Racial decision on Country Club

THE EDITOR: Immediately following the 1981 appointment of George Chambers as Prime Minister instead of Kamal Mohammed, the most logical and only possible choice to replace Dr Eric Williams, I wrote in condemnation of Mr Chambers’ appointment that the PNM had set the country back 50 years to the time of open racial discrimination. Mind you Mr Chambers and I were very personal friends having been law clerks together for several years before he entered politics. He was a conveyancing clerk at M Hamel Smith, 19 St Vincent Street, while I was Chief Probate Clerk at Fitzwilliam, Stone and Alcazar, 17 St Vincent Street. We kept our close friendship right up to his death. Indeed he was instrumental in my appointment to several national committees and boards before I resigned from the PNM in 1970. Despite my resignation however, our friendship remained intact.

Now that I read that Mr Manning has confessed to being the person responsible for removing the luncheon for Mr Mandela from the Country Club to the Trinidad Hilton and the reason for that switch, I feel compelled to repeat with even stronger emphasis that Mr Manning and the PNM has again set our country back not 50 years but 100 years and, if it is true that CONCACAF had first proposed the luncheon for the Country Club, it shows that the members of that organisation are light years ahead of Manning and the PNM when it comes to dealing with the development of multi-cultural societies such as ours. Mr Manning and the PNM must therefore be roundly condemned for their stupidity and I am pleased to take the lead in that regard just as I did in 1981 when I also said “that if Mr Mohammed’s only rejection was because he was an Indian (and that cannot now be denied) then there will never be an Indian Political Leader of that party; 25 years later, no Indian is even remotely close to being so appointed. Now don’t get me wrong. I am fully aware of the colour bar history of the Country Club. Including the following:

(1) (a) In the mid-1970s a black American couple checked in at the Hilton Hotel for a short holiday. Next morning bright and early after breakfast, they asked for facilities to play lawn tennis at which both were players. No problem, said the Hilton, just go on down to the Country Club and show your Hilton identification and you would be allowed to play. Great, Mr and Mrs Black American did as they were told, packed their gear and took a taxi to the Country Club where, despite hours of negotiations and waiting, they were not allowed to play in the “whites only” club.

(b) Trouble was that Mr and Mrs Black American were very high ranking officials in the US Foreign Service and indeed, Mr Black American was even senior in rank to the American Ambassador to whom he complained and who reported the matter to Dr Eric Williams who, after making his own enquiries which he said were “inconclusive,” ordered a judicial enquiry with the Honourable Mr Justice Clement Phillips JA at the head. That enquiry was also inconclusive but appeared to absolve the Country Club for the “mix up.” Mr Justice Phillips and I were quite friendly in those days and he was always keen on articles which I wrote especially on African history. We talked a lot about that enquiry privately but believe me, he had nothing positive to say about that Club.

(2) A few years later when a few black people (and a few Indians) joined the Club to crack the racial Club the same thing happened. Young Senior Magistrate Patrick Jagessar who had become a member was swimming in the pool with his teenage daughter Peggy whose mother was African. Peggy was therefore of darker complexion. All of a sudden a security guard shoed up at the pool and demanded that Mr Jagessar and his daughter get out of the pool as “some other people” wanted to swim. It turned out that the “other people” who wanted to use the pool were four white people who had accompanied the guard. Mr Jagessar refused as did his daughter who was a fiery youngster and she dared the guard to remove them from the pool. In the end, however, the noise caused such a commotion with other members (white of course) gathering around, Jagessar and his daughter vacated the pool so that the other people could swim. Two days later Mr Jagessar (whose father Teeluck Basant Jagessar, a Law Clerk, who was my best friend) still smarting from that embarrassment gave me a detailed blow by blow account of the affair and he insisted that I write about it. I did but my letters were never published.

(3) I have a first hand knowledge of other acts of discrimination at theat Club but space would not permit me to write any more. But while holding no brief for the Country Club one must remember that our laws then as now include provisions for “private members clubs” of which the Trinidad Country Club was no doubt one. I am old enough to remember Queen’s Park Cricket Club being whites only (CLR James mentioned that in Beyond the Boundary), Shamrock and Casuals football clubs being whites only, while Notre Dame and Sporting Club football Clubs were for brown skin (or coloured) boys. In those days, educated blacks played either for Maple or Malvern while working class blacks played for Colts and even today QPCC still discriminates against women and entrance to the pavilion.

Since his release from prison Mr Mandela has not only worn the shirt of the white Afrikaners Rugby Team but he has visited the dominant white enclaves to show that both black and white can live with goodwill on both sides. Similarly while the South African Cricket Team was playing a test match at Lords seven years ago, Mr Mandela was secreted into the players (all white of course) dressing room where he chatted with players and gave them his full support which the players greatly appreciated. Within the recent past the Trinidad Country Club has gone so far as to be a regular venue for the Spectakula Calypso Tent every Carnival.

They hosted many other functions at which black people attended. However the PNM does not appear to have mended its racial ways, judging by the instant dismissal of the heads of WASA and Petrotrin immediately upon taking office two years ago. Thus when Mr Manning now speaks of his Government policies are for everybody surely he does not intend to include members (past or present) of the Trinidad Country Club. I respect my good friend Khafra Kambon but I am certain he is wrong on this occasion.

ATTA KO KUJIFI
Attorney-at-Law