their views, and to give them our views on it as a group. But this is a people’s thing. Anguilla is the only place in the world where you hear this kind of statement: ‘What Anguilla is to go independent on?’ We will get a cost analysis on independence as well…When people ask what is there for Anguilla to go independent on, you need to ask them the question: ‘What do we get from Britain?’ Now, what will we lose from Britain if we go to independence? We have nothing to lose.All to gain.
“First of all, we can get bilateral assistance from a lot of countries but because we are a British Overseas Territory, we are blocked in getting that bilateral assistance. The only assistance we get is from the European Union, but all the Cariforum countries – Antigua,St. Kitts,Grenada,St. Vincent,St. Lucia– all those countries get their money from the European Union direct. If the European Union gives the British Government 20 million euros to share between her Overseas Territories,Britain will give the most of that to Montserrat; because she is committed to the reconstruction of Montserrat, but if we were free, we would get our money direct and nobody can share it with anybody else. That is the only aid we get and it is controlled by the Administering Power.
“I spoke to the Canadians in Barbados, quite recently, and they told me the British Government told them: now that Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory,Canada is not permitted to give Anguilla any assistance. So when you say ‘what do we go independent on?’ what are we getting now?”
Earlier Mr. Hughes, who acknowledged the receipt of a petition calling for action against criminal activity on the island, said that some persons were saying ‘let’s deal with the crime and stop talking about independence.’
He went on, “The whole idea is this: we are not independent and we are having all this crime and we can’t deal with it unless we get assistance from outside. If we were independent, I can go any part of the world today and get assistance. I can go to Canada and have all the assistance I want but, today, because we are an Overseas Territory,Canada is told you are not permitted to give our Overseas Territories any aid.”
