Life Assurance in the Former British West Indies.

1971 ◽  
Vol 97 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 251-295
Author(s):  
M. M. de Souza ◽  
A. Farncombe

The Caribbean is usually taken to include the number of widely scattered islands in the Caribbean Sea, as well as four neighbouring mainland territories which, for historical reasons, are closely associated with one or other of the island groups. The islands comprise: three Republics—Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic; three former British Colonies which have become independent countries within the Commonwealth during the last ten years, Jamaica (1962), Trinidad and Tobago (1962), and Barbados (1966), and a number of other islands which continue to have some level of dependent relationship with one or other of the ‘metropolitan’ countries including Britain (the Windward and Leeward Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas); France (Martinique and Guadeloupe), the Netherlands (Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire), and the United States of America (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The Mainland Territories include the independent Commonwealth country Guyana (formerly British Guiana and independent since 1966), French Guiana, Surinam (Dutch Guiana), and British Honduras.

1962 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 881-882 ◽  

The Agreement for the Establishment of the Caribbean Organization, Article V (2), stated that the agreement would enter into force on signature of a joint declaration to that effect by the signatory governments following deposit of instruments of approval or acceptance by the signatory governments and after the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Commission had received notification from not less than six of the prospective members of the Organization. It was announced in February 1961 that the Secretary-General had received formal notification from six prospective members, who had accepted the obligations imposed by the Statute of the Caribbean Organization and elected to become members. These were: France for the departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique; Surinam; the Netherlands Antilles; British Guiana; Puerto Rico; and the Virgin Islands of the United States. The government of the British Virgin Islands later notified the Secretary-General of its intention to join the Organization and became a member on May 31, 1962.


1960 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-216 ◽  

A special session of the West Indian Conference convened on July 28, 1959, in St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, to consider revision of the agreement which established the Caribbean Commission in October 1946. The delegates were welcomed by Mr. John Merwin, Governor of the Virgin Islands, who referred to the proposed revision for the transfer of control to local governments as an exciting new concept which would witness the withdrawal from active membership of the metropolitan powers and the taking over of these functions by the non-self-governing territories and possessions. Before starting deliberations on the successor body, delegates went on record in support of a continuation of regional cooperation in the area through some machinery similar to the Caribbean Commission, the good work of which was unanimously acclaimed. After several days of discussion and working in committees, the Conference accepted a Statute for a new Caribbean Organization to succeed the present Caribbean Commission, agreeing that it should be submitted to the governments concerned. The statute gave the Organization consultative and advisory powers and defined the areas of its concern as being those social, economic, and cultural matters of common interest in the Caribbean area. Eligible for membership were the Republic of France for the Departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique; the Netherlands Antilles; Surinam; the Bahamas; British Guiana; British Honduras; British Virgin Islands; the West Indies; Puerto Rico; and the Virgin Islands. The governing body of the new organization would be the Caribbean Council, which would hold annual meetings and to which each member would be entitled to nominate one delegate. The Organization was to come into being after an agreement with the members of the present Caribbean Commission—namely, the governments of France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—for its establishment had been ratified. Following an offer from the government of Puerto Rico to contribute 44.3 percent of the total budget on the understanding that the new Organization would have its headquarters in that country, the Conference agreed on the following apportionment of costs to cover its proposed budget: France, $50,560; Netherlands Antilles, $24,490; Surinam, $19,750; British Guiana, $11,760; the West Indies, $44,240; Puerto Rico, $140,000; and the Virgin Islands, $25,200. As an interim step designed to facilitate the transition, the Conference recommended that the Commission appoint a working group of experts to examine the problems which would arise from the change-over, and to give its attention as well to the task of formulating guiding principles for the work of the Organization.


1961 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-316 ◽  

The Caribbean Organization, a new organization for economic and social cooperation in the Caribbean area, was created under an agreement signed by representatives of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and the Netherlands in Washington, D. C, on June 21, 1960. The new organization was to supercede the Caribbean Commission founded in 1946 by the same four signatory powers, which was in turn the successor to the wartime Anglo- American Caribbean Commission. The Caribbean Organization, reportedly set up as the result of the wishes of the people of the area and in light of their new constitutional relationships, was designed to remove the taint of colonialism attached to the paternal structure of the Caribbean Commission. Although the four signatories of the agreement were members of the Caribbean Commission, only France, representing the three French Overseas Departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique, was eligible for membership in the new organization. Membership in the Caribbean Organization was to be open to the following: the Netherlands Antilles, Surinam, the Bahamas, British Guiana, British Honduras, the British Virgin Islands, the British West Indies, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands of the United States, in addition to France. Any of the eligible prospective members could accede to membership in the organization by notifying the Secretary- General of the organization or the Secretary- General of the Caribbean Commission. The statute of the organization, annexed to the agreement for its establishment, included in the purposes of the organization social, cultural, and economic matters of common interest to the Caribbean area, particularly in the fields of agriculture, communications, education, fisheries, health, housing, industry, labor, music and the arts, social welfare, and trade.


1962 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh W. Springer

Ever since World War II the United Kingdom has been engaged in the process of withdrawal from the Caribbean—indeed the beginnings were made before the war ended. The clearest and most recent evidence has been the advance of Jamaica and Trinidad from colonial status to independent membership in the British Commonwealth and the United Nations. But this was not quite what had been intended. The aim originally had been to make one federal union of all the British colonies in the region. The attempt, however, failed. British Guiana and British Honduras withdrew from the scheme at an early stage, and the federation of the islands foundered after a four-year period of trial.


Oryx ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 332-334

Problems of nature preservation in British territories of central America may be clearly divided between continental countries, British Honduras and British Guiana on the one hand, and the islands on the other; although the fauna of Trinidad and Tobago has much in common with that of the South American continent. The islands of the Greater and Lesser Antilles have been separated long enough from the mainland and from each other, for them to have developed their own plants and animals. Common to continental and island countries, however, are the migratory shore birds of the western hemisphere.


1965 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1070-1073

The Caribbean Council held its fifth and last meeting in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, from November 30 to December 4, 1964. Attending the meeting were delegates from France on behalf of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique; the Netherlands Antilles; Surinam; the British Virgin Islands; the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and the United States Virgin Islands. Representatives of Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, and St. Vincent, countries enjoying special observer status, attended the meeting. Also at the meeting were observers from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.


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