THE COMMUNIST THREAT IN BRITISH GUIANA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01443R000100360001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 7, 1953
• Content Type: BRIEF

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7 October 1953
THE COMMUNIST THREAT IN BRITISH GUIANA
A. Importance of British Guiana
1. Produces nearly a fifth (about
x.,000,000 tons annually) of the free
world's supply of bauxite.
.2. Nine-tenths of British Guiana's
bauxite goes to Canada, chief source
of US aluminum imports.
3. Population about 450,000--about
45% East Indian, 36% Negro, 16%
mixed and Chinese, 3 White. About 150
Americans there.
B. Rise of Communist strength
1. Communist agitation among large
East Indian population has been
going on for several years.
Dominant force has been Chicago-
born Communist Janet Rosenberg Jagan
and her East Indian husband, Cheddi
Jagan, a member of the House of
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Assembly since'1947. He visited
25X1
East European countries in 1951,
3. Last April first election under
new Constitution which instituted
universal suffrage and considerably
broadened the House of Assembly's
authority in domestic affairs.
4. The Peoples Progressive Party led
by the Jagans captured 18 out of 24
elected seats in the Assembly. (There
are 3 appointed seats.) Cheddi Jagan
in his district personally won 82% of
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the votes against 3 opponents.
5. Party leaders then assumed six
important ministerial posts including
labor, agriculture, education and
local government.
C. The present crisis
1. Party members, though in govern-
ment, have kept on advocating overthrow
of British colonial administration
and this week demanded curtailment of
the governor's reserved powers to
administer the defense, foreign and
internal security policies.
They
also demanded an end to the governor's
right to veto the Assembly's laws.
2. In early September the party led
a strike in the sugar industry and also
several sympathy strikes.
3. On 24 September the Party ordered
an end to the strikes and the next day
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D
the 18 Party members of the House of
Assembly walked out on a point of
order.
4. No rioting has yet been reported,
however.
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F. The immediate outlook
1. Troops and emergency powers are
probably sufficient to maintain order,
though some bloodshed could ensure if
British troops land.
2. International Communism will proba-
bly exploit British emergency measures
in propaganda and in attacks in the UN.
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3. If the Communist threat in British
Guiana is not promptly reduced, the
Jagans and other Communist leaders will
have a better opportunity in the other
British colonies in the area, including
strategic Trinidad and Jamaica. Threat
could also spread into neighboring
Surinam, a Dutch colony which supplies
the US with about one-half of its
bauxite requirements. (Together, British
Guiana and Surinam now produce about a
half of the free world's supply of
bauxite. Jamaica, however, will in the
next few years produce more bauzite than
either British Guiana or Surinam.)
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Vote of Confidence on Pella's Foreign Policy
293 For
200 Against
19X Abstaining
1 2, 'Ifs'
Opposed included Connnunists
(143)
Nenni Socialists
( 75)
Neo-Fascists
( 29)
Pella foreign policy speech stressed Italian
foreign policy based on NATO but linked ratification
of EDC to solution of Trieste problem.
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