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Self government

 

The voices of the people were heard. As a result of the demonstrations the previous year, the Legislative Council was reinstituted by the British Government in 1950 under a new constitution. The reformation of the Legislative Council is often left as a footnote in the Territory's history - a mere part of the process that led to the more fundamental constitutional government in 1967. The 1950 constitution was in fact always envisaged as a temporary measure (it was famously described by McWelling Todman QC as “an instrument minimal in its intent and its effect”[33]). But, having been denied any form of democratic control for nearly 50 years, the new Council did not sit idly by. In 1951 external capital was brought in to assist farmers from the Colonial Welfare and Development office. In 1953 the Hotel Aid Act was enacted to boost the nascent tourism industry.[34] Up until 1958 the Territory had only 12 miles of motorable roads; over the next 12 years the road system was vastly improved, linking West End to the East End of Tortola, and joining Tortola to Beef Island by a new bridge. The Beef Island airport (now renamed after Terrance B. Lettsome) was built shortly thereafter. The Territory considered holding a plebiscite as to whether the British and U.S. Virgin Islands should merge under the U.S. flag.

External events also played a factor. In 1956 the Leeward Islands Federation was abolished. Defederation enhanced the political status of the British Virgin Islands. Jealous of its newly acquired powers, the Council declined to join the new Federation of the West Indies in 1958, a move that would later be crucial in the development of the offshore finance industry.

In 1967 the new constitution with a much greater transfer of powers was brought into effect by order in council, and introduced true Ministerial Government to the British Virgin Islands. Elections followed in 1967, and a comparatively young Lavity Stoutt was elected as the first Chief Minister of the Territory.

 

 


Date: 2015-01-29; view: 831


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