MACMILLAN, SANDYS BACKED CIA'S ANTI-JAGAN PLOT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000401410001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 23, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part-Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
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50-Yr 2013/12/20 : CIA-RDP73-00475R000401410001-7 7
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Li continues the Guiana subversion controversy (Letters, page 12). \
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AMERICA'S Central Intelligence
y Agency (the CIA) was working
under an agreement with the
British Government when it sub-
verted the Jagan government in
British Guiana in 1963.
A senior British security officer
disclosed this to the Sunday
Times this week. He said the
understanding was reached under
the Premiership of Harold
IVIaemillan. Colonial Secretary
Duncan Sandys, and the head and
of British security.
Other Cabinet Ministers were
not told of the decision. And
probably the secret papers were.
not shown to Harold Wilson on
his election in 1964.
Last week, Insight reported
that the CIA, operating under the
" front" of an international trade
union office, dealt a mortal blow
tol/Cheddi Jagan's leftist govern-
ment by financing a 79-day
general strike against it. Control
of the colony, now the independ-
ent Commonwealth nation of
Gir;ana, passed to the moderate
socialist Forbes Burnham, to the
right of Jagan.
Last Tuesday, Mr Harold
Wilson, questioned in the House
of Commons by Labour M Ps,
said: " You had better ask the
Opposition front' bench."
On Wednesday, the trade-union.
organisation which was used as a
front, the Public Service Inter-
national, issued a statement. This
admit led the truth of the Insight
report, but denied that the P S I
leadership knew its Guiana office
W:1,,)/(?1112 used for subversion.
The PS I is an international
all t.meo, London-based, of trade
unions operating among public
employees. Its statement con-
' firmed that in 1959-60 'one of its
American affiliates, the Federa-
tion of State, County and Muni-
cipal Employees, offered to set up
. on the P S I's behalf a department,
in Guiana. The PSI did not
? know that this American affiliate
had been penetrated by the C I A.
The Guiana office ss as ostens-
ibly for " educational activities
in under-developed countries."
But during the 1963 general
strike tne Guiana representative
of the P S I, Howard McCabe, dis-
bursed saround ?100,000 in strike
pay, apart from energetic advice
and assistance. McCabe, nomin-
ally seconded from the State,.
County and Municipal Union,
appears in fact to have been a
C I A operative.
Last week the PS I said that
although its head office sent some,
'money to Guiana for relief of
strikers' families as a normal act
of trade-union solidarity, "at no
time did the PSI suspect that
McCabe may have had other funds
at his disposal, or that he in-
dulged in activities other than
attempts to settle the strike."
Insight's report last week dealt
only with the C I A presence in
Guianese union affairs. But the
British security man we ap-
proached last week?as he, is still
serving, his. name cannot be
mentioned?said that the C I A '
were also operating under con-
sular cover, in. Guiana
He said that to the best of his
knowledge the agreement under
which the C,] A were in Guiana
Was ? the first one. allowing therti
to move into a British colony.
Although known at first only to
Macmillan, Sandys, and the two
top security men in Britain, it
inevitably became known to a
number of British officials in
Guiana.
Apart from encouraging indus-
trial action against Jagan, the
C I A appears to have had a good
deal of success in encouraging
politicians to break away from
Jagan's party and government.
Their technique for financing
sympathetic figures was to take
out heavy insurance policies for
them. The C I A insured one ex-
Jagan supporter for 30,000
dollars in 1964.
Clearly, not all the British offi-
cials on the spot were happy with
what the Americans were doing:
they agreed that Jagan and his
American wife Janet were in-
temperate Marxists, but did not
feel that this justified such mas-
sive manipulation of the local c.
political scene.
This feeling was strengthened ,
by the fact that the C I A. efforts
were worsening the colony's
already-severe racial difficulties:
the Africans supported Burnham
and the Indians supported Jagan,
and tension.. between the two
racial groups grew as the C I A
levered the two sides further
apart. (Eventually, this broke
our in bloodshed.)
Our informant indicated that
he guiding spirit "Ofl the Bri-
tish side of the C I A enIty a;:ree-
ment was Colonial St!cre:ary
Sandys. 11r. Sandy:, on toot in
the Middle Ka.t, wa nti
able to comment yesirr,h y
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n,,,-inccifiori in Part - Sanitized CODV Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/12/20: CIA-RDP73-00475R000401410001-7